Crock Pot Refried Beans

These are delicious and so easy! Fajita night just isn't complete without them...

I found this recipe at 100 Days of Real Food and tweaked it just a little bit.

Ingredients

2 Cups Dry Pinto Beans, rinsed
1 Onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 Jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 Tsp Minced Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
2 Cups Chicken Stock
4 Cups Filtered Water

Directions

1. Soak beans overnight.

2. In the morning, rinse the beans and add them to your crock pot with all of the ingredients.

3. Cook on high for eight hours.

4. Depending on how much liquid remains, you may need to drain the beans. I've found that you want a little liquid to remain so you can get the right consistency. Mash the beans with a potato masher.

Serve with shredded cheddar on top.

Mom Tips

* These make great leftovers to dip tortilla chips in for lunch the next day.

* Try this with black beans, or try half and half. Black beans are full of nutrition!

Best Chicken Tacos Ever

Tonight I made the tastiest chicken tacos I've ever had... I thought I should write down how I did it so I don't forget! I'm pretty sure the ingredient that made these particular tacos so delicious was the homemade chicken stock from the batch I made a few weeks ago. It was the thickest, most gelatinous chicken stock I've ever made... yum! We could taste it in the chicken, it was so flavorful!

I can't recommend store bought chicken stock because the quality is sub-par to homemade. Also, they all contain MSG (even the ones at Whole Foods!). MSG masquerades as all kinds of other ingredients, so you have to be careful. (A quick google search of "MSG ingredients list" will help you out.) Personally, MSG gives me headaches!

Anyway, here's how it went down...

Ingredients

1 Whole Chicken
1 Jalapeno Pepper
1/2 Red Onion, chopped
Coconut Oil
1 Cup Homemade Chicken Stock
Seasoning (a mixture of cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, onion powder, & garlic powder)

Directions

1. Boil a whole chicken for an hour and a half and let it cool on the counter for an hour or two. Take the meat off the bones and gently shredded it with your fingers.

2. Saute a chopped jalapeno pepper and half a chopped red onion in an iron skillet using coconut oil. Then add the chicken, some seasoning, and the homemade chicken stock. Heat it up until the water evaporates off.

Enjoy with black beans, mexican rice, "homemade" tortillas (a la Trader Joe's;) and all the trimmings!

Tuesday Tacos

These tacos are famous - or maybe I should say infamous - in dad's family. When dad was a kid, Grammy made these every Tuesday night before bowling league. When Grammy and Gramps were stationed in Germany in the sixties, they lived near another soldier and his wife, who was from Mexico. According to Grammy, this Mexican woman taught her how to make tacos this way, which is ridiculously hilarious to me because these tacos are so NOT authentic Mexican food. But they are delicious!

Sometimes for a treat - or when we have a house full of people to feed - this is how we make tacos. But ooooooonly sometimes!

Ingredients for Tacos

Oil
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 Clove Garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Pound Ground Beef, grass-fed
1 Cup Tomato Sauce
12 Corn Tortillas

Fillings

Pinto or Black Beans
Mexican Rice
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Avocado
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Olives
Salsa

Parmesan Cheese (or as Dad called it until he was 25, "taco cheese.")

Directions

1. Cook the onion and garlic in a skillet with oil, then add the beef, salt, and pepper and brown until cooked through. Add the tomato sauce and simmer on low until you're ready to eat.

2. In a small skillet, heat some oil over medium-high heat. Add each tortilla one at a time and cook for only 2-3 seconds on each side.

3. Add toppings, enjoy!

Fajitas

We heart fajitas!

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts or 12 oz of Steak, cut into strips

6 Flour Tortillas

1 Medium Bell Pepper, cut into strips

1 Medium Onion, sliced

1 Medium Tomato, chopped

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

Seasoning Ingredients

1 1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin

1/2 Tsp Oregano

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Ground Red Pepper

1/4 Tsp Ground Black Pepper

1/8 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/8 Tsp Onion Powder

Directions

1. Place meat in a bowl and sprinkle the seasoning over the top. Chill for at least half an hour.

2. Heat an iron skillet to medium-high and add some oil. Add the peppers, garlic, and onions and cook for about three minutes. They should still be slightly crisp. Remove mixture from the skillet.

3. Add more oil to the skillet and put the meat in. Cook through. Add the onion mixture back into the skillet, as well as the tomatoes. Cook and stir until heated through, about one minute. Add the lime juice and stir.

*Serve in warm tortillas with black beans, Mexican rice, avocado, sour cream, and salsa.

Mom Tips

I do all the prep work for this meal during the day so I can just throw it together at dinner time. I slice and chop the veggies, and cut the meat and add the spices to it. It comes together really quickly. Then later, while I'm cooking on the oven, I wrap some tortillas in some foil and heat them in the oven on about 300 degrees until I'm done.

You can also make this recipe with steak. Use about 12 ounces. I like to order our beef from Hearst Ranch because it's grass-fed. You can always find great coupon codes and free shipping, and the beef is excellent. Once you order for the first time, they start sending you great deals on free meat. They have fajita packs, which means I don't have to slice the beef myself!

Mexican Rice

*This rice is the perfect compliment to any Mexican dish.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Oil
1 cup Uncooked Long-Grain Rice
1 Clove Garlic
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 C Onion, chopped
1/2 C Tomato Sauce
2 C Chicken Stock

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.

2. Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Mom Tip:

The picture above shows 1/3 of this recipe - about 2 cups. Freeze the rice in portioned glass containers for later use. To thaw, add some water, lay the lid on loosely, and steam in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Oil
4 Chicken Breasts, cooked and shredded
1 Onion, chopped
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
4 Cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded (plus a little extra to munch on while you work)
3 Cups Enchilada Sauce
20 Corn Tortillas
2 Handfuls of Black Olives

Instructions

1. Heat frying pan on medium-high. Add oil; saute onion, bell pepper, and garlic until soft. Add shredded chicken and some of the enchilada sauce. Simmer.

2. Heat oil in skillet on high. Add a tortilla and heat for three seconds, flip. Add another tortilla under the first, heating for three seconds. Continue adding tortillas on the bottom one at a time.

3. Pour some of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Add some of the chicken mixture and cheese to each tortilla, roll them up, and place them in the baking dish seam side down. Top with remaining sauce and cheese. Add olives on top.

4. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and avocado.

Mom Tip:

By making my own enchilada sauce, I can make it as mild or as spicy as I want. Right now, it's very mild because that's what you kiddos will eat. Daddy spices his up a bit by adding some salsa on top.

Daddy doesn't like beans, but if he did I would only use two chicken breasts and substitute the other two breasts for beans, about two cups.

The picture above shows half of the enchiladas this recipe makes. Split the recipe into two dishes. Eat half of the enchiladas now and freeze the other half for later.

*Serve with Mexican rice and black beans.