Mexican
Southwest Lentil Patties with Creamy Lime Dressing
After I posted about BBQ Baked Lentils, a few people noted that they had never used lentils except for in salads and soups. To be honest those — and Indian dishes — are where my mind immediately goes when I think about lentils too. But you probably won’t see much in that respect as I continue explore the world of lentils over the next two weeks. First, because two weeks worth of soup, salad, and Indian food would be boring — both to read and to eat. Second, because I wanted to look at this as an opportunity to challenge myself. To think outside the box and come up with some really fun and creative recipes. Rest assured, if the recipes aren t delicious you won’t see them here.
Since lentils are so often used in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine, I decided to mix things up and try using them in a southwest style dish. I also wanted to play with texture a little, so these southwest lentil cakes were born! I really loved the way these turned out — they actually reminded me a little of falafel. I was nervous that they might be dense and dry, but I shouldn’t have worried. The slightly crispy outside gave way to a light and fluffy center that was full of moisture. The creamy lime dressing played up the Southwest flavor of these patties ad balanced out some of the heat from the jalapenos that I added to them.
The patties and dressing were great on their own – I also think they would make a fantastic wrap-style sandwich — but to make them into a healthy dinner I built a salad around them. Some chopped romaine hearts tossed with fresh corn, diced tomatoes, creamy avocado, and a little extra cilantro topped with the lentil cakes and dressing made a wonderfully light yet filling dinner.
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Taco Casserole
This taco casserole is one of the first “recipes” I created on my own and one of the first posts I ever put on this blog (all the way back in March of 2007!). Back when we were still on weight watchers, I was still a busy graduate student, and I wasn’t that comfortable in the kitchen, this was one of our go-to dinners. It’s easy to throw together, cheap to make, and tastes like junk food – in particular like those obscenely huge plates of nachos that you’ll find on the appetizer menu at a low-end chain restaurant.
Pork and Pineapple Stacked Enchilada
When I saw the May 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge (hosted by Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food), I had to laugh. I’ve owed Shawn a stacked enchilada for probably close to 10 years now. Back when we were only dating for a year t two, we went out to dinner one night and the restaurant that we frequented had one as their daily special. It sounded amazing, and he ordered it, but I wanted something with more vegetables so I got the pasta primavera. Which was awful. Apparently I was a budding foodie even at 16 or 17 years old. 
But I remember it well — the pasta and vegetables were overcooked to the point of mush and the whole thing was very bland. So I pouted, and we traded entrees. He had already taken a few bites of the enchilada and he knew how delicious it was, but he still gave it to me because he’s that awesome.
BUT I haven’t heard the end of it since. I vaguely remember trying to make a stacked enchilada a few years ago, but it wasn’t very good at all and didn’t count toward settling the debt. This one on the other hand? It’s been repaid. Ten-fold.
At first I was a little intimidated by the recipe, which calls for making your own enchilada sauce, but it really isn’t very difficult or time consuming at all. And it’s totally worth it – I’ve never had an enchilada that was so incredibly fresh tasting, bursting with flavor in every bite. The original recipe was for just a plain chicken and green chile stacked enchilada, but I decided to mix it up with pork and pineapple in the filling and a fresh corn and avocado salsa over top. It sounds like a lot of different flavors, but they didn’t compete with each other at all. They blended the perfect amount while still retaining their own identities. A think the crunch of the corn and the creaminess of the avocado really contributed a lot to this dish. While it’s a very versatile recipe and the flavors can be changes in an infinite number of ways, I do think that it needs a fresh salsa on the top.
It’s already been decided that I’ll be making this again, but I think next time I’ll use smaller tortillas (that might mean having to make them myself) or larger tortillas. The size that I ended up with here was just a little too much. I could have made one for us to split, but I knew that wouldn’t go over very well. So I made two and planned to eat just half of mine. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I have no sense of self-control when I have a plate full of food in front of me that tastes this good. So I’m thinking smaller tortillas for individual servings or larger ones to make a huge enchilada that you can cut up and serve like a pizza.
I know that I’m gushing, but words really can’t describe how amazing this tasted. I made this and my strawberry-rhubarb tart in the same evening and let’s just say that if I wasn’t married already, I’m pretty sure that this meal would have sealed the deal. It also inspired Shawn to ask if I could create a new category of recipes called “Shawn’s Favorites” so that he could look through them and pick something when I ask him what he wants to eat or when he needs to come up with something to cook. You’ll see that category over in my sidebar — it’s pretty empty for now, but it will grow. He’s already told me a few others that he wants me to include. Not all of them are my favorites, but if you’re looking for a recipe with some third-party validation — or just something likely to make a man happy — you might want to check that out.
Fajitas de Carne Asada with Onion Cilantro Salsa
When we go to one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants I always order the same thing – tacos de carne asada. Sure I order them because the grilled steak wrapped in a warm tortilla is delicious and the absense of cheese makes them one of the healthiest items on the menu…but really I get them mostly for the onion and cilantro salsa that comes on the side. The salsa is the perfect compliment to the taco, with crunchy little bits of onion balanced out by tons fresh cilantro to keep it from being too strong. I’m not generally a raw onion fan. I pick them out of salads and take them off of my burgers. In this salsa though, they work.
The other night we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for dinner and I thought about going out for tacos, but it was so nice out and the restaurant doesn’t have any outdoor seating (and I absolutely love to eat outside when it’s nice out). Plus we had just bought gas for the grill… the next thing I knew, I was juicing limes to make a marinade for the steak. I found two poblanos that I had forgotten I had bought, so I decided to grill those up with some onions and make fajitas instead of tacos. I also added some minced jalapeno to the salsa to kick it up a notch.
For the amount of flavor that these fajitas pack you would expect that they would be labor intensive or use expensive ingredients, but it’s very much the opposite. This is a super cheap and easy meal that will be one the table in well under a half hour. If you have any leftovers or don’t like tortillas the salsa, marinated steak, and grilled vegetables also go great on a salad topped with a splash of lime vinaigrette.
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Spinach, Poblano and Cheese Enchiladas
For almost the entire time that I was away, I had a horrible craving for Mexican food. So I wasted no time when I got home and made these enchiladas right away! I was kind of tired of beef and pork, and I don’t care for chicken enchiladas, so I decided to go with a vegetarian option. Shawn recently ordered spinach and cheese enchiladas at a restaurant, so I used those as my inspiration. They don’t taste overly spinach-y, but the vegetables add bulk to the filling so that you can use less cheese and keep the calorie and fat count down (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of ooey, gooey cheese!).
I attempted to find a recipe for spinach and cheese enchiladas online, but none of them looked very good – they all had weird ingredients like ricotta cheese! Nothing that I found was even close to what i was looking for, so I made my recipe up as I went along. I shredded the cheese for my filling and mixed it with the spinach so that you wouldn’t end up with big clumps of either. I also added a poblano pepper and a chili pepper to add a little bit of heat. The poblano gave the whole dish a nice, authentic Mexican flavor and I’ll definitely use them again the next time I make these.
I used Good Food Mexican red sauce, which I liked a lot, on these enchiladas. It caught my eye at the store because it had fewer ingredients than the enchilada sauces an the ingredients were recognizable. It also had significantly less calories and sodium than the other sauce options. The fact the the sauce was made by Good Housekeeping had me a little worried, but I shouldn’t have been. It was great! I liked that it had a little bit of a kick to it, and the smell was incredible. I can’t wait to try the other flavors. [....]
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