Triple Mmmm's ...

Today's Rest Day is brought to you from the kitchen! I have SUCH a yummy recipe coming to you straight from Hungry Girl ... SO GOOD I HAD TO SHARE!

Well, it's good if you are a fan of taquitos, and a fan I am! My favorite guilty pleasure comes from a convenience store. Yup, it's the QT chicken taquito discovered on past road trips. For a whole host of reasons (cost, health, convenience -- so glad the nearest QT is not  just around the corner!), we don't have them often, but when we do ... mmm ... mmm ... mmm ...

Ever tried 'em? I'm telling you ... triple mmm's ... But, for the above sensible reasons, they must stay at bay even though they are cravable. What's a girl to do?

This girl tuned in to the latest episode of Hungry Girl where she made Exploding Chicken Taquitos. I had to try them! Here we go with a mini switch-a-roo to the recipe:

A 10-ounce can of chunk chicken breast, flaked. I've already
tried the recipe with leftover rotisseree chicken, and it was not
as good. Conflicting flavors perhaps? I don't know, but I'm
sticking with the stuff that's easy to flake!

The recipe calls for salsa. We had salsa, but I couldn't get the
jar open. So, I opted (for what I wanted to use anyway) to use
the tofu fiesta dip that we've come to love so much! GOOD
CALL; TOTALLY WORKED. By using the tofu dip, I did
eliminate the call for taco seasoning, too.

While letting the chicken mixture sit, I prepared the tortillas. I
had *no* idea that if you put wet paper towels around your
tortillas then microwave that for one minute that your tortillas
would be so easy to work with! Who figures these things out?!
I don't know, but they rule!

See? All warm and bendy! Fabulous!

After adding some shredded cheese, tt was time to fill 'em up!
I used less regular cheese than the recipe calls for (about a
quarter cup). Spread the mixture close to the edges -- it's
about 2 tablespoons full. Of goodness.

The Hungry Girl recipe says to use toothpicks if necessary. I
am here to tell you I have no idea how it would work without
them! They're called "Exploding", and that's very accurate!

A mere 15 minutes later, warm and yummy! Crispy on the
outside, warm and delicious on the inside!

Doesn't it look awesome? They tasted even better than they
looked!! I dipped mine in a little more of the tofu; Aaron used
tofu and salsa, and all four of us devoured them!

Okay, now let's talk stats: From what I've found, I see one QT taquito has 280 calories (not as horrific as I was expecting to be honest), 11 g fat (yeah, there it is), 32 g carbs and 14 g protein.

The Hungry Girl version for two has 197 calories, 2.5 fat (there we go!), 22.5 carbs and 20.5 protein. This does not factor in the addition of the tofu use.

While it's true that the sizes of the taquitos are not the same (best guess: 2 of Hungry Girl's are about 1 1/3 of a QT) those two Hungry Girl taquitos are a great serving! If you add another HG one to your plate, you're getting about the same calories and carbs as one QT taquito, but you're scoring big time with the fat and protein. And, a most important factor ... The taste of what we made? SUPERB!!

Give these a try!! They're awesome!! We'll be having more very soon. In the meantime, it's a running day tomorrow, so I'll see you after my date with the road!