Corn & Jalapeno Mini Muffins

The combination of flavors in each one of these mini muffins really packs a punch!  It’s a delightful combo of sweetness from the honey, a bit of heat from the jalapeños and hearty cornmeal.  These are perfect side to serve with tacos or any Mexican dish.  Try pairing them with the Crockpot Chicken Tacos we featured on the blog last week!

Servings:  16 (recipe will make a total of 32 mini muffins)

Size:  2 mini corn muffins

Points Plus: 2pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  10-12 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent!

Ingredient List:

2/3 cup yellow cornmeal

¼ cup flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. sugar

⅛ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ cup milk

¼ cup honey

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

2 large jalapeños, seeded and diced

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, reduced-fat

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.  Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  In a separate, larger bowl combine the egg, milk, honey and melted butter with a whisk.  Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl and stir until well mixed.  Fold in the jalapeños and cheddar cheese with a spatula.  Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Tip:

Serving these warm are a MUST!  Although you can save time and make these ahead of time, they really are best when they are just out of the oven.  Of course you can pop them back in oven to warm them up just before you are ready to sit down too!

XOXO Megan

Mini Pepper Chicken Nachos

Who doesn’t love nachos??  However, they can be high in points and unhealthy.  This recipe attempts to fix that!  Replace the chips (and carbs) with mini bell peppers instead and top with regular nacho ingredients and shredded chicken.  Delicious!!

I found this recipe on the Heat Oven to 350 blog

Servings:  4

Size:  1/4 of the nachos

Points Plus: 5pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time:  10 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very Good  

Ingredient List:

1 tsp. vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 green onions

1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 tsp. chili powder

1 cup salsa

Salt & pepper to taste

1 pound mini bell peppers

1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar-monterey jack blend, reduced-fat

1/4 cup black olives, sliced

1/2 large tomato, diced

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.  In a large skillet, heat oil and add garlic and green onions, cook for a few minutes.  Add in shredded chicken and chili powder; mix well until the chili powder evenly coats the chicken and onions – cook until the chicken is warmed through.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the salsa and season with salt & pepper to taste.  Prepare the pepper nacho chips by cutting off the tops of each pepper and slicing in half lengthwise to form chips.  Place the peppers on a large cookie sheet.  Scoop the chicken mixture onto each mini pepper and then top with shredded cheese and black olives.  Bake the chicken nachos in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Before serving, top the nachos with tomatoes and fresh cilantro.

Tip:

Make the chicken in your crock-pot the night before you want to serve this recipe!  Crock pots are a great tool in making prep for entertaining easy!

XOXO Megan

Breakfast Tacos

Saturday morning we decided to come up with a creative breakfast simply by using up what we had in our fridge!  Paul came up with the idea for these breakfast tacos since we had some leftover corn tortillas and an avocado.  This makes for an easy breakfast!

Servings:  2

Size:  2 breakfast tacos

Points Plus: 8pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: n/a

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Rating: 4 stars – Very good

Ingredient List:

3 eggs

4 corn tortillas

½ Tbsp. olive oil

½ avocado, diced

3 Tbsp. salsa

2 oz. shredded cheddar, reduced-fat

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large frying pan, prepared scrambled eggs seasoned with salt and pepper.  In a small skillet, lightly fry/brown the corn tortillas in olive oil.  Dice the avocado.  Assemble the tacos by layering eggs, salsa, and avocado and sprinkle the top with cheese.  Enjoy!

Tip:

You can easily adapt these tacos to whatever you have on hand or any ingredients you really like!  Some people aren’t huge fans of avocado so go ahead and substitute other veggies into your breakfast tacos instead.

XOXO Megan

Jalapeño, Sausage & Egg Breakfast Braid

I love to find new breakfast recipes to try out!  I came across this recipe in Cooking Light and tested it out for a summer cabin trip a few years ago.  It’s easy, yet looks pretty impressive, and sounds like it too (breakfast braid sounds kind of fancy to me at least!).  This breakfast dish quickly became a favorite and is a go-to staple if I’m having company and I want to serve something for breakfast or brunch.

Servings:  8

Size:  1/8 of the breakfast braid

Points Plus: 6 pp

Level of Difficulty:  Medium

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time:  15 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent

Ingredient List:

1 can refrigerated pizza crust dough

Cooking spray

1 Tbsp. olive oil

¼ cup onion, chopped

4 oz. chicken sausage with jalapeños, chopped

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

¼ cup jalapeño peppers, chopped and seeded

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°. Unroll the pizza dough onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Shape dough into a 15x10 inch rectangle.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and sausage; cook about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in the eggs, cook another 1-2 minutes or until the eggs set.  Remove from heat.  Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese lengthwise down the center of the dough, leave about a 2 ½ inch boarder on each side.  Spoon the egg/sausage mixture evenly over the cheese.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of the egg mixture; top with jalapeño peppers.  Make 2 inch long diagonal cuts about 1 inch apart on both sides of the dough to within ½ inch of the filling.  Arrange the strips over the filling, alternating sides to make the appearance look like a braid.  Press the ends to seal.  Brush the top of the braid with egg white to ensure a nice browned crust.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into slices.

Tip:

To make the cuts in the pizza dough to form the braid, kitchen scissors work REALLY well!  Simply snip out even strips to make your braid.  The scissors will help the dough for tearing or getting stretched out so you end up with a nice looking braid to serve your company!

XOXO Megan

 

Salsa Verde Enchiladas

In honor of Cinco de Mayo yesterday we thought a Mexican recipe was appropriate.  If you like authentic Mexican food, this is a recipe you have to check out!  Paul, my fiance, LOVES Mexican and suggested one weekend that we try out a true, authentic recipe.  He found this one online and we have to say we were impressed - definite authenticity.  We served our salsa verde enchiladas with a side of cooked black beans with onions and cilantro.  Yum!

Servings:  4

Size:  3 enchiladas

Points Plus: 10 pp

Level of Difficulty:  Medium

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time:  35 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent
*Recipe from: allrecipes.com

Ingredient List:

2 bone-in chicken breast halves

2 cups chicken broth

White onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. salt

1 pound of fresh tomatillos, husks removed

5 Serrano peppers*

12 corn tortillas

1/8 cup olive oil

½ cup crumbled queso fresco

Fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine chicken breasts with chicken broth, ¼ of the onion, 1 clove of garlic and 2 tsp. salt.  Bring to a boil and then boil for 20 minutes.  Reserve broth, set aside chicken to cool and discard the onion and garlic.  When chicken has cooled, shred the chicken with 2 forks.

Place tomatillos and Serrano peppers in a pot with water, enough to cover them (some of the tomatillos will float a bit).  Bring to a boil, continue boiling until the tomatillos turn a different shade of green (they will start out as a bright green and turn to a dull, army green).  Strain tomatillos and peppers, place in a blender with another ¼ of the onion, 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of salt.  Pour in enough of the reserved chicken broth so the liquid covers the vegetables by about an inch in the blender.  Blend all ingredients until they are completely pureed.  Pour salsa into a medium saucepan and bring to a low boil.

Pour oil into a small frying pan; allow it to get very hot.  Slightly fry the tortillas one by one in the oil, setting each on a paper towel to absorb some oil after frying.  Finally dip the tortillas into the warmed salsa verde in the saucepan.  Place on plates, 3 tortillas per serving.  Assemble each enchilada by filling the tortillas with shredded chicken, some extra salsa verde sauce and rolling up. On top, add chopped onion, cilantro and crumbled queso fresco.

Tip:

*Note on the Serrano peppers.  The originally recipe calls for 5 peppers.  Unless you REALLY love spicy food, I would recommend scaling back on this. These are HOT enchiladas (I mean the recipe can’t say it’s authentic if it doesn’t have some heat to it!).  We have made this recipe twice, and used 3 peppers both times.  These peppers definitely have some kick!

XOXO Megan

Sausage and Pepper Chili with Baked Polenta

I love a good one dish dinner, especially when it helps you clean out your cupboards and fridge.  This dish is super easy, filling and has the right amount of spice.  It is sort of a cross between a really thick chili and chowder and the polenta adds an additional interesting texture.  Think of your favorite side to chili = Cornbread!

Servings:  4
Size:  ¼ of pan, size will vary depending on how many peppers you add
Points Plus: 6 pp
Level of Difficulty:  Easy
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time:  20 minutes
Rating: 3 stars – Good

Ingredient List:

1 t. olive oil

Peppers! (I used about 6 small sweet peppers in varying colors, you could also use one red and one yellow pepper)

½ cup white onion

2 jalapeno turkey sausage links from Trader Joes

1 can diced tomatoes with chilies

1 cup sliced polenta (1/2 log, sliced in circles)

1 can pinto beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Hot sauce!

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Dice peppers and onion into small pieces. Heat olive oil in a skillet until hot, then add peppers and onion and sauté for about 8 minutes until cooked. Cut up sausage links in ¼ inch round pieces.  Add sausage to veggies and cook until warmed through.  These sausages are pre-cooked, so if you are using different raw sausage sauté until cooked through.  Rinse and drain pinto beans, and add them to the mix along with the canned tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper to taste.  Move mixture to an oven safe dish.  Slice polenta into ¼ inch round slices and later on top of chowder mixture.  Loosely top with a piece of tin foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove, add a little hot sauce and enjoy hot!

Tip:

If you are lucky enough to own a Le Creuset (or any stove to oven safe dish with a lid), use that dish instead to save some dishes! 

XOXO Katie 

Italian Sausage Soup

Soup is one of Katie and my favorite meals!  It’s a great for chilly winter nights, but can easily be expanded into fall and spring based on the recipe.   Here is one of my favorite soups to make – and the best part is that it comes together very quickly.  Perfect for a weeknight dinner, or it’s good enough that you could serve it to company to impress them with the delicious Italian flavors.

 

Servings:  4

Size:  1 1/3 cups of soup,  1 ½ tsp cheese

Points Plus: 5 pp

Level of Difficulty:  1

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Rating: 5 starts - Excellent!

 

 Ingredient List:

8 ounces of hot or sweet Italian turkey sausage

2 c. fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano

½ c. uncooked small shell pasta

2 c. bagged baby spinach leaves

2 tsp. grated fresh parmesan or Romano cheese

2 tsp. chopped fresh basil

Directions:

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.  Remove casings from sausage.  Add sausage to pan, cook about 5 minutes or until browned.  Drain if needed; return to pan.  Add broth, tomatoes and pasta to a large stock pot.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Once the mixture comes to a boil add the sausage.  Cover the pot and reduce the heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.  Remove from heat; stir in spinach until wilted.  Sprinkle each serving with cheese and basil.

Note: This recipe makes quite a bit – a serving is 1 1/3 cups, but I typically only have 1 c. servings which leaves you with more leftovers.  If you won’t be eating all of the soup at one time I would recommend putting the spinach leaves in each serving bowl and pouring the soup serving over the top to wilt the spinach.  The wilted spinach in leftover soup lessens the time your leftovers will be good for!

Tip:

Experiment with different pasta shapes for this recipe!  Although it calls for shell shaped pasta, I have enjoyed this soup with orchecchiette (ear shaped),  gemelli (twists or spirals) or one of my personal favorites farfalle (bow-ties).

XOXO - Megan