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cilantro

Tilapia in foil packets

Tilapia Packets

Date: March 28th, 2013

Recipe: http://www.annies-eats.com/2011/09/07/halibut-with-chipotle-compound-butter-in-foil-packets/

Modifications: Let’s see, we used tilapia instead of halibut because it was way cheaper. I didn’t use the chipotle chilies because Erin is not a spice fan.

Time to table: 45 minutes

Servings: 3 adults

Ben: Dislike

Erin: Dislke

Annie: Like

Luke: Dislike

Notes: This dish was surprisingly bland. We didn’t think tilapia would taste much different than halibut, but maybe there is a reason it’s cheaper :) Luke was NOT a fan of the fish, in spite of its blandness. Annie tolerated it, but more enjoyed the beans and corn.

Luke is REALLY so big

Annie's crazy

Chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce

Chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce

Date: February 10th, 2013

Recipe: http://hannahholzmann.com/cilantro-lime-chicken-enchiladas/

Modifications: None, but we used some frozen shredded chicken and turkey that was leftover from a previous meal.

Time to table: 60 minutes

Servings: dinner and three lunches from leftovers

Ben: Like

Erin: Like (did not like the leftovers)

Annie: Like

Notes: I made the cream sauce earlier in the day, which made dinner time go a little smoother. Despite the long list of ingredients and instructions, these are rather simple enchiladas. I used salsa verde instead of red salsa, just a personal preference. I really liked the avocado cream sauce, we had not had that before and it was really good. Erin did not care for the way these reheated for lunches though, they were too soggy and kind of grossed her out.

Chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce

Burrito Soup

Burrito Soup

Date: January 1st, 2013

Recipe: http://ellysaysopa.com/2008/12/15/crockpot-burrito-soup/

Modifications: We used ground turkey instead of beef, just a personal preference.

Time to table: 30 minutes prep, couple hours cook time

Servings: 4 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This soup is incredibly easy to make and tastes excellent, perfect for winter weekday dinners. We made the rice separate this time, per the update to the original post. Making the rice separately was nice for leftovers as well, as you could make fresh rice to go with the soup for lunch. Annie particularly enjoyed crushing the chips into her soup :)

Annie eating burrito soup

Shrimp Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Sauce

Shrimp Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Cream sauce

Date: December 28th, 2012

Recipe: http://www.annies-eats.com/2012/12/05/shrimp-enchiladas-with-roasted-poblano-sauce/

Tortillas: http://www.annies-eats.com/2011/11/01/diy-flour-tortillas/

Modifications: I only used one adobo pepper in the sauce because I didn’t want it as spicy for the toddlers.

Time to table: 45 minutes

Servings: 7 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: Ben and I were both home last week while the kids were in daycare, so we each spent part of a day making a more elaborate meal than normal. His was the cassoulet, and this was mine! I wanted to try my hand at making tortillas, and then I also made a dessert that was part of Ben’s Christmas present from me, so I was pretty much in the kitchen the entire day. I am my own worst critic after I’ve spent so long on a meal – I did REALLY like these, but they weren’t quite as saucy as I prefer enchiladas (perhaps because they sat out with the sauce on before baking for awhile) and because my tortillas weren’t very uniform they were kind of ugly too. The tortillas were actually pretty easy, but I do not have (nor do I want) a discerning enough palate to appreciate the flavor of homemade tortillas vs store bought. I will gladly pay $3 to not spend an hour making dough, individually weighing dough pieces, rolling out and frying each one. Fun to do once, definitely, but the taste wasn’t much better to me than the ones we buy. I LOVED the filling of these – shredded cabbage, carrots, and spinach with shrimp sounds super odd but it was a great mix and with the creamy sauce was awesome. I’m not typically a huge shrimp fan, but it worked well in these. We’ll definitely have these again! (except try to cut some steps since this did take FOR-EV-ER – not a weeknight meal, for sure). I think you could prep the veggies for the filling in advance, roast the poblanos and chop in advance, and then it’d come together quick enough to be made on a weeknight.

Lots of photos of this process…

Flour Tortillas
Dough for tortillas

Flour Tortillas
Rolled out as thin as I could make it

Flour Tortillas

Flour Tortillas
Finished tortillas

Roasted Poblano Peppers
Roasted poblanos

Shrimp enchilada filling
The filling

Roasted Poblano Cream sauce
Roasted poblano cream sauce

Shrimp Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Cream sauce

Twix Trifles
Dessert – kind of meh because neither pudding tasted like I felt like it should (aka, like the stuff from a box) but I call it a win because I successfully made caramel, and hey – can’t go wrong with this much sugar and cream and chopped twix no matter what!

Sweet potato and black bean enchiladas

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Date: October 16, 2012

Recipe: http://www.acouplecooks.com/2012/10/sweet-potato-and-black-bean-green-enchiladas/

Modifications: None, actually. Well, we forgot the cilantro I guess.

Time to table: 60 minutes

Servings: 9 good sized enchiladas

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: These were excellent! They didn’t have any sauce on the inside of the enchilada as we’re accustomed to but I put in plenty of cheese. Not having sauce inside saves time on assembling them as well. I loved using salsa verde as the sauce too, instead of red enchilada sauce. Definitely going to be making these again!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Chicken Tamale Pie

Chicken tamale pie
My mom was over, and she is not a cilantro fan :)

Date: October 8, 2012

Recipe: http://pinchofyum.com/chicken-tamale-pie

Modifications:  Used regular milk, an egg (not egg substitute) and a can of regular (not creamed) corn. May have used slightly more than 8oz of corn muffin mix since I eyeballed it. Used chicken thighs instead of breasts. Used cheddar cheese. Forgot to add taco seasoning to the chicken. Did I even make this recipe?? :) Ha, I still think it was pretty similar at least!

Time to table: About an hour in total, would go faster if you had the chicken ready in advance. 20 minutes is to bake the corn mix.

Servings: Exactly served 4 adults and 1 toddler.

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Probably due to my “modifications”, the corn crust was a little more done than she indicates in the original post, but I liked it that way.

Chicken tamale pie

Burrito Bowls

Burrito Bowls

Date: August 25th, 2012

Recipe:

Chipotle cilantro lime rice: (I got the recipe from a website, but I cannot remember where, apologies)

Long grain brown rice, cooked according to directions

When the rice is done, add 1 T of butter, 1 T of lime juice, and 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro. Stir to combine.

Burrito bowl filling:

This was an ad-lib on our part, we intended this meal to simply use up some staples we had at home:

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 cans black beans
  • 1 cup of frozen corn
  • 4 green onions, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, diced
  • guacamole to taste
  • cotija/cheddar cheese to taste
  • salsa to taste
  • various seasonings
  1. Saute the chicken in a skillet. Remove and dice into bite sized pieces
  2. Saute the garlic, onion, green onion until translucent
  3. Add salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, chili powder, cumin, red pepper to your liking
  4. Add the black beans, corn, and chicken back to the pan until warmed through
Spoon some rice into a bowl. Top with the black bean mixture. Top with salsa, guacamole, cheese, as desired. Mix it up and enjoy.

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: 6 adult dinners

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Like

Notes: For a meal that was planned last minute, this was amazing. We had our friends Maggie & Pat come over, and Pat made some guacamole for us, which certainly enhanced the meal quite a bit. There was enough leftovers for Erin to bring for two lunches.

Guacamole

Chicken, Black Beans Veggies

Corn Chowder

Corn chowder

Date: August 20th, 2012

Recipe: http://www.closetcooking.com/2008/10/corn-chowder.html

Modifications:  I pureed the soup a bit at the end with our immersion blender as we prefer thicker soups. I also doubled the recipe so there would be leftovers for lunch.

Time to table: 45 minutes

Servings: 6 adult meals

Ben: Like

Erin: Dislike

Annie: Dislike

Notes: We used some corn that we bought at the farmers market for the soup and the corn was………not good. The kernals were very chewy which made the soup unpleasant to eat. This is not a knock on the recipe, just our ingredients. Erin didn’t care for how spicy the soup was, and much prefers the chowder we’ve made in the past.

Grilled Corn Salad

Grilled corn salad

Date: August 11, 2012

Recipe:

Ingredients:

9 ears of corn

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2 red peppers, chopped

1 orange pepper, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

Some chopped cilantro (Served on the side due to both of our mother’s distaste for the herb)

Dressing: Juice of 2 limes, some olive oil, some cumin, salt & pepper, whisked together

Directions: Grill ears of corn (pull husks back, remove silks, grill until charred), then cut corn kernels off the cob. Combine all ingredients and serve cold or at room temperature.

Time to table: 20 minutes, plus grilling time

Servings: ~15 people as a side dish

Ben: Like

Erin: Love

Annie: Like (as in, she ate some, although she did say “I don’t like this salad” but she also sometimes says “I don’t like bread” so we know THAT’S a lie)

Notes: This was inspired by my coworker Sharon’s corn salad that she brought to a work potluck. She is a great cook, so I asked her for a recommendation for a corn salad to go with pork tacos, and she recommended some modifications to that recipe that she uses for more of a Mexican flavor. For being kind of thrown together, and not from an actual recipe, I was impressed with how well it turned out! It paired excellently with the pork tacos.

Texmex Sloppy Joes

Tex Mex Sloppy Joes

Date: July 10th, 2012

Recipe: http://www.closetcooking.com/2012/06/texmex-sloppy-joes.html

Modifications: We used ground turkey instead of beef and omitted the cilantro because I didn’t feel like buying a whole bunch just to throw half of it away.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 6 sandwiches

Ben: Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Meh

Notes: I thought these were fantastic and would definitely make this my go-to sloppy joe recipe. Annie is not based in reality these days, so her rating has zero validity or reliability. Just sayin’. Love the closet cooking blog, hope to make more of his recipes soon.

Tex Mex Sloppy Joes