Coycat Recipe: Southwest Egg Rolls

I love appetizers. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that before. One of my favorites is the southwest egg rolls that every chain restaurant seems to have some version of. I especially enjoy the avocado ranch dip that comes with them. It's scientifically proven that foods become 10 times better when you dip them in something, especially if that something contains avocado. 

It's nice that you can buy frozen versions of a lot of those restaurant appetizers, but it would be nicer if they were less expensive, had more reasonable portions, and weren't horrible for you. 

I FINALLY went grocery shopping last weekend (it had been like 5 weeks...) and I wandered down the prepared frozen foods aisle. I stopped in front of the appetizers and spent an embarrassing amount of time deciding whether I should buy something. I realized that I could easily make more egg rolls for much cheaper and they'd definitely be healthier. I stared at the picture on the box trying to discern ingredients. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can diced green chiles

Salt

Cumin

Chili Powder

1 cup Mexican blend cheese

1 package eggroll wrappers

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cover a baking sheet with foil.

Combine all ingredients (except egg roll wrappers), seasoning to taste with salt, cumin, and chili powder

Put about 2 tbsp of the mixture onto egg roll wrapper and wrap tightly. I start at the corner, pulling the sides in and then finishing to the opposite corner. Wet the end to seal.

Place sealed side down and spray with cooking spray or brush with olive oil.

Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Flip egg rolls and bake for an additional 10 minutes

As I mentioned, I really like the avocado ranch. I decided to make a crappy version of that by combining mashed avocado and ranch. I didn't break a sweat coming up with this...

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1/2 cup ranch (may need more depending on the size of your avocado)

Directions:
Mash avocado. Mix with ranch.

I was pretty satisfied with this version. I feel a lot better about it knowing what I put into it. I tried to make this as healthy as possible. I used just enough cheese to hold the filling together and obviously baking them cuts a lot of calories. I hate beans (gritty mushy texture. blech) but I used them in this recipe because they're super filling and nutritious, plus they're kind of buried in corn so I can tolerate them.

It was 40 degrees in Chicago today, but I feel like I'm in Santa Fe eating these egg rolls! Riiiiiight.
Tracy