Del Monte’s Southwestern Tomato Kick-Off Sweepstakes {Win It}!

I’ve never been much of a football fan, in fact, until this past season, I dreaded Sundays and Mondays and every other day/night that football dominated my television.  My husband plays fantasy football every year, so in addition to supporting his favorite team (the Cincinnati Bengals) he also “had to watch” every single football game the entire season, normally this behavior would drive me crazy, but this year that behavior helped me find a team I could finally get behind and dare I say, actually turn me into a football fan.  Who knew several weeks ago when I discovered how much I adore the San Francisco 49ers (I know, it’s really weird for a Cincinnati girl to adopt a team all the way across the country as her favorite, but what are you gonna do) and their completely awesome quarterback Colin Kaepernick, that my team ( it feels weird saying that) would actually end up playing in Super Bowl XLVII???  I have to say, it’s rather exciting for me!  Though I’ve never been much of a football fan, the Super Bowl is the one game that we always watch and that usually means lots of family, friends and good food!

I had the opportunity recently to work with Del Monte on a fun campaign centering around their Petite Cut Diced Tomatoes (a product that I use all the time) to create some great recipes for the big game and I couldn’t wait  to get started!  Del Monte sent me two new varieties of Petite Cut Diced Tomatoes to incorporate into my game day dishes:  Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies  and Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle Chilies and I knew exactly how I was going to use them.



When it comes to cooking for the big game, it’s usually a mixture of everyone’s favorite snack foods (chips and dip, pigs in a blanket, egg rolls) and something more substantial like quesadillas or chili or both.  Since chili is usually on my game day menu I decided to start there by adding a can of Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies to the recipe and the results were pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  My usual chili is rather mild since I have two little ones who can’t  tolerate spicy foods like the rest of us can, but the addition of the tomatoes with green chilies only added a slight kick and a great flavor, I think I may have to add them from now on!  Chicken Quesadilla are my specialty, I make them at least a couple of times a month for our family, they’re super easy, so yummy and don’t take too much time so they’re the perfect week night meal for us, but they are also great to serve for guests as well—they’re yummy.  I thought that taking my original  quesadilla recipe and tweaking it a bit to include the  Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle Chilies could work well and I was definitely right.  Check out my Chicken Quesadilla recipe below…you’ll want to pin this one!

Kickin’ Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas

Serves up to 10 people

Ingredients

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast (cut into bite size pieces)
10 Azteca flour tortillas
4 oz. cream cheese softened
1- 14.5 oz can Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle Chilies drained
1 packet Chicken Taco seasoning
1- 8oz. package of shredded mild cheddar or fiesta blend cheese
1- 4oz. can green chilies

Directions

1.  Cut chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and cook in lightly oiled non-stick pan until cooked through.  Add chicken taco seasoning to diced chicken and cook according to package directions. 
2. Transfer chicken to medium mixing bowl and add cream cheese, tomatoes, and half of the shredded cheese.  Mix until well incorporated. 
3.  Take 1 flour tortilla and add 2 TBS of the chicken mixture to half of the tortilla and spread mixture to cover.  Add additional cheddar cheese (if desired), fold tortilla in half and cook in an lightly oiled (I used cooking spray) non-stick pan and allow quesadilla to cook until cheese in melted and both sides are brown.
4.  Allow quesadilla to cool before slicing into 4 equal pieces (a pizza cutter does this beautifully). 
5.  Serve and enjoy!

This recipe is super simple and though the Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle Chilies were different than we are used to, I think they worked great in this dish and everyone seemed to agree.  I can’t wait until Super Bowl Sunday to make both of these dishes for all of our party guests.

In addition to having two great new diced tomato varieties, Del Monte is helping to inspire a little creativity in the kitchen by  kicking off their Southwestern Tomato Kick-Off Sweepstakes and this is one sweepstakes you are definitely going to want to check out!  As part of the sweepstakes you can share tips and recipes featuring the new Del Monte Southwestern-Style Petite Cut® Diced Tomato varieties.  One lucky winner will take home an exciting entertainment package including: a Sony® 55” LED TV, Bose® home theater system and Sony® Blu-ray player (ARV $4,779.00 USD) so make sure you head over to the Del Monte website and look at the official rules!

You can keep up with the Southwestern Tomato Kick-Off Sweepstakes by Liking the Del Monte on Facebook, Following Del Monte on Pinterest  and Following @DelMonteFoods on Twitter!  You can also check out “Del Monte Southwestern Tomato Kick-Off” Pinterest board for some great recipes featuring Del Monte’s new diced tomato varieties, by Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien !

WIN IT!

I have great news for one MIBR reader, I have an awesome Del Monte Gift pack including (1) Can Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies, (1) can  Del Monte® Petite Cut® Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle Chilies and a $25 Visa gift card!  Details on how to enter and official rules can be found using the Rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Disclosure:  “The Del Monte products, information and two gift packs have been provided by Del Monte.”