Recipe: Quick and Easy Chilaquiles

So here's my first recipe posting...and it's for a Mexican dish! It's not authentic, although Jose claims that it tastes like it is, so I'm gonna take his word for it. Why isn't it authentic? Because I used so many canned items and...premade tortillas! I am ashamed, I truly am, considering I am half Mexican and grew up with a grandma who makes the best Mexican food this side of the border. I usually hate using canned goods, but when I'm too lazy to make the food myself, I purchase it premade. I know how to cook beans, at least, but today, I was too lazy to do even that! It's ok, though, considering I'm still entitled to the "college student" label, and we all know what most college kid's diets consist of: Ramen and Ramen, and maybe white rice or some kind of freezer burned pizza! I like experimenting outside of those three food groups, but like I said, sometimes it's nice to just keep it simple...we all have days like that.

So here it is, it's my quick version of chilaquiles. If you're not familiar with this simple but still pretty good Mexican concoction, it's a mix of meat, chili, cheese, and tortillas (or corn tortilla chips, but I used soft flour tortillas, instead). I changed up the recipe even more by adding black beans, they're full of iron and fiber! yum yum! I also mixed in some ground meat (oh, and I use ground turkey instead of ground beef because it's a lot healthier). The cheese I used was very American: Colby jack...but I don't have any goats around here, and I'm not as fabulous as my grandma, who can make her own cheese! So, Kraft, thank you for saving this culturally ignorant child by coming to her rescue on a lazy day like this!

This recipe makes about 4 servings of chilaquiles

Here are the ingredients:
For the meat:
1 TBSP garlic and herb bread crumbs
1/2 lb ground turkey
2 tsp fine herb spice (I bought this at Central Market*)
1/2 Tbsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper
1 TBSP olive oil

*Central Market is basically a gourmet grocery store here in TX, I know they don't have them over in CA, but Whole Foods probably carries this mix of spices too.

The other stuff:
1/2 15 oz can organic black beans
1/4 bag low fat Kraft colby/jack cheese
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 container mushrooms
2.25 oz can of sliced black olives
1 10 oz can Old El Paso green chile sauce (mild, if you can't take the heat like me!)
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
5 flour tortillas (cut these up into little bite-size squares)

Garnish:
1 tbsp sour cream/serving
1tsp pace picante sauce/serving
1 small handful colby/jack cheese/serving


Instructions:
Mix the meat and all the meat ingredients into one medium sized bowl (except the olive oil), after all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in the meat, cook the meat over a medium-low flame/setting in a pan with the olive oil until the meat is no longer pink. Then, slowly add in "the other stuff". First the mushrooms, mix them in with the cooked meat so they absorb the flavor of the spices, then add in the black olives along with the olive juices from the olive can. Then add in the red pepper and Tabasco sauce, mix in with meat/olives/mushrooms. Finally, add the green chili sauce, followed by the flour tortillas, then sprinkle the cheese on top. Lower the flame so it's on the lowest setting, and cover the pan until the cheese melts and the tortillas are soft. Then serve and eat as is or with the garnishes. See, it's pretty darn simple and it only takes about 30 minutes to cook/prepare and less than 2 minutes to eat!