Chicken Enchiladas

Even in October, I still open the fridge to a crisper full of peppers, so this week, I once again attempted to use them all up before our next produce box arrived on Wednesday.   I call my first attempt Steak and Pepper Kebabs, but don't be limited by the name.  A quick marinade made from soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, chopped rosemary and garlic (if I remember it) makes for a very tasty steak.  Pair it with bite sized peppers and onions and some oven roasted beets (peeled beets, cut into 1/2 inch slices and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, baked at 400 for about 45 minutes) and you have a super tasty meal.  I  like to add mushrooms if we have them and I always add onions.  I didn't even make them into kebabs this time, I just roasted the peppers and onions and sautéed the cubed steak.

Steak and Pepper Un-Kebabs with roasted beets

The abundance of apples this time of year and my sweet tooth collided in this amazing Monday night dessert...Baked Apples.  I consulted a few recipes, but for mine, I just cored the apples (from Red Goose Gardens), and filled them with a mixture of a handful of brown sugar, a small handful of raisins and and equal amount of craisins and chopped walnuts, sprinkled with cinnamon and covered in a cup of apple juice.  I baked at 350 for about an hour, basting with the juices every 10 or 15 minutes.  The apple juice and brown sugar cooked down into a yummy syrup that nicely went over the ice cream I served with these apples.  A healthy dessert?  I can tell myself that.

The baked apples look kind of old and wrinkly.  Maybe I'll peel them next time.  But there will be a next time.  

On Tuesday, I had a little bit of extra time in the evening so I threw together two make-ahead meals for later in the week.   First, I used up some of the abundant peppers in the fridge by making some Stuffed Peppers, from my own recipe posted in January.

Green peppers stuffed with Mexican style ground beef and quinoa.

The peppers were delicious served with a sliced up giant roasted beet we got in our box from Red Goose Gardens.

Check out how huge this beet is compared to the average sized apple.  Crazy!

I also made some Spinach and Sausage Lasagna Rolls, from my own recipe adapted from the Eat This, Not That guys.  This recipe is for a double batch, so I stashed a pan in the freezer for another night.

mmm...Sausage and Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Friday night was sleepover night at our house, so I planned ahead and made some pizza dough at lunch time so we could have some home made pizza for supper.  If you haven't made pizza dough, give it a try.  This recipe is super easy and doesn't require a lot of kneading.  I topped the  pre-baked pizza crust with a bunch of stuff I had in the fridge and freezer:  jarred pizza sauce, mozzarella and shredded parmesan cheeses, sliced red, green and purple peppers, sliced onion, sliced mushrooms and a little pepperoni.  The result?  Crispy, chewy deliciousness that disappeared in about five minutes.

Look at the crispy crust and nicely browned cheese on this home made pizza!

For breakfast the morning after the sleepover, I whipped up some "Baked Pumpkin Donuts" that I actually made into mini muffins because I don't have a donut shaped pan.  No worries, they were still delicious and they disappeared quickly.  The recipe makes 48 mini-muffin sized "donut holes".  I used the last frozen container of last year's pumpkin crop (actually kabocha squash) instead of canned pumpkin, which I discussed in this post last October.

I call them donut holes, but they are probably Pumpkin mini-muffins.  Either way, they are yummy!

This weekend, my cooking blitz included Chicken Enchiladas, Crock Pot Butternut Squash Soup, Stuffed Mushrooms and Kale Waldorf Salad.

The enchiladas are my own concoction that I have developed over the years, see below for the recipe.  Orignally, I used canned enchilada sauce, canned chicken and a whole brick of cream cheese, but I have made an effort to make this much more healthy.  The six enchiladas I made are so overstuffed, they will provide two suppers for the four of us.

These two enchiladas fed me and both of my kids.  Very filling!

We got a ton of different kinds of squash in our produce boxes over the last few weeks, so I am always looking for recipes to use them in.  I found this easy recipe for Crock Pot Butternut Squash soup on pinterest and gave it a shot.  Roasting the squash and onion really brought out the sweet flavor. I used one butternut and one acorn squash, because I only had one butternut.  At the end, I stirred in some sour cream, half and half and some garlic powder on top of the coriander, salt and pepper.   A perfect accompaniment to a crispy kale salad.

Squash soup and kale waldorf salad

On Saturday night, I decided at the last minute to whip up an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms to enjoy before our Chicken Enchiladas.  I was looking for something that used ingredients I already had, so this recipe with bacon, cream cheese and onions fit the bill.  Needless to say, they were amazing and made my eyes roll into the back of my head.  A definite "make again" recipe.

Look at the cheesy bacony goodness of these stuffed mushrooms!

Off to study for my teacher licensure exam...hope it's not as difficult as the study guide makes it seem.  You would think that earning a 4.0 in my Master's program would be proof enough that I can teach special education.  Oh well, what's one more hoop to jump though, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chicken Enchiladas
2 chopped cooked chicken breasts or the equivalent (canned works, too)
1/2 brick light cream cheese
1/2 jar salsa (I used corn black bean salsa)
1/2 T. Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipotle Seasoning
6-8 flour tortillas
1 pkg spanish rice, cooked
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 jar salsa or enchilada sauce (I used frozen Salsa Verde and 1/2 a jar of regular salsa)
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1.  Cook spanish rice according to package directions, stir in black beans and spread in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 pan.
2.  Mix together the chicken, cream cheese, salsa, seasoning and 1/2 c. shredded cheese.
3.  Evenly divide chicken mixture between tortillas, roll up and place seam side down over rice and beans.
4.  Top tortillas with salsa or enchilada sauce and the rest of the shredded cheese.
5.  Bake, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes in a 400 oven.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer Bruschetta

I have been waiting since May for my single tomato plant to start producing.  I have a self-confessed "black thumb",  but this year I wanted to try a topsy turvy with a tomato plant by my front door.  I have often heard that they don't always work, but surprisingly, mine has grown really well.  Last week, my patience was rewarded.

Believe it or not, this round tomato actually came off of a Roma tomato plant.  Mutant tomato, I guess. Now tomatoes have never been a vegetable (fruit?) that I like to eat on their own.  I love them cooked in most any shape and form, but raw tomatoes?  No, thank you.  Unless I make Bruschetta.  I know in Italy, Bruschetta is just bread, but I call my delicious tomato mixture I eat on bread Bruschetta because I can.  What better way to enjoy a fresh tomato?  Chop it up, add a chopped up garlic clove, a little chopped onion, a few shredded basil leaves, maybe some olive oil and some salt and pepper.  Eat it on some crusty bread, grilled if you like, and it tastes like summer.

 Like much of my cooking,  I don't use an exact recipe, but here's the general idea:

Summer Tomato Bruschetta
1 chopped ripe tomato
1 minced garlic clove
2 T. minced onion
a few basil leaves, shredded
a little olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all up and put in the fridge to marinate for an hour or so (if you can wait that long) and serve on fresh crusty bread.  I like to brush the bread with a little olive oil and either grill it or place it under the broiler for a minute so it gets warm and chewy.

Now that recipe is just my portion :).  If you are planning on sharing with someone else, you should make more.  The middle bread in the above picture has a little basil pesto under the tomato mixture.  Either way, it's pretty amazing.  Eat it by itself for a light meal or pair it with a salad or some pasta.

Make Your Own Sushi

Last week we took a quick trip up to Winnipeg to show the kids what another country is like.  Their observations?  The roads were bad, and there were a lot of sushi restaurants.  Living in rural Minnesota, sushi restaurants are few and far between, so in order to get my fix, I have to make it.  Last fall, my mom and I got a lesson from a friend (thanks Brandi!).  That day we made Spicy Tuna Rolls and California Rolls.  While I thought both were delicious and will definitely make Spicy Tuna Rolls again, the California Rolls are much more palatable for people who are iffy about eating raw fish. 

For New Years Eve with the family, I made some California Rolls, which were enjoyed by adults and children alike at our little gathering.  Phil finished off the leftovers tonight and promptly asked when I'm making it again.  Honestly, it's going to be awhile.  To make it worthwhile, you need to make a lot and while it's not difficult to make, it takes a lot of time.

Usually if you look up directions for how to make sushi it will tell you you need some sort of mat and a few other ingredients.  Don't worry about those, you don't really need them, just pick up the groceries and use your hands for the rest. 

Ingredients needed:
Nori (I buy the roasted seaweed flavor)
sushi rice (2-4 c. per pack of nori)
Wasabi
soy sauce

For the Spicy Tuna Rolls:
1 lb. sushi grade tuna
a cucumber or shredded carrots for crunch
a few Tbsp. Mayonnaise
Sriracha sauce, to taste

For the California Rolls:
10 Fake crab sticks
2 avocados
1 cucumber
shredded carrots

To get many of the ingredients, you probably need to go to an Asian grocery store.  I went to the big one on Main St. in Fargo.  I have to admit, it was a little intimidating, I'm not used to being in the minority.  The store was busy and I was the only Minnesota native in the building.  I enjoyed browsing the unfamiliar ingredients and stocking up on some new items to try.  I hear there is a good Asian grocery in Grand Forks as well.


California Rolls ingredients.  Nori (seaweed wrappers), sushi rice, avocado, cucumber, fake crab sticks, rice vinegar, wasabi and soy sauce (not pictured).



For the Spicy Tuna Rolls, you will need the above Nori, rice and rice vinegar, plus raw sushi grade tuna, mayo (not Miracle Whip) and Sriracha sauce (not pictured).



To start with, you need to cook the rice.  A rice cooker would come in handy, but I don't have one, so I used the stove.  For 10 nori wrappers, you need 2 c. of raw rice to put the rice on one side of the wrapper and 4 c. of raw rice to put the rice on both sides of the wrapper.  To cook the rice on the stove, for each cup of rice, you need 2 c. water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until water is evaporated.  Immediately spread rice on cookie sheet to cool.  When cool, sprinkle with a few Tablespoons of rice vinegar and mix well. 

Rice on cookie sheet.  Cool then sprinkle with rice vinegar. 

Prepare the other ingredients while the rice is cooking.  For the vegetables, aim for long and skinny.  I use cucumbers, avocados and sometimes shredded carrots.  For the crab meat, I usually just cut the sticks in half lengthwise.  With the tuna, you need to cut it into a very fine dice, as shown below.  As you cut it, remove the thin membranes as we can't chew them very well.  Mix the tuna with a little bit of mayo and as much Sriracha sauce as you want.  Be careful, it's spicy!

While the rice is still warm, but not hot, start making your rolls.  Lay a nori sheet shiny side down on the counter (make sure the counter is clean!).  Using a wooden spoon or a plastic spatula, spread rice on one or both sides of the nori.  I have never tried to do both sides, so that part could be tricky.  You would do both sides to get a true inside out roll like in the restaurants.  Leave a little strip of green at one end, as shown below on the bottom left. 

Spread/place the ingredients just below the bare strip.  The one below (top right) has only tuna, but you would do the same with other ingredients.  For the California Rolls, lay down 1 1/2 crab sticks, a few strips of cucumber and avocado.  


Roll the nori around the ingredients, tucking in the bare strip under the ingredients.  Roll all the way into a tube.   


The 10 across is what one package of nori would make.

 Cut each roll into bite sized pieces (about 8) and serve with soy sauce and wasabi, if desired.

This plate has the spicy tuna and the California rolls.  The California rolls have cucumber, avocado and shredded carrots. 

Obviously, if you don't eat these right away, they need to be stored in the refrigerator.  They do keep for a few days, so if they don't all get eaten, they are good leftover. 

On a side note, you could put pretty much anything in a roll, so go with the flow.  Think chicken with some veggies sounds good?  Do it.  How about just some veggies?  Do it.  Make sure you cook everything you are unsure of though, I don't want you to get sick because you read it on my blog!