Healthy Mexican filling idea worked!

[eks6426]

My 10 year old son loves something we call taco ring. It''s a basic Pampered Chef recipe. The filling is ground beef with ortega mix & corn. Then you make a ring with crescent rolls and put the filling & some cheese in it then wrap the crescent roll corners over the top & bake. I haven''t made it in a long time because I hate the Orgega ground beef mix. So I came up with an alternative that worked.

3 chicken boneless/skinless breasts
small can tomato paste
1 cup frozen corn
1 diced onion
1 diced green pepper
1 can of pumpkin (not the pie spice kind)
spices: cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper

Put all in the crockpot on high for about 4-5 hours. Then shred the chicken.


Using the pumpkin made the whole thing stick together so it worked really well for my taco ring...no more liquid oozing all over the place. The tomato paste colored the whole thing red so my son had no idea there was pumpkin in it.

The pumpkin adds a lot of nutrition. We''re going to use it for tacos & burritos too. My son even suggested I add more liquid to turn it into chicken chili.

 

[door knob solitaire]

Even though I don''t eat the meat...I am most impressed with your creativity. Woo Hoo! Where ever did you come up with using the pumpkin? Did the latest publicity on Jessica Seinfeld''s new book (Deceptively Delicious) influence you? It has me!!

The other night I was getting all the ingredients measured for carrot cake...reached in produce drawer...and YELPED. No matter how far in I reached there were still no carrots. Everything had been measured. What''s a girl to do? Hmmm...what else can I use??? PUMPKIN!!! Eureka. (I make pumpkin pie year round...and all things pumpkin) anyhoo guess who made the best NON Carrot cake eva? Yep. Hubby said this one is on the top of the list. Once slice is left...but it shall return again and again.

But tacos...girlfriend...are you Nutts? Just kidding. Good job!! I will stretch my muscle and launch out there with you...next Mexican dish I make. Will report back.

Call us Pumpkineers!!

DKS

I went to a Pampered Chef event and the PC host was coughing and sneezing and wheezing ...and had a runny nose...she was preparing that ring thing with the chopper etc. Blah Blah Blah she looked at you through blood shot eyes...you need this and this (insert Sneeze) and the reason you (cough) need to buy this is (insert wipe nose on sleeve) you can make this ring (hack hack phlegm) in no time. When it came out of the oven 18 women all grabbed a plate...I was "ahhh, no thank you. Really. I just ate...I am stuffed really. Couldn''t eat another bite... Thank you". About 10 minutes later the host keeled over and fainted. The ring thing...just can''t do it.

 

[FireGoddess]

I am going to try that recipe ID!!! A friend of mine did pampered chef and as a result I received a few things as gifts, including a PC cookbook that had a lot of things in it that looked good and convenient but seemed unhealthy. With reduced fat crescent roll dough, I'm going to try this!!

DKS....I saw that episode of Oprah last week (the one with Jessica Seinfeld), and while I never rush out and get her book club books, I did go get Jessica Seinfeld's book. Even though I don't have kids...I thought it would be a good way to incorporate more veggies into recipes because I tend to have things I like (broccoli, spinach, peas, corn) and never touch the other stuff (cauliflower, sweet potatoes, beets, etc). I haven't made anything yet...though for the first time ever I did buy cauliflower and beets!!

 

[door knob solitaire]

I just served hubby his last piece of pumpkin cake nirvana...and told him about THIS girl on the board and what "she" did with pumpkin.

As he was eating MY masterpiece...he said , "That''s the problem with you...you have no guts. Now take that woman and her tacos...that was guts. Pure creative genius. No guts No glory I always say".

Oh poo...back down on earth. Shot down from my pedestal by pumpkin tacos. (couldn''t be happier for you!

)

DKS-thanks a lot!!!

 

[eks6426]

DKS--I actually haven''t even seen the new Jessica Seinfeld book...didn''t even know the name until you wrote it in your post. I was aware it was out there though. I''ve been adding veggies to all sorts of things for years. My first husband got cancer at age 25 and I took a cooking class that was designed to help cancer patients eat more nutriously. One of the things I learned was a million ways to disquise nutrious fruits & veggies. Veggies never go to waste in my house. If they''re to the "gotta use them now stage" I just puree or chop them and freeze in ice cube trays. Those little nutrient power-packs are dropped into everything from soups to pasta sauce to mashed potatoes (pureed carrots & celery really perk up mashed potatoes). I even add the chopped/pureed veggies to things like hamburgers. My son has no idea that his beloved burgers are almost 1/2 veggies. I''m always looking for ways to make recipes more fruit-veggie oriented. I''ve actually been using canned pumpkin as a filler in things for years. It works well in baked goods like you figured out...I often use pumpkin in place of the oil for brownies (you can use applesauce too). I was very happy with the Mexican pumpkin filling though. If you do it, be careful on the cooking time since the mixture is very thick and can easily burn in the crockpot.

My son asked me the other day if I could make him a cookbook of all my recipes from his childhood. I can only imagine the shock on his face when he looks up "chicken taco ring" and it says, open a can of pumpkin....Ha. Poor kid will never look at my food the same again if I actually make the cookbook.

 

[monarch64]

IslandDreams, was Jessica Seinfeld just on Oprah? I think I saw her on it last week...there was a gal on there who disguised veggies by pureeing them and adding them to all her kid''s meals, it was really a great concept I thought.

Another recipe along the lines of the "taco ring" is "cheeseburger biscuits". You take Pillsbury flaky biscuits, put the bottom halves in a Pyrex 13x9, and them brown a 1/2 lb of lean ground beef in a skillet and mix in a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce. You pour the meat mixture over the bottom halves of the biscuits, top with reduced fat cheese slices or shredded cheese of your choice and the top halves of the biscuits, and bake until the biscuits are golden brown on top. The trick is this: put the bottom halves into the oven while you''re browning the ground beef so they have a chance to get halfway baked before you add the rest of the ingreds. Otherwise you end up with underbaked bottom halves as opposed to fully baked top halves.

I haven''t made that dish for a couple years since I went veg, but DH and I used to love it. It serves 6-8 or you can serve it leftover of course. Add a salad or some veggies and you''ve got a quick, tasty, and nutritious meal for a weeknight or even a Saturday when your son has friends over.