Wonton Beef Empanadas

I had a barbeque for my mom's birthday.  There are four in our family.  Add mom, dad and gram and we have a quick party of 7.  I decided to make steak, burgers and hot dogs.  I also made a veggie tray, salad, corn on the cob, green beans, potato salad, humus and pita chips, fresh guacamole and chips, and of course margaritas.  If you haven't noticed yet, I tend to OVER cook.  I want everyone to be happy and have a satisfied belly.  So what happens when we have 5-6 leftover burgers?  Who is going to eat those as leftovers?  I decided to re-purpose the meat and make some quick empanadas.

When I made the burgers previously I added salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, grated onion, garlic and cheese.  They are already cooked, so they just needed to be chopped up and added to the bowl.  It was over a pound of meat.  I added three hard boiled eggs chopped, about 10 green olives chopped, two tablespoons of raisins, two cooked potatoes chopped, and paprika.  

If you have wontons on hand, which I did, you simply add about a tablespoon of the mixture to the middle.  Wet the sides with your finger and seal them together in triangles.  Add to a sprayed pan and then spray the tops to ensure they get brown and crispy.

Here is what they look like when they come out.  With the wontons you want to make sure you don't burn the tips of the triangles.  These can also be fried in oil, but I prefer the baked version. 

You can make a quick rice and beans and serve with your favorite veggie or salad.  For the complete recipe for the empanada filling see my Turkey Empanada post.  My family prefers the homemade dough form, rather than the wonton wrappers, but this is a quick and easy alternative.

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I absolutely LOVE the Skinny Taste website!  There is always something healthy, easy, and delicious waiting for me to put together!  This was no brainer for me since I LOVE buffalo wings and blue cheese.  Don't like blue cheese?  Switch it to ranch.  Do what you like.  I thought this was perfect as is!

The first thing you do is put the chicken breasts into a crock pot with celery, onion, garlic and chicken broth.  It cooks for  4 hours, then you add then you shred it.  I was dreading this part because it can take forever to shred meat.  But then I read you could put the cooked meat in a kitchen aid mixer on low and let it do all the work for you!  Well, that was my plan...but this just falls apart as you are taking it out of the crock pot, so I just used forks. 

Then you put the shredded chicken, some broth and hot sauce in the crock pot and cook another 30 minutes.  

Prepare your toppings and dressing while you are waiting.  The Low Fat Creamy Blue Cheese dressing is super easy and delicious!  Just click the link for the recipe.  There is also a skinny ranch recipe on the website.  

Use bib lettuce!  We used this red leaf for leftovers and they tear easily, so you want  a sturdy leaf to wrap up this goodness!  I made this for bunco and the girls loved it.  We had leftovers and the family loved it too!!  It's a winner and it feeds a lot of people!  I especially love the carrot and celery garnish, very creative and adds a crunch.

Hope you try it.  It is a nice switch on a classic hot wing dipped in blue cheese.  I will make these again soon!