Wanna Enchilada?

One of my all-time favorite mexican dishes...enchiladas! Ever since my middle school basketball team celebrate the end of a not-so-winning season at the La Parilla, I've been hooked! This food is the warm, cheesy, carby goodness I've craved my whole life!

This time, since I am learning about cooking, I decided to make my own tortillas for homemade Enchiladas! 

The tortilla recipe is a basic flour tortilla from Joy.

2 Cups Bread Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Butter

3/4 cup hot water (115*F to 130*F)

Mix by hand or on low speed until dough comes together.

Knead by hand or with a dough hook on low until the dough becomes smooth, about 4-6 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll them into balls:

Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

Roll out each ball of dough into a 6-8 inch round (about 1/8" thick). If one is resistant, set it aside and try the next one. 

Heat a large cast iron (or non-stick) skillet over medium heat. Slide the tortillas into the skillet one by one, cook until brown spots appear (about 30 seconds on the first side, and 15 on the other side).

Now it's time to get creative!!

For the filling I used 1 lb. ground chicken, but you could use shredded chicken, ground turkey or beef, pulled pork, etc. 

I also used:

 1 can of cooked Black beans

 1/2 can of tomato sauce

 Ginger, Red Pepper and Cinnamon to taste

 1 can chopped green chiles

 1/2 can of cooked corn.

Combine all ingredients in a deep skillet, over medium heat.

Once the mixture is heated throughout, (and the meat is cooked) spoon into the middle of each tortilla. Add about a Tbsp. of grated cheese mixture (I used asiago and fontina). Roll up like a burrito, and place with the folded side down in a 9 X 13 glass pan. Pour 1 1/2 cans of tomato sauce into the left over meat filling in the pan. Let simmer for about a minute. Then pour this over the pan of enchiladas. Top with about 2 cups of the same cheese mixture.

Bake at 350*F for about 20 min, or until the cheese is all bubbly!

Serve and enjoy!

(Best news, each enchilada is only about 300 calories, and one will definitely fill you up!)

Writer's Block

So I haven't had time to write in, well, quite a while. The holidays were very busy.

I'm actually not sure I have time to write much but here's a re-cap:

• I made the pumpkin pie, and it was a hit! Though I tried to make two, and messed up the 2nd pie a million times! So I only took one.

• Saw lots of loved ones, and had a blast going to two different Thanksgiving meals as newly weds!

• Got a table and chairs for an early Christmas Present! Our house is looking homier every day it seems!

• We're going to be more intentional about working out/ prayer times/ and eating right.

• The book "A Praying Life" By Paul E. Miller, is really good! I'm almost done, and will give a full book review when I am. But we're going to work on some of the prayer cards it suggests in the book.

• Made homemade honey-wheat bread for sandwhiches, and sundried tomato french bread for hour Italian dinner last night! All of which tasted amazing-- I love bread!

• Got books on crocheting, upholstery, gardening, and yoga. They're on loan from the library, so I only have them for 3 weeks! There's no way I'm going to learn all that I want to from the books before they're do back!

• Had dinner with some new friends! They're our first married couple friends. (not the first friends that are married, but the first couple we met as a couple, if that makes sense) anyways, they go to our church. We have a lot of fun with them, even though they're U(sic)GA fans. :)

• I finally learned how to make the right consistency cookie!

• I made butternut squash / kale casserole (really yummy and gluten free)

• I made butternut squash soup with the other half of the squash (also gluten free)

• I finished one of the scarves for Christmas presents!

WHEW! Okay, that's about all the writing I have in me for today! Hopefully I will learn to manage my time better and incorporate blogging into my life. It's not something that comes natural to me, in fact I've started several blogs in my life and always deleted them within a month. I just haven't been able to get into it. But I decided with this one I wouldn't delete it, and if time went by with nothing written, that was okay. 

Alright, well off to clean my house! After doing all of those things, you can imagine it's a wreck!