Jack Quesadillas with Cranberry Salsa

After 3 days of turkey sandwiches and Thanksgiving dinner x3, it's time for something a little different.  This is such a great recipe for that leftover turkey, you just have to try it.  The flavors are completely different with jalapenos and cilantro and lime juice.  This recipe takes care of your turkey and cranberry sauce. 

So as you can tell from the picture, our cranberry salsa is a little less pink than it should be. This is because we devoured the cranberry sauce and didn't have as much as the recipe called for.  I think we may have had about 1/4 cup left and you need about 1 cup.  Anyway, if you have enough pear and lime juice to cut the spice, then it's all good. 

Otherwise we didn't make any changes to the recipe except to include the seeds from the jalapeno. 

As of today's post, 17 people gave this an average rating of 5 out of 5! GOOOOOOOOOOOOO Leftovers!

Recipe by Elizabeth Taliaferro, Cooking Light, November 2004

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 3 wedges, about 1/4 cup salsa, and 1 tablespoon sour cream)

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 1  cup  whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 2  tablespoons  chopped green onions
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  Anjou pear, cored and finely diced
• 1  jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• Quesadillas:
• Cooking spray
• 1/4  cup  (2-inch-thick) slices green onions
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
• 8  (8-inch) flour tortillas
• 2  cups  chopped cooked turkey
• 1/2  cup  fat-free sour cream

Preparation

To prepare salsa, combine first 7 ingredients. Cover and chill.
To prepare quesadillas, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1/4 cup sliced onions to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Remove onions from pan; reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cheese over each of 4 tortillas. Top each cheese-covered tortilla with one-fourth of onions, 1/2 cup turkey, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tortilla.
Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 quesadilla to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and cheese melts. Repeat with remaining quesadillas. Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges. Serve with cranberry salsa and sour cream.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 356 (25% from fat)

Fat: 9.7g (sat 4.2g,mono 3.5g,poly 1.2g)

Protein: 19.4g

Carbohydrate:47.8g

Fiber:3g

Cholesterol:42mg

Iron: 2.7mg

Sodium: 372mg

Calcium: 218mg

Spicy shrimp tacos with grilled tomatillo salsa

This is a quick and easy recipe that sits in our go to CL favorites recipe book; I think we've been making it since it was published in 2008.  The tomatillo salsa gives it a sweet-heat taste which makes these really tasty.  By using pre-shredded cabbage and carrots, this comes together quickly.  It does take a little time to roast the tomatillos and make the salsa but the shrimp cook so quickly that the salsa is the most time intensive part.  The only change we make to this recipe is to use flour tortillas rather than corn because we think they taste better.  I would recommend draining the salsa though--it is a bit watery when it all comes together and we like it a bit chunkier.  We also just grill our tomatillos in a grill pan on our electric stove, rather than using a grill.

As of today's post, 11 people gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.

Ole!

Recipe by Jaime Harder, Cooking Light, August 2008

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 tacos)

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 1/2  pound  tomatillos
• Cooking spray
• 2/3  cup  chopped green onions (about 4 green onions)
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 3  tablespoons  lime juice (about 1 lime)
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  jalapeño pepper, seeds removed and chopped
• 1  garlic clove
• 
  Tacos:
• 1  pound  medium peeled and deveined shrimp
• 1  tablespoon  hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
• 1/2  teaspoon  ancho chili powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 8  (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 2  cups  shredded cabbage
• 1  cup  shredded carrot

Preparation

1. Preheat grill.
2. To prepare salsa, remove husks and stems from tomatillos. Place tomatillos on a grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill 10 minutes or until slightly blackened on each side, turning occasionally. Cool completely; coarsely chop. Place tomatillos, onions, and next 5 ingredients (through garlic) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 7 times or until coarsely chopped.
3. To prepare tacos, thread shrimp evenly on 6 (10-inch) skewers. Place skewers on a grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill 2 minutes or until shrimp are done, turning once. Remove shrimp from skewers, and place in a medium bowl. Add hot pepper sauce, chili powder, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; toss to coat.
4. Heat the tortillas on the grill 1 minute on each side. Top each tortilla with 1/4 cup cabbage and 2 tablespoons carrot. Divide shrimp mixture evenly among the tortillas; top each with 2 tablespoons salsa.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 252 (14% from fat)

Fat: 3.9g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.4g,poly 1.6g)

Protein: 26.9g

Carbohydrate: 30.2g

Fiber: 5.5g

Cholesterol: 172mg

Iron: 3.8mg

Sodium: 507mg

Calcium: 125mg

Chicken Carne Asada Tacos with Pickled Onion

Ever since I saw this in the April issue of Cooking Light, I wanted to make it.  Something about those pickled onions drew me to this recipe.  

I love tacos. They're just so simple and easy to make; just a few ingredients can really take them to the next level.  If you've never had cotija cheese, I think it is most compared to parmegiano reggiano.  I'm not sure I entirely agree with this comparison because I think it reminds me of another salty cheese, I just can't put my finger on it.  Wegman's and Whole foods carry cotija.  Don't even bother with Giant, their cheese selection is terrible (yes I've been to MULTIPLE Giants).  I think if you didn't want to spend money on the cheese, you could probably sub it out for something else. However, I think it imparts a delicious salty bite to these tacos so I wouldn't skip it.  

Other than using flour tortillas instead of corn (we are not fans of the corn tortillas), I'm not really sure what other modifications were made.  My fiance actually made the recipe for me on Tuesdays which are my marathon gym days.  I know we don't have any cumin seeds and I know we used chicken breast meat instead of thigh meat.

I hope you enjoy!  My next recipe will also feature tacos but with more of our delicious seafood friends!

Recipe by Adeena Sussman, Cooking Light, April 2010

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 tacos)

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)
• 1/3  cup  fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 1  teaspoon  sugar
• 1  teaspoon  cumin seeds
• 1  medium red onion, thinly vertically sliced
• 1 1/2  pounds  skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into thin strips
• 1  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 3/4  teaspoon  salt
• 3/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 8  (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1  cup  diced peeled avocado (about 1 avocado)
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) crumbled Cotija cheese
• Lime wedges (optional)

Preparation

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves. Place onion in a small saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil; drain and plunge onion in ice water. Drain onion; add to juice mixture. Chill until ready to serve.
2. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Sprinkle chicken with oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper; toss to coat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes or until browned and done, stirring occasionally.
3. Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide chicken evenly among tortillas. Drain onion; divide evenly among tortillas. Top each tortilla with 2 tablespoons avocado and 1 tablespoon cheese; fold over. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 413

Fat: 17.1g (sat 5.2g,mono 7.1g,poly 2.7g)

Protein: 33.4g

Carbohydrate: 33.6g

Fiber: 4.9g

Cholesterol: 123mg

Iron: 3.2mg

Sodium: 825mg

Calcium: 237mg

Border-style Shrimp and Corn muffins with jalapenos and lime butter

We headed south of the border (figuratively) this Sunday for a mix of spice and heat.  Border-style shrimp is an easy 15 minute dish that calls for most of the ingredients you typically have in your kitchen (or at least I do).  

The only change we make to the recipe is to add 1/2 tsp of hot sauce (we use Cholula which isn't very spicy at all).  We may experiment in the future with more potent hot sauces since we love it spicy.  We've only made this twice and both times made it with the corn muffins but this dish has enough sauce to put over a bed of rice. The rice would soak up the leftover sauce nicely.  We also take the tails off of the shrimp before adding them into the skillet, it's easier than having to do it afterward once they are covered in sauce.

As of today's post, 27 people gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.

As for corn muffins with jalapenos and lime butter,  we throw in a little extra jalapeno love because (as we all know by now) we like it spicy.  The recipe even suggests using habaneros in place of jalapenos and we might just do that next time.  I have most of these ingredients in my house on a regular basis so it wasn't a big trip to the grocery to make this dinner.  Here's a tip I got from CL: If you have a recipe that calls for buttermilk, instead of throwing the rest out or trying to make 4 other recipes using buttermilk, you can freeze it! Such an awesome tip. Now I just thaw it out the night before I am going to make a recipe that calls for buttermilk.  Otherwise we follow the recipe exactly. This time, we didn't make the lime butter. The first time I made it, it did not turn out well and was a bit of a disaster. I don't really think that it added that much for the effort. But you are more than welcome to try it and see if you like it. :)

As of today's post 11 people gave it an average rating of 4 out of 5.  

Border-style shrimp

Recipe by Cooking Light, December 2003

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup shrimp)

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 1/2  cups  chopped white onion
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  teaspoon  chili powder
• 1 1/2  pounds  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/8  teaspoon  hot pepper sauce
• 1/4  cup  fresh lime juice
• 1/4  cup  finely chopped green onions
• Lime wedges (optional)

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, shrimp, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and add butter, salt, and hot sauce. Stir until the butter melts. Stir in juice and green onions. Garnish with the lime wedges, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

266 (30% from fat)

Fat:

9g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.1g,poly 1.4g)

Protein:

35.6g

Carbohydrate

9.7g

Fiber:              1.8g

Cholesterol:

274mg

Iron:

4.5mg

Sodium:

618mg

Calcium:

113mg

Corn Muffins with Jalapeños and lime butter

Recipe by David Bonom, Cooking Light, June 2006

Yield: 15 servings (serving size: 1 muffin and about 1 teaspoon lime butter)

Ingredients

• 6  tablespoons  butter, softened and divided
• 1  cup  chopped sweet onion
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  cup  fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
• 2  teaspoons  minced jalapeño
• 1  teaspoon  salt, divided
• 1  cup  all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
• 1  cup  yellow cornmeal
• 1/4  cup  sugar
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon  chili powder
• 1 1/4  cups  fat-free buttermilk
• 2  large eggs
• 1  large egg white
• Cooking spray
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
• 1  tablespoon  honey

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add corn, jalapeño, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add 2 tablespoons butter, tossing to melt.

Spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, cornmeal, and next 4 ingredients (through chili powder) in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk, eggs, and egg white in a large bowl. Add onion mixture to buttermilk mixture. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Spoon batter into 15 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool muffins completely on wire rack.

Combine remaining 3 tablespoons butter, juice, and honey in a small bowl; stir until well blended. Serve with muffins.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

160 (30% from fat)

Fat:

5.4g (sat 3.1g,mono 1.5g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

3.9g

Carbohydrate

24g

Fiber:

1g

Cholesterol:

40mg

Iron:

0.9mg

Sodium:

300mg

Calcium:

53mg

Chicken Chilaquiles

Ah Cinco de Mayo, a time to celebrate all of the wonderful things about the Hispanic/Latino culture like mojitos, margaritas.........and comida (food)!  On cinco de mayo we realized we had to make something delicious and Mexican to be part of the celebration. So I looked through myrecipes.com of course and found chicken chilaquiles.  I have never had chilaquiles at a restaurant before but when we went to Aruba, my dad ordered them at a Mexican restaurant. Let me tell you they are cheesy melt-y goodness.  I liken them to the Mexican comfort food, all of the great ingredients like bread and cheese that make you feel all warm inside.

I did make a few changes to the recipe. First, I went to the worst grocery store by our house because it is the closest one to my gym. I call it 'the place where time goes to die' because its so dated and they don't have a huge selection (but they do have a big selection of produce).  They didn't have canned tomatillos so I used salsa verde instead (which is made from tomatillos). I blended everything but the salsa first and then threw it in at the last minute to blend up.  I also threw in a very large jalepeno for good measure because we like things spicy. The recipe calls for 1% milk but we use skim so I substituted that as well. My picture isn't as pretty as the Cooking Light picture because I didn't have an 11 x 7 baking dish (I used a 9 x 13). 

As of today's post, 39 reviewers gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.

Espero que disfruten de esto en su casa todo lo que hacemos en el nuestro (thanks Google translator).

Recipe by Barbara Lauterbach, Cooking Light, July 2007

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients

• 2  cups  shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
• 1/2  cup  chopped green onions
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers, divided
• 2  tablespoons  grated Parmesan cheese
• 1  teaspoon  chili powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
• 3/4  cup  1% low-fat milk
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1  (11-ounce) can tomatillos, drained
• 1  (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 12  (6-inch) corn tortillas
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.
Combine chicken, green onions, 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese, Parmesan, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Place milk and next 3 ingredients (through chiles) in a food processor or blender; process until smooth.
Heat tortillas according to package directions. Pour 1/3 cup tomatillo mixture into bottom of an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 corn tortillas in dish, and top with half of chicken mixture. Repeat layer with remaining tortillas and chicken mixture, ending with tortillas.
Pour remaining 1 1/2 cups tomatillo mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 347 (28% from fat)

Fat: 10.9g (sat 4.5g,mono 2.9g,poly 1.9g)

Protein: 30.9g

Carbohydrate: 33.3g

Fiber: 5.9g

Cholesterol: 79mg

Iron: 1.5mg

Sodium: 560mg

Calcium: 272mg