An Oldie but Goodie

I dug up this recipe the other day:

Roasted Chicken Chimichangas (from Cooking Light, April 2004)

This is a recipe I used to make often for my husband and myself, pre-kids. I always liked it since we love Mexican food, this is really easy to make, and it makes leftovers that freeze well. I tried it out again on the family this past week. The original recipe does call for ingredients I know my kids won't eat, but it was really easy to leave those things out of their portions.

These chimichangas are oven-browned instead of deep-fried. The filling uses queso fresco, but I've always used shredded Mexican blend reduced-fat cheese.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 1 chimichanga and about 4 teaspoons salsa)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups shredded roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled queso fresco cheese
  
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1 (16-ounce) can fat-free refried beans (Spicy fat-free refried beans are really great in this!)
  
• 6 (8-inch) flour tortillas (I usually use whole-wheat tortillas, burrito size)
  
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup bottled green salsa

Preparation

Preheat oven to 500°.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl; toss well.

Spread 1/4 cup beans down center of each tortilla. Top each tortilla with 2/3 cup chicken mixture; roll up. Place rolls, seam sides down, on a large baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Coat tops of chimichangas with cooking spray. Bake at 500° for 7 minutes. Serve with salsa.

For the kids, I reserved some plain roast chicken and I topped smaller (fajita) sized whole-wheat tortillas with refried beans and then the chicken and then some cheese. I cut the finished chimichangas in half, which the kids picked up and dipped in mild salsa. My finicky five-year old proclaimed that I needed to add this dish to her "favorites" list, which I was very happy to hear!

Best. Frosting. Ever.

About three weeks ago my 5 year old purchased a book , Pinkalicious, from her school book fair. About every night for the last three weeks the kids have asked us to read Pinkalicious at bedtime. It is about a little girl who eats too many pink cupcakes so she turns pink. Earlier this week, I decided to make pink cupcakes for the girls since they've been sick and the weather was crummy. I really don't make cupcakes or cakes very often, so I looked for some recipes. Eventually I decided to go the easy route and use a mix for the cupcakes. However, I didn't want to use pre-made frosting since I'm just not a big fan of it. I found a recipe for pink frosting on the Pinkalicious author's website and tried it out. Oh. My. God. The frosting was awesome! I am not a huge cake/frosting fan, but I could become pink eating too many cupcakes, or really more accurately, by eating the frosting right out of the bowl. Mmm.....






Pinkalicious Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 box of confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Don’t forget to add some PINK! ( used 1-2 drops of Wilton's pink gel food coloring)

Directions:
In bowl of electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter, on low speed, until very smooth with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Add food coloring until you reach your desired pinkaliciousness, one to two drops at a time and beat after each addition.

(from www.cupcakesforall.com)
Pinkalicious written by Victoria Kahn and Elizabeth Kahn

Easy Breakfast for the Kids : Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Wow, has it really been 11 months since i wrote on this blog? Oops. Well, life happens. I just wanted to share with you today a recipe that has become a mainstay of my kids' breakfast. It's so tough to find good breakfast items. All of the ready-made muffins or frozen products (waffles, pancakes, etc.) or things like Pop Tarts are just SO bad for you. I cringe when I read the label and see ingredients like sugar, corn syrup, and artificial this and that, and partially hydrogenated crap. I saw the recipe for banana chocolate chip mini muffins on a post on the Cooking Light message boards and decided to try it. I love that I know exactly what's in them, and I can sneak some whole grains into my kids' diets. And it's cheap too.
Over a year later we're still making these muffins. My picky 5 year old LOVES these. I make a batch about every 2-3 weeks and then freeze them. In the morning I can just quickly nuke a couple and voila, breakfast is ready. They are especially good with a dollop of PB on them. This recipe is also good to use up those bananas that you end up having left over from when you bought bananas because the kids said they'd eat them and then that doesn't happen. Amy will usually eat two muffins at a sitting. Samantha (my 2.5 year old) will usually smoosh a muffin and then tear it apart and then most of it makes it into her mouth.


Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins:


1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ or ground flaxseed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed (1 cup)
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or butterscotch) (I usually use mini chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350. Oil 24 mini muffin cup pan with cooking spray. Whisk together flours, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt. Combine bananas, eggs, sugar, oil, milk and vanilla. Pour liquid ingredients into dry; stir until moist. Stir in chips. Spoon into pan and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and a tooth pick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.