Monday, August 18, 2008

Zesty Chicken Tortilla Bake

Yes, I know, it's been a MONTH since I posted a recipe. I have a whole STACK of them here waiting for me to have time to enter them. At work, they're making me, well, work, and at home we're in the throes of potty training. You wouldn't think that would make life chaotic, but it does.
Make that extra-chaotic.
And then there are nights like tonight. According to this recipe, it should take 35 minutes plus whatever time you need to cook your chicken, if you're not using leftovers (which I wasn't). So like, 45 minutes, tops. And I really think, in a perfect world, it would have. But it is not a perfect world, and it took nearly 2 hours. Well, the recipe itself didn't take 2 hours, but once you add in LIFE, all together we're talking 2 hours.
We ate way later than I like to, but I will say, when we finally did eat, the food was darn good. I had every intention of taking a picture before we scarfed it down, but by then we all were so stinkin' starving there was just no time to find the camera; by then the hubby and the boys would have inhaled it and I would have got nothing!
Enough of that. Let's get on with the food....

Your ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup Miracle Whip dressing
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 cups milk (Problem #1...we were out of milk. The Boys, who were home all day, knew this, but didn't think that maybe I should know. I didn't discover we were out until well after I'd dealt with Problem #2, below.)
  • 1 package (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese (divided)
  • 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breasts, cooked and cut into 1-inch pieces (Problem #2...when I called The Boy to get chicken out of the freezer, he couldn't find it, so didn't. Apparently I hid it under the bucket of ice cream. And his arms don't work so he couldn't lift it up and check underneath it. So I had to wait for the chicken to thaw.) You could also use a bunch of leftover chicken.
  • 1/2 cup salsa (slight Problem #3...I only had 1/4 cup. I substituted 1/4 cup taco sauce for the rest. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to my new jar of salsa.)
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (Okay, that was Martha Stewart talking. I say, a palmful of dried parsley. Who has fresh parsley? Not me....)
  • 16 taco-sized flour tortillas

Mix the Miracle Whip and flour in a medium saucepan with a whisk until well blended. I had to use a fork to get the gobs out from in between the wires a few times, which truly I wasn't too impressed with, but I think it may have been the whisk more than it was the gunk. Add about 1 cup of milk and stir until blended, then add the rest and continue stirring until well blended. Cook and stir on medium heat until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens, which at this point, seemed like forever but was probably, oh, 7 or 8 minutes. Stir in half the cheese. Reserve one cup of the prepared sauce.

Add the chicken, salsa and parsley to the remaining sauce and stir until well blended. Spoon 1/3 cup of the sauce/chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla and roll up. I just used a big spoon and eyeballed it; actually using a measuring cup just seemed like it would be really messy to me. Place roll-ups seam side down in baking dish. The recipe I have says to use 2 11x8 inch pans. I don't have 2, so I ended up using 3 pans all together. It also doesn't say to spray the pans, but I did, and I'm glad of it, so I would recommend you do too. Top evenly with the reserved sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

I served this with corn. Everyone gave this a thumbs up. Not the corn, the tortillas.

Enjoy!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Award-Winning!!

Well, I thought no one ever read this blog, but apparently I was wrong...as I was just nominated for having such a 'brillante' blog, by White Kitchen, who, I think, has an excellent blog (and excellent taste in blogs!) as well. Now it's my turn to nominate seven blogs. Here are my nominations:

1. My Vintage Kitchen - It's the watermelon pickles. Never heard of them, I find them fascinating.

2. A Year of Crockpotting - I love my crockpot! This site (c)rocks!!!

3. I think I have a recipe for that... - an Australian blog I stumbled upon. I just like seeing what they eat over there. Because I've never been there. And I'd like to go. And I'd like to know what I can expect to eat, if I ever DO get there.

4. What Recipe? - A blogger after my own heart, with a nice organized spice cabinet. Note to the DH: See, I'm no freak just because I organize my spices alphabetically! I'm sure he could come up with many other reasons why I'm freak, though...

5. Beck's Recipes - Everything I've seen on her blog sounds so good.

6. Dinner on a Dime - With the price of everything rising these days, it's good to have some economical, but GOOD, recipes on hand.
7. Crista's Kitchen Creations - Because of the peach enchiladas. I mean, YUM.


Congrats, winners! Here are the rules:
1. Post the award logo on your page.
2. Link back to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate seven other blogs, and add links to their blogs.
4. Make sure your nominees know they’ve won!