Nacho Burgers with Homemade Hamburger Buns

Nacho Burgers with Homemade Hamburger Buns

Burgers. The word can mean a whole paragraph to a lot of people. Growing-up my dad was very lacking in the cooking department, so much so that he was able to ruin boxed macaroni and cheese on multiple occasions. However, he completely redeemed himself when in came to the grill. Not just any grill, it had to be charcoal and it had to be done just so. I'm not exaggerating, there was a whole art. The hamburgers that my dad made on the grill where a treat and one of my favorite foods growing-up. I didn't think I would ever meet another man so much in love with his grill and grilling. Then I met my husband. Over the years I have heard rant after rant after rant about the superiority of a charcoal grill and how great hamburgers can be when done right. In the summer we still grill a lot, but in the winter I have moved our grilling indoors. I agree with my husband and dad that the taste isn't as great, but my feet stay warm and the burgers are still delicious even when done on my indoor open faced electric grill. In the summer we will go back to the giant grill and side smoker, but in the meantime we will enjoy our chicken and beef inside. This week I tried a new recipe for Nacho Burgers from the March 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

Gluten Free Version of Nacho Burgers

This recipe has 7 ingredients in the salsa, 8 in the cheese sauce and 7 ingredients for the actual burgers. It takes 35 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First as I try to always do I ground my own beef. It really takes very little time to grind your own meat either in a food processor or like with the attachment I use on my mixer. The texture is phenomenal and the quality is significantly superior. Instead of using store bought buns I made my hamburger buns from scratch. They are easy to make and are great for sandwiches. Since I eat gluten free I substituted brown rice flour for the all-purpose in the cheese sauce. When making the sauce add a little bit of milk at a time in order for the sauce to thicken correctly. If you add the milk all at once it will be too thin. I substituted non-fat milk for the milk in recipe since it is the only milk we keep in the house. I cooked the burgers on my indoor electric open faced grill. The cooking time was slightly longer, especially since I make sure that my burgers temp correctly since my kids are eating them.

Food and Wine magazine claim that these are the best burgers ever. Hmm. I did think that the toppings were delicious, the cheese sauce was nice and the salsa was great both on the burger and with the chips as a side. However, it would be a stretch to say it is the best burger I've ever had. The actual patty is just plain beef, no fillings, no nothing. I think that the recipe could be improved by adding more to the patty itself, such as cayenne, garlic powder, ancho something that keeps the flavor but also adds a little bit of moisture. It would be nice if the cheese sauce was in the burger instead of on top, incorporating the cheese or adding more to the burger itself would take this burger from being okay to being great.

For the recipe go to Nacho Burgers.

Sweet Potato Soup

This is soup and stew season in my house. During the fall and winter I make some sort of soup at least once a week. I love soup since it keeps you warm even when the weather is chilly outside. On the other hand I hate the cold. I am not one of those people that loves cold weather. While I find snow beautiful, I enjoy it inside with the heat cranked up. I am also always in huge wool socks and a sweatshirt all fall and winter. My husband always complains that our house is way too hot, to me it's still a little on the cold side. I think I must run on a different body temp than most people since I always seem to be the coldest person in a room. In order to combat my constant cold streak I love making hot meals. Soup is one of my favorite meals since it has so many variations and is so warm and filling. Last night I made a new recipe for Sweet Potato Soup from the December issue of Southern Living magazine, which looked simple and flavorful.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 8 cups. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Instead of buying store-bought stock I used homemade stock made from the leftover Cornish game hen bones from Thanksgiving. I never salt my stock, but instead salt the recipe. This way I can control the amount of sodium that my family consumes. My local grocery store didn't have straight apple cider, so I bought apple cider and spice juice instead. I used my immersion blender to liquify the soup. I find this method much easier than pouring the soup into a blender and hoping not to get burned. I allowed the soup to cook for an additional 10 minutes after the soup was blended, instead of the 5 minutes suggested by the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was surprised by how well this recipe turned out. It is always hard to tell how sweet potato soup recipes will taste. Oftentimes they are bland or lack any type of flavor other than sweet potato. This soup was the exception. The chipotle pepper provided a great deal of flavor and the use of apple cider for the base was delicious. Even my two boys thought this soup was great and they can be hit or miss with soup.

For the recipe go to Sweet Potato Soup.

Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu

My father was a huge meat eater growing-up. If there wasn't meat at every meal, he would make it known by complaining endlessly. It was never obvious complaining. He would ask my mother if part of the meal was missing or if the tofu was a starter course and the main meat part of the meal was coming later. This was the same father that ate 5 bologna sandwiches for lunch when my parents first met and was skinny as a rail. My favorite thing was going to a buffet with a salad bar with my parents. I would always get a large salad with maybe a little amount of bacon bits and some nuts. My father on the other hand would put no greens and all the real bacon that he could find. To this day he never goes to the doctor and health wise is in better shape that anyone else that I know. I hope that I inherited those genes, because the man never ceases to amaze me. Due to my dad's obsession with meat, I of course went the opposite extreme and decided to become a vegetarian in the beginning of high-school. It drove my dad slightly nuts. He would always ask me if I could have a little bit of meat and still be a vegetarian. To him small amounts of meat wouldn't really count as being a meat eater. Tofu was a battle I tried very hard to win my dad over to the side of eating. It never really worked. He would eat it when we ordered Phad Thai, as long as there was another dish with meat. Luckily I married a man that is willing to at least eat one dinner a week that is vegetarian. Granted he starts to get a little grumpy when he goes more than two days without meat, but he at least puts forth some effort. Last week I tried a new recipe for Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu from the September/October issue of Eating Well magazine, which looked like a quick and healthy weeknight meal option.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. However, I did change a few of the recipe steps. I let the tofu drain between layers of paper towels and a weighted plate for approximately 30 minutes. This step allows most of the water to drain out and ensures that the tofu will get a nice brown outside layer. Additionally, I ended up adding cornstarch to the orange juice mixture in order to thicken the sauce. Without the cornstarch, the orange juice sauce was too thin for my tastes. Make sure to allow the tofu to form a nice brown layer before turning it. This step will make the tofu evenly browned and have a better texture. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was unsure if this recipe would taste decent after I was halfway through the steps. The orange juice mixture was too thin and it didn't seem like there would be enough ingredients to have much flavor. However, after adding the cornstarch to thicken and the addition of the cilantro (and lots of salt, you really do need to add salt for this dish to taste adequate) this recipe was very delicious. My two boys thought it was a tad on the spicy side, so if you are making this for kids I would suggest seeding the chipotle pepper. Overall, a healthy vegan meal that is a great way to add more meatless meals into your diet.

For the recipe go to Chipotle Orange Broccoli and Tofu.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole

I love chocolate! There is something great about eating a piece of chocolate after a particularly bad day. It literally almost erases all the negative things that have happened and leaves me in a great mood. The only problem is that my two kids share this love and my chocolate stashes never seem to stay hidden. I particularly love when they put the wrapper back so that I think there is still candy and then open it to discover that it has been completely scavenged. That's really awesome (not!). Luckily I have discovered that chocolate can also be great to cook with and since recipes normally use bittersweet chocolate my two kids leave the baking chocolate alone. Given my love of chocolate I was very pleased to see a recipe for Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole in the December issue of Everyday Food Magazine,

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 4 1/4 hrs, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I ended up leaving off the cilantro on the plate since I completely forgot about it, opps! I did find that 4 pounds of chicken thighs ended up being far more than 12 thighs for me, I think my grocery store must sell smaller thighs than the ones the recipe used. Since everything was going into the blender I didn't overly chop any of the ingredients before putting them in. I have a very good blender that can pretty much chop anything, including ice. As I always do, I chose to cook this recipe on low, I prefer the flavor on low for a longer amount of time. For the toasted almonds, I toasted my almonds on the stove, I find it much quicker and easier than the oven. When the recipe is finished make sure to pour off the layer of fat and soak up any remaining fat with a paper towel. There was a good cup of fat that I had to pour off and without this step it would have been far too fatty. With this modification the recipe was perfect. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two kids loved this recipe. At first they were reluctant to eat it, but as soon as I mentioned that it was chocolate chicken, they ran to their plates. I did find that I had to add salt to my husband's and mines servings, but that it normal for most recipes. I liked that this recipe was full of flavor, but mild enough even for people that don't like spicy foods. The sauce was absolutely delicious and the chicken thighs ended up melt in your mouth tender. Overall, a great slow-cooker recipe that I will definitely make again.

For the recipe go to Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole.

Family Circle Chipotle Chicken Chili

We are big chili fans in our house. Growing up my mom never really made chili and I didn't really eat it frequently until I started scoring cookbooks and cooking any recipe I could get my hands on. In my teens I became a vegetarian for over eight years and invented a delicious vegetarian chili recipe. I stopped being a vegetarian, but I continued to make the vegetarian chili. When I moved to West Virginia and met my husband I was surprised by the level of competition that people possessed over their homemade chili recipes. Everyone has their own way of making both hot dog chili and regular chili. I never knew that there were so many ways to prepare chili until I went to my first chili fest. Now that I have lived in West Virginia over 9 years and had two kids (my husband still says I'm not a true West Virginian, I'm still working on it :); I have tried a large number of chili recipes. One of my favorite ways to make chili when I am short on time is to utilize my crockpot. The February issue of Family Circle Magazine had a recipe for Chipotle Chicken Chili which promised 17 grams of protein and lots of flavor from the chipotles.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 8 hours of cooking time and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. Make sure to cut off any excess chicken fat or the chili will become too fatty. I always cook my recipes on low in the crockpot, I prefer the flavor, so as usual I cooked this recipe on low for eight hours. I made my own chicken stock the night before, the flavor is significantly better and since I don't add salt to my stock it allows me to control the amount of sodium in my family's food. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With only five grams of fat and 17 grams of protein, this chili is low in fat and high in nutrients The taste of the chipotles really shines through and gives the chili a great flavor. The beans and corn add a nice texture and give great color to the chili. This recipe makes a large amount of servings and would be great to take to a potluck or party. Overall, a very easy crockpot meal which is full of protein and great for a busy weeknight.


For the recipe go to Chipotle Chicken Chili. (registration required).

Parents Chipotle Sweet-Potato Pigskins

I'm not a huge fan of regular baked potatoes. When everyone else at a restaurant is ordering a baked potato I am eating a salad. Growing up my mom never really made potato dishes. It was my dad who would wake up early on Sunday mornings and prepare a huge breakfast with a large helping of fried potatoes. I still love those fried potatoes whenever I go home. While I might not love regular baked potatoes, I do love sweet potatoes. I could devour pretty much any dish or recipe utilizing sweet potatoes. The February issue of Parents Magazine had a recipe for Chipotle Sweet-Potato Pigskins which promised to be low in fat and have a smoky heat from the chipotles.

This recipe has six ingredients. It takes 1 hour and 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active, and makes 8 servings. There are very few ingredients in this recipe and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. Make sure to pick small to medium sweet potatoes in order for them to fully cook in the amount of time suggested. If your sweet potatoes are on the larger side it could take up to a half hour longer than the suggested time. Additionally, be careful when you are scooping out the sweet potatoes to not scrap all the way through the skin or they won't hold up to be re-stuffed. For the potatoes for my two kids I   left off the onions and Greek yogurt since they can be hit or miss on what they will eat. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. 

The chipotles in this recipe create a delicious smokey flavor, with a little bit of heat. Sweet Potatoes are a great source of vitamin C, which is great for this time of year when everyone seems to be fighting off some sort of cold or sickness. My husband loved that these sweet potatoes had a different type of taste than your run of the mill variety from steak houses. Overall, an easy recipe with great flavor.

For the recipe go to Chipotle Sweet-Potato Pigskins.

Family Circle Chipotle-Mango Pulled Pork

This is my favorite time of the year. I love when the weather gets colder and my kitchen heats up with slow roasted cooking. Don't get me wrong, I hate having to wear multiple layers and still being cold and my heating bills going through the roof. However, there is something so comforting about cooking in the fall and winter. As everyone has heard me say multiple times, I love my slowcooker. I pretty much use it at least twice a week all fall and winter. I have also shared many times my family's love of all things pork, so any dish combining the two is perfect. The December issue of Family Circle magazine had a recipe for Chipotle-Mango Pulled Pork which combined my family's favorite meat and my love of all things slow cooker related.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 23 minutes of prep and 8 hours of cooking time and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store, which the exception that I was only able to find a 8 pound bone-in pork shoulder, which I had cut in half. I actually prefer using bone-in pork shoulder, the bone adds an extra level of flavor to dishes. I served the dish over polenta, my family isn't big fans of grits. For the chicken broth I used homemade stock, I prefer the flavor to the store bought variety. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I really enjoyed the flavor from the mango and chipotles. The combination of flavors was pleasant and added a flavor dimension to the pulled pork. The recipe states that it makes 8 servings, but there was enough for at least three meals for my family of four. With only 12 grams of fat and 346 calories, this dish is a great and easy weeknight meal.

For the recipe go to Chipotle-Mango Pulled Pork.

Food Network Magazine Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts

I am not one of those people that can limit themselves on nuts. The whole idea of eating 10 almonds for a serving doesn't fit with my snacking personality. I'm lucky that I am constantly moving and burning calories, so I look for high protein snacks that will tide me over until my next meal. As I've stated before I tend to eat 6 smaller meals throughout the day, instead of three large ones. I am drawn towards sugar, so I try to find protein snacks that will satisfy my sweet tooth while providing energy. As I was looking through the December issue of the Food Network Magazine I came across a recipe for Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts, which looked like a great sweet and savory protein snack.

This recipe 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 35 minutes, 10 minutes of which is active, and makes 8 to 10 servings. I thought that I had chipotle powder in my cupboard, but when I got ready to make the recipe I discovered that I did not. Instead I substituted Ancho chili powder, which I do relatively frequently in recipes. I chose to combine all my ingredients in a bowl and then pour onto a baking sheet. This way all the nuts were evenly coated. Make sure to watch the nuts while they are in the oven. I probably turned the nuts about every 8 minutes in order to prevent burning. I would not suggest turning down the heat though, the temp needs to be high enough to caramelize the brown sugar. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The sweet flavor from the brown sugar combines nicely with the savory flavors from the rosemary and chili powder. This recipe makes a lot of nuts, so it would be great as a party snack. If you are making it for your family I would suggest cutting the recipe in half unless you have two growing boys like I do. I served this as an after school snack to my oldest and he loved it. Overall, an easy sweet and savory snack.

For the recipe go to Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts.

All You Smoky Chipotle Meat Loaf

With two very active and growing little boys in my house, we go through a large amount of food a week. In an effort to save my budget, I try to make as many dishes as I can which can be stretched into multiple meals. Additionally, I love finding healthier variations of common favorite recipes, such as fried chicken or meatloaf. Meatloaf is a family favorite and is great to use leftovers for sandwiches. Recently, the august issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Smoky Chipotle Meat Loaf, utilizing oats, which looked like a healthier alternative to my traditional meat loaf recipes.

This recipe has 12 ingredients and takes approximately an hour and 15 minutes to prep and cook. I was able to find all the ingredients at my local grocery store, without any problems. I did make a few modifications to the original recipe. First, I did not seed my chipotle chilies, I just took them out of the can as is; I don't find the seeds in the chilies to be spicy enough to warrant this extra step. Additionally, I ground my own beef from chuck roast, which I highly recommend, the taste is so much better. Finally, I have a very particular husband when it comes to ketchup, he will only eat Heinz, so that it what I used for this recipe.

My husband and I loved the smoky undertones from the adobo sauce and chilies. This recipe is very easy to follow and takes little effort to prepare. The one thing that I did notice is that the texture is different than a traditional meatloaf due to the oats. It has a grittier texture, so don't be surprised. If your looking for a way to incorporate more whole grains into your diet, this recipe is a great way to do so.

For the recipe go to All You Smoky Chipotle Meat Loaf.

Bon Appetit Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa

 Between the two growing boys and the two adults in my house, we consume a large amounts of snacks each week. One snack that goes over well with my whole family is salsa and homemade tortilla chips. Instead of following the same recipe repeadidly, I try to look for new flavor combination and ingredients that I haven't  previously tried. The May issue of Bon Appetit magazine had a recipe for Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa, which looked simple and full of flavor.

With only 5 ingredients (including salt) this recipes is beyond simple to prepare. Almost all of the prep is done in the broiler. Currently, my oven broiler is broken, so I used the broiler on my toaster oven. It took longer than the stated 10-15 minutes for my tomatillos to char, it was closer to 20-25 minutes total. The remainder of the prep work is done in the food processor with a total time of about 45 minutes including the cooling time for the tomatillos. Make sure to adequetely salt after the salsa is completed.

This salsa on the first day lacked salt and tasted a tad bit too much like cilantro. After the salsa had sat overnight it tasted delicious and not too salty and the cilantro was a nice undertone, instead of overpowering. I liked the smokiness provided by the chipotles and the charred tomatillos were delicious. This salsa is quick and easy and after sitting for a day would be great with tortilla chips or as a topping.

For the recipe go to Bon Appetit Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa