Baked Chimichanga's

I love Chimi's what I don't love is the fact that their fried. I have PCOS so nutrition is VERY important to me in order to maintain my health without prescription drugs. A few years ago I embarked on a mission to find healthier ways to eat the foods I loved. Chimichanga's are basically fried burritos, fried as in deep fat fried, so my mission was to first find a way to recreate the crispy tortilla without frying. Well what's the opposite of frying? Baking! So here's the recipe with pictures as well.

Ingredients you'll need:
1lb ground beef
1/2 onion diced
1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. cumin
2 tbsp. chili powder
2 15ozs. tomato sauce
1 4oz. can green chilli's
1 4oz. can diced jalapeño's
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

I would consider gathering all the ingredients before you start.
First brown the ground beef until there's no pink left then drain and rinse the can of black beans, mince the garlic and dice the onions. Put the onions, garlic, and can of black beans along with the chilli powder,cumin, and a 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce into the skillet with the ground beef and cook over low/medium heat. You won't need the oil in the picture I just forgot to put it away. Ha! When you're filling for the chimichanga's is done it will look like this:

Yeah it smells as good as it looks :)

The next step is to warm up the tortillas. I highly suggest you either make your own tortillas or make sure you buy the thicker softer tortilla's at the grocery store. These will need to be warmed so as to avoid tearing when you go to roll them. Remember this is a basically a burrito that's fried but we're going to bake it! So grab your warm tortilla and spoon the filling into the middle and fold and roll just like a burrito, once you got them all assembled you'll put them on a baking sheet and you'll brush melted butter over the tops and sides of them.

Make sure you've pre-heated your oven to 350 degrees before placing the chimichanga's into the oven. Set your timer for 25 minutes and bake chimichanga's until golden brown.

Now what's a chimichanga without the awesome red sauce right? I have a super super easy and delicious red sauce but it is spicy so add jalapeños to taste. In a saucepan pour in the remainder of the tomato sauce add the can of green chilli's and the can of Jalapeños and heat to a simmer.

Once the Chimi's are done simply place on a plate and cover in red sauce and shredded cheddar cheese. This recipe takes 15 minutes for prep and 30 minutes to cook. I wish I had a picture of the finished product but my family ate all up too quickly!