Baked Chimichangas

This is one of Josh's favorite meals, and I love it cause it's super duper easy peasy. 

Sometimes I just feel like rhyming twice in a row, ya know? 

What you'll need:

1lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 cup green chilies

1/2 cup taco sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

1 Tbs. cider vinegar

Flour tortillas

Cheese

Brown the ground beef:

While it's browning, throw the sour cream, chilies, taco sauce and cider vinegar into a bowl:

Like so:

Add the spices and garlic. If we have salsa, I usually dump about 1/4 cup of that in there too. But it's good without it, too. 

Then add the ground beef. Drain it, first!

Mix it up!

Put about this much onto a flour tortilla: As you can see, I'm very technical with my measurements.

Put them into a pan...

Brush them with butter. Go all Paula Deen on those babies.

Well actually don't. That's unhealthy. But a little butter won't kill ya.

Put them in the oven at 400* for about 10 minutes, til golden. Then top with cheese. (We do half and half, cause I shouldn't really eat cheese.)

Stick them back in for about 5 minutes or so. (I usually turn the oven off and clean up the kitchen and to me, that means they are done then. :)

And there you go! Easy, yet yummy, dinner. :)

Enjoy!

Handsome Chef + Thrift Store Find!

He's Handsome...

AND he grilled some tasty eats!

YUM. Grilled Chicken Blitz. I'm pretty sure that's what it was called.

And. How stinking adorable is this table I found at Savers? I got two of them. We're painting them this weekend. :)

Also. This weekend I dropped my compact powder into my coffee, spilling it everywhere, spilled water on myself, broken the Brita, shattered the front lawn lamp, tripped UP the stairs, getting a rugburn, and gotten sunburnt. Pretty darn productive, right? 

Ha.

Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Pork. yuck.)

I first posted this on my old blog, but am going to start trying to merge a few of my favorite posts to this one. This is one of my favorite recipes. It's yummy. You should try it. I first made it while I was in Papua New Guinea. 

Here's what you will need:

2/3 cups Soy Sauce

2 tsp. minced garlic (I basically always double garlic. Always.)

1 Tbs. minced ginger. (I keep mine in the freezer and grate it as I need it.)

1/4 cups flour

1/4 cups cornstarch

Salt and Pepper

1 Lb. of Chicken. Or pork, if you're into that. (As you can see, I'm not.) Anyways. Pick a meat, and cube it.

Oil

1 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 oz. honey or 1Tbs. sugar (I just do a squeeze or two of honey. It works.)

1 Tbs. vegetable oil 

1/2 Tbs. sesame oil

1/3 cups of each: onion, green pepper, red pepper, celery

1 cup pineapple. (And may I just say, in PNG, we picked and ate it the same day. DE.LI.SHUS. :)

Mix soy sauce, garlic, ginger, flour and cornstarch.

Season meat with salt and pepper. Place in bowl, and toss that disgusting looking sauce all over it. 

It kinda looks gross. But trust me. It's nom nom.

"Dredge" the meat in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. I like that word, "dredge." 

And now for the extra healthy part.

In a large frying pan, heat 1" oil to 350*. (To me, this translates to "heat up some oil in a pan at like... medium-ish temperature.")

While that stuff is cooking, in a separate bowl combine the ketchup, sugar, vinegar, and honey. Whisk them together and set it aside. Also, by the way, don't use a cereal bowl like I did. It's not whisk friendly like you might think.

Mmm.

Fry the meat until golden brown and drain on a paper towel covered plate.

Get your veggies all ready...

Onions.

Celery.

Red pepper.

Green pepper. 

(do you like the way I have carefully cut them all to size? haha. I am the worst cutter ever.)

And the best part, pineapple. This makes this dish, in my opinion.

Doesn't this look great?

Go on. Enlarrrrrge this.

Place the fried chicken and veggies in a roasting pan with the canola and sesame oil. 

Cover with the ketchup mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook til meat is tender.

Yummmmmmmm

Let me know if you try it! It's sooo yummy!

So I made a cake...

Eh. Whatever. It's not the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but certainly not the prettiest. Not.even.close.

BUT. I'm giving myself a little pat on the back though, because:

#1. First fondant cake ever. That's tough stuff to work with!

#2. I made the fondant myself! 

#3. I don't have real cake pans. So I made do. And they were really lumpy cakes, as you can see. I think if I had real pans it would have been so much better!

Maybe next time I'll get it right! :) That's how ya learn, after all, right?

And, it still tastes the same. Amen.