What's For Dinner? Red Chili Chicken Enchiladas!

Last night's dinner...

I usually make Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas but my hubs has been begging me for red ones for some time now.  I stopped making them years ago because my sons didn't like them... but, after last night , I'd say they were a hit and I'll be adding these back to my menu plan!

I'll share this super easy recipe with you! This is just my version... I'm sure there are many other ways but this is just the way I make them and my family loved it :)

(Here's the not so great and healthy part)

Run each (white) corn tortilla through oil first until they are soft.

You can spray with olive oil instead of dipping them in the oil,

it's just a bit more time consuming and the tortillas don't get as soft.

If you'd like you'd like to skip the oil all together,

you can use small flour tortillas instead!

They are just as yummy!

As I run each tortilla through the oil, I pat off the excess oil

with a paper towel.

I'm rolling these, not stacking them, so I'm

only making two enchiladas each = 8 total

I cooked up some chicken earlier and shredded it.

(I always save the broth!!)

I used about two and a half small chicken breasts for

8 enchiladas.

I love colby jack cheese and tend to use it for almost all my recipes!

I diced up about 1/3 of a small (yellow) onion

In a baking dish, I have poured a little bit of red

enchilada sauce on the bottom and started to fill

each tortilla with a bit of chicken, cheese,

a sprinkle of onion and a little drizzle of sauce...

 roll and tuck!

(I know how to make my own homemade red sauce but I started dinner too late and had to use canned red chili enchilada sauce instead.  I have used Las Palmas or Macayo's brand.  I think the canned sauce is too runny so I used a little chicken broth from the chicken I made earlier and added a little flour to thicken it.)

After you roll all the enchiladas, pour as much sauce

as you'd like all over them and sprinkle some

extra cheese on top.  You can sprinkle more onions

and even some black olives at this point if you'd like.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes

(cheese melts and sauce is bubbly hot)

I served them with some homemade Spanish rice, shredded lettuce,

and some diced tomatoes

Top off with a little dab of sour cream if the sauce comes out too spicy.  Also serve with beans... I just don't love them, so I didn't make any last night!

ENJOY! :)

What's For Dinner? Lasagna Rolls!

I can't say it enough... Meal planning is a life saver!  Today's menu called for Lasagna Rolls!  I had everything I needed except garlic bread, which I purposely wait until the "day of" to buy so it doesn't go bad.

I really don't mind cooking... cleaning the kitchen afterwards is a whole different story... but the cooking part, I don't mind.  Sadly, I'm not the kind of person that can just throw a bunch of ingredients together and create some amazing, new dish.  I search recipes, I pick a few that have ingredients that I like, then I combine them and make it my own.  So this recipe I'm sharing will be similar to others you might see with a few different ingredients and really bad measurements (I hate measuring! LOL :)  I know there's many other recipes out there.  I'm sure I probably do all kinds of things wrong and every Italian cook out there is probably cringing at the thought of store bought noodles and sauce... but my family likes it and amazingly I've gotten many compliments from others as well, so it can't be that bad!

So here's my version of a simple Lasagna recipe.

Get your pasta ready!

While the pasta and meat are cooking,

I start getting the cheese blend ready.

(I really only needed to cook about 1lb of meat but I cooked

extra so it'd be ready when I make tostadas in a couple of days. :)

A tub of Ricotta 

I used about a cup of the Parmesan blend

About a cup of Mozzarella

Add an egg and some spinach if you'd like

Mix

Add meat or sausage to your desired sauce (or not)

I like to work with dry pasta so I lay them one

at a time on a towel... spread the cheese mixture

on each strip

Roll, pour some (meat) sauce over the top, sprinkle

some Mozzarella on tops, bake at 375 for about 30 mins.

or until bubbly and cheese is melted!

These are really filling! I made six rolls and had one left over.  My teen was the only one with enough room in his belly to serve himself seconds!  I served it with a salad and garlic bread.

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by! :)

Meal Planning

I usually have a menu planned out for the month.  I like to search for new recipes and throw in a new meal at least once or twice a week.  I write out my grocery list and go shopping.  This allows me to know exactly what I'm making, when I'm making it and I already know that I have everything for it!  Makes life sooooo much easier!

Well, usually it does....

Sometimes, my hubs and my boys have special requests (me: eyebrow raised... whadda ya mean you want pizza? I'm making green chicken enchiladas!!)  Okay, sometimes they save me from the kitchen  so I can't complain too much about it...  When this happens, I either omit a meal or scootchy them on down a day... or twooooooooo.....  okay, sometimes we are bad!   :o)

Anyway, one of the things that I like to do to make sure that we are successful at following the menu is that I take special requests from my hubs and my sons.  It gives them something to look forward to so that they aren't craving something else!

A few of my family's favs are:

Tacos

Chimis

Baked Salmon with veggies and rice

Chicken Penne Pasta with Spinach

Creamy Chicken Soup with Biscuits

Lasagna

Chili Rellenos

Enchiladas

Wiener Schnitzel

Tostadas

and Tuna Casserole which is what I made last night, which is....

Always, always, always a hit!

I'm happy to share this super easy recipe.  Sorry for the crappy measurements but I usually just throw it all together! 

 Chop up celery and green onions

Put the chopped celery and green onions in large bowl and add:

2 or 3 cans Tuna - depends on how meaty you want it.

About 4 tbls of mayo - depends on how creamy you like it (light is fine)

2 to 3 tbls of sour cream (light is fine)

1 tbl of mustard

I would have added some thawed out peas and grated

carrots but I didn't have any... booooo :(

Mix in cooked egg noodles.

Add salt, pepper and thyme to desired taste.

Transfer the mixture to a 13x9 glass baking dish

Slice up a couple of zucchinis

Grate cheese, I used colby jack, sorta kinda a lot... 

Sprinkle about half (your desired) cheese over the

noodle mixture,

Lay out the zucchinis and sprinkle a little

salt and pepper on them,

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the zucchinis

I then bake it for about 15 minutes (just heating it and melting

cheese at this point)

Then, I change it to broil for about 5-ish minutes (just until

the cheese is golden brown)

YUM.  It's a hit.  If your kiddos like veggies, they'll love this!

Cheers my friends! :O)

Back Label Recipes

How many times do you notice a recipe on the back label of a jar or can and think to yourself, "That would probably be pretty good!" .........but you never end up trying it?  I have done that a gazillion times!!

I posted a monthly menu calendar on my old blog so if you had the chance to see it, you know that I have at least 30 different meals to cook.  Even then, we grow tired of it!  For the past few months, my hubs and I have been talking about why we haven't tried these back label recipes and followed it up with a review.  So today I was writing up my grocery list and noticed we had a couple of cans of Cream of Broccoli by Campbell's Soup.  Why I originally bought them? I dunno! I can't remember! BUT... I peeked at the back and I decided to try that back label recipe!

Here's the label with all the info on the recipe: (click to enlarge)

CHICKEN   BROCCOLI   DIVAN

1 lb. fresh broccoli, cut into spears or 1 pkg (about 10oz) frozen broccoli spears, cooked and drained.
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken or turkey
2 tbsp. dry bread crumbs
1 tbsp. butter, melted
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's Condensed Broccoli Cheese Soup
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

1. Place broccoli and chicken in 9" pie plate. Stir bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl.
2. Stir soup and milk in small bowl until mixture is smooth. Pour over broccoli and chicken. Top with cheese, if desired. Sprinkle with bread crumb mix.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F. about 25 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

Results:  It was pretty good!

The label states that each can serves 4 people.  There's four in my family and we had my nephew over for dinner last night so I had to use two cans and double my batch.  Good thing I did because we ended up with only one serving left!! My sons, nephew and hubby really liked it!  This is not something that I would want to cook once a week though.  I think I would tire of the broccoli cheese taste.  I did do a couple of things different.  I can never follow a recipe to a tee...  I put more milk in the soup than the label called for.  I wanted it a little more runny than thick.  I also added more butter (1/2 stick).  Next time I think I'll add more bread crumbs for more of a crunch!!  I served it over white rice and although I added broccoli to the mix, we ate them all so I added a few fresh ones just for the photo ;o)

Have you ever tried a back label recipe? I'd love to hear about it!



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