Spicy Chicken Wrap

I love spicy food. I think peppers make most meals better. Not only do the spices and peppers make this meal delicious, but it's pretty healthy too. As it's prepared below this is how a wrap stacks up: 267 calories; 9.7 grams fat; 88.7 mg cholesterol; 19.9 carbs; 35 grams protein. I like to cook up 3 or 4 chicken breasts, slice them and then eat on it all week.

1-2 lbs Chicken (I prefer breast, but use your preference)
Olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
paprika
cumin
Adobo seasoning
pepper spices (cayenne, chipotle, or any kind you prefer)
Xtreme Wellness Spinach and Herb Tortillas
Quesadilla cheese (or your preferred cheese)
Salsa Verde
Romaine lettuce (thinly sliced)

Clean and prep the chicken. Salt, pepper and apply the spices the each side of each piece of chicken. Apply the amount of spice that matches your tastebuds. Start with a light coating on each side.

Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Cook chicken on each side several minutes until browned. If your chicken pieces are thinner, ensure that the chicken is cooked through and stop here.

If the chicken pieces are thick, foil line a pan, and after browning the chicken on each side, bake in the oven 10-15 minutes until it is cooked through. Let chicken cool 10 minutes or so and then slice thinly. Prepare the wrap by adding 3-4 ounces of chicken, an ounce of cheese, a tablespoon or two of salsa verde, and an ounce of your favorite lettuce. Roll up and enjoy!

Salsa Verde

I love Mexican food, and I love spicy food. Eating out or purchasing large quantities of food just isn't a very viable option, so I figured out how to make salsa verde at home... and it is gooooooood. Nice touch of heat, but it won't make you cry. At least, it doesn't make me cry. Please use the ingredients as more of a guideline. I've made this three times now, with different amounts of ingredients each time. My latest batch made about three pint-size jars of salsa verde.

1-2.5 lbs tomatillos
1/2 to 2 large onion
3-8 peppers (I used 3 or 4 jalapeños and 1 serrano, just use what you have or like for the heat you want)
4-10 cloves of garlic, depending on how big they are and how much garlic you like
olive oil
bunch of cilantro
Splash of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar for a milder flavor)
salt
water

To roast in a pot:

Prep your items: remove the husks of the tomatillos, wash, and cut in half or quarters. Roughly dice the onion. Open, peel, and crush the garlic. Cut the tops off the peppers; remove the seeds of some of them to reduce the heat while maintaining the pepper flavors. Be careful not to touch the seeds too much and wash your hands promptly. Get all ingredients in a bowl.

In a large soup pot (if you are making a smaller amount then you can use a small pot or a large skillet), heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatillos, onions, peppers, and garlic and roast until everything is softened and just beginning to fall apart. Stir often so that nothing sticks, but you do want some heat scoring. This will provide tons of flavor. This picture below is partially cooked. It went a bit longer after this.

To roast in the oven:

Peel, wash and dry the tomatillos. Halve or quarter the onions. In a large bowl, put the tomatillos, peppers, garlic and onion pieces (I halve mine). Sprinkle some olive oil over the ingredients and toss to ensure even coverage. Line everything out on a foil-covered baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle with ingredients with kosher salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tomatillos and peppers begin to brown and break down. Tomatillos will look soupy, and peppers should be blistered and mostly blackened. Peel the skin off the peppers. This is easier to do if you put the peppers in a plastic bag as soon as you pull them from the oven for about 10 minutes. That steams them and allows the skin to loosen.

Once everything is softened, remove from heat. Allow to cool just a bit so that you don't burn yourself. Add most of the ingredients to blender, leaving enough space for rising during blending. I like to hold back on the peppers and garlic, and add more to taste. Tear off several handfuls of cilantro, to taste, and place in blender along with a heavy sprinkle of salt, also to taste, and a splash of vinegar (I probably don't use more than a 1/2 tsp or so for about 1.5 lbs of tomatillos). Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take salt or vinegar out. Pulse until desired consistency is achieved - I prefer mine smooth. Add water to thin salsa. I use about 1 cup for 1.5 lbs of tomatillos. Salsa will thicken in the fridge. Add additional salt, cilantro, peppers or garlic to taste and blend until you reach the consistency and flavor you prefer.

Pour in a jar(s) or plastic container. Allow to cool, and then store in the refrigerator. Use as a salsa or as a sauce over your favorite dishes.

Bean and Cheese Burritos

If you have followed many of my blogs, you have probably noticed that there are quite a few recipes with a Mexican flair. I can't help it. My dad was from Texas, and he made sure I grew up on Old El Paso and Tex Mex-style food. Now that I'm older, I'm learning how to make many of those dishes from scratch, and there have been quite a few successes! This recipe here for bean and cheese burritos is one of the successes. I use the base recipe I received from my aunt for bean dip (I just don't add the sour cream). Then I followed this blog for Freezer Burritos for how to package and freeze the burritos I made. This recipe makes 10 burritos, and two are a very filling meal when eaten by themselves.

2 27-ounce cans of chili beans
1 small onion
2-4 cloves of garlic
variety of peppers for the amount of heat you want (you can use more peppers for flavor but reduce their heat some by scraping out many of the seeds)
1 Tbsp cumin

Dice the peppers and garlic.

Place beans in a pot large enough to hold them and allow you room to stir. Add onion, peppers, garlic and cumin.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for several hours stirring frequently until mixture thickens and the beans are soft and mushy. Use a spoon or a masher to mash beans together.

Then assemble your ingredients for the burritos - cheese, refried beans, tortillas and aluminum foil.

Warm tortillas for 30 seconds in the microwave. Take a tortilla, place on aluminum foil and scoop one to two spoonfuls of beans. Sprinkle with cheese.

Fold sides in, then begin rolling from the short side, ensuring that the seam ends up on the bottom.

Wrap burrito in aluminum foil, and then place in a freezer-safe bag.

If you want to cook some at this point, bake unwrapped burritos in 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 7-10 minutes until burrito shell begins to turn golden brown. Ensure the seam side is down. If not, freeze burritos, and when ready to cook, place frozen burritos in 400 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake for 7 minutes longer until burrito begins to turn golden brown.

Chili

While I do fix my chili year round, there is nothing quite as wonderful as a steaming bowl of chili on a cold winter day. It's taken my daughter a number of years to be able to tolerate the heat of my chili, but I suppose I've finally numbed her taste buds sufficiently because she no longer complains of it being "hot." lol I love this chili not only as just a bowl of chili, but it is a wonderful consistency to use for chili dogs or chili, chips, and cheese or Frito chili pie. You can use any type of peppers that you like, and I'm usually of the mind that the more the merrier.

2 lbs ground beef

3 15-ounce cans chili beans

3 15-ounce cans tomato sauce

2 packages Chili-O

Fresh peppers - jalapeno, Anaheim, cowhorn, cayenne, etc.

Chili seasoning, seasonall salt, cumin

I do all of the chili in the same pot. Brown the meat in your soup pot over medium-high. I season the ground beef with both seasonall salt and some chili powder.

Cut and de-seed the peppers while be meat is cooking. When there is only a bit of pink left in the meat, add the peppers. Please note, I use lean ground beef, so I do not drain the little bit of fat the remains. I believe that it adds great flavor back to the chili. If you are using a less lean meat selection, then you might want to drain at least some of the fat. Once the meat is fully cooked, add the Chili-O, chili beans, and tomato sauce. Add several dashes of cumin and additional chili powder. I do this to taste. The cumin adds a nice smoky flavor to the chili. 

Blend thoroughly and cook over medium-low heat for at least 20-30 minutes. If you have time to let it simmer longer, let it. The longer it simmers, the more the seasonings infuse the chili. Serve as desired!