A Skinny Gal's Taquitos

I LOVE taquitos! They are small, tasty and can be eaten with your hands. The sad news...... they are loaded with calories and fat!! YUCK!!!! After researching some popular restaurant chains website, I found that a common taquito can have about 176 calorie, 9 grams of fat and 2 grams of saturated fat. That is per taquito people!!!!!

A few years ago I started the process of getting back in "shape" which caused me to hire a personal trainer. She was AWESOME.... but that's beside the point. She taught me some pretty great lessons to live by.
1) Calories are important but NOT as important as fat.

2) You should try to never have more then 7 total grams of fat per meal.

3) Always look at what your gaining out of the dish besides the bad stuff, i.e. protein, vitamins and minerals.

So, if we go back to these taquitos, we can see that they break at least the first two rules. And that is just per taquito; not the whole dish. So I started thinking up a way of slimming these little suckers down and not cut out the taste. The calorie counter I use does not let you put in odd amounts of items so the count is a little bit higher then how much is actually in these taquitos. Now, I'm not claiming these are the perfect diet food but..... if your going to splurge on something, make it a smart splurge.

Nutritional facts (per taquito):
Calories: 86.7 g
Total Fat: 2.9 g
Saturated Fat: 1.1g
Protein: 10.61 g

Ingredients

1 can (12.5oz) diced chicken, white meat, drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can low sodium corn drained
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies drained
1/4 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
2 tbsp. non-fat cream cheese
2 tbsp. HOT taco seasoning
1 pkg. 24 count corn tortillas-----you can also use low fat flour tortillas
Cooking spray


Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray medium pan with cooking spray and heat on medium heat. Cooking spray cuts down on major fat and calories. Use it whenever possible. Cook onions for about 5 minutes. Add beans and corn and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, pour chicken into a medium mixing bowl and break apart chicken with a spoon. Add diced tomatoes and chilies, cheese, corn/bean mixture, cream cheese and seasoning. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.

Work with about 5 tortillas at a time. Place them on a plate covered by a damp paper towel. Microwave for 15-20 seconds. Working quickly, place a heaping tablespoon of mixture on to one end of the tortilla. Roll tightly and secure with toothpick. Continue until all taquitos are made (may have to bake two batches). Bake for about 10 minutes are tortillas are crisp. Cool for 2 minutes and serve with plain Greek yogurt; a great alternative to sour cream.

Makes between 20-24 depending on size.