Recipe: Chalupa

We're having another new dish tonight: Chalupa. It's from Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook: Slow-Cooker Favorites to Include Everyone! I've already sampled it while it's been cooking (should be done in about another hour), and I think we're going to like it! It's a pork dish, with pinto beans and Mexican seasonings. The recipe calls for it to be served over lettuce, but I'm making rice and we'll have tortillas, sour cream, and salsa on the side.

Chalupa

3 lb. pork roast, trimmed of fat
1 lb. dry pinto beans
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
4-oz. can chopped green chilies
Water

1. Cover beans with water and soak overnight in slow cooker.
2. In the morning, remove beans (reserve soaking water) and put roast in bottom of cooker. Add remaining ingredients (including the beans and their soaking water) and more water if needed to cover all the ingredients.
3. Cook on High 1 hour, and then on Low 6 hours. Remove meat and shred with two forks. Return meat to slow cooker.
4. Cook on High 1 more hour.
5. Serve over a bed of lettuce. Top with grated cheese and chopped onions and tomatoes.

Recipe: 10-Layer Slow-Cooker Dish

Makes 8 servings

6 medium potatoes, thinly sliced, unpeeled
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
15-oz. can corn, drained
15-oz. can peas, drained
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup

Layer 1: 1/4 of potatoes, 1/2 of onion
Layer 2: 1/2 can of corn
Layer 3: 1/4 of potatoes
Layer 4: 1/2 can peas
Layer 5: 1/4 of potatoes, 1/2 of onion
Layer 6: remaining corn
Layer 7: remaining potatoes
Layer 8: remaining peas and water
Layer 9: ground beef
Layer 10: soup

Cover; cook on High 4 hours.

Exchange List Values: Starch 2.5, meat, lean 2.0, Fat 0.5
WW Points: 7 per serving

Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook, Spiral-bound By Phyllis Pellman Good

Recipe: Chicken Alfredo Calzones

For our pizza yesterday I made Chicken Alfredo Calzones. Here's my recipe for pizza dough. I made it in my bread machine while I went out to buy groceries. I love my bread machine! To assemble our calzones, I divided the dough into two pieces and rolled them out separately. I spread 1/2 of each piece with alfredo sauce, the kind in the jar. I buy the cheap kind from Wal Mart. I'm sure you could make your own, though, if you wanted to. Then I sprinkled the sauce with mozzarella cheese and topped it with thinly-sliced pieces of leftover chicken and bits of peppered bacon, and folded the other half of the dough over it all. I sealed the edges with a fork and cut slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Repeated with the other half of the dough. They looked like two giant turnovers. I baked them at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. And that's it! My kids love this pizza, although it's not my husband's favorite. He doesn't mind if I make it occasionally, though; he's nice like that! ;)

Recipe: White Chili Speciality

Taken from Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook: Slow-Cooker Favorites to Include Everyone!
Makes 10 servings

1 lb. large Great Northern beans, soaked overnight
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up
1 medium onion
2 4-1/2 oz. cans chopped green chilies
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. sal
2 14-1/2 oz. cans chicken broth
1 cup water

1. Put soaked beans in medium-sized saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes. Discard water.

2. Brown chicken in fat-free cooking spray, in skillet.

3. Combine pre-cooked and drained beans, chicken, and all remaining ingredients in slow cooker.

4. Cover. Cook on Low 10-12 hours, or High 5-6 hours.

Diabetic Exchanges: Starch 2.0, Meat, very lean 3.0

WW Points: 5 per 1-cup serving

Recipe: Meatballs in Brown Gravy

In response to my Menu Plan Monday post this week, Pam in Jerusalem asked if I'd post the recipe for my meatballs in brown gravy. I'm happy to post recipes, but this time I wanted to try something different: adding step-by-step pictures.

Once I got started, I realized a few things. First, you have to plan for something like this; you can't just throw it together. Then I realized it takes about twice as long to cook when you're taking pictures too. And I also realized that my husband wasn't all that impressed with having to wait while I took a picture of the finished product. All that to say that I probably won't be doing doing this very often, but I will try to do it occasionally.

First, here are the ingredients you'll need for the meatballs:


1 pound of ground beef (I am cooking for just two this week; I normally double this recipe)
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon of onion powder (my husband doesn't like onions)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix these ingredients thoroughly. Shape into one-inch meatballs and place on a greased baking sheet. I used a 15x10" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Some people might prefer frying the meatballs, but I like to bake them because of the mess frying makes. Here they are, ready to go into the oven.



While the meatballs bake, make your gravy. I use these ingredients:


1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
2 cups of boiling water
1 Tablespoon of beef bouillon powder

Before you do anything else, boil your water and make your bouillon; simply stir the bouillon powder into the water till it's dissolved. Now you can begin the gravy. Melt the butter till it begins to bubble. Stir in the flour with a whisk, and continue whisking to keep lumps from forming. This is a fast-moving operation, so don't go and do something else . . . like get your camera! ;) Stay there with it.



Once the butter and flour are thick and bubbly and very lightly browned, stir in the bouillon you made above. Keep stirring, allowing this mixture to come to a boil, and let it boil for about 2 minutes or so. It won't take long to boil, because you used boiling water to make the bouillon.

You now have gravy!

Your meatballs will be done soon; then you can put them in the gravy and serve them over egg noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes.

Baked Oatmeal

I saw this recipe for Baked Oatmeal last night on The Lazy Organizer late last night. Lara said she was going to do hers in the crockpot on low overnight, so I decided to try it too. I whipped it up, turned it on low, then went to bed. I left a note for our oldest son, who leaves for work at 5:30, to have some if he wanted to. He didn't. He's not very fond of oatmeal! By the time we ate at our normal time of 9:00, it was too done. It tasted very good, but the edges were dried out. I put a little milk in mine and it was great. I'm going to try it again next week, but just bake it in the oven like the recipe directs. Wes, as he usually does, had a suggestion: turn it into a dessert by baking it in the afternoon, then adding some applesauce to it. That man can turn anything into a dessert! LOL

So the recipe tastes great, but I need to tweak it if I'm going to use the crockpot. Any suggestions?

Recipe: King Ranch Chicken

Rona's Home Page asked about King Ranch Chicken in the comments on Menu Plan Monday. The classic recipe for King Ranch Chicken calls for corn tortillas, but the version I first learned was with crushed tortilla chips, so that's what I use instead. Here is the original Ro-Tel King Ranch Chicken recipe:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup margarine
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
12 corn tortillas, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large saucepan, cook pepper and
onion in melted margarine until tender, about 5 minutes. Add soups,
RO*TEL and chicken, stirring until well blended. In a 13 x 9 x 2-inch
baking pan, alternately layer tortillas, soup mixture and cheese, repeating
for three layers. Bake 40 minutes or until hot and bubbling. Serves 8.

Ok - Recipes!

A couple of you have asked for recipes, so here you go! These are very simple, because I don't do well with complicated stuff at busy times.

Festive Pine Cone Cheese Ball

6 (3 oz. each) packages cream cheese, or 18 oz., room temperature
8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 oz. grated onion
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
1-1/2 pounds whole roasted almonds

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Refrigerate until firm, then shape into a ball. Wrap in plastic and let ripen and firm in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Take out of refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving. Stud cheese with almonds to cover it, making rows all around to resemble a pine cone. Serve cheese ball with assorted crisp crackers.


Ranch Ham Roll-Ups

2 packages cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened (I just realized exactly how much cream cheese I'm going to need!)
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
3 green onion, chopped
11 flour tortillas (8 inches)
22 thin slices deli ham

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and salad dressing mix until smooth. Add onions; mix well. Spread about 3 tablespoons over each tortilla; top each with twon ham slices. Roll up tightly and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm. Unwrap and cut into 3/4-inch slices. Yield: about 7-1/2 dozen.

Ok, I'm my typical SHE self and seeing just how much cream cheese I'm using. I wonder if I should change my menu now?

Pizza Dough

Deb asked for my pizza dough recipe. This is the one I've always made; any others I've tried never turn out right! I found it in a Parade magazine in the Sunday paper about 10 years ago. I don't even remember the name of the recipe now, but I memorized the ingredients pretty quickly.

Pizza Dough

1 packet active dry yeast (I use bulk yeast, just a tad over 1 tablespoon for one packet)
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour (can use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water; let set 15 minutes, until foamy. Combine flour and salt; pour yeast mixture in and stir till mixture forms a soft dough and you can no longer stir it. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead till the dough is moderately stiff and smooth. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top of dough. Cover and let rise till double, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and let rest 10 minutes. Roll out to fit pizza pans, top with pizza sauce, cheese, and your favorite toppings. Bake in 400 degree oven till cheese is bubbling and crust is lightly browned.

Blender Oat Pancakes

I made these pancakes after church last night, and my family really liked them. Wes prefers my thick, fluffy ones, but they were good for a change, and my kids thought they were great!

Place in blender, blend at high speed two minutes:

1 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 Cups rolled oats-uncooked

Note: regular milk works as well

Mix in briefly:

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

Bake on griddle or in hot waffle iron for waffles