Homemade Crunchwrap Supreme

I pinned these a few weeks ago, and they finally made it into my meal plan this week!

I was thinking these would be so much healthier than their Taco Bell counterpart, but honestly, they aren't. There isn't that much you can do to improve the recipe when you're using a lot of tortillas - they're just really caloric.

I used:
1 pound lean ground beef, drained
1 package taco seasoning
6 burrito sized flour tortillas
3 taco sized flour tortillas
6 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese of choice
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 cup shredded lettuce

Brown your beef, drain the fat, and prepare according to the taco seasoning label. While the meat is cooking, you can wash and chop your tomato and lettuce, and shred your cheese. It helps to have a little assembly line of ingredients set up for easy preparation.

To assemble, toast your corn tortillas until crispy and lightly browned in your oven or toaster oven. Warm the flour tortillas in the microwave to make them more pliable. Spoon a small amount of the meat into the center of your burrito sized flour tortilla. Add some shredded cheese. Top with the crispy corn tortilla. Spread some sour cream, then top with some tomatoes and shredded lettuce. My large tortilla was not large enough to cover the entire packet, so I had to use part of a smaller tortilla in the center.

Fold the edges, as pictured, until you have a neat little packet. Place seam side down on a hot skillet, or in my case I used my Cuisinart Griddler, so there was no need for flipping. If you need to flip, do so carefully after a few minutes once your seam is toasted and sealed closed.

 Serve immediately, but be careful- they will be very hot!

These were really delicious! A lot less greasy than the Taco Bell ones, but just as flavorful and satisfying. They were very filling, too. I just had 1 for dinner and was completely full.

Taco Bell Crunchwrap supreme stats: 540 calories, 21 grams of fat.
Homemade Crunchwrap supreme stats: 503 calories, 15 grams of fat.

Oh! And Beth, I keep forgetting to post this. I put out those oranges for the orioles, that you recommended back in May! Mine didn't attract anything :( They sat out there a couple of weeks, until they got dried out and black, so I threw them into the woods. 

Egg Roll Stir Fry

I love egg rolls. Love them. 
When we get Chinese I not only eat mine, I also I eat Johnny's.  
Sometimes I can't even wait until we get home to enjoy them with my meal, I just devour them in the car, over the take out container, like some savage beast that hasn't eaten in 4 days. 

However, they aren't incredibly healthy. A quick calorie look up and they range from 150-200 calories each. And I just treat them like a little appetizer before I dig into the real meal. Not a good habit.

That's why I was really, really excited when I saw Debbi's healthy and low calorie take on egg rolls - in a stir fry. Sans wonton wrapper, and without the trip into the deep fryer. I pinned them for future reference, and immediately had 10 repins!

With my new work schedule, I've been trying to cook a larger meal at 1 or 2pm, that way I can pack some up to take to work, and leave some for Johnny to eat for his dinner when he gets hungry. It takes more planning than usual, but this was really simple and came together in less than 30 minutes. 

I used: 
~1 pound ground beef
1/2 head green cabbage, sliced thin
3 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, minced
1" hunk of ginger, minced
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used reduced sodium)
onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, to taste

 

Begin by browning your beef in a high sided skillet. Once browned, drain the grease. Add the vegetable oil and all of the veggies. Pour the soy sauce over, put a lid on, and let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring a few times, until the vegetables are cooked to your preference. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Serves 4.


This was really very tasty. Like Debbi said, it wasn't exactly like eating an egg roll, but it definitely hit a lot of the same notes, enough to satisfy a greasy take out craving for awhile.

Plugged into My Fitness Pal, each serving is 276 calories and 13 grams of fat.

Fancy Sloppy Joe (aka Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich)

Ok, really, this started out as Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich, compliments of Pioneer Woman. But, I took so many liberties with it, it's pretty much a different sandwich. Both Johnny and I thought it was very sloppy Joe-esque, but fancy, so thus- a new name was born!

2 small yellow onions, sliced
1.5-2 lbs. cubed steak
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp grill-style seasoning of choice
1/4 cup barbeque sauce of choice
toast, bread, buns

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbsp of the oil and butter, and add the sliced onions. Let them cook a few minutes until softened and slightly brown. Remove from the pan, and set aside. While the onions are cooking, slice the cubed steak against the grain into about 1" strips.

Add the second Tbsp of oil to the same skillet, and add the cubed steak strips. Let the meat sit for a few minutes to brown. Stir, then add the pepper and grill seasoning. Most seasonings contain salt, so be careful not to double-salt the dish. I used .. wait for it, wait for it ... Cowboy Blend! Ahh-ha! On Marlboro Man's Sandwich? Get it?

Once the meat is browned all over, pour in the barbeque sauce and reduce the heat to medium. Add the onions back in, and let everything simmer for a few minutes for the flavors to come together. Taste and adjust seasonings.

I dry toasted bread (some dummy forgot the rolls) on our panini press to give it more strength to hold the sandwich. But you could use any of your favorite breads, rolls, toast, etc. to make the sandwich with.

Spoon the meat mixture onto the sandwich, making sure to get some of the yummy juice. Enjoy! Be careful, those little onion ribbons are hot! (Says the girl with the burnt roof of the mouth.)

First Dinner!

Hi all!

If you are friends with me on Facebook you will know that the past week has been crazy with us moving into the new house and finally having all of our stuff after 10 months in 2 storage units.

Overwhelming is an understatement.

My mom has been a huge, huge help the past few days helping me unpack, clean, and organize the new kitchen. It's still a total mess, so I'll show you photos in upcoming posts.

But, for now, I just wanted to share our first dinner "officially" cooked in the new house.


A pot roast with all the fixings.

I'm ashamed to say it has been a very, very long time since I really cooked. We moved around 3 times in 6 months, got married, and were house hunting. I didn't have any of my kitchen stuff, and in the last rental house we were living in, the fridge froze everything. And I don't mean a thin sheet of ice on top of a pitcher of juice. I mean, solid frozen ice.

There's been lots of take-out. Lots of eating out. Lots of frozen meals (with the freezing fridge and all..). Barely any grocery shopping, no cooking, and no creativity.

I'm very, very excited to have a beautiful, huge, new kitchen to show you guys and get creative in again. Thanks for hanging in all these months!

Celebrate!

This week there are three things to celebrate around here.

First -- we sold the house!! It officially closed on Wednesday, September 7th.

Second -- September 7th also happened to be mine and Johnny's 5th anniversary!

Third -- September 12th is Dinner at Christina's third birthday!

Biz just celebrated her 3rd blogiversary too and I loved the "look back" she did.

Dinner at Christina's fans have been there for:

The story of my chef brother
My Grammy passing away
My first Video Demonstration: Pan Fried Pork Chops
My Dad's Homemade Sausage
My first Blogger meet up
My second Blogger meet up
Friday Firsts
When Johnny proposed!
Major House Renovations
Moving into our new tiny apartment
And following along as I plan our Dec. 2011 wedding!

I decided to splurge a bit at the grocery store on behalf of this special week. We had a great Saturday night dinner.

Massive grilled steaks medium rare, grilled onions, grilled poblano chiles, and sweet potato waffle fries.

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Hopefully all this time around my dad will eventually rub off on Johnny and he'll learn that real men can cook. (Fingers crossed.)

The other night my dad whipped up a meat sauce using his Italian sausage, leftover roast beef, and leftover pork. It was really hearty and thick. In fact, we ate it two nights and I froze about a quart of it too!



And the one part of the meal I was in charge of, boiling the spaghetti, ended up like this. (Yes, I threw it out b/c our floors are currently filthy.)

Burgers, Beef, and Building

Ok, so technically it's not building, as much as renovation, but I was on an alliteration roll, so please forgive.

In an effort to clear out the freezer before I leave for NC (because we all know J isn't going to make any progress in that department with me gone and him home alone), we grilled some of the delicious Marx 100% Angus beef 1/2 pound burgers I won a few months ago from Christo's contest. Every time we eat them I am shocked at how good they are.

Then, I tried the pepperocini beef with giardiniera as promised. It was delicious, but a tad on the spicy side for Johnny and me. Next time I might do mild, or mix some giardiniera with pepperocinis. Served on toasted rolls with mozzarella cheese.

Entrance with new light fixture and address sign.

Me and J trying out the downstairs mirror to see if it works. (Ignore my GUT hanging out.)

Upstairs shower tiled, not yet grouted. New tub in place. (The old one was mustard yellow, yummy!)

Master bedroom carpet out, walls patched, ready to be painted.

Terrified/confused dog. Has no clue where all this construction and packing is leading...

The chaos/mess that is taking over the house as I work my way through cleaning/packing.

Edited to add: Sorry, I forget all of you aren't mind readers, and need a bit of explanation. We're finishing the house in IL to be able to sell and move to NC. I'm leaving first with some of our stuff and the pets to stay at my parents' house in NC. This way the pets and some clutter will be out of the way while we show the house. I can also work my usual summer job at the ice cream shop to make some money to make the transition easier. J is staying in IL while the house is on the market. Then when it sells, we'll purchase the house we picked out in NC and me, J, and the pets will all live in the same place again.

Roast Beef Dinner & House Pics

Please CLICK HERE for more information on two great causes going on THIS Saturday, May 14th!

Last night I made a roast beef and potatoes alongside. On the stove top I made some green beans, much like this recipe.

It was really good, even though I wanted the meat a little more rare. I'm so not good at judging when is the best time to pull it out and how long to let it rest, etc.

Some house update pics, for those of you following along:

J modeling the size of the new fireplace. He's 6' for reference.

Downstairs closet and bathroom doors hung and framed out.

My daddy staining the doors.

The doors off, some shelves hung, and the frames stained.

A patch of grass in the backyard we accidentally killed. Whoops!

200' of baseboard stained. (Dad's working on installing it downstairs right now.)

Pepperocini Beef Roast + House Progress!

Swistle has been blogging, tweeting, and shouting from the rooftops lately about how good this beef recipe is. Apparently it's been making its way through the blog world like wildfire. Which is news to me, because I never saw it until last week, despite being an avid reader of A Year of Slow Cooking and even own the cookbook!

So I picked up the two ingredients necessary. Yes, two. 2.

2-3 lb. beef roast
16 oz. jar of pepperocinis

Put the beef in the slow cooker and dump the whole bottle of pepperocinis on top (liquid and all). Cook on low for 8 hrs. or high for 3-4 hrs. (The beef can even be frozen.) Shred the meat with two forks and serve on your choice of bread, topped with cheese and condiments if you wish.

I had already eaten 3/4 of mine before I remembered to take a pic. So I got this quick shot of my dad's sandwich (Biz will appreciate the crushed red pepper flakes!)

It was really, really good. The meat was tender and was reminiscent of a pulled pork BBQ with the prominent vinegar taste. It had a really nice kick to it from the pepperocini. I'm not usually a spicy person, but this was a tasty spicy, so it was great!

In the future I think I'd like to try it with hot giardiniera pickled vegetables. That way there's a nice spicy variety in there to chomp down on, not just the pepperocini.

(Source)

For those of you keeping track of the house update - there's been a ton of progress made!

Downstairs has been taped, spackled, sanded, and primed.

The fireplace is done being framed out.

The downstairs' bathroom is drywalled and the shower is tiled (not yet grouted).

I removed the wallpaper and trim from the upstairs' bathroom.

The outside patio, sidewalks, driveway, and windows have been pressure washed to remove all of the dark grey/green mold and mildew stains.

And I managed to get J's dream tile (granite) down from $10.99/sft to $7.55/sft using my Italian bargaining skills. This saved about $535 in materials and tax!

Chili!

I made a bland meatloaf the other night (I forgot to double the seasonings for 2 lbs. of meat instead of 1 lb.) and my dad suggested we turn the leftovers into a chili.

3 cups dried pinto beans
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 small yellow onions, diced
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
15 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 cup water
~1 lb. cooked hamburger meat

Rinse the beans and discard any bad ones. Soak in a large bowl with enough water to cover the beans overnight. The next day, strain the beans and rinse again.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and add the onions. Saute until soft. Add the spices and seasonings, stirring to mix. Add the cans of tomatoes, and rinse the cans with a little bit of water and add that to the pot. Add the beans and cover, letting simmer over low-medium heat for about an hour until the beans soften.

Crumble the cooked hamburger meat in the pot, stirring to incorporate everything. Cover and let simmer until everything comes up to temperature and the beans are al dente.

Serve over rice with toppings of your choice. We used shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chives. Serves 5-6.

Johnny and I aren't big on spicy, but this was a nice heat level for us. My dad added extra Texas Pete and crushed red pepper. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to your personal preference.

10 Pounds of Angus Burgers

I won Christo's caption contest a few weeks ago from Marx Foods.

Justin was kind enough to let me wait until after Thanksgiving for their delivery. I needed to clear some freezer space.

A fully insulated, well-packed box landed on my doorstep. Inside were 20 beautifully crafted burgers. 18 of them went into the freezer, 2 of them were defrosted for dinner that night.

I cooked them medium rare in a pre-heated dry skillet over medium high heat with just a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

The last minute or two I put on a slice of cheddar to melt.

"Amazing" doesn't do these burgers justice.

Johnny verified with me three separate times that he was just eating meat sprinkled with salt and pepper. He could not get over how much flavor was packed in these, he was convinced I had marinated them or something.

Thanks again Christo and Justin!

Grilled Cheeseburger Chili

Marx Foods sent me a sampler package of 6 of their dried chiles. Upon opening the envelope, my nose caught wind of one particular chile and I couldn't get it out of my mind.

The chipotle - a smoked jalepeno. That spicy smokey aroma worked its way into my thoughts and imagination until I conconcted this dish to suit it.

See - when I smell something smoky I think of the grill. And when I think of the grill I think of juicy hamburgers, smothered in cheese and bacon. The last part - use of a spoon - seemed a no brainer at that point: Turn a burger into a chili!

9 dried chipotles, stemmed and seeded
1 cup hot water
1 lb. hamburger meat
2 small onions, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz. can tomato paste
28 oz. can tomato puree
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
6 slices cheddar cheese
6 slices cooked bacon

Begin by stemming and seeding the chipotles. Toast them until aromatic in a heavy bottomed pot. Then, soak the chiles in a cup of hot water for about 15 minutes. Blend the chiles and water into a smooth paste. Pass through a sieve, using a spoon to press down. The results will be a chile sauce, which we will use to season the chili.

In the same heavy bottomed pot used to brown the chiles, brown the hamburger meat. Drain if necessary. Add the tomato paste, onions, and garlic, simmering over medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Next add the tomato puree, seasonings, and the chile sauce. Start small and add more sauce based on your personal heat preference. I added about 1/4 cup for a medium spice level.

Spoon into an oven safe bowl and add a slice of cheddar cheese, just as if you were topping a burger. Place into a warmed oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts. Garnish with bacon slices. Serves 6.


















The chiles featured in this post were received complimentary from Marx Foods for participation in their recipe challenge. The photos, opinions, and recipe are my own.