recipe of the week: southwestern style egg rolls

remember how i told you i split the ranch taco chicken meat between two recipes?

well, this is the other :-) i ran across this recipe on pinterest, but i knew we'd like a little different flavoring (and MEAT) in ours, so here's my adaptation.

southwestern egg rolls

olive oil for sauteing and brushing

1 pound chicken, cooked in crockpot with one tbsp ranch seasoning and one tbsp of taco seasoning

1 container egg roll wrappers

2 cups corn (i use fire-roasted from trader joe's)

1 can black beans

several handfuls of spinach (6 cups non-packed is 3 or 4 handfuls)

a generous bunch of cilantro

5 scallions, chopped

1 small container of sliced black olives

1 container of diced green chiles

1 container of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2 cups cheese (i used the organic fiesta blend from whole foods)

you can add seasoning, but with the adobo sauce, seasoning on the meat, and cilantro i found we didn't really need any!

 heat oil on stove, and saute green onions, chiles and chipotle peppers for a few minutes

meanwhile, process spinach and cilantro in food processor until it's pretty fine. 

 combine corn, beans and greens in a bowl

 remove onion, chile and peppers from stove and process it with black olives

 add to the mixture, top with the shredded chicken and cheese and mix thoroughly

 put a large spoonful of the mixture in each wrapper and roll up (most packages have easy to follow instructions)

line them up on a baking sheet (i use parchment paper because of the messiness factor) and brush each side with olive oil

i made a batch of my ranch dressing and added one avocado to the mix. 

and it was so good!  definitely a recipe we'll keep around.

recipe of the week: lora's ranch mix/dressing

i have several recipes that are lined up to post...but since this is one of the bases to several of them, i thought i'd go ahead and share my ranch seasoning mix and dressing recipe.


i stopped buying prepackaged seasoning once i realized how much sugar and chemical additives there are in the vast majority of them. this was probably about a year ago, and i have tried several combinations to get my seasoning just the way i like it.  a friend sent me a recipe (and i have no idea where she got it, so i can't give the credit) but it was a little too bland for me...however, playing around with ratios and a couple of added spices did the trick!


not only is this healthier than prepackaged mixes, it's WAY cheaper.  and it's not time consuming at all.  you can whip up a batch of the seasoning AND a container of ranch dressing in less than 10 minutes.


so, here's my recipe.

2 tsp parsley

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

4 tsp dill

4 tsp onion powder

1 tsp basil

mix and store in airtight container. i love the round spice tins for this, and they're less than $2

i love that this is truly a base recipe.  it's great on it's own, but it's also adaptable. if i want to make it a chipotle ranch, i just add a bit of chipotle along with the ranch mix when i make the dressing. i use a tablespoon of this mix in anything that calls for a packet of ranch seasoning. so far, that seems to be the correct ratio!

so for the dressing itself

1 tbsp dry ranch seasoning

approximately 1 cup each sour cream, olive oil mayo and skim milk

you know, mix together (i use an immersion blender). pictures are self-explanatory.

 

it'll keep in the fridge for a week or more, although it never (ever) lasts that long at our house.  enjoy!


(if you click on this picture, you're sure to find some tasty recipes. in fact, there's a lemon squares recipe that i'm salivating over at becky's blog!)