Turkey Black Bean Enchiladas

A super quick meal to make any night of the week are enchiladas. Our family loves Mexican, Tex-Mex recipes. We usually make our enchiladas with beef and beans and cheese, last night I thought I would try it with ground Turkey and they turned out great so I thought I would post my recipe.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

12 flour tortillas

1- 19 oz. can mild enchilada sauce (medium can larger than a soup can)

1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (more if desired)

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 a can of black beans rinsed and drained

salt, pepper, cumin, Cayenne to taste

1-2 Tablespoons of dehydrated onions (I use at least 2 tablespoons maybe even a little more because we all love the flavor)

Thoroughly cook ground turkey with spices and onions added- add black beans and cook until warmed. Set mixture aside. Get out a plate with a tortilla, add a scoop of mixture, and fold like a burrito- put into a large baking pan 10 x 13 that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Continue until you have all the tortillas filled. Evenly pour can of enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Then top with cheese. Cover with foil and put into a 375 F. Pre-heated oven. Cook for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted and enchilada sauce is hot. Remove foil for the last 3-5 minutes if desired. Serve with Sour Cream and a Salad for a yummy and easy weekday meal.

Milanesa

Last year Gary and I were shopping at Walmart, and came across an interesting cut of beef that we had never seen before. It was called Milanesa. It was nice looking, very thinly sliced beef, and it looked like it would be tasty for some recipe, so we brought it home.

I went online to learn what it was used for and found a bunch of different ways to make Milanesa. I chose an easy method of preparing it using ingredients I knew I had, and it turned out great. It is now a family favorite, and I make it every couple of months, so I thought I would share the recipe.

Milanesa is made in South American and basically a breaded, shallow fried cut of thinly sliced beef.

Recipe:

1 package of Milanesa

3-4 beaten eggs in a glass pie pan (more eggs if you bought a large pack of meat)

2 cups of flour in another glass pie pan

Season the flour w/ Salt, pepper, a little garlic or onion powder 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon, cumin 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, a dash or two of Cheyenne pepper

Using a sturdy pan for frying add about 3/4 of an inch of corn oil (vegetable oil is fine too)

A word about seasoning- this is something every home cook needs to learn on her/his own-it is based on family preference- some people love pepper, some people love garlic and want more, some people hate hot spices etc. When you first make something with a spice you aren't used to, go easy, next time you'll know if you want more- after awhile seasoning soups, sauces, breading flour etc. is just something you can do. Smell it, taste it, look at it, and decide. This would be a good skill to teach the kids and have them watch so they can get a feel for it from a young age.

Turn on oven to 200 F. Put a rectangle cooling rack on a baking sheet and set in warm oven.

Heat oil in pan. Coat meat w/ egg then flour- carefully fry in pan on both sides until a nice golden brown- Depending on the size of your pan, and the size of the meat you can do 2-4 pieces at a time. Carefully remove to a plate- test one for doneness-there should be no pink- if there is, return to pan and cook until not pink. Transfer cooked pieces to the pan in the oven to keep warm while you cook the rest. When complete- set the hot oil on the back of the oven to cool and serve it up. We have had this with mashed potatoes or Spanish rice and a veggie like corn or any other favorite veggie.

Great recipe to try- super yummy treat!

Fried Dill Pickles

I love to mark special days throughout the year- even the small holidays are very important, as well as the changing seasons. Over the years as my children have grown up, we have incorporated many fun little traditions throughout the year. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and other other major holidays have their traditions, but some of the funnest traditions we have are the small little traditions that happen throughout the year, and are associated with holidays that do not typically have the pressure of a large celebration. We celebrate Epiphany every year on January 6th with a king Cake, one year it was as simple as my daughter using her Christmas gifted Easy bake oven to bake for the family. We celebrate Groundhog Day every year with my Groundhog cookies or with Jelly Donuts (plain and glazed on the outside to represent the still frozen ground, berry filling on the inside to represent the fruit and seeds underground that are beginning to grow in preparation for spring). Chinese New Year in February we eat Chinese food, and I bake brownies every year and put a Chinese paper dragon pick in the center of the brownies. We then laugh at how brownies have nothing to do with the Chinese culture, but we have them every year because they are yummy! And there are many more little holidays through out the year- President's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and more.

This year, and for about the last three years we have also started having a little celebration for Super Bowl. Most people who know me, know that I am not a big sports fan, and for the most part would choose many other activities to do on the weekend other than watch a football game on TV (community High School football games being the exception, I love to watch a live game.)

Anyway, because it is such an American Past-time, it drew me in. So, I usually have to google who is playing- then pick the team I'm rooting for- based on some completely non-football reason-like the State they are from,and what historical event I associate with that state. Then the fun part- Appetizers!

The last couple of years one of the kids or hubby were off watching with friends, but this year we were all here. So we had make your own Taco fixin's, BBQ ribs (Gary's fave), and this year I decided to try my hand at Fried Dill Pickles. I kept hearing about them here and there, and they sounded interesting. So I Googled various methods for making my own at home, and how they are apparently very popular in the South. And came up with my own method- using what I had on hand here. They turned out Great- Us girls loved them- Hubby liked them, Son thought they were interesting, but a little weird-but glad he tried them.

What The Fried Dill Pickles were, even more, was a fun memory that we will all remember. This is something the homemaker can bring to her household- good food, good memories, taking the time to make a day a little bit special, creating traditions, even silly ones like Brownies on Chinese New Year & Fried Dill Pickles.

Here is how I made them-

1 jar dill pickle chips (the round pickle slices w/ridges)

1 egg

1 1/2 c. milk

2 cups flour

Salt, Pepper, and a few shakes of Lawry's Seasoning

1 large bottle of vegetable oil

Mix together the egg and milk in one bowl or shallow pan.

Mix together the flour & Seasonings in another pan.

Very Carefully heat the oil in a very sturdy deep pan- like a dutch oven.

Drain the pickles, and put them into the milk egg mixture.

Then in batches of 15-20 put the pickle chips into the flour and toss to coat.

When the oil is hot enough (I just put one coated pickle in to test, and knew it was hot enough to use when the pickle started to cook) carefully transfer the coated pickle chips to the oil- use a slotted spoon and gently lower them in -careful not to splatter the oil. I use an Asian Spider skimmer to carefully turn them part way through cooking, and then to remove to a cookie sheet covered with a layer of 3 paper towels, when they are light golden in color. Then I start a new batch until I have made them all.

I am always very cautious when frying with oil, No Children or Dogs in the kitchen AT ALL- they may look on from the living room- wear shoes, pick up anything around you first that could cause tripping, and start with a clean work space.

These were great dunked in Ranch, and next time I think I will try a little Onion Powder or Garlic Powder to give them a little more zest. Fun treat, and perfect to snack on during the game!

Halloween Re-Ment

My new hobby- Re-ment- very fun to display in dioramas and collect. I have joined a fun Flickr group- Rement addicts. I have enjoyed putting together my first few photos. I will be blogging more about this, as well as some of my vintage toy collections this fall/winter holiday season. Toys are such a fun part of the holidays- and I really enjoy them. Here is a halloween Re-ment dispaly- the Halloween cake in the center is Re-ment, the spooky figures on the sides are part of a vinyl toy collection by Nathan Jurevicius called Treedweller & Ghostsquid.

My Halloween Home

Halloween was fun this year. We had a nice relaxing evening passing out treats to all the cute costumed kids, watching some of our fave Halloween specials, and enjoying our traditional Halloween appetizer buffet. I have taken a bunch of pictures of our fun Halloween decor, as well as our yummy appetizers. Our appetizers this year were- Green Bean crisp's with ranch dip ( a new family fave from Safeway), classic l'il smokey wraps w/ mustard, pizza rolls, buffalo chicken sticks w/ blue cheese dip, sweet & sour meatballs, and for dessert Orange Ooze (cream cheese filled) chocolate cupcakes. To drink, I made mulled hot cider in my crock pot, served with caramel syrup & whipped cream, and had everything out for Cherry & Raspberry Italian Sodas. Everything was tasty- and was nice to snack on through out the evening. Halloween 2010 was great and was the perfect kick off to the holiday season.

My Review of Hexbug Bridge Battle Set

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

Hexbug Bridge Battle Set

Great New Hexbug Set

By April-Mother from Molalla, Oregon on 10/27/2010

 

5out of 5

Pros: Easy to Control, Long Lasting, Durable, Realistic Movement

Best Uses: Older Children, Collecting, Young Children, Teens

Describe Yourself: Stay At Home Parent, Parent Of Two Or More Children, Collector

Was this a gift?: Yes

This is a wonderful new Hexbug set for the nanobugs- last Christmas my children got Hexbugs and they were a hit, this set will be a fun addition to their other hexbugs. This product has a lot of play value, and is made very well.

(legalese)

My Garden's Summer.

My Veggie Garden.

I has been quite a long time since my last post- I took the summer off and enjoyed the freedoms of summer break with the kids. Now we are all back to school and on a schedule. I have a lot of exciting things to blog about this fall- probably my favorite time of year- although sometimes I think I say that about every season, but before I start in with fall stuff, I would like to share my summer garden.

What a great year our little 4 x 4 beds had- we were eating fresh green beans and loads of zucchini and all kinds of peppers. We even grew enough corn for one dinner. I had fun trying many different recipes for the zucchini- of course bread & cake- but I also made tempura with both the zucchini and green beans- yummy! And I came up with a super super easy zucchini fritter recipe- that is very good.

Super Easy Zucchini Fritters

1 Extra Large Zucchini de-seeded and grated in a food processor

5-6 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

salt and pepper depends on how much you want

1 T dehydrated onions (fresh would probably be great too- more or less to your liking)

Enough vegetable oil to fill 1/2 inch deep in a sturdy frying pan and more to refill as needed.

Mix together all ingredients until all flour is moistened, and all zucchini is coated. Drop a small pancake size pile in the frying pan (depending on the size of your pan do 2-4 at a time) Use a slotted utensil to carefully flip fritter when edges start to brown- fry until both sides are a nice golden brown- some of mine I had to flip a couple of times to get it nice and golden. Carefully remove fritters from oil and transfer to a paper towel lined plate when they are done. This recipe made a bunch- between 12 and 16 fritters. We made a complete dinner out of these - Serve with Sour Cream and Salsa on the side. The whole family loved them- a great late summer goody- we don't fry food around here all that often so it was a real treat. You could probably make many interesting variations of this fritter as well- it would be fun to experiment with other veggies and maybe some herbs- but this was good and simple.

Our Zucchini found its way into a lot of our meals- we also grew a round variety that we are saving to carve at Halloween.

Hope everyone had a great summer!