Mexican feast recipe ideas wanted

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LauraJayneHazzard
LauraJayneHazzard Posts: 12 Member
in Recipes
Hiya, I'm cooking a meal for my family (five of us) and they have requested a Mexican feast. What kind of things can I do that would be healthy? I was thinking of making my own dips and using pittas for nachos. What kind of main meals do you recommend to make with the sides? Chili? Enchiladas? Fajitas? Quesadillas? Anybody got any good healthy recipes? Thanks!
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  • VanillaSmile427
    VanillaSmile427 Posts: 45
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    Hmmm.. I love mexican food and I am mexican myself..lol. but I love guacamole.. avocado has a lot of healthy fats and if you add onions and tomatoes you eat some veggies. For food anything with chicken you can make a chipotle rub or marinate... then grill the chicken and make tacos. Some salsa. Fajitas are pretty healthy as long as you're not using too much oil. Tilapia tacos are one of my favories. You can make turkey meatballs in a green tomatillo sauce. I always add 1/4 of an egg to the inside of the meatball . Then serve with some pinto or black beans. Snacks.. I love cucumber or jicama with hot sauce and lime. A lot of fresh fruit like mangos, bananas.. Authentic mexican food is prety healthy but tex.mex and americanized version are not..
  • Sunbrooke
    Sunbrooke Posts: 632 Member
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    Carne asada tacos don't have to be too high calorie. Use corn tortillas. They are usually garnished with cilantro, onion, and radishes on the side.

    Simmered chicken thighs. Cover sautéed onion and peppers with boneless/skinless chicken thighs. Cover with canned tomatoes, and sprinkle with chile powder, garlic, and ground cumin.

    Shrimp

    Pablano chile rice is really good and different.

    Black bean dip (if you want to cheat, Bush's "Cocina Latina" are amazing right out of the can)

    Grilled veggies with squash, onion, and peppers.
  • guidothecat
    guidothecat Posts: 141 Member
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    I just did a Mexi night for friends (might not be authentic, low fat/low calories, but it was great)

    Mexi shredded pork (roasted with onions, tomitillo's, tomatoes, cumin, cilantro, oregano-like a salsa verde) for tacos
    jicima and cucumber pico
    guacamole with tomatoes, onions, lime juice, cilantro
    spanish rice (with extra tomatoes, onions, etc)
    homemade refried beans with onions and jalepeno (I didn't use bacon grease, just mashed them in the pan and used reserved liquid from the can of pintos)
    corn tortillas for the tacos (not the hard ones, get the real ones and heat in the oven in tinfoil)
    and of course the normal toppings of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cheese, etc.

    I also do a fish taco night, and make a mango/pineapple pico to go with that and I skip the guacamole and just serve on the side plates sliced avocado, tomatoes topped with fine minced jalapenos, green onions, cilantro and a squirt of lime juice.
  • S_Murphree
    S_Murphree Posts: 94
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    Chicken or beef fajitas. Salsa is certainly a winner. Spanish rice using brown rice.
  • ninav1980
    ninav1980 Posts: 514 Member
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    I just created a new dish last night I found to be deee-lish!
    I call my creation Turkey Street Tacos


    Lean Ground Turkey 90/10
    Black Beans
    Corn -no salt added
    Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
    Avocado (optional)
    splash of lime
    Corn Tortillas-not fried, simply heated up on stove

    It was amaze! I created a recipe on my profile that allows me to eat two of these for under 400 calories ( although I couldnt include the avocado since it was too high on the calories)... but my husband sure loved it!


    I saw someone else post fish tacos, another excellent idea!!!!!
  • Junepal
    Junepal Posts: 148 Member
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    One of my favs that I found on this mfp is Creamy Chicken Chilli served with skillet jalapeño cornbread

    Creamy Crockpot Chicken Chilli

    Chicken - Boneless Skinless Breast 3 Breasts
    Primo - Diced Plum Tomatoes, 1 can undrained
    Great Value - Light Cream Cheese, 0.75 container (16 tbsp ea.)
    Unico - Black Beans - Canned, 1 can, drained & rinsed
    Green Giant - Niblets- Canned Corn, 1 container (1 4/5 cups ea.)
    Old El Paso - Green Chilies, Chopped, 2 tbsp 10 2 0 0 120
    Ranch Dressing Dry Mix, 1 Packet
    Tex Mex Spices 1 tbsp
    Ground Cumin, 1 tsp
    Onion powder, 1 tbsp
    Water - Municipal, 2 cups

    Lay chicken breast in bottom of crockpot
    Add remaining ingredients
    Stir
    Cook low 6-8 hours
    Shred Chicken with 2 forks, stir well and serve
  • MaxxieTibbyMom
    MaxxieTibbyMom Posts: 16 Member
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    Google Fine Cooking Cinco de Mayo menu. I love Fine Cooking website, the recipes are relatively accurate and ingredients are normally healthy. You can always substitute low fat/calorie items without compromise the taste. Then take them all out dancing or break a pinata to burn the calories away~~
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    Lengua. I dare you. :wink:
  • MexicanOsmosis
    MexicanOsmosis Posts: 382 Member
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    In for the noms and to see what people consider Mexican food, lol.
  • MexicanOsmosis
    MexicanOsmosis Posts: 382 Member
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    Lengua. I dare you. :wink:

    Lengua is awesome!
  • Hikr56
    Hikr56 Posts: 128 Member
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    About a month ago, I made this recipe for the first time. It's AWESOME and EASY! I had hubby take some to our son and he loved it so much that he sent me a text from work! (That's a big deal because he never does that. LOL)

    From Food.com. (Link Below) 299.9 calories per serving


    Ingredients:

    Serves: 4

    Yield:

    18

    tacos

    Units: US | Metric

    1 lb frozen boneless skinless chicken breast
    7 ounces caned chipotle chiles in adobo (not drained)
    1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans (drained)
    1 (15 1/2 ounce) can no salt added whole kernel golden sweetcorn (not drained)
    1 (10 ounce) can Rotel tomatoes & chilies (optional,drained, it can it super spicy)

    Directions:

    1
    put the frozen chicken on the bottom of the crock pot
    2
    add the rest of the ingredients on top.
    3
    spread over the chicken and make sure the top is coated as much as possible.
    4
    Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
    5
    shred then enjoy (Make sure that you shred up the chipotles too).

    Read more: <a href="http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-shredded-chipotle-chicken-422079?oc=linkback">http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-shredded-chipotle-chicken-422079?oc=linkback</a&gt;
  • day1appraisal
    day1appraisal Posts: 16 Member
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    Fajitas are always good because you can grill instead of fry, chicken instead of beef, go heavy on the onions and peppers.

    I cheat and use a small corn tortilla as a base and pile everything on top, then eat with knife and fork instead of eating several filled tortillas.

    Also good sides with any Mexican Feast are guacamole and a fresh salsa of finely chopped tomatoes, minced sweet onion, minced jalapeno (only a part of one of these is needed), and seasonings of salt, black pepper and cumin. NUMMY!!!
  • MexicanOsmosis
    MexicanOsmosis Posts: 382 Member
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    Oh yeah, you can make Chicken Tinga. There are plenty of recipes out there, not sure where mine is...

    This is actually a decent looking recipe. Can use a different type and/or less oil I would think. My recipe (ok, my mother's recipe) doesn't use any oil that I recall.

    ETA: recipe link
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    Lengua. I dare you. :wink:

    Lengua is awesome!

    Oh, for sure. If I was hosting a "Mexican feast," you can bet I'd be introducing lots of things most people have never heard of before.

    And to another post, not sure "crockpot chicken" qualifies as Mexican, but it does sound pretty tasty.
  • kdeanosu
    kdeanosu Posts: 31 Member
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    * bumping for later because I LOVE Mexican food! *
  • MrsG31
    MrsG31 Posts: 364 Member
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    All of this sound delish!

    You already have a great list of items to choose from, so I am just gonna say that just about every time we have sort of mexican-like food we use black beans for a side dish. My family, kids included, eat them up. And green salsa, love green salsa. (but has to be mild for me- I love mexican food, but only if it is not spicy, lol)
  • ktsmom430
    ktsmom430 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    Lengua. I dare you. :wink:

    Lengua is awesome!

    ^Umm, no thanks.

    Fajitas are always a good choice, especially if you grill the meat and veggies. Can be a very low calorie choice if you choose to omit the tortilla and toppings.
  • MexicanOsmosis
    MexicanOsmosis Posts: 382 Member
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    Lengua. I dare you. :wink:

    Lengua is awesome!

    ^Umm, no thanks.

    It just tastes like very tender beef, lol
  • LauraJayneHazzard
    LauraJayneHazzard Posts: 12 Member
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    Wow so many replies already, thanks everyone! Everything is sounding so tasty it's going to be hard to decide what to make!
  • evanblove
    evanblove Posts: 82 Member
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    Here is a link to a tomatillo avocado salso on a primal/paleo blog. I haven't made it yet, but is sounds good. She has other Mexican dishes on her site.
    http://www.primallyinspired.com/tomatillo-avocado-salsa-vegan-paleo-raw-mexican/

    Here is the recipe:
    Tomatillo Avocado Salsa

    Makes about 4 cups of salsa

    Ingredients:

    1 lb tomatillos, husk removed (1 lb is about 4-5 tomatillos)

    1 jalapeno, seeds removed (if you like it spicy, keep some of the seeds in there!)

    ½ bunch of cilantro (big handful!)

    1 medium onion

    2 garlic cloves

    1 avocado, seed and skin removed

    1 lime, juiced

    1 tsp salt

    DIRECTIONS:

    Put everything in a high powered blender and blend for a few minutes until pureed or to desired consistency. If you don’t have a high powered blender, make sure to at least quarter the tomatillos, onion, avocado, jalapeno, etc before adding it to your blender. This will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

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