Jan. 8, 2013: Fried Egg Chilaques; Chicken en Mole, Green Peas and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fried Egg Chilaques and Key Lime Smoothies

 Chicken en Mole, Green Peas and Chocolate Chip Cookies

THE PLAN:

With 5 kids that keep us busy, meal times are an important time of the day for our family to keep connected and have both silly & important conversations that help us learn more about each other and what is going on in all our lives. So enhancing that experience with a wide variety of textures, flavors and healthy elements is important to me.

 

I prep dinner at the same time as I make breakfast - which saves me time at dinner and makes it more likely that I will cook dinner. The dinner hour is just so busy here - and it's when my energy sort of dips. So having everything ready to just be thrown together is huge for me. And I use the crockpot whenever I can (modifying recipes if I have to) because it is such a helpful tool to cook food all day long and have it ready to incorporate into delicious and healthy meals.

 

TODAY'S CHOICES:

Tuesdays I usually cook an egg dish for breakfast. But I like variety so egg dishes don't repeat that often. We never have the same egg dish twice in a month. Today, I am going to make a variation of fried egg chilaques that I came across once that is fantastic. It's quick, really tasty and can be made as spicy as you want it. It pairs really well with a key lime smoothie - which also adds a protein and dairy serving to breakfast.

 

As for dinner, I am going to stick with breakfast's theme of Mexican food. But something a little different and out of the ordinary. I am going to modify a mole recipe to slow cook chicken thighs in the crockpot and then I'll serve them in corn tortillas. I'll serve green peas on the side for a bright green side dish.

 

For dessert - Tuesdays I usually make cookies. There are so many kinds of delicious cookie recipes out there that I could make a different kind of cookie every Tuesday for a whole year. But mole has a hint of chocolate in it, so I think I'll take that and highlight it in dessert by making classic rich buttery chocolate chip cookies.

KEY LIME SMOOTHIES
Here's the recipe for every 2 servings:
1 container (6 oz) Key lime pie yogurt
1 ripe banana
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon lime juice
¼ teaspoon dry lemon lime-flavored soft drink mix (from 0.13-oz package)
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
In blender, place all ingredients except frozen yogurt. Blend on high speed until smooth.  Add frozen yogurt; blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

FRIED EGG CHILAQUILES
Here's the recipe:
1 16-ounce jar tomatillo salsa
3/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, divided 
1 cup sour cream
1 bag plain tortilla chips
8 fried eggs
1/4 cup chopped white onion 
1/2 cup crumbled cotija or feta cheese

Heat salsa in a medium saucepan and until very warm. Stir in ½ cup cilantro and the sour cream. Add chips, and use a large spoon to crush them into large, coarse pieces and stir to coat with sauce, and cook, stirring gently, until slightly softened but not mushy, about 1 minute.
Divide the mixture between 8 ramekins. Fry or cook eggs over easy (salt & pepper to taste) and top each filled ramekin with a fried egg. Sprinkle with white onion, cheese, and remaining ¼ cup cilantro.

MAKING BREAKFAST:

The tricky thing about making these two things together is that both are best served immediately. And making 6 smoothies takes longer than you'd think. But it's easier to keep smoothies cold than eggs warm. And cold eggs - especially cold fried eggs are just no good re-heated. So I made the smoothies first. Just 3 batches of 2 smoothies each, one after another and poured them into a pitcher and put it in the coldest part of the fridge while I made the eggs.

I poured the bottle of salsa verde (tomatilla salsa) into a medium-large saucepan and turned the heat to medium-high. While it was heating, I set out 8 ramekins onto a large tray and used kitchen shears to chop the cilantro. When the salsa was warm, I stirred in the sour cream. Then I dumped about 3/4 of the bag of chips in and used a large metal spoon to crunch them down into big pieces and pulled the sauce from underneath with spoon and poured over the top over and over - and stirred until all the chips were coated and just beginning to soften.
Then I put two medium sized frying pans on two burners over medium-high heat and melted some butter in each. While that melted, I divided the chip mixture between the 8 ramekins. I broke 4 eggs in each of the heated frying pans and salted and peppered them. Once the egg whites turned white I used a spatula to flip them over and let them cook just a little on the other side. Then I used the spatula to put one egg on each ramekin. I poured the smoothies and breakfast was done. It sounds like a lot of steps but only takes about 5-10 minutes from beginning to end.

CHICKEN EN MOLE (crockpot recipe)
Here's the recipe:

4 c. canned chopped tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¾ c. peanut butter
¼ c. tahini, or ground sesame seeds
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 ½ - 2 Tbsp chili powder
½ tsp anise
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground coriander

½ - 1 tsp. ground cumin

2 c. chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 lbs chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) cut into quarters or use tenders or thighs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp peppercorns
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 c. chopped celery
2 squares (2 oz) unsweetened chocolate, grated
 

Add all ingredients, except chocolate to crockpot except chocolate. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours, then stir in chocolate.

 

THIS PART I DID IN THE MORNING AT THE SAME TIME AS I WAS MAKING BREAKFAST:

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Since breakfast was a quick cook with lots of steps, I did all this before I even started cooking breakfast.

I turned the crockpot on LOW and dumped a still-frozen 3 lb bag of boneless skinless thighs right into the crock pot. Then I poured in 2 cups of water and unwrapped 2 chicken bouillon cubes and dropped them in. I chopped an onion and 4 large tomatoes with my ninja on pulse and dumped them in. I eyeballed 3/4 cup of peanut butter using a rubber spatula because I don't like getting my measuring cups sticky with peanut butter - and exact measurements in dishes like this aren't important.
 

Then I added all the seasonings. I skipped out on using celery and instead sliced a cup of green onions to top the mole with when it is done. I put those in a sandwich baggie in the fridge. I put on the lid and cleaned up.

THIS PART I DID AT DINNERTIME:
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 I used a fork and knife to shred up the chicken a little. Then I chopped up the unsweetened chocolate squares and stirred them into the chicken until it melted and was well mixed into the sauce. Then I gently stirred in the chopped green onions.

 I served the chicken mole with corn tortillas, peach mango salsa, grated Monterey jack cheese, shredded lettuce, sour cream and guacamole as possible toppings.

Corn Tortilla filled with Chicken en Mole and Topped with Cheese and Peach Mango Salsa

 

 

 

Green peas are full of some unique phytonutrients that are associated with all sorts of newly discovered healthy benefits that are specific to peas and some other legumes - like a lowered risk of Type II Diabetes. But kids aren't always a fan of peas - part of the problem is that peas are best when they are just picked from a garden. While canned peas are actually quite mushy and nasty tasting - far from the plump, sweeter of flavor of just picked peas. 

 

So when I can't serve garden fresh peas - I go with a frozen variety. I never serve canned. No one will eat canned at our house. But frozen varieties can be good. Brands vary in their flavor and desirability. So I tried several kinds before picking my favorite.

Today, I served them steamed and lightly salted and peppered.

 

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Here's the recipe:
3/4 c Butter flavored Shortening
1 1/4 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1  egg
1 ¾ c flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Heat oven to 375ºF. Combine shortening, brown sugar and mix well until light and fluffy. Add vanilla baking soda and salt then beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Add flour while the mixer is on, a little at a time until it is all in and just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.


 This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe because it makes soft dense cookies with a brown sugar flavor. They are so good. I actually cook them at 350ºF for 9 minutes - when they just start to turn golden here and there but not all over. (See picture below). They actually still look a little doughy- but if you take them out of the oven and let them sit they will continue cooking on the pan to be just right. I don't like crunchy chocolate chip cookies.