Cinco (y Seis) de Mayo!!

I was just looking at the title of my last post, and realized that I blame the "Home buying" portion on why it has taken me so long to post.  Fortunately, the close of escrow date is just around the corner so Brian and I had reason to celebrate this weekend!! On Saturday (the real Cinco De Mayo), we celebrated with the homemade chicken flautas I blogged about before.  For Seis De Mayo, we were feeling more adventurous so I tested out a new shrimp taco recipe while Brian worked on watermelon margaritas.

I have come to find that some of my favorite things about cooking are the ability to find inspiration anywhere, and the ability to experiment and truly make a recipe my own.  I hope that anyone who tries these recipes out will feel the same freedom to tweak/adjust to make it fit your personal tastes. Enjoy!!

Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Slaw and Guacamole

Guacamole
3 Avocados, mashed
1 Tomato, finely chopped
1/2 White Onion, finely chopped
Green Onions, finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, finely minced
Juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime
10-15 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (interesting twist from the usual cilantro!)
Crushed Red Pepper flakes
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Mix all ingredients. Adjust amounts to taste.

Chipotle Slaw
1/2 C Light Sour Cream
1-2 T Mayo
Juice of 2 limes
1/2 Bunch Chopped Green Onions
1/4 C Chopped Cilantro
Finely chopped (or use food processor) chipotle chile

**I had a dried chile that I reconstituted in nearly boiling water for about 30 minutes. Remove stem and seeds (to taste) prior to chopping. Canned chipotle in adobo would probably work well too.**

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper (to taste)

1/2 head cabbage (thinly sliced)

Mix all ingredients except cabbage.  Stir in cabbage. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Grilled Shrimp
1/2 - 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ancho Chile Powder

Toss shrimp with EVOO and chile powder to coat. Place in preheated grill pan until cooked thoroughly.

Heat whole wheat tortillas and top with shrimp, chipotle slaw, guacamole, and shredded Mexican cheese. Fold like a taco and serve.

Watermelon Margaritas

(Serves 2)

4 shots silver tequila

2 shots Triple Sec

Juice of 3 limes

3 cups chopped seedless watermelon

Place all ingredients in a blender.  Once blended, strain mixture into glass and add ice.

A lot of recipes for watermelon margaritas tell you to add sugar or simple syrup.  We found that the watermelon has enough sweetness, so adding sugar would just be adding unnecessary calories.

Walkouts, Home Buying, and Spicy Chicken Pesto Pizza :)

I have always loved the quote "life is what happens when you are busy making plans." I had grand plans for putting together a pizza on Monday, but due to the unintended craziness of students staging a walk out to protest the forced resignation of my school's principal and Brian and I beginning the offer process of purchasing a home things were put on hold (will update you later).  Better late than never, here is the scoop on the pizza....

One of the bonuses of getting married (and marrying into a family with amazing cooks and bakers) is exposure to new recipes.  Brian's Uncle Garry is famous for his Friday pizza nights and his creative twists on pizza recipes.  This is my "lazy" version of one of his greatest pizzas.  With the help of my beloved Trader Joe's, I can create this fantastic pizza with only 5 ingredients!!!

Spicy Chicken Pesto Pizza
Ingredients:
1 package Trader Joe's plain pizza dough
1/2 container (approximately) of Trader Joe's pesto sauce
Feta Cheese
1/2 to 1 (depends on size) chicken breast cubed
Hot Sauce

Bring pizza dough to room temperature (this makes it easier to roll out).  Roll dough in flour to prevent sticking to pan.  Hand stretch the pizza dough as much as possible, then use pastry roller to spread dough out to size of pizza pan.  I use an AirBake pizza pan because it helps with even baking.  A pizza stone would work even better, but you may have to adjust oven temperature and time.

Spread pesto over dough.  Sprinkle with feta cheese.

Toss chicken with hot sauce and sprinkle evenly over dough.  Frank's hot sauce is ideal, but I used Louisiana hot sauce because I had it in the fridge and it was only $0.99!!

Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Brian and I paired this with an awesome table red wine ("Band Blend") we picked up from Little Vineyards in Sonoma County.

Homemade Chicken Flautas

Let me first say that Pinterest is the bomb and has inspired many new creations in my kitchen.  I love trying new  recipes, but busy nights make me shy away from complicated recipes that require me to make a special trip to the grocery store to buy things I don't normally have on hand.  This is one recipe that was very easy with wonderful results!!  When I was cooking the chicken to be shredded, I knew that the 2 gigantic chicken breasts I was using would be too much for this recipe.  I took half of one breast and cut it into cubes it for a pizza recipe I will post about soon. Enjoy!!

Chicken Flautas

3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup green salsa
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced (the frozen cubes from Trader Joes works great!)
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp sliced green onions
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican flavored cheese
flour tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 425˚F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly.

Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat them in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 15 seconds)

Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto one end of the tortilla and roll as tightly as possible.

Place the rolled tortilla seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas until the mixture is gone.  Make sure the taquitos are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until crisp and golden.

**We reheated our leftovers in the toaster oven at about 400 degrees to get the crispiness back

Just an intro

After a long day of car maintenance, house hunting, trying out new recipes, and searching for secrets to beating Wii Mario, I realized that my life is filled with random experiences that all contribute to its beautiful chaos. I blame my husband (in a good way) for turning my life upside down, and giving me things that just might be worth writing about.  My idea is to make this a place to share stories, recipes, and a point of view on useful and productive things (like The Bachelor and the Real Housewives).  Feel free to comment and contribute your own as well :)