Navidad Chicken Enchiladas

This year was a big year for my hubby & me. We celebrated 20 years of meeting & dating! We met right before Christmas & went on our first date the day after Christmas. Isn't that sweet?

We were reminiscing about that time when it was brought up how giddy I was that I got a call from him on Christmas day! *SWOON* And I vividly remember him talking about what his family was having to eat on Christmas: Enchiladas.

Folks, there is not a drop of Mexican blood in him. So I told him, as we reminisced, about how weird I thought he & his family were for being so non-traditional. HA!!

What made this reminiscing conversation so funny was the fact that, 20 years later, we had decided that enchiladas for Christmas would be the easiest...especially since everyone on his side of the family loves them, too. Even funnier? It was MY idea to have the enchiladas!

Something we decided to try, quite some time back, was chicken enchiladas. His family has always done ground beef ones, so venturing to something a little better for us was taking some thinking. We also decided to add sour cream to them for an added layer of flavor. We love them!! But with us taking up running & trying so hard to be better, we bumped up the nutritional factor. Even for Christmas!

Not only did we make them slightly better for us, they also looked delightfully festive!

So, for our own Fiesta Feliz Navidad, here's what we did:

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NAVIDAD CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:

* 2 lb chicken breasts (thawed if frozen)
* 2 pkg McCormick's original taco seasoning (less sodium version)
* 1 1/2 C chunky salsa or picante sauce
* 1 T liquid smoke (optional)
* 1 pkg of 6 Mission Spinach & Herb tortillas (yes, they are green)
* 2 pkg McCormick's enchilada sauce mix (to package directions)
          * 1 can tomato sauce
          * 3 C water
* apprx. 1 1/2 C Nonfat Greek yogurt, plain
* 2 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
* 2 C mozzerella cheese, shredded


Directions:

1. In your trusty lazy cooker, spray the insert with cooking spray, then place the fresh or thawed chicken breasts into the lazy cooker insert.

2. Sprinkle the chicken with the contents of the taco seasoning packets (or you can use your own seasoning).

3. Pour in the salsa or picante sauce, along with liquid smoke (if using).

4. Close the lid & allow to cook for at least 6 hours on low or 3 hours on high.

5. At the end of the cooking time, open the lid & stir the mixture until the chicken is broken up into tiny pieces & at least most of the liquid as disappeared.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

7. With the enchilada packets, water & tomato sauce, make the enchilada sauce to package directions.

8. In a 9x13" cake pan, coat all of the inside with cooking spray, then ladle in some of the enchilada sauce to just cover the bottom of the pan.

9. Open the Greek yogurt & make sure it's stirred well, and then open the package of spinach & herb tortillas.

10. Take one tortilla, spread one side liberally with Greek yogurt (I use a rubber spatula).

11. Hold the coated tortilla by an edge, cupped in your hand, yogurt side up, then scoop some of the chicken mixture into the tortilla cupped in your hand, then it becomes easier to roll.

Photo for technique reference

12. As stated in the last step, begin to roll the tortilla from the cupped side to the other, then place outer flap side down into the pan, all the way against the 9" side, and press firmly into the sauce.

13. Repeat steps 10-12 until all 6 tortillas are coated, filled, rolled & placed side-by-side in the cake pan, pressed firmly into the sauce at the bottom of the pan.

14. Once all 6 tortillas are filled, rolled & are laying, hopefully tightly, into the pan, cover the enchilada rolls with more of the enchilada sauce.

15. Take the 2 cups of either the cheddar or mozzarella cheese & cover the entire top of the enchilada surface.

16. Repeat step 15 with the other 2 cups of cheese.

17. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until all the cheese is perfectly melted.

18. Pull the pan out of the oven, then cut the enchiladas down the middle (short side to short side) so that 6 large enchiladas become 12 smaller enchiladas.

19. Serve up 2 halves at a time.

20. Consume the deliciousness!


Yield: 6-12 (depending on how you serve them up)

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We have usually made these, like I stated before, with sour cream & in either flour or whole wheat tortillas, which you can certainly use! Lately we have switched out the sour cream with Greek yogurt, and we love it! Also, the spinach & herb tortillas not only added beautiful festive color to our Christmas dinner, but gave yet another layer of flavor that was awesome!!

As a note: My hubby & I work as a team on these at assembly time! I coat the tortillas with the Greek yogurt/sour cream, then he takes them to fill with the chicken & roll them to put in the pan. If you have someone to work with you on these, do it!

We only made one pan & didn't have any left.

There were ground beef enchiladas, in flour tortillas, also served up. So we had a delightful variety for our fiesta de Navidad! Even this filling option for those who still wanted to try to be good with their eating during the holiday.

I seriously cannot wait to do this version of this chicken variety again! So. Good.

These are also perfect for Cinco de Mayo, Grito de Dolores, Dia de los Muertos, or any time you want or need a Mexican fiesta, like Navidad. You can also use any of these recipes HERE!

Hope you had the merriest of Christmases with loved ones, and may the new year be a blessed & prosperous for you!

** If you want to look ahead to a perfect New Year's Day dish, try my NEW YEAR'S HAM & BEANS!

ENJOY!

Lazy Lou Lasagna

Lately, I've been trying to find super easy & super fast dishes. But the cheater kind of dishes...you know: any dish that looks like you spent all day, but it really didn't take any time &/or very little effort. In a total "homefaker" sort of way.

My family enjoys pasta night. One of the few dinners that EVERYONE actually enjoys.
In the last few months, we've picked up also serving a St. Louis delicacy: toasted ravioli.

Now we have had toasted ravioli before, but the 3 years we lived in StL, we learned how passionate the city & surrounding areas are about things like gooey butter cake & toasted ravioli.

Most of us enjoy the toasted ravioli. And we get a 4-cheese kind. Usually, we don't have any left over.

Well, in the midst of looking for "easy recipes", I came across a fake-out lasagna recipe. (recipe HERE) However, as a family who has to do what we can, purchasing & using a lot of organic just didn't work for us. And...I didn't want to fix up the ravioli, either. I needed something even easier...

So, after I studied the above recipe, I decided to pair down what could be done to achieve something close to the same thing. And I knew that the toasted ravioli went over pretty well...so...

Well...I cheated in a lot of ways!

But, here's what I did:

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LAZY LOU LASAGNA

Ingredients:

~ 1 lb. ground beef
~ 1/8 C minced onion
~ 48 oz (or 2 24 oz) jar(s) red sauce (I used 2 jars Prego)
~ 40 oz (2 20 oz. boxes) toasted ravioli
~ 1 C shredded mozzarella cheese
~ 1 C shredded Italian-blend cheese
~ 1/4 C grated parmesan cheese, divided


Directions:

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. brown the meat & add the minced onion during browning; drain & rinse

3. while beef is browning, warm the red sauce on lo

4. once meat is rinsed, add to the red sauce, stir & simmer

5. spray a 9x13" dish or pan with cooking spray

6. spread a thin layer of the meat sauce covering the bottom of the dish/pan

7. place a single layer of the toasted ravioli, side-by-side, on top of the sauce layer

9. add a thin layer of both, mozzarella & Italian-blend cheeses, on top of the ravioli

10. Repeat steps 6-9 until you reach the top of the baking dish/pan (mine had 3 layers)

11. Add one more layer of sauce on top

12. sprinkle with half of the grated parmesan cheese

13. cover the dish with foil (use either non-stick or spray the foil with cooking spray)

14. place in the oven for about 45 minutes

15. remove the foil & place back in the oven for another 15 minutes (I placed on broil for about 5 minutes, but wished I'd done the extra 15...but we were in a hurry)

16. pull out the lasagna, sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan cheese & allow to rest for about 5-10 minutes

17. Serve it up

Yield: 6-8 servings

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Take note that this dish is HEAVY! It's probably not good for you, either. But it turned out pretty darn good! And for my kiddos, who hate to try new things & have been dreading this dish, they actually were OK with this one! As a matter of fact, my youngest gave it a 7.8 out of 10! That's a big deal, yo.

My hubby was OK with it, too. He thought maybe the non-toasted version of ravioli might be better, but it was worth the try!

I was bracing myself for it being a "You'll eat it & you'll like it!" kind of meal. But I didn't have to force anyone! Just coaxing them to try it first was the only big step my kids needed!

Plus, my StL friends might find this one interesting with a take on toasted ravioli! And I cannot believe how easy it really was!

Hope you like it, too!

Also, for a vegetarian version, you can leave out the meat, just use the cheese ravioli, and make sure to use a heavy-on-veggie sauce (like one with mushrooms).

ENJOY!

Bacon Dog Nachos

So...what's for lunch? It's hard to keep the kiddos satisfied with food options during the summer months. Anyone else have this issue?

My youngest was set on having nachos for lunch! Nothing else would suffice. I tried to offer up other things...but NOOOOOOO! We didn't have any taco meat, and we weren't making taco mac (recipe HERE)  until tomorrow. My older son made up a cheese quesadilla. I offered that up. Still a no go as I got the response, "Does that sound like nachos?" D'oh! So time to scrounge & see what we have...

So here's what I came up with:

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BACON DOG NACHOS

Ingredients:

~ 2 handfuls tortilla chips
~ 1/4 C taco sauce &/or picante sauce
~ 1-2 hot dogs
~ 2 T bacon bits
~ 1/2 C shredded cheese


Directions:

* on a microwave-safe plate, place tortilla chips

* drizzle the sauce around the chips

* thinly slice the hot dog(s) (we had a couple of left over ones from grilling) & scatter on top of the sauce & chips

* spread the shredded cheese on top the sliced hot dog(s)

* sprinkle the bacon bits over the top of the cheese

* place in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds or until the cheese is melted

* it's ready to eat

Yield: 1-2 servings

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After serving up this concoction to my youngest, he got really excited & said he liked.

On of scale of 1-10...he gave it a 10 (with 10 being the best)!

So...it's a good way to use up left over grilled hot dogs or taco leftovers.

ENJOY!

Taco Mac

OK, with Cinco de Mayo right here upon us, I thought I'd give another quick & easy recipe that our family loves to eat on a "Taco Tuesday" rotating menu schedule.

Of course, we enjoy tacos...and then we add nachos to the mix, too. I'll show you how I do my taco/nacho meat in this recipe...so give me a moment. We also have grilled Mexican chicken in the mix. The chicken is my hubby's deal.

We were getting the Hamburger Helper version of Taco Mac for a little while...but my hubby had faith in me that I could just make it on my own. Isn't that sweet of him? He's started having faith in my cooking! That's a big deal since he did all the cooking for years.

So, here's what I have done for my quick, cheap & easy dish that even my kiddos love:

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TACO MAC

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
3 heaping T minced onion
1 envelope taco seasoning (I use McCormick's Original)
1/4 C salsa or picante sauce (I like using Pace picante)
1/2 C water
1 box mac and cheese (we use Kraft's whole grain variety) *to package directions
1/4 C shredded cheese

Directions:
~ in a skillet, brown ground beef & minced onion; drain & rinse

~ place back into the skillet, add salsa/picante sauce, water, taco seasoning (this is my taco/nacho meat)
~ add the cheese sauce ingredients (from mac & cheese & box directions), and shredded cheese to skillet

~ as the meat mixture simmers, make the macaroni in a pot until tender & al dente, drain (DO NOT RINSE)

~ mix the macaroni & meat mixture together

~ serve

Yield: about 4

Notes: 
* Once in a while, I like making tortilla bowls to serve the taco mac in (as pictured, above); I got a Perfect Tortilla set, and love it! Or you can certainly serve the Taco Mac with tortilla chips, too.

* You can make your own mac & cheese recipe if you don't want to use a box version. My kids don't like the homemade stuff...cuz they're weird. It's also really cheap to just pick that stuff up from the store. But if you make your own, you can certainly decide which noodles to use!

* I double the recipe above. This feeds all of our mouths, and gives us some leftovers...sometimes.

* This can be topped with lettuce, tomato, onion &/or sour cream, too.

* Just for a fun & more grown up kick...add some cilantro &/or lime to the mix. YUM! (or even a tequila shot...whatever)

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Now then, I want to apologize to my Mexican friends who are cringing that I would put this down for Cinco de Mayo. It's all extra cheesy & Americanized. I realize this. But Americans use about any excuse to pretend to be cultured for the sole purpose of partying & drinking.

But if this doesn't set well with you for Cinco de Mayo or Dios de los Muertos (aka - Day of the Dead) or even the actual Mexican Independence Day on September 27th, you can always try the Cilantro Lime Mexican Chicken Noodle Soup with Green Tea (click HERE for recipe) instead! You can always have the Taco Mac any time! Well...the soup, too.

However, you could certainly enjoy a Spicy Mexi-Mocha (Mexi-Coco) (click HERE for recipe). That's based on more authenticity.

Even though this dish probably won't be a part of our Cinco de Mayo fiesta...this one is super kid friendly, and is a regular part of our dinner menu a couple once or twice a month.

ENJOY!