Mini Tacos and Cheeseburgers

My friends, Juliann and Alli, came over last week for a "Girl's Night Sleepover."  We decided that we were going to have a theme of "kids night," which meant we were going to watch kid movies and have kid food.  I was in charge of the menu and I decided to make Mini Tacos, Mini Cheeseburgers, veggie sticks and dip, and apples with caramel dip. 

I found the recipe for the Mini Tacos from Recipezaar and once again, that website didn't fail me.  These were super easy and surprisingly very good.  The tacos are won ton wrappers, filled with taco seasoned meat (I used ground turkey), salsa and cheese.  Yum!

Ingredients.

Just out of the oven.

For the Mini Burgers, I saw Ms. Paula Deen make them on one of her shows and they looked great.  They are little beef patties (with mustard and ketchup baked in) topped with cheese and baked inside puff pastry.  Now let's take a moment and talk about puff pastry.  Apparently, it's NOT the same thing as phyllo dough!  Did anyone else know this?  Because I didn't and I bought phyllo dough and though the burgers were still good...they were "interesting" with the phyllo dough bun/crust.  So, we'll just leave it at that...make sure to buy puff pastry and NOT phyllo dough.

Both these recipes were very easy and very taste.  If you have kids or if you're like us and just want some "kid" food, I highly recommend both these recipes. 

Enjoy!

Ingredients.

Ugly burger in phyllo dough...but still tasty!

Mini Tacos, by Recipezaar

Ingredients

• 24 wonton wrappers
• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup salsa or picante sauce
• 3 tablespoons salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• sour cream (optional)
• olives (optional)
• guacamole (optional)

Directions

1. Cook hamburger until browned. 
2. Drain the fat.  Stir in taco mix ans 1/2 cup salsa/picante sauce.
3. Simmer for 3-5 minutes.
4. Press wonton wrappers into mini muffin cups.
5. Spoon beef mixture in cups and top with the 3 tbs of salsa and cheese, evenly divided.
6. Bake in preheated 425°F oven for 8 minutes, or until the wontons are nicely browned.

7. Serve with extra salsa, sour cream, olives and guacamole if desired.

Mini Burgers, by Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 8 ounces ground beef
• 2 teaspoons ketchup
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• All-purpose flour for dusting
• 1 sheet (from a 17.5-ounce package) puff pastry
• 2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) Cheddar, shredded
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the beef, ketchup, mustard, salt, and pepper. Form the mixture into 8 equal-size patties. In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, brown the patties for 1 to 2 minutes.
3. On a lightly floured surface, unfold the pastry and roll out. Cut the pastry lengthwise into 4 equal strips, then cut strips in 1/2 crosswise. Place 1 patty on each strip and top with cheese. Fold the pastry up around the burgers and pinch the edges together to seal, molding to fit around the patties. Brush the tops of the pastries with the egg mixture.
4. Place the mini burgers on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 to15 minutes or until puffed and golden. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Flatout Wrap Pizzas

Have any of you tried Flatout Wraps?  They are flatbread/wraps that only have 100 calories and are delicious.  You can create so many tasty meals with them.  Cold wraps, grilled wraps, quesadillas, pizzas and so much more!  Jerm and I aren't renewing our Costco membership (because Sam's Club is less than 5 minutes away) so before it expired we went shopping.  I'd heard about this bread before and since we'd never be back to Costco I thought, "What the heck?  Let's buy some!"

So, last week I made Flatout Wrap pizzas and they were yummy!  The bread gets nice and crispy, just like a thin crust pizza, and of course, toppings are endless.  I made 3 different kinds of pizza for our dinner: BBQ chicken, Hawaiian, and Chicken Broccoli.  Yum!  I highly recommend these wraps and making them as pizzas; plus, for only 100 calories they can't be beat!

Enjoy!

Ingredients.

 

About to go into the oven.

All melty and halfway eaten.

BBQ Chicken Flatout Wrap Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 Flatout Wrap (we used Multi-grain)
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce + about 1-2 tbs additional
• Mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup cooked, chopped chicken breast
• 2 sliced cooked bacon
• Pineapple pieces, small

Hawaiian Flatout Wrap Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 Flatout Wrap
• 1/4 cup marinara sauce
• Mozzarella cheese
• 3 slices of deli ham
• Pineapple pieces, small

Chicken and Broccoli Flatout Wrap Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 Flatout Wrap
• 1/4 cup marinara sauce
• Mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup cooked, chopped chicken breast
• 1/2 cup frozen broccoli florets (thawed out in microwave)
• Dash of garlic salt

Directions (for all pizzas)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.  Lay Flatout Wrap on a nonstick cookie sheet.  Bake for 7 minutes.
2. Spread sauce on Flatout Wrap, leaving about 3/4 inch edge.
3. Top with cheese and toppings.
4. Bake for 15 minutes.

Oatmeal Scotchies

Mmmm, cookies!  My favorite dessert/sweet treat of all time.  Last night I felt like doing some baking, so I looked into the pantry to see what ingredients I had, and I found a bag of butterscotch chips.  Mmmm, butterscotch.  Butterscotch is delicious, but I feel like it's overlooked a lot.  There are so many recipes with chocolate chips, but are there really many with butterscotch chips?  Not that I know of.  How sad for the delicious butterscotch chips and their goodness.

Anyway, on the back of the butterscotch chip bag was the recipe for these delicious cookies.  Nestles Oatmeal Scotchies.  They are crisp and flavorful and pack a big butterscotch punch.  I was a bit surprised to see cinnamon as an ingredient; however, it was a fabulous flavor combination with the butterscotch.  Jeremy isn't a fan of cookies that aren't what he's used to (so basically anything besides chocolate chip), but I was pleasantly surprised when he said, "Ya know, these cookies are actually pretty good."  That's right, they are good...in fact, they are delicious.

Enjoy!

Ingredients.

Cooling on the counter.

Quality control.

Nestle Oatmeal Scotchies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange
• 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 375° F.
2. COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.