Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

Yes, another buffalo recipe!  A spicy, fun spin on chicken enchiladas.  

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cooked shredded chicken
• 20oz red enchilada sauce
• 1c buffalo sauce
• 1c reduced fat mexican blend cheese + 1/2c
• 1/4c diced green onion
• 1/4c diced red onion
• 8 flour tortillas
• garnishes: crumbled cojita, bleu cheese or gorgonzola, more diced onion, minced cilantro, diced tomato, sliced hot peppers

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray a baking dish with olive oil.
3. Combine the enchilada sauce and buffalo sauce.  Combine the chicken, 1c cheese, and onion.  
4. Spoon 3/4c of the enchilada buffalo sauce into the baking dish.
5. Divide the chicken/cheese mix among the 8 tortillas, down the center.  Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish.  Pour the rest of the sauce over and sprinkle with 1/2c cheese.
6. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the tortillas start to brown and the sauce is nice and bubbly.
7. Garnish accordingly and serve!

The enchilada to buffalo sauce ratio here was perfect- it was nice and spicy without being overbearing.

BBQ Chicken Tartlets

Bite-sized BBQ chicken appetizers? Yes please!  

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes mini fillo shows (I usually buy the Athens brand)
• 6oz diced cooked chicken
• 3/4c bbq sauce (your favorite store bought, or try my recipe below!)
• 1/3c green onion
• 3oz shredded gouda
• 2 egg yolks
• salt & pepper
• 1/4c half & half or light cream

For the BBQ sauce:

• 2c ketchup
• 1/3 minced shallot or yellow onion
• 1/4c molasses
• 1/4c honey
• 1/4c red wine
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp spicy mustard (I use the horseradish mustard, so good!)
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp worcestershire
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• salt, pepper, dash of cayenne pepper

1. Take the shells out of the freezer and let them stand at room temp for 30 min on a baking sheet.
2. To make the bbq sauce- add all ingredients to a food processor and mix well.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Mix the chicken though light cream and season.  Fill the fillo shells and bake for about 20 minutes, until the filling starts to bubble and the shells start to brown.

Baked Veggie Wontons

We have appetizer night at home every so often... we'll make 3-4 "apps" and have it for dinner.  We also do this a lot for sporting events.  With the Super Bowl around the corner, we've been experimenting with different apps quite a bit lately.  These are one of my favorite "what's in the fridge?" creations that turned into something great.

Ingredients:

• 12 wonton wrappers
• 1/3c reduced fat cream cheese
• 2 tbsp sriracaha
• 2 tbsp grated parm
• 1/3c each- diced tomato, diced artichokes, diced red bell pepper, chopped banana pepper
• 1/4c diced green onion
• salt & pepper
• optional condiments: sriracha & honey balsamic dressing

1. Spray a mini muffin tin with olive oil spray and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lay out the wonton wrappers.
3. Make the filling: combine cream cheese through green onion and season.  Spoon onto the center of the wrappers, gather the sides and pinch to form a pouch, and drop into the mini muffin tins.  Spray with a little olive oil and bake for about 20 minutes.  You'll want to see the tops and the sides start to brown slightly.
4. Drizzle a little more sriracha on top and serve with some honey balsamic salad dressing alongside.

Italian Stuffed Artichokes

Artichokes...they're not just for dip anymore!  I love steamed artichokes, so I went a step further and made an italian style stuffing.

Ingredients:

• 1 artichoke
• 1/3c part skim ricotta
• 1/3c diced salami
• 1 egg
• 1/4c grated parm + additional for sprinkling
• salt, black pepper & crushed red pepper
• 1/3c italian breadcrumbs
• olive oil

1. Cut an artichoke in half, hollow out the center, and steam the halves.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a baking dish with olive oil.
3. To make the stuffing, combine the ricotta, the salami, the egg and 1/4c grated parm.  Season.  Stuff the artichoke halves and place them stuffing side up in a baking dish.     
4. Top the artichokes with bread crumbs, a little more parm, and drizzle lightly with olive oil.
5. Bake 18-20 minutes, until the stuffing starts to bubble.  

This would be great alongside my chicken piccata!  http://improperchef.blogspot.com/2012/12/chicken-piccata.html

Turkey Taco Pasta

Saw the idea for this on Pinterest and I couldn't wait to try it! I made a few tweaks to put my own spin on it.  If you're not a fan of ground turkey, you could definitely sub ground beef.  You could also go meatless and omit the turkey altogether.  Either way, the result is taco goodness!

Ingredients:

• 12oz medium pasta shells
• olive oil
• 1 lb ground turkey or beef
• 1 small diced yellow onion
• salt, pepper, garlic powder
• 14oz diced tomato (with jalapenos or chiles, preferably)
• 4oz diced green chiles
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• half a packet of ranch seasoning
• 4oz light cream cheese
• 3oz light sour cream
• 3/4c reduced fat taco blend cheese
• optional garnish: hot sauce, salsa, diced green onion

1. Cook the shells per the box directions.
2. While the shells are cooking, brown the turkey on medium high in some olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Drain off the fat.
3. Add the tomato, chiles and taco & ranch seasoning.  Cook on medium for 4 min. 
4. Drain the pasta, reserve 1/2c of the cooking water.  Add both to your turkey tomato mix along with the cream cheese, sour cream and taco blend cheese.  Cook on low for 5-6 min, stirring often to melt the cheese and mix well.
5. Garnish with hot sauce/salsa/green onion

This is one of my favorite super quick and super filling recipes.  A little goes a long way...we had this the other night with salads and had 4 smaller portions for lunches later in the week!

Buffalo Chicken Dip Poppers

If you've been following my blog or Facebook page, you'll notice that I love buffalo chicken and I love jalapenos.  It only makes sense to put them all together, right?  This recipe is a tried and true entertaining favorite.  It's buffalo chicken dip without the chips!

Ingredients:

• 20 jalapenos (or red fresno peppers, or a combination of the two)
• 8oz room temp cream cheese (go reduced fat OR whipped chive)
• 4oz taco  blend cheese
• 1.5c shredded cooked chicken
• 1/2c buffalo sauce
• 1/2c light ranch dressing

1. Halve the peppers the long way (stem to end) and scoop out the seeds.
2. Combine the cream cheese through ranch dressing and mix well to combine.
3. Stuff the pepper halves and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until the filling starts to bubble.

If the jalapenos and the buffalo filling are too much heat for you, you could use milder banana peppers or even bell peppers.  For the bell peppers, cut the tops off, scoop out the inside and add the buffalo filling.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Having today off from work, I wanted to make something for lunch that would carry over into the week for workday lunches.  The solution?  Stuffed Pepper Soup!  Very easy to make and packed with flavor.  It's essentially a meal in a bowl.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 diced yellow onion
• 1/3c diced celery
• 3 diced green bell peppers
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1lb ground beef or turkey
• salt & pepper
• 1c white rice, uncooked
• 2c water
• 1c tomato juice + 1/2c
• 28oz crushed tomato
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• optional garnish: grated parm 

1. Saute the onion through garlic in olive oil for 10 min.  Add the beef or turkey, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the beef has browned.
2. Stir in the rice, mixing well, and cook for 1 min.
3. Add the water, 1c tomato juice, crushed tomato and sugar, as well as some additional salt and pepper.  Cover and cook on medium heat for 25 minutes, stirring every so often.
4. Uncover and add another 1/2c tomato juice if the soup is too thick.  Simmer uncovered for 5 min.
5. Add the allspice, stir, and serve it up!  Garnish with grated parm if desired.

This makes a nice big batch... you've got a good 6-8 bowls to enjoy throughout your week.