Southwestern Spinach Breakfast Bake is a super simple, healthy 1-dish complete breakfast guaranteed to be a hit with the family or on a breakfast buffet. Only 5 minutes to prepare.
Southwestern Spinach Breakfast Bake is about as easy as it gets, yet is a nutritious dish loaded with vegetables and protein. At the same time,it’s on the light side. Just a few ingredients – mix them in a bowl, bake for 45 minutes and voila!
If you want something more suited to a linebacker, you can always serve with sausage or bacon on the side … or baked into the dish. This is a great dish to serve on a breakfast buffet where you can just help yourself. Of course, you can also serve with condiments on the side, like salsa, sour cream, green onions, avocado, guacamole … use your imagination. This is easy enough to be an every-day breakfast dish, and versatile enough to serve on a breakfast buffet.
* Del Monte 15.25 oz can Southwest Corn with Poblano & Red Peppers also works
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray inside of an 8" x 8" or 1½ qt baking dish with cooking spray.
Blend all ingredients in a medium bowl, pour into the baking dish, and bake for 45 minutes or until set. If desired, top with extra cheese 15 minutes before removing from oven.
Allow to cool about 5 minutes, then serve & enjoy!
Mushroom Chile Soup is an easy to make, tasty, slightly spicy soup with a bit of an unusual taste. Freezes well and great on a cold night.
Mushroom Chile Soup is not only very easy, but has a distinct flavor with a bit of heat. The wine adds a unique flavor very complimentary to the mushrooms. The chiles are very subtle at first, but as you eat this soup, the heat gradually builds. Very interesting!
I tried this by itself and with shredded chicken in it to turn it into a meal – also very good. This is actually very good or you can use it as a base and add vegetables and meat to it. Crumbled sausage or seasoned ground beef would be good in it. This is a nutritious, low-fat soup that’s fairly versatile.
This keeps for a week in the fridge and freezes well, though you’ll find liquid separates out. You just need to stir it up well to restore the consistency.
You might be getting lots of mushroom recipes from me in the next month – I came home with 4 lbs of them a few days ago! Hope you enjoy this one!
optional: shredded Monterey Jack cheese for topping
Instructions
In a large stock pot, sautee the mushrooms and onions in the butter until getting soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another couple minutes.
Add the carrots, celery, chicken bouillon, water, and wine. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, till vegetables are fully soft.
Add the buttermilk, cumin, pepper, and green chiles and mix well.
Blend well in a blender or food processor. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot topped with shredded cheese, if desired.
Spicy Sausage Ratatouille is an easy, incredibly robust and versatile 1 dish meal that everybody loves … plus very nutritious.
This Spicy Sausage Ratatouille is a favorite recipe I’ve been making fairly often for quite a while … except without the sausage. I was serving it as a side dish. I’ve made many variations, mainly by varying the vegetables, adding things like winter squash or mushrooms. I naturally figured sausage would be a natural, so this sausage version has replaced my usual version of this dish. It’s great on rice or pasta, or in a bowl all by itself (where it qualifies as paleo or keto). It’s not just tasty – it’s very nutritious.
I particularly like the Trader Joe’s Italian Chicken Sausage in this; it comes in brat-sized links. I cut the casings off and cook the sausage up in chunks. Also, I now tend to use the McCormick’s Bruschetta seasoning (I buy the large 19- oz bottle at Costco) all the time in recipes that call for a combination of Italian spices (oregano, basil, onion, garlic). It has a great balance of the flavors … never-fail great taste.
This has become a regular staple for me – now I make it just guesstimating amounts instead of measuring. It’s basically a forgiving, fail-proof recipe.
Hope you like this one – it’s a family favorite in our house!
1 lb mild Italian sausage (I used Trader Joe's Italian Chicken Sausage)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
½ cup mild diced green chiles
optional: grated parmesan cheese, fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Dump the zucchini into a plastic bag (I recycle the ones from the produce department), then pour 1 tbsp olive oil on top. Hold the bag shut and shake to coat the zucchini with the oil. Open the bag, pour in 1 tbsp of the Bruschetta seasoning, then hold the bag closed and shake it; then keep it shut and massage it to distribute the oil and seasonings.
Pour the zucchini into a large baking dish (9" x 12") and put in the oven; roast for 15 minutes.
While the zucchini is roasting, dump the eggplant into the bag then pour remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in and shake, add remaining 2 tbsp Bruschetta seasoning and massage as you did with the zucchini.
When the zucchini has finished its 15 minutes of roasting, take it out of the oven and stir it up, adding the eggplant in with the zucchini. Place back in oven and roast another 30 minutes.
In the meantime, break up the sausage into chunks in a large pot. Cook until starting to brown and drain off excess fat (the chicken sausage produces very little fat); you may want to add up to 1 tbsp oil if the sausage is very low fat.
Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened, then add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring often.
Add the crushed tomatoes. When the vegetables come out of the oven, dump them into the pot and stir in the green chiles, adding seasoning and more chiles to taste, if desired. Cook over medium heat another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve in bowls or over rice. Top with parmesan cheese, if desired.
Keeps for up to a week in the fridge and freezes well.
Spicy Green Bean Casserole is a gourmet version of the classic dish with a bit of Southwestern flair – super rich and flavorful with just a bit of that green chile heat, a guaranteed hit
This Spicy Green Bean Casserole is guaranteed to be a hit for that Oscar party, family get together, or just as a special vegetable dish at any meal. It’s a rich, gourmet version of the classic green bean casserole. The fried onions and green chiles add flavor and just a bit of heat. No, it’s not low calorie, but it is worth it.
Some people like their green bean casseroles heavy on the mushroom sauce and shredded cheese. Personally, I like it light on both – I want the flavor of the green beans to stand out. If you want plenty of mushroom sauce, just reduce the amount of beans by 1/2 cup. And you can always add more shredded cheese on top if you wish.
This particular version of green bean casserole is one that I consider to be really gourmet – really robust in flavor thanks to the chiles and fried onions. It’s a great recipe to pull out when you want to serve a vegetable dish that is really special. Hope you enjoy it!
2 tsp chicken bouillon dissolved in 2 cups hot water
1 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup French fried onions
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp garlic powder
¾ cup diced mild green chiles
½ cup grated Cheddar or Jack cheese
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil the green beans in the 2 cups chicken bouillon, covered, for 10 minutes and drain.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the green beans, mushroom soup, ¾ cup fried onions, cumin, garlic powder, and green chiles.
Pour into a greased 1½ quart baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then top the casserole with the shredded cheese and remaining ¼ cup fried onions and bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.
Chorizo Chile Polenta Bites are a super simple, very tasty appetizer ideal for a party buffet and distinctive as well as very popular.
Chorizo Chile Polenta Bites are ideal for that Superbowl game day buffet. Super tasty and really simple to make, they can be served hot with very little work. The chorizo chile cheese mixture can be made a day or two ahead of time, then baked and served very quickly.
This chorizo chile cheese mixture is really very versatile. I had some left over when I made this, so I also made quesadillas with it … really awesome quesadillas. So you can serve 2 different appetizers here with almost no work. Plus this takes very little work to begin with. You can also freeze this mixture and pull it out later for a quick special appetizer.
One thing to watch out for – I’ve tried a few different brands of chorizo. Some are truly terrible, especially some latin brands I’m not familiar with. I like the King Soopers brand. Here I used Jenny-O Turkey Chorizo. I thought it’s very good for this recipe; it’s especially good as a flavoring or accent as I use it here, blended with cheese. When you cook it up, it’s very crumbly. I would not make a chorizo taco with it – the texture is small crumbles not suited for tacos but great in a recipe like this.
I used Sprouts Garlic Basil Polenta, which is very mild; it’s hard to tell that it’s seasoned at all. Some of the Trader Joe’s polentas are my favorites. Any polenta will work fine here, so you might just use your favorite.
This makes an abundance of topping, and you don’t need to use much on each appetizer. Have some tortillas available to make quesadillas too. Hope you enjoy this!
Over medium heat, very lightly brown the chorizo, just until it's in small crumbles, then remove from heat.
Blend the cheese with the chorizo and green chiles. If desired, you can also add sun-dried tomatoes or dot some of the bites with tomatoes in the final step of adding the topping.
Slice the tubes of polenta into disks ¼ inch thick. Lightly spray both sides with cooking spray, then spread out on a large cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. They may begin to lightly brown, but it's not necessary. Note: You can just lightly spray the cookie sheet and not the polenta - then the polenta will not brown at all and might puff up a bit, which is also okay.
Take the polenta out of the oven and top each one with about a tablespoon of the topping. If you wish, you can dot some of them with sun dried tomatoes at this point.
Bake for about 5 minutes or just until cheese is fully melted.
Green Chili Cheeseburger Soup – an all-time favorite and ideal for that Superbowl party! This soup is just really, really good with a fabulous, rich flavor that makes it hard to stop eating. It’s pretty easy to make and keeps well. You can make it a couple days ahead of time and then put it out in a slow cooker to enjoy during the game.
I made it the first time with shredded jack and cheddar cheese and found that it works much better with Velveeta or at least using the Velveeta for half or more of the cheese. The texture and overall flavor is better with the Velveeta. The jack and cheddar tended to make stretchy clumps of cheese.
I might try making this with mild Italian sausage. I’m sure that would also be really good.
Ok, it’s not low calorie, but it is guaranteed to be a hit that will be requested again and again. Hope you like it!
In a large saucepan, cook and crumble beef over medium heat until lightly browned; drain and set aside. In the same saucepan, saute onion, carrots, celery, and parsley until tender, around 10 minutes.
Add potatoes, ground beef, and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tbsp butter in a small skillet. Stir in the flour and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Gradually stir in ½ cup milk and blend till smooth.
Stir the flour mixture into the soup, then add remaining milk, the cheese, salt, pepper, green chiles, and sour cream.
Serve and enjoy! Can be stored for up to a week in fridge and served on a buffet in a slow cooker.
Southwestern Turkey Meatloaf is almost a whole meat – satisfying and incredibly tasty, but also really easy. A real family favorite.
Southwestern Turkey Meatloaf is a family favorite that’s almost a meal in itself, especially if you dump a lot of shredded lettuce and tomatoes on it – the way I like it. The black beans really add a nice touch. If you serve it right out of the oven, you could scoop servings into bowls and serve it as burrito bowls – it comes out soft and firms up as it cools.
Personally, I like to pour enchilada sauce over the individual servings and top with cheese. This is great left over, so you serve this later and just put a slice or two on each plate, pour some enchilada sauce over, top with some cheese, nuke each one, and you’d have a great meal. This is also a very forgiving recipe, so if you don’t have exact amounts of most ingredients, that’s fine.
This is a versatile keeper that I’ll make again and again & with variations. Hope you enjoy it!
shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, additional shredded cheese for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375.
In a large bowl, combine turkey, taco seasoning, oatmeal, onion, eggs, salsa, chiles, and black beans.
Put in a loaf pan or form into a loaf in an 8" x 8" or larger baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and pour enchilada sauce over and top with cheese. (Or, my preference, reserve ⅔ of the enchilada sauce to heat then pour over the individual servings.)
Bake another half hour, then allow to rest 10 minutes before serving. Note: Meatloaf is soft right out of the oven and sets up as it cools.
Slice and serve topped with lettuce and tomatoes. If desired, heat enchilada sauce to pour over individual servings.
Honey Dijon Brussels Sprouts are simple, tangy, a bit spicy, and incredibly flavorful – an ideal combination of flavors perfect for brussels sprouts
Honey Dijon Brussels Sprouts – one of the best brussels sprouts recipes ever! And incredibly easy. My son actually introduced me to the idea of putting honey dijon mustard on brussels sprouts (and he only started cooking this year). Then I just improved upon it with the balsamic vinegar. Fabulous! Funny, years ago I didn’t particularly like brussels sprouts and now I love them.
Basically, we have a sauce that is just equal parts honey dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and mild diced green chiles. I prepare the brussels sprouts my favorite way (boil till soft, then sautee in butter or olive oil till lightly browned), pour the sauce on and cook another couple minutes. Easy peasy! Don’t want any spicy heat? Leave the green chiles out – it’s still awesome! You also might like a lot of sauce or just a little, so adjust how much sauce you use to taste.
This is really one of my favorites and I’ll be making it over and over. Hope you enjoy it!
In a small bowl, blend the mustard, balsamic vinegar, and green chiles. Set aside.
Wash and trim base off the brussels sprouts. Slice each brussels sprout vertically in half or thirds.
In a covered pot, boil the sprouts in about a half inch water just until soft, about 5 minutes.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet. Drain water off the brussels sprouts, then sautee them in the olive oil until lightly browned on both sides.
Pour the sauce over the brussels sprouts and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat about 2 more minutes to cook the sauce into the sprouts. If needed, add salt to taste.
New Year’s Hummus is basically hummus made with black eyed peas – a traditional New Year’s Day food. Black eyed peas make an awesome, tasty hummus – and green chiles add a nice flavor and bit of heat.
Ok, so I’m a few days late. Black eyed peas are a traditional dish for New Year’s Day, so a black eyed pea hummus seemed like a no-brainer. I knew it would be good, but I was surprised just how good it is. Before I added the green chiles, I swear this was probably the best hummus I’ve ever had – very flavorful and it didn’t particularly taste like black eyed peas. then I added the chiles and I thought it was even better. Flabor became even more robust with just a bit of heat. Yum!
This is really super easy to make – dump the ingredients in a food processor, puree, and voila! You’ve got a fabulous hummus. Plus … it’s good luck for ringing in the New Year! Hope you enjoy it!
Chipotle Pulled Pork is an easy killer recipe – tangy, spicy, bursting with flavor, just perfect for game day parties. Always popular and freezes well.
I love pulled pork – and this Chipotle Pulled Pork is absolutely killer. It’s super easy to make, and for parties I like to separate it into two batches right after I shred it and make one batch mild or medium and the other batch hot. Usually at parties you get both hot and mild people showing up.
The secret to those two batches is that I put the whole can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce in with the pork at the beginning. Then when I pull the pork butt out to shred it, I’m left with the liquid and the whole chipotle peppers. I fish out the peppers, chop them up, and set them aside. Then when I’m sauteeing the shredded pork with the liquid, I add the chopped peppers into the hot & spicy batch. Obviously, you add as much as you want to each batch to adjust the heat to taste.
My big secret to super tasty pulled pork is cooking the shredded pork in a skillet while adding the liquid back in gradually. I like to cook it so some of the pork is crispy, but most of it isn’t. I always save a little of the liquid to add in right before serving – that way I can be sure it will be moist as well as partially crispy. Note that when you pull the pork butt out of the slow cooker and shred it, you’ll find much of the spicy flavor of the broth hasn’t penetrated to the inside of the pork butt.
In the photo above, you can see some dark spots. The big one near the center is just pork fried up crispy. Many of the smaller ones are chunks of chipotle pepper.
My favorite way to eat this is in a half pita with cole slaw, but most people will prefer it on a bun. The problem with a half pita is the pita is flimsy and can fall apart in your hand. I like it anyway. Also, this freezes very well. Sometimes I’ll freeze the shredded pork and the liquid separately and sautee them together after I pull them out of the freezer. Yum! Hope you like it!
Mix the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle dry rub all over the pork roast, pressing into the pork. Cover with a plastic bag or wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Combine the orange juice, vinegar, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, garlic powder and entire can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce.
Place in at least a 5 quart slow cooker. Pour the liquid mixture on top and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours until fork tender.
Remove the roast from the slow cooker and let stand until cool enough to handle. Shred the pork with a fork or tongs into bite sized pieces and set aside.
Fish the chipotle peppers out of the liquid, chop well, throw out the stems, and set aside. Set aside ½ cup to a cup of the liquid
If you want two batches of pulled pork - one hot and one mild, separate the pork and liquid into two batches. Brown them separately, gradually adding in the liquid and cooking until absorbed. If you want some of the pork crispy, cook until parts are crispy before adding the last bit of liquid.
For the spicy batch, add in the chopped chipotles. You may want to add a small amount of chipotles to the mild batch and most of the chipotles to the hot batch. Just adjust the amount to desired heat.
