Chimichangas

I admit it, I have a thing for Mexican food. I love traveling to Mexico because I know I'm going to experience wonderful food. When I'm browsing a cooking magazine, its the Mexican-type recipes that catch my eye. Give me a choice between olive oil and bread or tomatoes and avocados, and I'm going to go with the avocados. (I buy them in bulk at Costco if that says anything.) My frig almost always has tortillas in it--you can put almost any leftover into a tortilla I've found. My go to recipes seem to always have some sort of Mexican inspired flavor, too.

One of my all-time favorite meals is Chimichangas. My Dad, who had the role of Mr.Mom in our family, has been making them for as long as I can remember. Us kids share a funny story about the time he cooked it with extra hot chile's instead of mild ones--we could hardly eat the meal, it was just too hot. We tried taking bites with huge gulps of milk but it was pretty miserable. The funniest part of the story is that my Dad doesn't really like spicy food, yet he had made it super spicy! Several years back when my Mom put together a family cookbook, I was excited to finally have a copy of his Chimichanga recipe.

I don't make it too often, probably because I'm always trying new recipes, but its definitely one I will continue to come back to. It's easy and my whole family likes it. Plus, it usually makes enough for leftovers so that I end up with two meals worth of food or one dinner and several lunches because it does warm up pretty well, too.

Chimichanga's

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef, turkey, venison or bison

(I've added up to 2cups black beans to replace part of the beef with great results as well)

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp. cumin

1tsp. oregano, crushed

1 can (small) of green chile's

1/2 cup salsa (you can use either store bought red or green or homemade)

1/2 cup sour cream

4 Tbsp. cider vinegar

12 flour tortillas (the mid-sized ones)

Melted butter approx. 1/4 cup

Toppings: Shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, olives, etc.

1. Brown hamburger and drain grease.

2. Add garlic, cumin, oregano, chiles, salsa, sour cream and cider vinegar.

3. Spoon filling into 12 tortillas, roll and place seam side down in a 9X12 dish. (I actually use one 9X12 dish and one smaller (8X10) dish)

4. Brush with butter and bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven, cover with cheese and return to oven to melt cheese. This only takes a few minutes. You can even turn off the oven at this point.

6. Serve with your favorite toppings.

The cool thing? I actually figured out the calorie content of these puppies this last time I made them and they aren't too bad. About 373 calories per chimichanga, so when you eat them with a bunch of lettuce, tomato, maybe some guacamole and salsa, you have a delicious, healthy and filling meal. :-)