Easy Burrito

I'm a burrito lover. I'd drive all the way just to get my burrito fix. Over the weekend, my husband and I craved for it, just in time for our DVD movie date night. Instead of buying, I suggested that we go to the grocery and buy ingredients and I'd be very happy to prepare burritos for us. It's more practical. If we're to buy burrito from a restaurant, a big burrito will probably cost around php150-200 each. With that amount, we were able to buy ingredients that can yield around 4-5 big burritos or 6-7 mediums ones.

Please take note that some ingredients were already at hand, like the dried Cilantro and cheese sauce.

Servings: 4 large Burritos


Ingredients:

• 1/4 kilo lean ground beef
• 3 medium red tomatoes finely chopped
• 3 red onions minced
• 1 can baked beans
• 1 pack Chili Con Carne mix dissolved
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 tbsp dried or freshly chopped cilantro
• A dash of salt
• 1 tsp granulated black pepper
• Tortillas
• Cheese sauce or cheese dip

How To:

• Dissolve Chili Con Carne mix according package instructions.

 Preparing the beef

• In a frying pan, saute 1/4 of the minced onions.
• Add ground beef and stir fry until half- cooked.
• Add 1/2 cup of dissolved Chili Con Carne mix and simmer for a few seconds until cooked. 
• Add salt and pepper.
• Set aside.

Preparing the rice

• Using the same frying pan, heat cooking oil and saute part of the minced onions.
• Add 2 cups of rice, then, get 5 tbsp from dissolved Chili Con Carne mix, add to the rice.
• Stir rice until sauce is mixed with rice evenly. Set aside.

Preparing the beans

• In a small sauce pan, pour and heat canned baked beans.
• Simmer for a few seconds then add about 1/2 cup of the remaining Chili Con Carne mix.
• Simmer for a few seconds. Set aside.

 Preparing the salsa

• In a bowl, mix chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro.

Assemble the prepared burrito fillings.

• In a pan, heat up Tortillas one at a time.

• Assemble filling:

Rice
Beans
Beef
Salsa then
Cheese

 

• Roll Tortilla sides just like how we make spring rolls.

• Eaten wrapped or plate topped with more cheese and salsa.

Other add ons:
Jalapeño
Chicken in substitute for beef
Guacamole
Bean paste
Lettuce

It may look hard because of the preparation process. But once assembled, wrapping a burrito is easy breezy. I  make lots of fillings and put it in microwavable containers, stock up on tortillas so anytime we crave for a burrito, I can just wrap our own.

Sweet Treats From My Kitchen

I love to cook, but it doesn't mean that I'm as good when it comes to baking or making pastries. Early this year I got the urge and interest to learn and experiment on making pastries. Since I don't have a background on baking, I relied so much on online recipes for my first trial until I was able to concoct my own. I must admit, it's pretty expensive because I spend on ingredients with the risk that I might not be able to get the finished product right. But if one will study the procedures well and research for suppliers, I think everything will turn out fine. Based on my experience, once I've set the basics aside, with a little adjustments, excluding and adding ingredients, I can say I'm getting there...

One of the sweet treats I love is Chocolate Crinkles. I want my crinkles to be soft, moist and chewy. I'm happy to share that I was able to meet my criteria, but the shape of the cookies were uneven because I had to give the kids the fun part of placing each chocolate ball on the baking sheet.

My second project was Chocolate Chip Cookies. In a much older post, I shared my love for the cookies made by one of our friends. They used to give us a box full for Christmas. But I can't wait a year just to have a cookie right? So I decided to make my own. Again, like my Chocolate Crinkles, I want my cookies to soft and chewy. The recipe I used was for giant cookies. Again and again, the size of the finished product was uneven. This time, I disregarded the size of the cookie sheet. It wasn't big enough for my giant cookies.

Before proceeding, let me share a short story about my mom and her love for baking. When I was a kid and we were still living at my grandmother's house in Manila, my mom would often bake cakes for occasions like birthday parties. And not just one but she can go for 3 or 5 different cakes. Later on, my dad and my mom was able to put up a bakery store. Every bread was made from scratch and with my mom's hard work. The bakery business was doing great for some time, until my mom had to give it up because she got pregnant with our youngest and my dad got a job offer. Her recipes are still with her, I even offered to continue the business...

The next pastry are cupcakes. No, it's not the ready-to-bake mixture. Everything was made from scratch. Thank God my mom has a background on baking. She shared with me her recipe, same with the frosting.

So far, among the pastries, the cupcakes turned out well on the first try. It's moist both inside and out.

For months now, I have been preparing these pastries. It will take a lot of practice in order to nail the right texture, size, shape, flavor and consistency. Do I plan to have this as a business? Well, to be honest, as of the moment, I am just enjoying baking and sharing it with my whole family. 

source

Next on my list: 

Cream Puffs

Chocolate Eclairs

Making my own fudge cake for my son and dad's birthday.

Shrimp Scampi

Sometimes, I look back through my old recipes in this blog and if I find something not as appealing in terms of presentation, I give the recipe another whip. For this week, I decided to redo my easy Shrimp Scampi recipe.

Servings: 2-4

Ingredients:

• 450g Linguine
• 10 pcs shrimps (peeled and deveined)
• 10 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2  olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 medium fresh red tomatoes (chopped, with seeds)
• 1 can 400g diced tomatoes
• 1 medium green bell pepper (chopped)
• 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
• A handful of freshly chopped basil leaves or 1 tsp dried basil 
• Salt and pepper for tasting

How To: 

• In a sauce pan, boil pasta until firm then set aside.
• In a separate frying pan, melt butter and stir fry shrimps until orange. Set aside.
• On a pan, heat a little olive oil, saute garlic until light brown.
• Add cooked shrimps, chopped tomatoes and stir for a few seconds.\
• Add canned diced tomatoes, basil and green bell pepper. Stir for as few seconds.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Add pasta and Parmesan cheese then toss it evenly with the sauce.

You may top your pasta with more cheese and pair it with some hot wheat bread. Enjoy!