Baked Taquitos

Here's a quick little dinner recipe that tastes great and is a healthy alternative to the fried taquito.  Although these are baked, they didn't come out soggy.  Instead that were nice and crispy, similar to fried taquitos.  I served mine with cilantro lime rice and it was a perfect pair.   


I found the recipe I based these off of on Pinterest.  The original recipe provides that the taquitos can be frozen and baked later.  I didn't get a chance to try freezing them because I ate them all.  But, I'm pretty sure you would have the same success freezing my modification of her recipe.  


Modified from: Pennies on a Platter


Here's what you need:
3 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Salsa
1 Lime
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 tbsp Cilantro, finely chopped
2 tbsp Green Onions, sliced
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 Taco Meat Season Packet of your choice
1 cup Mexican flavored cheese, finely shredded
12 small Tortillas
1 tbsp Butter, melted
Kosher Salt


Here's what you do:
1.  Cook the ground beef thoroughly.  Season according to instructions on your season packet. 


2.  Combine cream cheese, salsa, juice of half of the lime, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic, cilantro and green onions. 


3.  Add the ground beef to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix well. 


4.  Add the cheese to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix well. 


5.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 


6.  Microwave 2 or 3 tortillas for about 20 seconds to make them pliable and easy to work with.  Fill each tortilla with a portion of the mixture, beginning on one edge.  Roll the tortilla up, beginning with the edge that was filled.  Place seam side down in a baking dish or cookie sheet.  Repeat until all of the mixture is gone. 


7.  Brush the top of each tortilla with the melted butter. 


8.  Sprinkle the kosher salt on top of the tortillas. 


9.  Sprinkle the lime juice of the remaining one half of the lime on top of the tortillas. 


10.  Bake for about 20 minutes.   Remove when the tortillas begin to crisp.  

Conversation Heart Cookies

I made these cute little cookies for Valentine's Day!


I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is they turned out pretty cute, so I can tell you how to make cute little cookies of your own.  The bad news is, the recipes that I tried for the cookies and the icing were less than stellar, so I won't be sharing any recipes with you today.  It will be more of a how to tutorial.  


I found the idea on Pinterest.  I'm not sure how I used to entertain myself before I discovered Pinterest.  Anywho, recipes for sugar cookies and icing are all over Pinterest.  So, just head on over there and find yourself a sugar cookie and royal icing recipe that you like.  Then come back here and I'll tell you how to make your cookies super cute. 


1.  Make your heart-shaped sugar cookies.  


2.  Make your royal icing. 


3.  Divide the icing into as many colors as you would like your conversation hearts to be.  I did white, yellow, green, pink and purple.  You can google conversation heart images to get an idea of what colors you want to use.  


4.  Outline the cookies.  Using a #3 Wilton icing tip, fill your icing bag with the first icing color.  Outline the perimeter of each cookie that you would like to be that color.  Repeat with each color until all of your cookies have been outlined. 


     Hint:  Although I have reusable icing bags, I bought disposables for this job because I 
      knew I'd be changing colors frequently.  Click here to see what a #3 Wilton icing tip 
      looks like. 


5.  Going back to the first color your outlined with, put the icing back into the original bowl and add water to it slowly.  Add a few drops at a time and stir.  Continue doing this until you have a consistency that results in icing that is dribbled off the spoon into the bowl disappears into all the icing within a second or two.  Put approximately a tablespoon of icing on one cookie that has been outlined in this color.  Spread the icing around on the cookie until the entire surface of the outlined portion of the cookie is iced.  You can use a toothpick to do the spreading if you'd like.  I used my finger.  Because I'm not fancy pants.  And, that was waaaaaay faster.  Just keep a wet paper towel nearby to clean off your finger as needed.  Continue icing in this manner until all the cookies outlined in this color have been filled in. 


6.  Repeat step 5 until all cookies have been filled in. 


7.  Put red icing in an icing bag with a #3 Wilton tip.  Pipe cute phrases on the top of each cookie, beginning with the first cookie you piped and filled and going through the rest in the same order they were piped and filled (being methodical about the order in which you decorate ensures that the icing on the cookie has time to dry before you start piping on top).  Again, you can google image conversation hearts if you need ideas for what to pipe on top. 


     Hint:  It takes a lot of red icing coloring to make a vibrant red color that you will need for 
      these cookies.  I just bought a tube of red icing and squeezed that into my icing bag.


8.  Make sure cookies are completely dried before storing.  Do not store stacked on one another.  Your icings will bleed.  Not that I know from experience or anything . . . 


Enjoy!