CHILE COLORADO BURRITOS

Shredded beef burritos smothered in meaty sauce and cheese.  That's all you need to know before you make this meal.  Oh, and the meat is cooked to tender perfection in a crockpot all day long.  If you aren't sold, I feel sad for you.

Now, this recipe adventure could be filed under failure AND disaster.  There are tons of recipes out there for homemade enchilada sauce, so I decided to give it a shot.  It was awful.  Not sure if it was that particular recipe, or I just love the canned stuff too much.  Anyone out there have a fabulous, homemade version to share with me?

Onto plan B.  Luckily, there are always several cans of enchilada sauce in our pantry, so this meal wasn't ruined.  It was the opposite.  This was amazing.  Please make this meal ASAP.   This made 8 burritos, but if you don't want leftovers or aren't feeding a crowd, just halve the recipe.

Quickly give the stew meat a quick browning in the skillet, then throw it in the crockpot.

Pour in enchilada sauce, chopped green chiles, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, bay leaves and salt.  Cook on low allllllllll day long.

Usually, flour tortillas get a weird, sticky and gummy texture when they get super saucy.  Luckily, Trader Joe's Trader Jose's exists.  My friend Kat served these amazing tortillas with tacos and I was instantly converted.  They keep their texture when smothered with sauce and taste like they're from a restaurant.  Do yourself a favor and get some.

You can stick with an all meat filling, or throw some beans in there as well.  These chorizo refried beans are deliciously flavorful and have a slight kick.  Found them at World Market.

The first night we had this meal, we did beans and meat.  The burritos were super filling and one was enough for a meal.  Spread on beans, top with drained beef.

Oh, hey feet.

OR fill with meat and cheese, like we did with the leftovers.

Roll them up burrito style, smother with sauce and cheese, then stick under the broiler for a few minutes.

Serve these with rice and beans or a side salad with sour cream and guacamole.

With white rice and chorizo refried beans.

With Uncle Ben's chicken rice and refried black beans.

Ingredients

3 lbs lean stew meat
3 cans enchilada sauce, 10 oz each
1 can chopped green chiles, 4.5 oz
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cumin
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt

shredded cheese
refried beans
rice

Brown meat in skillet until browned on all or most sides.  Do not cook the meat all the way through.  Place in crockpot, and top with enchilada sauce, chiles and spices.  Stir, cover and cook on low about 4-5 hours.  Meat is done when it is falling apart.  Remove bay leaves.  You want your sauce to be almost gravy-thick at this point, but the meat juice has probably watered it down.  If your sauce is too thin to use as a topping, mix together 3 teaspoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a tiny bowl, then stir into crockpot.  It'll thicken up quickly.  Taste your sauce, add more spices or salt if necessary.

Assembling burritos:  scoop meat from crockpot using a mesh strainer, so the burritos will be meaty, not runny.  Fill each burrito with half a cup of meat (or beans and meat, or meat and cheese, or all three!) slightly fold in both sides, then roll up.  Place on baking sheet or baking dish, then smother with meat sauce.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Place under broiler set on high for about 3 minutes, watching carefully the entire time until cheese is melted.  Serve with beans, rice, or additional sauce.

LENTIL SOUP WITH BEEF

 
Do you ever rip recipe pages from magazines that don't belong to you?  I do it all the time, especially with my mom's magazines.  She knows this and forbids me from tearing out any of her pages.  "Because, Katie, what if I want to make that recipe some day?!"  How dare she!  So I have to take tiny little pictures with my phone of the recipes I like.  Poor me.

Anyway, I saw this recipe in her Family Circle magazine and it sounded scrumptious!  I've always wanted to cook with dry beans, and this sounded like an easy introduction.  The recipe calls for sirloin steak, which is fairly affordable.  I couldn't find any at the store, so I ended up purchasing some other Angus boneless steak.  It's going to be cooked for 8 hours in a crockpot, so whichever cut you choose, it'll be cooked to tender perfection.

Cut your meat into equal sized pieces to ensure even cooking.  Brown in a skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper.  This will give your soup a richer flavor.  If you're short on time you can just throw raw meat in the crockpot.  The only change I made to the recipe was to add a can of petite diced tomatoes, dried oregano and salt.  I also upped the amount of all the veggies to boost the nutrition!  You can serve as a soup, or make it a filling meal and serve over cooked egg noodles.  I am addicted to pasta, so I chose the latter.

Ingredients

1 lb boneless sirloin steak
4 cups beef broth
1 cup water
1 cup lentils, rinsed and drained (1/2 a lb)
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

Trim fat from meat and cut into equal sized pieces, about 3/4 an inch.  Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in nonstick skillet.  Add meat, season with salt and pepper then cook until browned.  Add meat to crockpot.  Add remaining ingredients.  Stir to combine.  Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours.  Taste and add additional salt as needed.  Serve over egg noodles or as a soup.  *Note: you may notice fresh parsley in the pictures and the original recipe, but I don't think it belonged in this soup.  It was an unwelcome surprise to bite into, and I will omit it next time.

BBQ CHICKEN SALAD

Are you trying to eat healthier for the new year?  Are you choking down lots of boring, low calorie canned soups?  Frozen diet meals?  Munching on celery?!  Stop it.  Stop it now.  Eat this salad instead!

It is so simple.  Throw some fresh, boneless, skinless chicken tenders or breasts in your slow cooker.  Pour on a combination of BBQ sauce, Italian salad dressing, and Worcestershire on top.  Cook.  Shred right there in the crockpot, then stir so it soaks up that delicious sauce.  EAT.  See?  Told you it was easy.  Important note: USE GOOD BBQ SAUCE!  Use your favorite, if you have one.  If you use bargain sauce, you will be able to taste the difference.

For the chicken

When you take the lid off your crockpot, it may look super liquidy!  Have no fear.  Just grab a wooden spoon, tongs or two forks and break that chicken apart.  It'll soak up the sauce in no time.

For the salad

Ingredients

For the chicken:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders/breasts
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

For the salad:
6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
BBQ sauce
Ranch
Tomatoes (my tomatoes were past their prime, had to omit)
Corn chips

Place chicken in crockpot.  In small bowl, mix together BBQ sauce, Italian dressing and Worcestershire.  Pour over chicken.  Set crockpot to low for 4 hours.  If chicken is frozen, increase time to at least 6 hours.  Shred chicken in crockpot and mix into sauce.  Serve immediately, or cook on low for another 30 minutes.  Place romaine in giant bowl.  After draining and rinsing corn and beans, toss with romaine.  Top with chicken, ranch and BBQ sauce then mix again.  Add chips last so they don't get soggy.

29 of these yummies only have 150 calories!

SHREDDED BUFFALO CHICKEN

Is this picture fancy or what??  My friend, Andrea, is a photo editing whiz!

I fall in and out of love with my crockpot.  I go through phases where it seems like a pain to clean the big dang thing or to have to plan a meal hours ahead of time.  But the other phase is complete infatuation with my crockpot!  That is my current state.  I don't even bother putting it away now because of its constant presence on the counter. 

This meal is stupid easy to make.  That's not an insult, it's just a fact.  Chicken, buffalo sauce, powdered ranch.  That's it!  This shredded chicken is perfect atop a salad, inside a wrap, scooped up with celery or grilled as a quesadilla.  I usually do a salad with blue cheese crumbles and ranch dressing.  For the wrap, I roll it up in a large flour tortilla with lettuce, ranch dressing, shredded cheddar and extra buffalo sauce.  If the chicken is too spicy, stir in a wedge or two of laughing cow cheese.  The swiss and blue cheese flavors work best.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts or tenders (fresh or frozen)
1 bottle Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce (not hot sauce!)
1-2 packets Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing dry mix

Place chicken in crockpot.  Pour about 3/4 the bottle of buffalo sauce over the chicken.  Sprinkle on ranch powder.  Cover and cook on low about 4-6 hours for fresh chicken, 8 hours for frozen.  Tenders cook quicker than chicken breasts.  Break apart chicken with tongs, mix into sauce and taste.  This is the point where I decide if I need that additional packet of ranch powder or the remaining buffalo sauce.  If it tastes vinegary/too spicy go ahead and add that extra packet of ranch.

CHILI

I've never made chili before.  I know, that's a shocking declaration from a professional chef such as myself.  I enjoy all types of chili: white chicken, beef, veggie, spicy, Hard Times Cincinnati, beany, etc.  I decided it was time to finally make my own, so I did some research and decided I just didn't LOVE any recipes, so I made one up.  I think it resembles Wendy's chili a bit, but is also just a simple meaty and hearty chili.  And dare I say, healthy?  It was super delicious and I feel comfortable using the L word now.  As with all chili, the longer you cook it, the better it tastes.  I cooked it 9 hours overnight then left it on warm for a few hours before serving.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
3 cans petite diced tomatoes (I like Hunt's) undrained
2 cans Bush's Chili Seasoned Beans (medium heat) undrained
1 can light red kidney beans undrained
1-2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced green peppers
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
2-3 teaspoons fresh minced garlic
Tabasco sauce, chipotle smoked flavor, to taste (I used about 8-10 splashes)
salt to taste

Brown ground beef and pork in skillet, crumbling it as you go.  Stir in salt to flavor the meat, then drain off any liquid.  Pour in crockpot and add remaining ingredients.  Stir, cover and cook on low for about 8-9 hours.  Keep on warm setting until ready to serve.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, additional hot sauce and chips.

PULLED PORK

My other half informed me there was going to be a potluck at his work, and people were being encouraged to bring their meals in crockpots.  Recently at lunch, my coworker brought in leftover pulled pork that looked and smelled AMAZING, so I asked her to email me the recipe.  She insisted it didn't need to be written down because it was so simple.  Put pork in crockpot, pour in root beer, cook forever, shred, add sauce.  Seriously, it's that easy.  I know what you're thinking: root beer?  I'm not a sweets fan and never drink soda, but I promise you won't know there's root beer in this.  You drain it all off at the end.  It's not sweet!

I enjoyed the leftovers on a potato roll with some delicious, creamy coleslaw from the deli at Harris Teeter.  I also added a dash of my latest obsession:

I doubled this recipe and ended up using about 5 lbs of pork tenderloin.  It was on sale at the grocery store, but if it hadn't been, I may have purchased a cheaper cut.  The tenderloin has the least amount of fat, so the time spent searching for fat to be discarded is minimal.  My coworker used the rump roast (and couldn't say the cut of meat without giggling, I might add) and spent a little more time ridding it of the fat, but it was still equally delicious.  Thanks for the recipe, Blair!

Ingredients

2 lb pork tenderloin/roast
12 ounces root beer
1 bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's is so perfect)

Place pork in crockpot and pour on root beer.  Cook on low about 7-8 hours.  Carefully remove pork from crockpot and pour out all the root beer liquid.  Shred pork and discard any fat.  Return shredded meat to crockpot, add desired amount of sauce and cook on low for 1 more hour.  Serve with additional sauce, hot sauce, coleslaw, or whatever your little heart desires.

SHREDDED RANCH TACO CHICKEN

I love taco night!  I am definitely a ground beef fan, but when I saw this recipe for shredded chicken tacos, I had to try it.  It couldn't be any easier.  All you do is throw stuff in the crockpot!  Are you ready to find out the list of ingredients required to flavor your chicken?  Get a pencil.  Here is the list:

Yup, that's it.  You just have to promise me one thing: DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF THE CROCKPOT UNTIL THE TIMER GOES OFF.  A lot of people like to get a peek while their crockpot meals are cooked.  Uh... isn't your lid made of glass?  Why are you taking the lid off?  It just adds cooking time and dries out your food.  This chicken needs to be juicy and flavorful so please please please just leave it alone.  Here, I'll show you how exciting it looks while it's cooking:

Is your curiosity squashed now, or what?  Anyway, take a look at all that delicious liquid that is created when this cooks.  Yum.

Oh, and this is how weird it will look before you cook it.

Once it's done, shred away!

If you have a gas stove, getting tortillas nice and toasty over the open flame is a must.  So perfectly crisped and soft all at the same time.

The first night we had this, we put it in the toasted tortillas with cheese, lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, creamy chipotle sauce and hot sauce.  With the leftovers we made salads and added some black beans.  You could also serve this in burritos, quesadillas or tostadas.

We also had sides of rice and delicious refried black beans.  This rice is fun to pair with Mexican dishes because it reminds me of the authentic kind in restaurants with corn, carrots and peas.

Ingredients

2.5 lbs fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders (you could also use frozen)
1 1/2 packets taco seasoning
1 1/2 packets ranch seasoning

Place chicken in crockpot.  Sprinkle both seasonings over the top.   Cover and cook on low 6 hours.  That was the perfect amount of time for fresh, large chicken breasts.  If using frozen chicken, cook for 6-8 hours.  Tenders cook quicker than breasts, adjust cook time accordingly.  Shred chicken with two forks.  Cover and cook for another 15 minutes, to let the chicken soak up all the juices.

Simple perfection.  Mmmmmm.