Today was my turn for cooking club, and I was super-excited to try some new recipes. I re-looked through my
Rachael Ray's Classic 30-Minute Meals and found some things that sounded so good to me but I knew Joel wouldn't eat them! I was so excited to get to eat them, I forgot to take pictures. These recipes are from pages 15 and 40. As per usual, I will list the actual recipe and then my modifications:)
Burritos
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
A couple shakes hot sauce
1 T EVOO or other oil
1/2 onion (I used red)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 T smoky bbq sauce
salt and pepper
lettuce
tomatoes
scallions
flour tortillas
Rub chicken with cumin and chili powder and hot sauce. Heat frying pan to high and cook on each side for four minutes or until completely cooked through. Remove from heat
While cooking chicken, heat another fry pan and warm up the oil on medium-high. Cook chopped garlic and onion until softened. Add beans and bbq sauce. Chop fully cooked chicken breasts and mix in. Heat thoroughly and season.
Place mixture in tortilla and top with lettuce, tomatoes, and scallions. Wrap and enjoy!
I pretty much stuck to the directions in this one except I didn't rub the hot sauce on the chicken. I wasn't sure about how to do it without making a mess so I just shook it a couple of times over the bean mixture. I didn't have scallions, but I did have sour cream, which I thought was delicious. I definitely want to make these again, and next time I think I will shred the chicken instead of cubing it. I think it would mix more thoroughly with the beans that way. Really, really good, and filling, meal!
Veggie Salad
2 tomatoes, seed and chopped
1/3 cucumber (or more), chopped into bite-size chunks
1/2 medium onion (again I used red)
1 medium red or green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 T chopped cilantro or fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 t hot sauce
juice of 2 limes
2 T EVOO
salt and pepper
Chop all vegetables and place in bowl. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or parsley. Put hot sauce, lime juice, and EVOO. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
I omitted a lot from this, the jalapeno, the celery, and the cilantro. I also was only brave enough to put in 1 t of the hot sauce and half of the green pepper. I am sort of sensitive to super-hot stuff like jalapenos, and last year my throat partially swelled after eating something that had a lot of jalapeno in it so I wanted to take it easy. I'm learning to like peppers more, but I am still not crazy about large chunks of them so half of the green pepper worked out perfect. I pretty much think celery is just gross unless it is covered in peanut butter.
I let this sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes before eating it and I had some again tonight with supper, and I think it just gets better the longer it sits. The dressing really soaks in and is good. It went really well with the burritos, and because we felt that it really was a relatively healthy lunch, we felt free to have large helpings of dessert:)
For dessert, I made
Granny's Chocolate Cobbler, which was featured on
Tasty Kitchen last week. I put freshly made whipped cream on top, but I think ice cream would be really, really good. It was quite delicious, and I appreciated that all of the ingredients were things that I already had around so it would be easy to whip up for a quick fix!
I just love Cooking Club! It is so fun to eat good food and have a fun time with some dear friends! I already can't wait for next month!:)
