Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

My cousin-in-law, Heather, posted on facebook that she planned to make Creamy Chicken Enchiladas for supper one night. Curious if these were actually the rolled up enchiladas or stacked, I checked back after supper and this is what she said: “Goodness! These enchiladas are AMAZING!!! Glad I found this recipe :) Will definitely be making Creamy Chicken Enchiladas again!!! Michael even LOVES them.”

I needed this recipe. I love all things Mexican food and with the word creamy in the title-who could resist? Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one requesting the recipe so she posted it. It called for a block of cream cheese, Monterey cheese, and 2 CUPS HEAVY CREAM! No wonder it’s “creamy”…I now had to make these! And.......it had to be a naptime premake!

I do all of my grocery shopping for a month and I went two weeks ago, so I had to make do with what I had. I never buy heavy cream…I just can’t bring myself to feed that to my family…yet. We also try to be somewhat healthy/low fat when we can. So I made adjustments with what we had on hand and noted them in parenthesis.

1-8oz block cream cheese (1/3 less fat kind)

1-8oz block Monterey Jack shredded (Marbled Jack)

1 medium chopped onion

1 T butter (used 1/2T in nonstick pan)

1-4oz can green chilies, diced

½ cup sour cream

3 ½ cups chopped chicken (rotisserie thighs-I have 3 rotisserie birds deboned in freezer just for recipes like this ;)

2 cups heavy cream (1 can green chili sauce+1 can cream celery+2 spoons sour cream+milk to fill to almost 3 cups)

10-12 tortillas (we used half whole wheat and half regular..the wheat is thinner)

Sauté onion in butter until translucent, add chilies and cook 1 minute more. Plop the cream cheese block in and smash and stir until melted, add sour cream and chicken. Remove from heat. In a 9x13 casserole dish, pour ½ cup of “heavy cream” mixture in the bottom and spread all around dish. Spoon chicken filling in to each tortilla, roll tightly, and place seam side down in casserole dish. Repeat until you run out of room or filling. Top with shredded cheese and then drizzle with the cream mixture. I had to use a spoon to spread it over some spots of the tortillas-I don’t like crunchy enchiladas…I want them creamy.

To up the veggies: Red bell pepper would be yummy in these, and maybe even some drained diced tomatoes inside as well-humph, shoulda tried that.

Bake 350^◦ for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly.

There ya have it! Another naptime premake! I plan to make some Mexican fried rice to go with this as a side. The rice is left over from another meal-sautéed onion and celery with some EVOO should do the trick. YUM!

Thanks Heather, I plan on filling my plate and continuing my membership with the “Clean Your Plate” club tonight. ;)

Man-Pleaser Premake Meal

I love all things premade. With that being said, I also love making and creating things on my own. The best thing of all is when I can create something to premake during naptime. My premake of choice has to be food, supper in particular. Around this house, when it comes time to start making supper my Little Man is suddenly hungry-but he’s not, he just snacked. Sometimes, though when it is the right meal, I can cook with him on my hip and he LOVES it and I do too because he’s learning his mama’s cookin’, it’s good “mommy&me” time, and he gets samples (when he samples it as it cooks-he’s more willing to eat it). Most meals however require both my hands and while my Ergo baby carrier (that I stole from babysteals.com-high five Elise!) helps sometimes, most of the time he stands barefoot on my barefeet begging for me to pick him up. I have to make supper at naptime! (Ok, I don't HAVE to but I'd much rather spend my Little Man's awake time playing, not slaving at the stove.)

This dish is a definite favorite-I have made and remade this and then switched things up a bit. Any noodle you can stuff or roll (lasagna) can be used.  It’s a favorite, it’s versatile, it’s a man-pleaser, it’s a naptime premake!

4 Meat Stuffed Shells

Get a large pot of water boiling for your noodles.

SAUCE

1 jar traditional pasta sauce+1 can stewed tomatoes

¼ lb browned hamburger

¼ C chopped pepperoni

1 lb link sausage (like Eckrich) chopped

10 slices thin bacon cooked and crumbled (save some for topping)

1 C  each onion & bell pepper (I used frozen chopped)

Minced garlic (whatever pleases your palate)

Mix everything but sauce together in skillet and cook about 10-15 min (add garlic the last 5 minutes so it won’t burn). Then add sauce and tomatoes. Simmer for 30 min while you prepare the rest. Remember to scrape as you stir in the sauce getting all the yummies off the bottom.

*You can so make this easier on yourself by just making or buying regular ole meat sauce, but I love creating things and this is my attempt at copying a restaurant’s meat sauce that my hub loved.

 **up your veggies by adding baby food carrots to sauce...makes it sweeter too!

The water should be boiling by now, salt your water and add your large shells. I always undercook these by a few minutes to where they are al dente (10-12 min). Keep an eye on these, they like to huddle in groups and snuggle up inside each other making the cooking uneven…yuck.

FILLING

1 tub of ricotta cheese

1 8 oz. package of Italian blend cheeses (I get the preshredded Walmart brand)

½ C sour cream

Italian seasoning and garlic powder-I’ve never really measured I just give a few good shakes of each.

Red pepper flakes-optional and how much depends on your taste…I add maybe ½ t to give it a little flair.

Mix it all together. I usually will make this the night before so it’s ready for me…one less thing to do during nap (so maybe I can get one too;).

**up your veggies by finely chopping some spinach and adding it to the mix....adds color and no one will notice...the hubs sure didn't!

ASSEMBLY

Drain noodles and spread some sauce in the bottom on a 9x13 pan. Place the noodles seam side up in the pan the best you can…careful…they are HOT. I never can get all my noodles to fit in the pan but then again, I never get a full box of perfect shells either. Use a cereal spoon full of the cheese filling for each shell and then kind of squeeze them so they’ll close well-this also makes more room in the pan. When they are all filled, top with meat sauce and more cheese if ya want.

Let it all cool, cover with foil, and pop it in the FRIDGE until you’re ready to “cook” supper.

Bake uncovered at 350 until bubbly.

This will easily feed 4 pasta loving people when served with bread and salad (you gotta balance the meat with veggies!). Upon serving, garnish with a bit of cheese and crumbled bacon…yes, bacon. Bacon is a very good thing when paired with pasta……………and onions, and lettuce, and tomatoes……………and chocolate ;)

Enchiladas & Taquitos

I love Mexican food and will go out of my way to recreate some of my favorite menu items at home. One such example: enchiladas and taquitos.

While putting up last night's tortilla soup leftovers, I noticed a few things that needed to be used: Mexican cheese, refrigerated tortillas, boiled chicken. Okay, so the Mexican cheese didn't exacly have to be used but I fell in love with it and needed to create a supper around it-love it...melts beautifully and not too strong...a perfectly stringy cheese....Ahh.....yum.

I thought the cheese would be great in enchiladas, but I hate the whole process of making them. I once took the easy way out had bought frozen taquitos and poured some leftover enchilada soup on them. They were a real crowd pleaser too. This got me to thinking-I can make taquitos and enchiladas at the same time...but...easier.

What you'll need:
2-3 chicken breasts, shredded
1/2 to 1 cup Kraft Authentic Mexican cheese blend, preshreded ;)
1t each ground cumin, garlic powder, dried cilantro
salt, pepper to taste
Enough sour cream to make the above ingredients stick together
12 refrigerated tortillas
Leftover tortilla soup (or a can of tortilla soup'll do)
additional cheese

Mix the first 5 ingredients. Depending on how much you like cheese, use anywhere from a half to a whole cup of the yummy stuff here.

While mixing the chicken mixture, start cooking your refrigerated tortillas as directed on the package. My LaAbuela brand says one minute per side over medium heat. I undercooked them slightly since they were getting cooked again in the oven. This helped them not to get too dry while rolling.

Spread 1-2T of chicken mixture in the tortillas and roll tightly. Place seam side down on a greased, foil lined pan. Generously spray the tops of each taquito with cooking spray. I was only able to get 8 taquitos on my pan so the rest went into a casserole dish for enchiladas. Spray this dish as well, then spread a little tortilla soup in the bottom of it. Place rolled taquitos in the casserole dish and cover with soup and more cheese.

Bake at 300 for about 25-30 minutes. Flip taquitos half way through cooking time. These will brown easily toward the end so watch closely.

I used two small chicken breasts in my mixture because that's what was left over. I ran out of mixture for the last few so I made the same mixture without the chichen...cheese enchiladas/taquitos. They were great as well-may do half of each next time.

My husband and 18 month old son loved these. The lil man only had the enchiladas and had to dip them in a little sour cream...we are dippers around here....another reason why I love Mexican food-so many things you can dip, dunk, or drowned in hot sauce....YUM!