Chimichangas - What's Cookin'

 If you're like me, you get tired of the same meals week after week after week. I feel like I am on auto pilot with our dinners and I keep making the same 5 meals every week. So, I thought it'd be fun to challenge myself to make one new meal each week and I will post it here whether it's a giant FAIL or the best thing I've ever eaten. Also, since I'm 3 months postpartum I'm also trying to make healthier choices to get rid of this lovely baby weight.

So, here's this week's experiment: Chimichangas and let me just tell you they turned out EXCELLENT!

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes w/ green chiles
1 packet of chili seasoning mix - I used McCormicks
Cumin
Oregano
Onion
Black pepper
8-10 8 inch flour tortilla shells
Your Favorite shredded cheese - I used sharp cheddar made with 2% milk
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I began this culinary adventure by slathering my chicken with extra virgin olive oil and rubbing half the packet of chili seasoning onto the chicken (like a dry rub). I placed the chicken in the crockpot with 2 cups of water, turned the crockpot on low, and headed out the door to work.

When I got home around 5pm, my house smelled delicious and this is what was waiting for me:

As soon as I attempted to pull this bird out of the crockpot, it fell apart - perfect! I fished out most of the bird and place it in a collander in the sink to cool down a bit.

While the chicken was cooling, I poured the cans of diced tomatoes into a large pot along with the other half of the chili seasoning, approx a tbl of each of the spices, half of an onion (chopped), and here's the best part - I took a strainer and placed it on top the pot and then poured he remains of the crockpot in there too! This was also a great way to get the rest of the chicken out of the crockpot as well.
Once, the chicken had cooled down enough for me to touch it, I pulled all of the meat and tossed that into the pot and let it simmer until the liquid had thickened.

Here's what it looked like:

Finally, I put my concoction through the strainer so that it wouldn't make the tortilla soggy and spooned about half a cup of the mix onto a tortilla, added cheese, folded the tortilla and placed it on a baking sheet. Once I had wrapped all of my chimichangas, I brushed on some olive oil.

Look at these glistening beauties:

I placed them gently and lovingly into a 425F oven and cooked them for about 8 mins, then flipped them over, brushed on some olive oil on the other side and put them back into the oven for about 5 more minutes.

This is what came out of the oven:

YUM!

Of Course, I fixed mexican rice and corn as sides

This is Vincent's plate - I pulled some of the chicken right out of the crockpot for him thinking the other would be too spicy, but he ended up eating off my plate anyhow.

The best part - I started cooking at 5:30pm and dinner was on the table by 6:15pm!

ENJOY! 

Any Ideas what I should tackle next? Leave me a comment!