Theme Food Week: Unexpectedly Mexican {May}

{cooking}

Well, surprise, surprise here, I'm a bit late posting last month's Theme Food Week..... In fact I realized that I had yet to post it only while I was trying to figure out what June's theme was going to be....

In honor of Cinco De Mayo (although we didn't end up being able to do Theme Food Week until the end of the month), the theme was "Unexpectedly Mexican".  My husband and I love eating Mexican food as well as more "American" type foods with Mexican flavors.  I have a Chicken Fajita soup that I make and Fajita Mac and Cheese... and lately I've been making a dish with shredded chicken, red peppers, tomaotes, onion, corn, quinoa, Mexican blend cheese with fajita seasoning.... I guess I really like the flavors of fajitas......... lol.  This week's menu was all about Mexican flavors used in non typical ways (I thought about doing my Fajita mac and cheese as one of them, but part of the point of theme food week is supposed to be to try new things and I found enough other ideas....).

You may notice on my menu board on my kitchen door that we didn't start the week until Wednesday and then it had to bleed over into the next Sunday, but I'm all for being flexible when we need to be....

{the menu}

Day 1: Steak Fajita Egg Rolls, Mexican Street Corn Salad and Spanish Rice:

The Fajita Egg Roll part of this meal is actually something I've been wanting to try for a while.  I first saw the recipe in Celebrate Magazine either last summer or maybe even the summer before and just hadn't really taken the opportunity to try them yet, so I thought they would be the perfect way to kick off theme food week.  I will say for the filling, instead of following the recipe exactly I cooked the steak, red bell peppers and onion in store bought fajita seasoning (instead of the seasonings in the recipe) then added the corn and cheese (I didn't use beans because I can not stand beans, they make me gag, even mixed into things), oh and I also didn't put the green chiles in because I'm not a fan of them either. I think the rest of the recipe I pretty much followed as it was written.  I will say though that what I didn't think about was the fact that the recipe was for making appetizers/party food and for a meal like this it might have been better to use egg roll wrappers and make them bigger and not have to make as many.  The Mexican Street Corn Salad was really good as well..... I think I actually followed the recipe on this one except I didn't put the jalapenos in the portion my mom and I were eating I just put it in my husband's, and I just used regular chopped onion because I had them already chopped.  The Spanish Rice was just the type you buy in a box at the store.

Day 2: Taco Lasagna and Doritos Mozzarella Sticks

The Taco Lasagna was super easy to make and really yummy.  This recipe was my inspiration, but instead of using regular lasagna noodles I made it a little more Mexican by using corn tortillas instead..... I used corn ones for a couple reasons, for one I've been trying to eat less gluten lately because it's supposed to help with migraines (and it does seem to be helping.... I'm not wanting to go completely gluten free, but definitely cutting back), and for another I thought it could have a little more of the chewiness of regular pasta.  Basically I layered the tortillas, ricotta (mixed with an egg and some spices and seasonings), ground beef (cooked in taco seasoning), salsa and shredded Mexican blend cheese, finishing with a layer of tortillas and then more shredded cheese.  For the Mozzarella sticks I rolled half a cheese stick in a wonton wrapper (seal the edges by brushing them with water before wrapping them) (hoping that they wouldn't melt all over the place in the oven as much and to use up the rest of the package from that day before lol), then dipped them in beaten egg then rolled them in crushed Doritos.  I baked them on a baking sheet at 350 until they were crispy and the egg was cooked and the cheese melted.

Day 3: Chicken Enchilada Casserole and Cantaloup

Okay I know you'll be shocked here, but I made a few changes in how I made this recipe too.... Mainly that I didn't put the refried beans in the casserole because of my aversion to beans..... I did try mixing just a small portion of beans and casserole together to see if I could eat it all mixed together like that since it was refried beans not just plain beans and it seemed like it was okay so next time I will try making it with the beans in it, but I didn't want to risk it the first time so I served it with the casserole sitting on a bed of refried beans. Lol. I also used microwave rice (yeah yeah, lazy I know) so I'm not sure if I had exactly the right amount of rice, but it worked.  It was yummy though and I definitely want to make it again and try it with the beans in it. 

Day 4: {pork} "Tamale" Pizza

Okay, I put the tamale in quotes because I'm not really sure how much this tasted like an actual tamale (I must admit I've never actually eaten one.....), but it did have some of the elements of a tamale and some good Mexican flavor.  I don't have a recipe link for this for you because I didn't have a recipe for this, I did this one on my own.  I started by making some shredded pork.  I cooked it in the slowcooker (on high) in Mexican Coke with some garlic.  When it was done I shredded it, and put it away until it was time to make dinner.  The "crust" was based on something my mom used to make....  she would mix cornmeal and a little salt with enough water to make a thick paste, form it into patties and fry it in sunflower oil.... it tasted like Fritos chips, but was thicker and hearty.  For this pizza I used a Mexican cornmeal and mixed it with water and some salt, garlic, paprika and cumin (I didn't measure, just kinda eyeballed it) and pressed it into a disk and then pre-baked it (on a pizza stone) at 350 degrees until it had a little bit of a crust to it.  I then topped it with a sauce that I made with fire roasted diced tomatoes (1 can) blended until smooth and with a little salsa mixed in.  I then covered the sauce with shredded Mexican blend cheese.  I mixed the rest of the sauce in with some of the shredded pork and topped the cheese with that and sprinkled on a little more cheese for good measure.  I stuck it back in the oven until the cheese was all melty and everything was warmed through.  As I said, I'm not sure how much it really tasted like a tamale (especially since it wasn't very spicy), but it was yummy....


Normally this would be where I give you a hint about what to expect from the next Theme Food Week, but for June I've put the theme to a vote of several choices on Facebook, because I couldn't decide which I wanted to do, so I'm still waiting to see if I get anymore votes before I "announce" the winner. 

I do have a couple other food experiments/ideas I want to try out soon here with some good summer flavors, so I'm sure that those will end up on here at sometime in the not too distant future.... if they work out anyway.... or maybe even if they don't haha....