Taco Loaded Sweet Potatoes

This is one of the best sweet potato recipes I have ever made. I am always in love with Mexican food flavors and this recipe doesn't disappoint! This is a vegetarian dish and so filling even my husband couldn't finish it. I added over-easy eggs on top but if you don't eat eggs, leaving them off won't change the awesomeness at all. The soft potato, spicy beans, crunchy fried tortilla and sour cream give this dish all of the textures and flavors that make a dish amazing. they only took about 15 minutes to make since they are cooked in the microwave and just finished in the oven, and they are the perfect comfort food for the cold rainy/snow season!

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
2 6 inch white corn tortillas, halved and cut into thin strips
1 shallot, peeled and chopped
1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and fine diced
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, rough chopped
1 Tbs. Taco seasoning
1 c. shredded white cheddar
Sour cream
* Optional: 2 Fried Eggs


Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork multiple times on the outside of the sweet potatoes. Microwave them for 10 minutes (or more) until the outside of the potato is easily pierced with a fork. While the potatoes are cooking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Layer a small plate with a piece of paper towel. In a medium size frying pan, heat a pan over medium-high heat add 3 Tbs. of olive oil. When the oil is hot add in the corn tortillas and continually stir until the color turns a golden brown and they are crunchy. Scoop out of the oil and place to cool on the paper towel. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt.

In the same pan (no need to wipe down), add the shallot and jalapeno. Cook until the onions are softened, which is about 3-5 minutes. Add in the beans, half of the taco seasoning and 1/2 c. water. Cook until the water has evaporated (another 5 minutes). Remove the pan from the heat.

Cut each sweet potato in half 3/4 of the way down, and place on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil and cooking spray. Sprinkle the insides with the remaining taco seasoning and half of the white cheddar. Bake for 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Place each potato on your serving plates. Divide the bean mixture in half and spoon into the middle of the potatoes. Top with the fried egg (optional), cilantro, tomato, sour cream, the remaining shredded cheese and last but not least, the fried corn tortilla strips.

Creamy Taco Chicken Dip

This is a quick and easy dip recipe that takes about 5 minutes to put together and uses most ingredients that are in your kitchen already. If you don't have canned chicken but have chicken breasts, you can always boil and shred them and add them to the dip. If you don't have chives, you can use chopped green onion, and even the taco sauce can always be replaced with mild salsa. This dip is very versatile, and very, very delicious!

Ingredients:

1 large can, canned chicken, drained and flaked
1 c. mild taco sauce
8 oz. cream cheese
3 slices Colby cheese (or 1/2 c. shredded), cut in pieces
*Chives (for garnishment, optional)

Combine the above ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl with lid (or paper towel on top). Microwave for approximately 2 minutes, stir together, and zap again for another 30-45 seconds just until the cheese is melted and the dip is hot. Sprinkle a few chives on top and you have an amazing, creamy chicken dip!

Cheese 'n' Chicken Taco Pinwheels

These few ingredient pinwheels are super cheesy and easy to make. The best part is that you can substitute a lot of these ingredients for what you already have in your house. Any type of shredded cheddar, lettuce, lunch meat like turkey, chicken, or even taco meat. The possibilities are endless!

Ingredients:

Low calorie garden veggie wraps
Oscar Mayer Chipotle Seasoned chicken breast
1 8 oz. cream cheese, 1/3 less fat
1/8 c. salsa, medium
Lettuce mix, or shredded romaine
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese, reduced fat
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp. taco seasoning

Mix the cream cheese, taco seasoning, shredded cheddar, salsa and cilantro together in a small bowl. Lay a tortilla out and spread about 2 tablespoons of cream cheese in a thin layer. Lay 4 thin slices of deli meat on top along with a layer of lettuce. Tuck one end in tight, and roll the tortilla up tight until the entire thing is rolled up. Slice the roll into 8-10 pieces and place on your serving tray. Repeat until the cream cheese filling is used up or until you run out of deli chicken.

Smoked Gouda Poppers

These may look terribly messy, but let me tell you, the only thing that is terrible about these is that you want to eat every last one! The sweet (or spicy) peppers are filled with sausage, melted gooey cheese and pack a slight kick!

Ingredients:

1 link chorizo, casing removed
1/2 lb. smoked Gouda cheese, shredded
1/4 c. chopped red onion
1 egg
5 oz. cream cheese, 1/3 less fat, softened
3 Tbs. sour cream, light
1 Tbs. Frank's Red Hot Sauce
salt and pepper
12 mixed mini sweet and jalapeno peppers, tops cut off and hollowed out

In a small skillet, cook the chorizo over medium high heat, about 10 minutes. Drain the grease out and pour the cooked chorizo into a large bowl. Add the cheese, onion, egg, cream cheese, sour cream, hot sauce and salt and pepper. Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Using a piping bag or your fingers, stuff each pepper with the cheese filling pressing down to fill the entire pepper. Place into a jalapeno pepper roaster (mine just happens to be alligator shaped, which is my favorite animal!). Place the pepper roaster on the grill over indirect heat. Roast the peppers with the grill cover on top for about 25-30 minutes.

Sombrero Cookies

These are great cookies to make with kids or to surprise anyone at a Fiesta! (Just make sure there is no white carpeting...) The surprise inside is guaranteed to have people grabbing a few more! These are a labor of love, but are well worth it in the end!

Ingredients:

1 pouch sugar cookie mix
1 Tbs. flour
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
Food coloring
White icing (cookie dries faster)
Sprinkles (nonpareils)
1 c. mini M&M's

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. With an electric mixer, combine the flour, cookie mix, butter and egg together. Divide the dough into four equal parts in separate bowls and color each bowl with your food coloring shade of choice (I used blue, purple, yellow and orange). For this part, you can use a spoon, handheld mixer, or for me I got in there with my hands and mixed the dough and dye until it was almost a tie-dye pattern. Roll each color into 16 individual balls (around 1-2 teaspoons each) and set aside until each color is done. Using a mini whoopie pie pan, press down half of each color of the dough balls (this will take more than one batch). Let cool.

Bump up the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees. Press the remaining dough balls of each color into cavities of a brownie pop silicone mold. Use your finger to press down and up the sides to form a cup shape. Freeze the mold for 10 minutes and bake for 15. They will look terrible inside the mold, but use a spoon to reshape the well in the middle. Cook for another 5-7 minutes, reshape if needed and allow to cool for 3 minutes before removing from the mold. Repeat until the remaining dough is baked. Let them all cool fully.

Pipe the bottom of the cookie cup with the icing. Dip in a shallow bowl of the sprinkles. Flip the cup upside down, place a few mini M&M's in the cup. Draw a circle the circumference of the cookie top onto the flat cookie, and quickly place the flat cookie upside down onto the cookie cup so that the icing circle adheres the two. Carefully flip over and let it sit on a drying rack until the icing is fully set. Repeat for the other cookie sombrero's. And there you have it! Cute little sombrero's that are good enough to eat!

Salsa Verde

Many people think salsa's are too time consuming to make at home. Let me tell you, for a salsa verde like this all you have to do is rough chop everything and then throw it in a food processor! It is so easy and you can change the recipe to the way you want it!

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
2 lbs. tomatillos, husks removed and chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds removed and rough chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves
1/2 c. cilantro
1 Tbs. lime juice

Add olive oil to a large saucepan and heat to medium-high heat. Add the jalapeno, tomatillos and onion to the skillet. Saute until the onions are caramelized, about 3-4 minutes.

Transfer the ingredients to a blender and add the garlic, cilantro and lime juice. Pulse until everything is well combined and your preferred salsa consistency. (You may have to pulse in two batches and then stir together.)

Smoky Tacos

For taco night, why not try something with less seasoning packets and pre-made salsas and go for more of a fresh approach. These smoky beef tacos are packed with fresh veggies, cumin and a guacamole spread!

Ingredients:

1/2-3/4 lb. ground beef
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 Tbs. fresh cilantro (2 Tbs. chopped)
2 green onions, greens and white separated, chopped
2 limes, cut into wedges
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. cumin
1 Avocado, flesh scraped into a bowl
5-7 grape tomatoes, chopped
Sour Cream
6 (6 inch) flour tortillas

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the bell peppers and cook for around 5 minutes. Add in the green onion whites and cook for another minute. Season with salt and pepper. Add the ground beef and cumin to the veggies and cook, breaking the meat up with a spatula or forks, until the meat is browned and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice from two of the lime wedges in with the meat and stir everything to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the avocado, chopped tomato, salt, 1 Tbs. green onion greens, 2 Tbs. cilantro and two of the lime wedges squeezed into the bowl. Mash the avocado with the other ingredients until a guacamole forms. To assemble the tacos, place three mini tortillas (warmed if you wish to do so) on two serving plates. Spread sour cream on the tortilla in a thin layer, top with the beef mixture, a small portion of guacamole, and finally a few pieces of fresh cilantro. Serve with lime wedges on the side.

Taco Chicken Lettuce Cups

I am one of those people that love using leftovers, but can't eat it the same way over and over again. These juicy and delicious lettuce cups actually use two of those recipes. One batch of the shredded chicken taco meat has literally been used for multitudes of recipes (such as Shredded Chicken Taco Quiche and Shredded Chicken Taco Sliders ). I also used this recipe to make leftover mini burrito's for lunch the next day, which I'll add that recipe to the bottom of the page. My advice to people who always throw leftovers away is to be inventive. No one says that you have to eat something the same way twice!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. Shredded Chicken Taco Meat
1- 1 1/2 c. Avocado Cabbage Slaw
1/2-2/3 c. aged White Cheddar (mine was 5 years, or use extra sharp)
Butter lettuce, 8 leaves

Lay your leaves out on your serving dish. Place about 2 Tbs. of the avocado slaw (pictured above) in the bottom of the cups. Heat the chicken in the microwave or saucepan if it is cold. Top the slaw with about 2 Tbs. of the salsa chicken. Finish with a sprinkle of the aged white cheddar.

Still have a large amount of the chicken and cabbage slaw left? Here's a great way to re-purpose the leftovers for the next day!

Replace the lettuce cup with a fat free tortilla. Layer the slaw, chicken, sharp cheddar and lettuce. Roll like a burrito, folding the end closest to you over the ingredients, tucking the sides in, and then rolling upwards. Perfect lunch for the next day!

Doritos Taco Salad

 

Before dating, who is now my husband, I have had this salad maybe once or twice, and as morbid as it sounds I believe it was at a funeral with a potluck lunch afterwords. I had a leftover bag of Doritos from a party sitting in the pantry and he looked at me one day and said " I am craving Doritos Taco Salad, you should really make some". Usually he never gives me hints for dinner so I took this as a victory. It is one of the best (not really healthy for you per say) salads ever. Especially since I LOVE taco salads. You normally see this recipe with a large tomato, chopped into pieces. I found some delicious looking multi size and color tomatoes while at Target and decided to use those. Any kind of tomato will do, or if you are really feeling lazy and have everything but the tomato, and have a jar of salsa sitting around, you could throw that in there instead.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped
1 c. tomatoes, chopped
3/4 lb. lean ground turkey (like Jennie-O)
1 packet taco seasoning (or 3 Tbs. of homemade)
1 c. shredded taco shredded cheese (or any cheddar blend)
2 c. crushed Nacho Doritos
1 c. Western dressing

In a medium skillet on medium heat, cook the ground turkey, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes or until the meat isn't pink anymore. Do not drain! Add in the taco seasoning and stir until combined well. Let the meat cool slightly while you put the salad together. In a large bowl, combine the romaine, tomatoes, shredded cheese and meat together. Add the Doritos and Western dressing before serving so the lettuce doesn't wilt and the Doritos don't get soggy and stay nice and crunchy!

To spice this salad up if you eat it frequently, you can change the mixing or toppings by adding jalapeno, black olives, black beans, sour cream, etc. Any of your favorite taco toppings will do!

Piquillo Pepper Pasta

I know it must seem like I use cottage cheese in every pasta bake rather than ricotta, but I will stick by it every time. I don't like the consistency or flavor of ricotta. Maybe someday that will change; today is not that day. Feel free to substitute ricotta instead of cottage cheese and let me know how it works! This recipe combines piquillo peppers with some familiar Italian flavors. Plus hot sauce? And of course don't forget the egg on top! Okay so it is a weird recipe, but a delicious one!

Ingredients:

16 oz. bag Trottole Pasta, cooked for four minutes and drained
24 oz. cottage cheese, small curd, low fat
5 roasted Piquillo Peppers, from a jar
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
2 c. garlic & herb pasta sauce (I used Hunt's)
3/4 c. shredded Asiago cheese
*Hot sauce and grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Chop the peppers into small pieces and add to a large bowl. Add the cottage cheese, garlic, seasoning and pasta and mix together. Spread the mixture into an ungreased 13 x 9 pan. Top with the two cups of pasta sauce, spreading out into an even layer. Sprinkle with the shredded Asiago cheese and bake in the oven, uncovered, for 35 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

But wait, it's not done yet. Scoop your preferred portion into your serving bowl. Make an over easy egg, or two, or however many for the amount of people you are enjoying this dish with, and place on top of the pasta. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of grated Parmesan and finish it with a few dashes of hot sauce!

Taco Dip

This dip is very easy to make and you usually have all of the ingredients in your home already. If you don't have fresh tomato, feel free to use a mild or spicy salsa. This recipe is very versatile and substitutions can easily be made.

Ingredients:

1 16 oz. container light sour cream
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c. shredded lettuce
1 1/2 - 2 c. shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 c. black olives, sliced

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and taco seasoning together. Spread in a thin and even layer on the bottom of your serving plate. Top with the shredded cheese, lettuce, tomato and black olives. If you are a huge fan of refried beans, I have started the bottom layer out with that before also, and then continue on with the sour cream, cheese and veggie layers (pictured in the last picture of this post).

(The above picture is from a Lake Placid vs. Jaws themed party)

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

 

Ingredients:

1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 1/4 c. milk, 1%
3 Eggs
1/2 c. Oil
1 Tbs. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

16 oz. Cool Whip, Light
4 Tbs. powdered sugar
Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the cake mix, milk, eggs, oil, cinnamon and vanilla together until everything is combined well. Line two muffin tins with cupcake liners (24 total). Divide the batter evenly among the cups. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the top is firm. Let cool fully. Meanwhile, in an electric mixer, whip the cool whip and powdered sugar together with a whisk attachment for 30 seconds to a minute. Use a cookie dough scoop that has a release lever to add a large dollop of frosting on top of each cupcake (or use a large spoon, dollop on top and smooth the top). Top each with a dash of cinnamon.