Chicken Enchiladas

This is a signature dish of mine that I have been making since we were afraid of the Y2K bug. That may not seem like too long ago but it has been a decade, so there. This is a favorite of mine and my husband but the kids haven't come around just yet. It doesn't meet my son's dietary restrictions so this one will be for the adults. It is a good thing, then, that it is mac-n-cheese night* in our house.

Without further adieu, here is the recipe for today.

Chicken Enchiladas
Serves 4-5
Ingredients
1 Small (4oz) Can Diced Green Chiles
1 Habanero Pepper, minced (optional)
2 12oz Cans of All White Meat Chicken or 4 Cooked Breasts of Chicken, chopped or shredded
1 8oz Package Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened and cubed
8 Large Flour Tortillas, though you may only use 7 depending on how generous you are with the filling
1 C Freshly Shredded Cheese (I usually use Pepper Jack Cheese but had a block of Mozzarella on hand and used that instead)
1 C Plain Yogurt
1 C Milk
1 Package Mahatma Saffron Yellow Rice
1-2/3 Water
1 T Olive Oil
1/4 C Sour Cream

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large (10 inch) skillet with oil and over medium-high heat; combine the chicken, cream cheese, and peppers. Stir until the cream cheese is completely melted and all of the ingredients are fully combined.

Place 1/8 of the mixture into the center of a tortilla and roll it, folding in the edges.



Spray a 9X13X2 inch casserole dish with oil and place each tortilla roll into the pan, lining them up. They should fit snuggly into the pan. Top the enchiladas with the shredded cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt and milk until fully combined. Pour the yogurt mixture over the top of the enchiladas to cover completely.

Place pan into oven and bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until the edges are brown and all of the cheese is fully melted.

While the enchiladas are cooking, prepare rice according to package directions

Serve the enchiladas on rice with a dollop of sour cream and a side salad (our favorite is Caesar)

Tips
For softer and gooier enchiladas, top with additional yogurt mixture so that all of the tortillas are covered completely. This is a very healthy dish and can be made low fat by choosing low fat or fat free options for the cream cheese, yogurt, and milk.

NOTE: This is the recipe as I made it tonight. I used chicken breasts instead of canned chicken and forgot to saute a chopped onion to add to the filling...not sure why I flaked on the onion. If you want my authentic recipe, you would start by sauteing 1 chopped medium onion with the peppers and then adding cooked chicken and cream cheese. SORRY!

Dinner out

Last night we joined our friends out to celebrate their daughter's 4th birthday! Happy Birthday J! SO, I did no cooking - woohoo! Tonight we will have Chicken Enchiladas and the kids will have their weekly Mac-N-Cheese dinner.

Check out the recipe coming up!

Roast Beef

On the menu tonight is a beautiful Roast Beef that I got from the store on sale on Sunday. It is a Top Round Roast and it was big. I thought that I would cook it all and then slice the leftovers for, well, leftovers - sandwiches and dinners but then I thought that we probably don't need to eat that much beef in one week so then I thought I would cook it all and freeze the leftovers. The thought of cooked beef being frozen and reheated wasn't appetizing to me so I went with option #3 Cut some off this raw roast and freeze the uncooked meat. Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding! The winner! I cut about 1/3 from the roast and then cut that into cubes for future beef stew and proceeded to roast the remainder for tonight's dinner.

Here is the game plan:

For the roast, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Obviously you will need 1 Beef Roast - pick one that looks lean and beautifully red. I honestly cannot tell you how big my roast was but it was well over 2 pounds and the recommended serving size is 3 ounces (for a healthy diet). That is about the size of a deck of playing cards. We go a little bigger than that in our house but you do what you think is best for yours. For a good reference guide on how much of certain items you need to plan for each meal, check this out If it is too big like mine was, you can take any of my above suggestions for dealing with that but I recommend option #3.

Obtain a roasting pan. You don't need to go out and buy a giant roasting pan with a rack (although for even roasting, the experts recommend cooking on a rack) and lid for this meal and if you can avoid hosting a large-scale event at your house, you may never need one at all. I have an old corning ware roasting pan that my mother passed to me when I started keeping house and I love, love, love it. Since it is safe to use on the stove top, I put it right on the eye of the stove and bring it up to a medium-high heat along with 1 T of Olive Oil.

If your roasting pan doesn't like the stove top, use a large skillet for this step. After a liberal massage of Salt and Pepper I placed the roast onto the hot pan and seared each side. While that was working, I cut 1 Medium Onion into large pieces. I added 1 C of Water to the pan to deglaze (loosen the meat that has started sticking to the pan) the pan.

After that, I added the onions along with 2 C Whole Baby Carrots to the roasting pan and placed it all into the preheated oven. You can also add celery and/or garlic cloves now but if you want to add potatoes, I would wait about 15 minutes to add them or they will fall apart on you.

Cook the roast until an instant read thermometer says 150 for Medium Well to Well Done. You can't know for sure without a thermometer but I don't use one. I just cook it for 45 minutes to an hour and go with what I have. Sorry, that is what I do. Once it looks right, I know.

For the gravy, pour the pan drippings into a saucepan over medium high heat. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, add 2 T All Purpose Flour to 1 C of water or broth and mix with a fork until there are no lumps. Pour the flour mixture into the pan with the drippings and season with salt and pepper. You have to bring it to a boil before it thickens up completely and you should let it simmer for about 5 minutes to make sure the flour cooks thoroughly. Congratulations, you have gravy.

Follow the package directions for rice and serve a vegetable side that you like and hope that the kids won't fight about having to eat it. Tonight, we are having okra, tomatoes, and corn from a can. They will never go for it but I don't care :)

Notes: You can always jazz up your roast with garlic studs (cut lots of deep slits into the meat and stick in whole cloves of garlic) or adding other seasonings into the initial massage of salt and pepper if you want.

Gnocchi

You really must try this. It is SO easy and quick and delicious...really, try it!
This fed our family fine but I would double it if I had bigger kids or adults that really like to eat. We really like to eat but shouldn't so I only made enough to serve 3 adults and the kids split one serving.

Gnocchi (serves 3):
1 Cup Mashed Potatoes (I used the leftovers from last night but you can buy ready-made, use instant, or make some from scratch - your call)
2 Egg Yolks
1/8 t Ground Nutmeg
1/8 t Salt
1/8 t Pepper
1/2 C Flour
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese

Topping
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese
Fresh Basil (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While you are waiting for this pot to boil, you might as well make some pasta!

Combine all ingredients, except for the cheese and basil for topping. It will look like this:

Press it together and dump it onto a floured surface. I separated it into two piles and kneaded it a couple of times before rolling it into 1 to 1 1/2 inch tubes (remember making snakes with play-doh? This is the same thing).

Once you have your tubes/snakes cut them into 1 inch segments, like this:

Time to cook! To avoid overcrowding the pot, I did it in two batches. Drop the gnocchi into the pot and once they float to the top, cook them for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.

Drain them and toss in your favorite pasta sauce or pesto. Top with extra cheese and chopped fresh basil, if so desired. Serve and enjoy.

I gave the boys grapes with theirs and we had a spinach salad dressed with Newman's Own Light Vinaigrette and a sprinkling of goat cheese crumbles. It was delicious!

Swordfish Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Glazed Carrots, and Green beans with almonds

Last night I made swordfish steaks. They are usually really expensive but I scored a sale and an added 50% off on them at the store on Sunday. If you ever see a sale on them; don't walk, run to the store. They are delicious and really easy to cook. Here is what I did. I served two adults and two children with two steaks by cutting some off the steaks for fish nuggets for the kiddos and marinating and grilling the steaks for the adults. The steaks were HUGE and both of the adults had a hard time getting through their portions.

For Nuggets (for two children)
Cut 14 bite-sized pieces of fish from the steaks
1 C Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs
1/2 t Kosher Salt
1/8 t Ground Pepper
Olive Oil Spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Combine the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper together in a shallow bowl. Spray the fish nuggets with olive oil spray and toss in the seasoned breadcrumbs to coat. Remove the breaded nuggets and spray with oil again, toss them in the breadcrumbs again and repeat until you have a good coating of breadcrumb crust.

Place the breaded nuggets onto a greased baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about* 15 minutes or until the tops begin to brown. Serve with ranch dressing or ketchup, or neither - depending on your child's taste.

For Steaks
2 Swordfish steaks
1/3 Cup Newman's Own Light Italian Dressing
1/2 t Tastefully Simple "Garlic Garlic" seasoning (Optional)

Dredge the swordfish steaks in the dressing and if you have it and are interested, add the seasoning and marinate for 15 minutes, turning occasionally to coat. Preheat the grill or grill pan to medium high heat. Grill steaks for 5 minutes on the first side and then flip and grill for an additional 3 or 4 minutes until the steaks are done.


Mashed Potatoes - Dairy Free
My favorite potatoes are Yukon Gold. They have such a rich, buttery flavor without adding anything.

4 or 5 Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and chipped into 1/2inch cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 C Original Soy Milk
1/4 C Chicken Broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the potatoes and boil for about 15 minutes until you can pierce them with a fork. Drain and mash or push through a ricer. I prefer a ricer because it makes them so smoothe. My hubby likes lumpy potatoes but I used a ricer this time since I will be using leftovers for gnocchi. Once they are riced, add the milk, broth, and salt and pepper to taste. If you are mashing them, you can add the liquid before you start mashing so the flavor gets mixed right in.

For the Carrots
2 C Sliced Carrots (in 1/4 inch slices)
1 C Water
1/2 C Orange Juice
1 T Maple Syrup
2 T Brown Sugar

Put all of the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat and cook until the carrots are tender but not soft - about 15 minutes.



For the Greenbeans
- find it in the frozen food section of the grocery store and follow the instructions on the package :)

*About: I am sorry for the estimations, I didn't take specific notes last night.

Series 2 Menus

Breakfast and Lunch:
I am stocked up with cereal, grits, oatmeal, bread, muffin mix, eggs and bacon for breakfast for 4 for 2 weeks
I bought sandwich stuff and a couple of pre-packaged lunchables as treats for the boys along with items that I will need to make up my own lunchables. I usually eat leftovers for lunch so, with that, lunch is covered.

Dinner:
I scored BIG on a meat sale at Safeway so we have plenty of protein to build meals around but I planned to buy for the following. Some will be made, some will be set aside for a future dinner, and there will probably be some additions given my growing stockpile of non-perishable items. At any rate, this is where I started:

1. Gnocchi
2. Chicken Stuffed with Sundried Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Basil, and Pine Nuts – served with orzo and a spinach salad
3. Chicken Enchiladas served with saffron rice and Caesar salad
4. Vegetable Casserole
5. Spaghetti
6. Chili
7. Loaded Chili Potatoes
8. Grilled Swordfish Steaks
9. Bacon Mushroom Quiche
10. Soup

The project is falling into place

Yesterday, I made a list of some things that I will cook over the next two weeks, checked my store circular, loaded my loyalty card with electronic coupons and set off to bargain shop. You see, I have been inspired by my friend over at Mason-Dixon Magnolia to start couponing. She is truly successful with it and has two boys, stays at home, etc. I think if she can do it with her schedule of being a pastor's wife, I can too. She also gets loads of free stuff and I have started requesting free samples to join her too. I think the green-eyed monster will get me to see green in my purse soon. I was so jealous of her when I saw the free stuff she was scoring and I can't wait to learn her secrets of couponing.

So, bargain shopping: I went to Aldi and got my milk and eggs among other things and I made notes of what I spent on the items I purchased and also noted the prices on things that I may buy in the future so I could check out how it matches up with Safeway, my regular grocery store. I then went to BJ's Wholesale club and picked up a big bag of garbage bags and a bag of pine nuts. I use pine nuts in several recipes and three of those recipes are coming up in this cycle so I needed lots and wasn't about to spend $4 per little bag at the grocery store. NO! I will spend $11 at BJs for a bag the size of my face...not sure if it was really a bargain but I am thinking it saved me a buck or so. While I was at BJ's I checked their price on milk and eggs...boo! I paid more at Aldi! $.20 more per gallon and I bought 3 for the milk and $.60 more for the eggs! Live and learn. At least I spent less at Aldi for the milk and eggs than I would at Safeway. I saved at least $1 per gallon by getting it at Aldi.

I had clipped some coupons that I printed but I mostly loaded my Safeway card with electronic coupons so it was just as well that the printed coupons disappeared into thin air at some point between the desk and the car...their whereabouts is still a mystery. Anyway, I was happy with the coupon and store promotion savings. I spent $150 at Safeway but saved $70 overall with the less expensive milk and eggs and, oh bread! I bought bread for $.99 per loaf at Aldi. This is only a small and mediocre example of what can be saved with coupons and I am looking forward to stocking up and having smaller grocery bills. By the way, I don't think I will make the special extra trip to Aldi. I am not willing to save just a couple of pennies for the sacrifice of quality. The second and third ingredients in their apple sauce is Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I will; however, go to BJs for the milk and eggs and check coupons for bread or get that at BJs too.

Since I only shop every other week, I will be missing on some coupon deals but, for now, I am going to stick to the program and only shop once every two weeks. It is so nice to know that I don't have to reserve any money for groceries and the money I have leftover after my trip to the store is for me to designate to anything else I want/need to.