Mexican Dinner

We love Mexican style food, it is one of my favorite meals to prepare and my picky husband even enjoys it, yay! This week Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies chose Mexican as our country to visit with our tastebuds for My Kitchen My World.

We have had a really busy week and I wasn't able to do the huge Mexican meal I wanted and try a bunch of new recipes, sorry :( Homemade tortillas and churros were in the plan but never got accomplished, but I promise, I will try them soon, and let you all know how they turned out.

Please excuse my boring photography of this food, even though the pictures aren't the greatest the food was delicious!

This is a simple Mexican rice recipe adapted from allrecipes.com. I know some people love their rice chock full of veggies like onions and peppers, but we like our rice plain, just nicely seasoned, so the flavor doesn't take over other dishes. In this recipe you sautee 1 cup of rice with 2 tbsp oil until it's slightly crisped and puffy, add 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1 can vegetable broth, and some garlic and onion powder, from there you can add any other Mexican spices or seasoning blend to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the rice is thoroughly cooked but not mushy about 15-18 minutes. Perfect Mexican rice! All ready to be stuffed into a tortilla or eaten as a side dish. If you wanted to make this rice a 'meal' add a can of rinsed drained black beans, some corn, tomatoes, peppers, etc. and then you have a substantial filling for burritos or just to be served as it.

This is probably my worst picture but the taste is beyond compare. These are the main filling for my pepper mushroom fajitas, pop these perfectly seasoned veggies in a tortilla, top with lettuce, queso fresco, and a touch of sour cream and you have a fajita rivaling anything you can get in a restaurant. In fact, after being served unsatisfactory "veggie fajitas" on numerous restaurant trip I came up with this recipe using things I liked about restaurant style fajitas and leaving off what I didn't. I just need some of those little cast iron fajita serving skillets, they are on my 'want' list of kitchen stuff :)


Another bad pic of good food, these are another dish I created after having some at a restaurant. Mexican roasted potatoes, pretty simple, cube potatoes, toss them with some olive oil, spice them up with a Mexican seasoning blend, and roast at 400 for about 50 minutes until tender and crispy on the outside. Now when I first saw these I thought roasted potatoes weren't really "Mexican" I still have no clue, but they are delicious, and a great side for a fiesta of a meal!


Lastly here are some baked 'smothered' burritos! These contain beans, corn, and chopped tomatoes, all sauteed together and seasoned, then rolled into flour tortillas. In the bottom of my glass baking dish I have a thin layer of taco/enchilada sauce. Some people like their burritos floating in sauce, which is fine but I prefer mine a little less saucy before baking that way the tortillas don't get mushy. I would rather top mine with extra sauce *after* baking.


Top your burritos with more sauce after you put them seam side down in the baking dish, not a lot, but don't be too skimpy either, you want to have most of the burrito covered in a thin layer with a little extra on the sides. Then top with cheese, use whatever cheese you'd like but if possible add a little mozzarella to your cheese of choice, here I used extra sharp cheddar, some pepper jack, along with a bit of mozzarella. The mozzarella really gives the cheese a nice 'melty' consistency, I know it doesn't sound like it would add a lot but there is an extra dimension when you add a touch of mozzarella, it just adds depth, or something, just try it, trust me :) After the cheese I add some black olives, bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, after that I always broil the top just for a second to get the cheese golden brown, YUM! Serve with all of your favorite toppings, guacamole, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, extra cheese and taco/enchilada sauce, mmmmm! This is one of my favorite meals ever and you can personalize it by adding any kind of filling, cheese, toppings, etc. it is a family favorite for sure, you could even add different fillings to each burrito per the tastes of your picky eaters and bake them all together, just remember which burrito is yours :)