Air Fryer Chicken Chimichangas

Holy moly! I didn't think I would ever get to eat these again since fired food is off the menu. Air Fryer Chimichangas are the bomb! Super easy to make. Here are some of my mods: 

1. Make double the amount of sauce when cooking the chicken - it tastes amazing poured over top of them when they come out of the air fryer. 

2. It's ok to use cream cheese if you don't have Neufchatel-it's what I did. :)

3. We had a ton of green chilis in our garden this year so I added fresh ones to the mix. Yum! The rest went into my canned tomatillo green chili recipe that I use for chicken enchiladas. [I ended up with 17 quarts!]

4. I added some shredded cheese to the tops while cooking-nice touch!

5. This works best with an upright air fryer with trays that looks like a mini oven. [Also comes with a rotisserie attachment.] Worth the extra dollars.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/278702/air-fryer-chimichangas/?fbclid=IwAR2CnzKUgy3h1YCrnGLNQZCMvg-xZBJzI5OmquljLhr-TIS4-r-EBuYiR-s

Spanish Rice

One of the staples in our house is cooked rice-specifically Spanish Rice. The hubby doesn't handle cayenne, chili powder or heavy tomato-based products very well, so he sent me in search of a spanish rice recipe that didn't really have any of that.  I've already cooked this delicious one twice in a month!! It's cumin based and so delicious. [I substitute the tomato sauce with a can of un-drained Rotel.]

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/27072/mexican-rice-ii/

Southwest Chicken Salad

The night before I made this dish, we had chicken fajitas. I had quite a bit of shredded chicken left over and was craving chicken salad. This was the perfect daytime snack plain or as a wrap. I ended up doubling the recipe and used a 1/2 yogurt to mayo ratio. I also added extra garlic powder; added the cooked fajita veggies (onion/mushroom/red pepper) instead of green pepper; omitted the tomatoes (for the hubby) and served with fresh avocado. This would have been really yummy with black beans as well but our home is bean-free. :)

https://www.plainchicken.com/2013/09/southwestern-chicken-salad-football.html

Salsa Verde Enchiladas with Venison

A friend of ours traded pork for venison, so I perused Pinterest for guidance. I found this super delicious and simple version. I modified it a bit by cooking the venison and onions together and adding the spices all in one pot. I used pork broth to dip the tortillas in, sprayed the pan with olive oil, layered the meat, used green chili (canned earlier this year from our garden), sour cream and shredded cheese inside each tortilla and topped with green chili, rotel and shredded cheese. It tasted lighter/healthier than a typical beef enchilada recipe. Definitely a keeper. :)

https://www.nevadafoodies.com/salsa-verde-enchiladas-with-venison/

Pressure Cooker Taco Pie

Last night was all about crunch time and comfort food. I saw this recipe on facebook and couldn't wait to try it. I think next time I'll use tostadas or chips. Overall this was a very good recipe, but I could tell it would have been better baked to crispy in the oven. The boys topped it with homemade salsa, lettuce and sour cream, so it was really more like an open-face burrito. Again, only 5 minutes for the pressure cooker to heat up and pressurize and 10 minutes to cook. I think in the future, I'll start keeping pre-browned meat in the freezer to make it even faster.

http://by-pink.com/instant-pot-taco-pie/

Creamy Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Tonight I put on my lunch lady hat and "re-purposed" last night's spaghetti dinner. I ended up with WAY too many noodles and needed to come up with a solution. I also had cooked a whole chicken a couple of days ago (in the crockpot and give the broth to the dogs). So tonight I'm using half of the spaghetti as a mexican bake and tomorrow will be a cold spaghetti salad. I was able to get this one together in less than 10 minutes and bake for 30. Easy peesy. :)

http://www.thecountrycook.net/creamy-cheesy-chicken-spaghetti/

MEXICAN STREET CORN PASTA SALAD

The hubby's request yesterday was Chicken Enchiladas with green chili (previously posted when he bought Hatch chilis). It was almost as good with roasted Anaheim peppers, but I'm definitely looking forward to Hatch season again.

While I was researching what kind of pepper to substitute for Hatch, I came across this recipe and HAD to try it. I'm not usually a fan of pasta recipes (which can often taste bland if you don't double check the flavor), but this one was a winner. I had to double most of the ingredients and I would probably add sour cream to give it more tang.

http://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/mexican-street-corn-pasta-salad-2/

One Pan Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet

I often cook a whole chicken in the crockpot and give the dogs the broth (over several days). However, it's sometimes a challenge to use up the chicken meat and I have plenty stored up for winter stews. So, I simply typed "chicken" in the Pinterest search bar and found this awesome recipe. It's the herbs and spices that make this one such a delight. I didn't have green chiles or black olives, but I did have Rotel and since we don't eat black olives anyway, it was perfect. I also had 3 large flour tortillas that I cut up (instead of corn) and cooked some rice to add. The boys added fiesta cheese and Frank's Hot sauce to their bowls and gave it 2 thumbs up. :)

http://heatherlikesfood.com/one-pan-sour-cream-chicken-enchilada-skillet/

7 Layer Dip

It's Labor Day weekend and we hosted a BBQ yesterday. It's always really great when friends make the trek out to our farm. I love planning the menu and I rarely make the same thing twice. Believe it or not, I've never made 7 Layer Dip, even though I (now) know it's super easy. I loosely used the following recipe (more based on the fabulous picture), however, what I found most helpful were the reviews. [Always read the reviews in a recipe because by the time you try it, other people have shown you what works and doesn't work about it as well as other substitutions/tricks.] Based on the comments, I added the taco seasoning to the sour cream rather than the refried beans. I  also added salsa to the beans to make them more pliable. I also omitted the lettuce as a personal choice, did not add black olives, or tomatoes and put green onions on top. I made fresh guacamole and salsa and refrigerated for 3-4 hours. By the end of the night, there was nothing left :)

http://www.food.com/recipe/7-layer-dip-126480

Hatch Chile Chicken Enhiladas

Let me start off with my side note--I have been cooking enchiladas all wrong for years. In this recipe, I learned to dip the tortillas in chicken broth before stuffing and wrapping them. [We prefer flour tortillas but they worked just the same.] No more dried out shells! It also makes them much more pliable when rolling.

Once again, the hubby has stayed true to form and brought me home another item I'm not used to working with--Hatch Chilies (which are seasonal). I had heard how delicious they are, but had never attempted to prepare them. Thanks to Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman) and Google, I have mastered roasting, peeling and chopping up my own green chile sauce. To make it even better, I put a whole chicken in the crockpot and used the broth for the recipe.

This was a fun one, and truly easy to make. Looking forward to more "surprises" if they turn out this good. I have a feeling the hubby is going to buy more REAL soon...then I'll try my hand at canning green chile sauce :)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/how-toroast-green-chilies/

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/green-chile-chicken-enchiladas

Chicken (and/or) Beef Enchiladas

This website said it was the "Best Chicken Enchiladas Ever" and I had a little bit of ground beef and turkey left over from the week. I added onion to the ground beef, found some awesome corn tortillas (buy-one-get-one-free) at our local health food store (one pkg white corn, one pkg green chili corn). The sauce is what made this so amazing. I'll never buy sauce in a can again. If you ever find yourself with leftover meat, this is a winner. [I actually used the smaller tortillas and didn't have any black beans or green chili and put cilantro inside with the meat, sauce and cheese, but it still tasted dee-licious!]

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/best-chicken-enchiladas-ever/

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/red-enchilada-sauce/