Chelsea Jackson
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Yummy Recipes

Summoning My Inner Mexican

9/20/2016

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I served a LDS mission in Fresno, California, amongst the most incredible chefs ever. Now I wouldn’t go praising Hispanics for their ability to make heavenly moist bread and pastries (though their pan dulce dipped in Mexican hot chocolate is incredible), but man do they know how to cook meat.
 
Yesterday I summoned my inner Mexican and made tostadas with deliciously moist and savory shredded pork. I have no doubt that my wonderful Hispanic friends would laugh at how I decided to make the pork, but I thought it worked! And I didn’t cough for hours with the chili hovering in the air.
 
I also have no idea if Hispanics use crockpots to create their divine meat, but I am learning to just love crockpot recipes. The whole throw it in and walk away is totally spoiling me—and William. I am not sure what made me think of throwing boneless pork chops in the crockpot with a couple taco seasoning packets, but it made seasoning the meat a cinch! (And maybe people do this all the time!) I plopped 2lbs of pork in the crockpot the night before with taco seasoning and a bit of water, put it in the fridge to marinated overnight, and then had William turn on the crockpot before he left for school. When we got home in the evening, our meat was perfect! All we had to do was shred it, cut the veggies, heat up the refried beans, and munch away!
 
If you want a taste of easy Mexican heaven, give this quick tostada recipe a try!
 
Here is the recipe!

Easy Peasy Pork Tostadas 
 
Makes about 15 tostadas (I ate three for reference…though I was pretty hungry!)
Time: 15 minutes to prep and 3-6 hours of crockpotting
 
2lbs boneless pork chops
2 packages taco seasoning (6 tablespoons of taco seasoning)
1 1/3 cup water
1 bag tostadas (hard corn tortillas that are flat!)
 
Toppings:
16oz Refried beans
1 head Romaine lettuce, thinly chopped
½ red onion, diced
2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1-2 ripe avocado(s), sliced
Salsa
Crema/ranch/Sour Cream
Cheese
 
Directions:
  1. Place pork in crockpot.
  2. Mix water and taco seasoning in a small bowl then pour it over the pork.
  3. Turn crockpot on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Shred pork and place back in crockpot.
  4. Cut up desired toppings and warm up refried beans.
  5. Layer your tostada with beans on the bottom followed by pork, cheese, lettuce, red onion, tomato, salsa, avocado, and then crema (or ranch or sour cream).
 
I also was thinking that smashing the avocado in a bowl and then slathering the avocado paste on your tostada could be a great bean replacer (saves you later, that’s for sure!) and calorie cuter. Avocados are full of good fat. I don’t really think that store bought beans are full of the “good fat.” I always cringe when I shake the beans out of their can, and they slurch (yes, that is not a word, and yes that’s what is sounds like) down the can and then plop (still canned shaped, mind you) in your pan. I don’t think that should be legal…
 
And excuse the picture. I didn’t really plan on taking one, and will probably switch it out when I have time, but I got the new iPhone 7 and it has a way better camera than the iPhone 5c. I just had to show it off J. Plus, we still have hundreds of paper goods from my book launch—and we use them every night.
 
I hope you all enjoy my new recipe! Let me know how it goes! 

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Taco Salad to the Rescue!

9/12/2016

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Yes, today is the second day of school at Brigham Young University—for my husband, not even for me—and I'm already tired and stressed out. I may or may not spend the next couple days mourning the end of a way-too-fun summer.
 
In the meantime, we have discovered that our old luxurious evenings are no longer an option to make fun meals together. Nope, them meals got to do all the cooking by themselves.
 
So we called our Crock-Pot over to rescue the day. William spent about 5-10 minutes throwing all the ingredients for taco soup guts into the Crock-Pot, turned it on low, and let her cook herself perfect while we raced around at work and school all day. We just finished a delicious dinner that took about 15 minutes to assemble. Yep, that’s what you gotta do in college—make it fast but make it good.
 
My cookbook, Cooking Through College, has the Taco Soup version of this delicious meal…but here is our version of Super Awesome Taco Salad in the Jackson family.
 
Makes 5–6 servings | Time: 3 hours on high/6.5-7 hours on low

Ingredients 

2 large chicken breasts, frozen
1 (14.5-oz.) can Mexican stewed tomatoes, squished
1 (15-oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15.25-oz.) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (6-oz.) can black olives, sliced
1 (64-oz.) jar salsa (I use Pace mild or medium.)

Toppings:
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced
Crema or sour cream
Shredded cheese
1 Roma tomato, diced
Head of lettuce, sliced
1 bag tortilla chips (Doritos are also amazing…)

Directions
1. Dump frozen chicken, squished Mexican stewed tomatoes, black beans, kidney beans, sliced olives, and salsa in a Crock-Pot. Turn Crock-Pot on low and leave for 6.5-7 hours.
2. After 6.5-7 hours, shred chicken. Return chicken to Crock-Pot and mix. Drop temperature to low.
3. Pile chips and lettuce on your plate. Add the taco guts then sprinkle with cheese, avocado, and tomato. Top everything off with a light drizzle of crema (Mexican Table Cream).
4. Don’t eat yourself into a food coma. You still have homework to do.

 
Now remember, this meal is not meant as a one-timer. This is a several-times-this-week meal or I’m-going-to-freeze-the-taco-guts-for-later meal. I figure, if I am going to make the effort to make food, I want to make lots so I don’t have to do it very often. Because let’s be real—time is precious. 

P.S. The paper plate in the picture is included on purpose--to show how we minimize dishes on busy nights. And/or it could be that we have hundreds of paper plates left over from our two book launches and our apartment is too small to keep them nicely in a cabinet...so we use them every night...and I'm a little lazy sometimes...

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