Quinoa Tabbouleh and Pork Taquitos

 So these two dishes don't so much go together (though they potentially could, you crazy cats) but the iPad wouldn't let me post a new post, so I threw my Failure Taquitos right into this post. I call them failure taquitos because I followed a recipe that used cream cheese inside the taquitos, against my better judgement.

Because I'm a precocious little scamp, I heavily modified the recipe anyway and changed the filling, which was originally boiled, shredded chicken, cheese, cream cheese, and a chipotle ranch filling inside some tortillas, with the same chipotle ranch on the side. Gross. What? Why is it on the inside, if you're gonna slather it on the outside as well. And there's not like a single veggie in that bitch. And we know how much I hate that. Go on, eat some fucking bacon, but at least throw in some spinach and tomatoes or something. What are we, Americans? Anyway, I choose to do a quick/easy marinade for the meat, saute it with some veggies, but then I still used the goddamn cream cheese. Oh well, at least I tried it. And it was good, not great. The cream cheese was gross, and so I tried it again after I got over my initial disappointment failure, but without the cream cheese, and it was soooooooo good.

Here's one of my very favorite, super healthy recipes before we move onto the failure taquitos. 

Quinoa Tabbouleh
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 cup cucumber, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup mint, chopped 
1 jalapeño, minced
3 TB olive oil
1 TB lemon or lime juice
Salt and pepper, pinch and a dash


1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

1. Boil the water. Once it boils, stir in the quinoa, reduce to low heat and cover for 12-15 minutes. Remove lid a fluff.

2. Meanwhile, chop up your veggies, and mix them all together. Whist together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

3. Let quinoa cool for about 20 minutes, and then toss everything together.



Failure Pork Taquitos:
Serves 4

1/2 lb pork tenderloin, or thinly pounded chops
1/2 cup beer
1/2 lime, juiced
3TB olive oil, or sunflower oil

1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper

4 green onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/2 cup peppers,  hot or sweet, depending on your heat tolerance, minced
1/4 cup tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped up (divided, save half for dipping sauce)
2 small chipotle peppers in adobo
1 cup shredded cheese, any old Mexican blend is great
1TB chili powder
1/4 tsp salt

6 inch flour or corn tortillas (I used flour)

1. Mix beer, lime juice, and olive oil and marinate pork for 30 minutes - 2 hours.

2. You could perhaps use this opportunity to chop up your veggies, and compile them on some plates or something to be prepared for later.

3. Heat a large cast iron skillet with 2 TB olive oil. Sauté green onion, garlic, and peppers on medium heat until softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add tomatoes in the last minute or so of cooking. Move to outer edges of the pan, to make enough room to cook the pork. If your pan isn't big enough to do this, just remove the veggies to a bowl, and cook the pork separately.

4. Mix the spices together: paprika, cumin, salt, sugar, and black pepper. Drain the pork, coat with spice mixture, and pan fry for about 3 minutes on each side at medium/medium high. Cut into very think strips, or 1/4 inch cubes, your choice. Both are nice.

5.  Stir together the meat and veggies with the cilantro, chipotle peppers, cheese, chili powder and salt. Use about 2 TB filling to each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down onto a greased baking pan.

6. Cook at 425 for 15- 20 minutes, or until browned and warmed through.

You can also freeze these, but you'll need to up the cooking  time by ten minutes or so.