Baked Chimichangas

Tonight ended up being one of those meals that were made on a whim.  I had originally planned to make Mexican Cornbread but we had regular cornbread with our dinner last night.  So of course I began the look on pinterest and trying to decide what I wanted to do with the ground beef I had thawed out.  I decided to try some baked chimichangas and in the midst of looking at different recipes I decided I'm just going to do my own thing because I didn't have all the ingredients to follow any of the recipes I looked at.  I really liked how these tasted fresh with the tomato, avocado, and spinach in them.  Not too much work and they turned out good!

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 pkg. taco seasoning (I use 3 Tbsp of homemade to 2/3 cup water)
3/4 cup sour creme
1 can Jalapeno refried beans
1 large avocado chopped
3 Roma tomatoes chopped
1 cup baby spinach chopped
2 cups fresh grated Monterrey Jack
2 cups fresh grated Pepperjack
12 medium size tortillas (not the small size ones)
Olive Oil

Preheat oven 450 degrees
1)  Line baking pan with foil and spread olive oil over it.
2)  Cook ground beef and mix taco seasoning according to directions.
3)  Mix in refried beans, sour creme, avocados, tomatoes, and spinach.
4)  Spoon meat mixture into center of tortilla and place some of both cheeses on top.  Fold ends of tortilla towards inside and other two edges over middle, and place seem side down on baking pan.  You want to be sure it is closed up with no gaps left open.  Do this until all tortillas or mixture has been used.
5)  Brush olive oil on top of all the chimichangas.
6)  Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven, flip chimichangas over, brush with a little olive oil if needed, and place back in oven and bake 10 more minutes.
7)  Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving as they are extremely hot inside.

Love fresh tomato and avocado!

Baked Chicken Spinach Flautas

These Baked Chicken Spinach Flautas from Healthy-Delicious are really good!  I made some without the spinach for the kids and they were good too.  I used two jalapenos and shredded Monterrey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese when making mine.  I have this other Baked Chicken Flautas here on my blog, but this spinach recipe is much easier and less work to make.  Flautas have always been a favorite of mine!

Ingredients

10-12 frozen chicken tenders

chicken bullion
2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
1 teaspoon Chili Powder

Paula Dean Seasoning
2 Jalapeno chopped
3 cups Baby Spinach, chopped

Reserved chicken broth from boiling chicken
12-15 small tortillias
Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Shredded Pepper Jack cheese
Olive Oil

Butter 

Cooking Spray

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Put the chicken tenders in a pot with water, chicken bullion and seasonings.  Boil tenders until cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the liquid and shred it.
Pour off top of broth leaving about 1/2 cup with settled seasonings in pot.  Place shredded chicken back in pot with broth and seasonings and mix all together.  Let set while following next steps.
Place 1-2 Tbsp butter in skillet and melt.  Add chopped spinach and jalapeno to skillet and saute until spinach begins to wilt and remove from heat.
Line baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
Spoon chicken, cheese, spinach, and jalapeno onto tortilla and roll up tightly.
Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in small bowl and mix in 4 Tbsp. olive oil.  Brush the top of flautas with oil butter mixture.  Bake for 10 minutes, then turn them over brush top side with oil butter mixture, bake 10 minutes or until crispy.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I've been wanting to try Pumpkin Pancakes and finally made some!  It's one of those things I knew I would like thinking the kids wouldn't care for them, but turns out even the kids thought they were yummy.  I used a recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and only changed the amount of milk I used.  At first they were too thick and I like it when my pancake batter slowly pours into pan to make a more consistent circle shape.  These will be made again in this house!

Ingredients
1¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 1 /2 to 1 3/4 cup milk (whole or 2%)
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat a griddle to medium heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin, egg, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the flour mixture and whisk gently until completely combined. Set aside for 5 minutes.
4. Once the griddle comes to temperature, drizzle with vegetable oil and wipe off excess with a paper towel.
5. Ladle ⅓-cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the edges are set and the bubbles around the edges are open and set. Flip and cook on the second side for an additional 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately. Leftover pancakes can be frozen for up to 1 month.