10 Wednesday Feb 2016
Posted in cooking, Food, vegetarian
This recipe looks so simple and complete delectable! My family loves all foods Mexican, so this one is a no brainer! Gotta try it!
If you need a quick and easy dinner, this one is for you. This is a new favorite at my house, and was beyond easy, so that’s an even bigger plus. I put the chicken in my slow cooker before I left for work, and shredded it when I got home. Which made things soooo […]
https://samanthaexplainsit.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/mexican-melt-over-rice/
09 Saturday Jan 2016
Tags
Chicken, Cooking, Easy, enchilada casserole, enchiladas, Food, ground turkey, healthy, lowfat, Mexican, recipe
One of our family’s favorite dishes is luckily incredibly easy to make! Our California family loves Mexican inspired food. I love enchiladas, but let’s be honest, they can be a bit of work to assemble. I wanted the flavors of enchiladas with out the work. Call me lazy, but I’m a working mom and rolling enchiladas on a week night just doesn’t appeal to me, so my enchilada casserole was born! If you use the right ingredients, this recipe is also pretty lowfat.
As I always do, I play with my food and mix it up once in a while. On this particular occasion, you can see from the picture that I included some corn in my casserole. I don’t always do that. I also switch up the meat that I use. On this night, I simmered boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the enchilada sauce and then shredded it before assembling my casserole. I have also used ground turkey. I have also made it using either green or red enchilada sauce. The casserole is great any way you make it!
Give this casserole a try! I guarantee your family will love eating it and you’ll love how easy it is to make!
Kel’s Enchilada Casserole
1 pound ground turkey or boneless, skinless chicken
2-16 oz cans fat free refried beans
8-12 tortillas (You can use either corn or flour. I like to use La Tortila Factory’s Smart & Delicious Light Flour Tortillas to keep the fat and calories down.)
1-28 oz can of red or green enchilada sauce (or family prefers the green, but you can use either)
1-4 oz can diced green chilies (optional, but when using the green enchilada sauce this is a nice add)
1/2 onion diced
3/4 cup shredded cheddar or jack cheese (I often use the fat free Kraft shredded cheddar)
1-4 oz can sliced black olives
1 cup frozen or canned corn (optional)
Brown ground turkey in a skillet on the stove top. Once browned add enchilada sauce to meat. Or you can simmer or slow cook chicken in the enchilada sauce and then shred the chicken once cooked through. Add your onions to the browning or simmering meat. If adding corn, you can stir it in with your cooked meat and sauce prior to assembling casserole.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray. Spread refried beans in bottom of casserole dish. Cover beans with 1/2 of your tortillas. I try to make sure I have 1 good layer of tortillas over the beans, sometimes I tear the tortillas in half to do this. It depends on the size of the tortillas you use. It’s OK if they overlap some. Next you will scoop your meat with some of the enchilada sauce and spread on top of the tortilla layer. You want to try and leave some of the sauce in the pan to top your casserole. It’s alright if here is a little bit of meat left too. On top of the meat you will layer the other 1/2 of your tortillas. Next spread the remaining enchilada sauce and any remaining meat. Then spread your shredded cheese over your casserole and top with black olives.
Bake for about 30 minutes until hot, bubbly and cheese is well melted.
Enjoy!
26 Monday Oct 2015
In one of the many cooking shows I watch someone was making a tomatillo/avocado salsa. I hadn’t cooked with tomatillos in a while and this was sounding yummy, so I picked up some supplies at the grocery store and started concocting!
I was thinking that a fresh salsa over chicken sounded great and it was! This dish was so colorful and had the bold, spicy flavors that I love. It made plenty of salsa and we have some leftover. Think I’ll have a snack later! This salsa was just fantastic and stands up by itself, so you could also serve this as an appetizer with chips or veggies for dipping.
Mexican Spiced Chicken With Tomatillo/Avocado Salsa
Salsa Recipe:
7-8 small – medium tomatillos, diced
2 medium – large tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro diced
1 large serrano pepper,finely chopped
1 avocado, diced
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt and pepper
In a lightly greased frying pan saute diced tomatillos until tender. While they are cooking add some salt and pepper. Remove from heat and allow to cool. While these are cooling, prepare all your other salsa ingredients and mix together. Once tomatillos have cooled to room temperature, toss them into your salsa. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate salsa until cool.
Chicken Recipe:
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
¼ cup all purpose flour
1/8 – 1/4 cup taco seasoning
In a resealable bag, mix flour and taco seasoning. Add chicken to bag and shake until coated. Lightly spray a baking pan with non-stick spray. Place chicken in the pan and lightly spray the chicken with the non-stick spray. Bake for 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through in a 350 degree oven. Remove from oven and spoon salsa over chicken.
27 Monday Jul 2015
Tags
Cooking, Food, Frontera, Mexican, quick meals, Rick Bayless, sauce
While I love to cook and usually I cook from scratch, once in a while it’s nice to use some of the wonderful products that are out there and can make our lives a little easier. Recently, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of ready-made sauces that are available. There are some great ones out there! One of the brands I really like is the Frontera line. This line of sauces and salsa’s is put out by Chef Rick Bayless. Chef Bayless specializes in Mexican cooking. He has spent time traveling throughout Mexico to learn the different cooking techniques used in the various regions.
With the Frontera sauces, Chef Bayless has released a variety of delicious sauces that can help to make a wonderful Mexican meal incredibly easy to make. From the picture above, you can see most of the Frontera sauces available. I buy them at the Raleys/Nob Hill stores.
Last night, we had pork carnitas and they were fantastic! Before leaving for church, I put a pork roast in the slow cooker and poured one bag of the Frontera Garlicky Carnitas sauce over the roast, making sure to cover it as completely as possible. I cooked it on low for about 8 hours. At that point, I took a couple of forks and shredded the meat in the slow cooker. I stirred it up thoroughly, so all the meat was coated with the sauce and then let it cook for another hour. I had some of my Mexican Pinto Beans in the freezer (see previous blog post for this recipe), so I had pulled those out the day before to thaw in the fridge. I put those on the stove and let them simmer on low for a couple of hours. I made some taco rice by mixing instant brown rice, water, salsa and a little taco seasoning mix.
My husband is the master tortilla fryer, so he fried up some corn tortillas. I cut calories and pass on those and use lowfat flour tortillas (not fried). We topped our tacos with guacamole, fat free sour cream, fat free shredded cheese, salsa, diced red onions and Tapatio hot sauce. Yumm!
Need a slow cooker or Frontera sauces? They can all be purchased at Amazon.com. The sauce mixes are sold in bulk packs of 6 at a pretty good price.
Inside Kel's Kitchen 