Mango chicken tacos

This recipe was adapted from $5 dinners: Mango Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I made several changes to make this a little more "do-able" for our situation - GF, no grill, and cheap! *BIG GRIN*

If you could see me, you would know I am on my knees begging you to go make these. You won't regret it. Go!

INGREDIENTS:

- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- 1 cup mango marinade (READ THE INGREDIENTS!!! PLEASE!! If you are not 100% sure...contact the company. I use Bronco Bob's Roasted Mango Chipotle Sauce. It is incredible! If you are NOT gluten-free...KC Masterpiece apparently makes a yummy one as well.)
- 1 large mango, diced
- 2 dashes of garlic powder (to taste)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 1.5 TBL mango marinade

DIRECTIONS:

- Marinate chicken for a couple of hours (place in gallon-sized Ziploc bag, pour in the 1 cup of marinade, and set in refrigerator)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place chicken in baking dish and pour marinade on top
- Cover the pan with foil and cook for approximately 40 minutes (every 10 minutes I took the chicken out and redistributed the sauce back over the chicken)
- Remove chicken from pan, dice, and place it back in the pan
- Cook for an additional 15-20 minutes

While chicken is cooking, create mango salsa:
- Combine diced mango, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and 1.5 TBL of mango marinade


I served the chicken on top of corn tortillas and topped the chicken with shredded lettuce, mango salsa, and black beans. I ate mine as lettuce wraps. YOU CHOOSE!


I'd like to point out that the response to these was: "Wow. This is restaurant caliber. Can I have three more?" Toot! Toot! :D

Huevos Rancheros

 A GREAT way to save a little on your grocery bill is to occasionally cook breakfast for supper. "Huevos Rancheros" enter stage left. Talk about a yummy, cheap, incredibly easy breakfast, lunch, OR supper! Right up my alley (and I know it's up yours too!). This recipe is a combination of one used by my sister-in-law with a couple of random additions of my own.

INGREDIENTS:

 - Corn tortillas
 - Oil for frying tortillas
 - Eggs
 - Shredded cheese
 - Ranchero sauce
 - Black beans, corn, or whatever else you want (optional - I did not add any of this during this go-around, but give it a whirl!)

Ranchero sauce:

- Bacon (I use turkey bacon)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 can Rotel

- 1 can tomato sauce 

- Garlic powder (to taste)

- Cumin (to taste)

DIRECTIONS:

- Cook bacon. Remove from pan and place on plate (covered with paper towels to soak up grease!)

- Saute onions (in the bacon grease) - YUM! I'll admit that there is very little grease if you use turkey bacon, but a little bit of cooking spray / butter will do the trick.

- Add the Rotel and tomato sauce to the onion and cook until warm

- Crumble bacon into the sauce and VOILA! (as my sweet sister Doni says in her version of the recipe)

- Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet and brown the tortillas (approximately 1 minute per side).

- Remove each tortilla as you brown it and place between paper towels

- Fry an egg/egg white

- Immediately place the egg on top of a tortilla already topped with shredded cheese (this is the sneaky way to melt the cheese!)

- Top each egg with a few tablespoons of the sauce

- Now get to work!!!

Random note from the kitchen:

This sauce is great on the eggs without the tortillas and cheese (this was breakfast for me this morning). Moreover, it makes a SPECTACULAR way to spice up a plain ol' baked potato (this was lunch for me today) *GRIN* Have at it!!

Fried 'Nanners

New favorite dessert. Period.

And talk about cheap!! YES! You can't beat a dessert made with something you can get for less than 45 cents a pound!

So easy. So yummy. So absolutely necessary. *GRIN*

The following recipe came about because I thought these three ingredients thrown together and cooked this way would be yummy. Boy was I wrong. It is INSANELY YUMMY. Oh m' goodness gracious me (for translation, see the explanation of this exclamation at the beginning of my Cajun Cabbage Rolls recipe).

I made this dessert one banana at a time. Make as many as you want *GRIN* but the recipe is set to make only one.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 banana (still firm), peeled and cut in half
- 1/4 - 1/2 TBL butter (depending on how bad you want to be!)
- 1/2 TBL brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:

- Melt the butter in a pan over low-medium
- Place the banana in the butter and cover it well on both sides
- Increase heat to medium
- As the butter and banana begin to fry, top the banana with the brown sugar
- Continue to cook the concoction until the banana is golden on both sides (and your kitchen smells DELICIOUS!)

My suggestion:

Serve the banana (and as much of the carmel sauce as you can POSSIBLY scrape from the pan short of licking the scalding pan and burning your tongue) on top of some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. If you don't have access to Blue Bell, my heart hurts for you, but your favorite ice cream will do the job!

And for the record...I am sitting here typing this blog just to keep myself from using the two remaining bananas to make more. YEEESH.

Apple-cheese-turkeyballs

This recipe is (almost) directly from A Year of Slow Cooking. I just couldn't help but share! I made a couple of minor changes and did not cook these in the crockpot because I was too busy today to get started on time. It is an easy meal to make either way!


You read that right...turkeyballs. I figure that "turkey meatballs" is like saying Rio Grande River. *grin*

So most meatballs are made with breadcrumbs. Two issues with that: #1: breadcrumbs are made with...well...BREAD! (don't worry...there are gluten free breadcrumbs). The issue with that presents problem #2: that whole pesky yeast allergy.

These meatballs are a WONDERFUL change from the typical. The added fruit provides the best taste to counteract the onion. These are a phenomenal surprise. I can't get enough.

When my husband is super delighted with a meal, he'll often say "so tell me about these." Translated: "These are really good. What'd you put in these to make them so great?" (Granted, that may not be verbatim, but that's how I hear it! *BIG GRIN*) I was pleasantly surprised at how much we both liked this meal.


INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb. ground turkey (I use 99% lean)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded (the easiest way to make this happen is with a cheese grater!)
- 1/4 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese (the recipe calls for sharp cheddar, but I use "ol reliable" - the same reduced fat Colby Jack I always use)

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Spray/grease a 9X13 baking dish
- In a bowl, mix the ground turkey with all of the ingredients (you can have as much fun as you want with this. I do! Use your hands - don't be afraid to get dirty!)
- Make golf-ball-sized meatballs and place them in the pan (I made 16 meatballs with this recipe)
- Bake the meatballs for 20-25 minutes (halfway through the baking I flipped the meatballs to make sure they were cooked evenly).

I served these up with some steamed broccoli and hoecakes. I ate my meatballs with nothing added, but a little ketchup does the trick for those that are "big dippers."

So, to be honest, I was blown away by these. As we sat eating I kept making that "uuuuuugh" noise of satisfaction with the food (okay...and myself). Several times I commented on how great the meal was. Finally, Sam said "You know, hon, you sure worked hard on this meal. How do you feel about the food?" The meatballs turned out to be mighty fine (and healthy) food...what can I say?!