What's Cookin'

This week, I was out of town for most of the weekend, but had today (Monday) off from work because my parents were in town.  They did have to move on to my uncle's house a couple hours drive north of me for dinner plans.  This gave me time to do some dishes and some cooking.  I decided to do 2 main dishes and a snack this week.

Let's start with the snack.

BROCCOLI CHEDDAR QUINOA BITES

Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1.5 cups water (or vegetable broth or chicken broth...note, the nutrition info I am providing is for low sodium chicken broth)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups finely diced broccoli florets
• 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1.5 cup 2% shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• crushed red pepper to taste (optional)

Directions:
• in a medium sauce pan, combine quinoa and water (or broth) and cook to package directions.  let cool.
• in a large bowl, combine cooled quinoa, eggs, broccoli, onion, garlic, cheese and paprika.
• preheat oven to 350°.  spray muffin tins with cooking spray (or use silicon muffin cups)
• fill muffin cups of quinoa mixture.  bake for 15-20 minutes, or until edges turn golden brown.  remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes and then gently remove from muffin cups to cool completely.  (you will notice in the picture I did not cook this in muffin cups...because I only own 8 silicon muffin cups right now and this recipe would have needed a lot more and I didn't feel like doing 3 batches so I just baked the whole thing in an oven safe dish and will just cut into my 8 servings)

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BAKED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:
• 3 cups chopped chicken
• 2 cups shredded 2% Mexican blend cheese
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles
• 8 whole wheat tortillas (as I have posted in previous recipes, I use Santa Fe Tortilla Company whole wheat tortillas)

For sauce:
• 1 can green chile enchilada sauce
• 1 (8 oz) container light sour cream

Directions:
• stir together the first 4 ingredients and spoon evenly into each tortillas and roll up.
• arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
• bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
• stir together the enchilada sauce and sour cream for the sauce and pour over the enchiladas in the baking dish.

Optional Toppings: diced tomatoes, chopped avocado, chopped green onions, sliced ripe olives, chopped cilantro.  (none of these are included in the nutritional info I am providing)

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CROCKPOT TURKEY CHILI

Ingredients:
• 1.25 lb ground 93% lean turkey
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1.5 cups frozen corn kernels
• 1 can Rotel no salt added diced tomatoes & green chiles
• 1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 8 oz can no salt added tomato sauce
• 1 can low sodium kidney beans
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:
• heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the turkey and cook until browned and no longer pink; place into the slow cooker.
• add the oil to the skillet and saute the onion, garlic and bell pepper over medium heat for about 4-5 minutes.
• spoon over turkey into the slow cooker and stir in corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and spices and mix until well blended.  pour chicken broth into the crockpot.
• cover and cook on HIGH for 5 hours or LOW for 7 hours.

Optional Toppings: diced avocado, light sour cream, reduced fat shredded cheese, baked tortilla chips.  (none of these are included in the nutritional info I am providing)