From the Can To the Jar To the Crock Pot

Happy Rest Day!!

I've not shown you anything from the kitchen in quite some time because all of my sense of adventure went out the window. Frankly, I got in a really good groove of meals we fixed, but none of them were noteworthy. This, however, is going to come into the regular menu cycle because it was super yummy! AND, it's a slow-cooker recipe ... throw all of the stuff in, get on with your day, have a great dinner. WINNING!!

Okay, it's like this ... when I was a kid, my Mom used to tell me about how when she was a kid, she and her Dad would go out late at night and get tamales from some food cart. I recall no other details to this story (other than he, by my recollection, used to wake her up to do this, and that made my stomach hurt thinking of going back to bed on tamales. But, whatever.), but I do recall how it made me feel because I do love me a story about traditions and those little things over which people bond. The cool thing is that my Mom would often tell this story as she and I had tamales for lunch after grocery shopping. Ours, though, were the tamales out of a can. And, let me tell you, I loved 'em!! They looked very much like this ...

Do you know how many images there are when you Google
"tamales in a can"? I know, I was totally surprised, too. I found
this one here for those who need to know.

... except without the garnish. Oh, and they came six to a can, so they had to be smushed in there, so ours weren't round. They were kind of flattened on a side if not somewhat triangular. They sluuurrrrpped out kind of like canned cranberry sauce and were probably about as authentic. But, they were gooooo-oooood.

Canned tamales went to the wayside by the time I was a teen, but early in my relationship with Aaron, I stumbled across jarred ones at the store and snagged 'em! They still sold the ones in the can, but they were all beef, and, by then, I was off the beef. The jar ones, however, were made with chicken. And, they were just as delish -- a fact disputed by Aaron. Aaron who eats just about anything was totally grossed out. Worked well: More for me!

Well, the jarred chicken tamales have been MIA for many years which is probably fine because my bet is their nutrition was probably pretty MIA, too. But, I still get a hankerin' now and then, so you can guess my ears perked up when I saw a recent interview with Lisa Lillien (aka: Hungry Girl!) who mentioned there was a tamale recipe in her new cookbook!!

I was off to the library to check it out:

I immediate jumped to the Outside-In Turkey Tamale Pie recipe, and Pit Crew #2 and I made it yesterday! I have no pictures of the process because, frankly, we were busy throwing it together and moving on (crock pot perk!) not to mention there's very little to do other than throw everything together and let it stew. Wahoo!! It's a breeze!!

I almost didn't get any pictures at all -- we were very hungry and very eager to eat it! I got one just in time, though ...

Click here for the full recipe! I will note I forgot to buy onion, but I did add a small can of chopped green chilies because I love them, and it was super-awesome!

Does it taste just like a tamale? No -- that's not going to happen without a corn meal wrapper! But, there's a tamale current running through this, and it made my mouth happy! It's also tame on the spicing even with the can of chilis, so it was easy on the digestion! It's a dish I could definitely eat the night before a short run without worrying about any potential tummy troubles!

Here are the quickie per serving nutrition stats if you want to check 'em out before deciding whether or not to make it (which I highly recommend!): 230 calories; 7.5g fat; 19g protein!; 21g carbs; 3g fiber.

There you have it! A total winner ... ooohhh ... I just realized I am totally going to have to pair this with Hungry Girl's margarita next time!! But, that won't happen the night before a run, so it's going to have to wait a few days because tomorrow ... we run! I already asked PC#2 if she's excited to run tomorrow morning in the heat. She pretty quickly responded with a definite, "No." Too bad, we're going anyway!! We'll see you after!