3 Layer Red Chile Enchiladas

Since I have been slacking on menu plan Monday's for the past few weeks I find myself coming up from my sewing studio at whatever hour hunger strikes me and scrounging around for what to make.

Tonight I opened the frig and found: an open can of refried beans with a small scoop missing that I assume Mr. Rainbow Creek used for bean dip, a package of corn tortillas that were on the verge of expiration, 2 thighs and one leg leftover from the roasted chicken we had earlier this week, a package of Sargento 4 Cheese Mexican blend left from the queso fundido. My heart leapt at the thought that I might have a can of enchilada sauce in the lazy susan. And indeed I did had not one but two cans! One last thing, an onion.

I make my enchiladas lasagna style because it a lot less work and not as messy as the rolled up kind. And just as tasty.

Once you grab all your ingredients it is a good idea to prep everything and line it up. I am all about mise en place, everything in place before assembling and cooking. It dirties a few extra dishes but at least you aren't running to the frig or struggling to open a package of cheese with sauce dripping down your arm. Ask me how I know.

First cut your tortillas in half, I find that this makes it easy to line the whole pan nicely. You can do an 8X8 or 13X9 pan. But you might as well do the big pan because the leftovers are so good for lunch tomorrow or can be frozen for another meal.

I chopped the chicken into small cubes and mixed in one small diced onion. Put the sauce in a wide bowl for dipping the tortillas, pour your cheese into a bowl, I heated the beans a little so they would spread easily. I also sprayed the pan with Pam to prevent sticking, baked on cheese can be hell to clean up.

For the first layer dip the tortillas in sauce and line the pan. Cover this layer with one can of refried beans (1/2 if using 8X8) sprinkle a little cheese over the beans.


Here is the layout of the next layer of tortillas. I put the cut sides toward the outside of the pan and lay a row down the middle.

Next add the chicken and onion layer, top with a little more cheese.

Add the last layer of tortillas and cover with the rest of the sauce. I use the large can of sauce that I get at Sam's. If you live somewhere like the east coast where you can only get those tiny cans of sauce you will need at least 3 cans, maybe 4.

Cover the top with the rest of the cheese. Cover pan tightly with foil and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, uncover and cook 10 minutes more until cheese is bubbly.

I keep it simple and serve this with a side of salad greens with a little cilantro mixed in, and diced tomatoes. A little sour cream is good for topping too.

Enjoy!

Just Discovered No-Knead Bread - WOW!

I have really been in a cooking mood (or maybe I should say eating mood?) since I got back from my trip.

Sunday is usually our foodie day and I started out the day searching for some recipes I had seen on the morning news by Chef Mick from Tony's Fine Meats. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was totally engrossed in reading about the No-Knead Bread recipe by Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery and decided I had to try it even though I am not really a baker. I guess this recipe has been going around for a couple of years and some serious cooks swear by it.

For Sunday though, I decided on a western theme grilled filet mignon, warm potato salad, and cowboy beans.

For an appetizer I decided to try this no-knead flatbread with a pepper jack queso fundido.
I drizzled a little olive oil and a sprinkle of jalapeno salt on the flatbread, baked it on a pizza stone at 450 degree. We got the first one a little crisp, second one turned out golden brown and crisp on the outside with a soft chewy center. The recipe seems to call for 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt. I took that to be an error and reduced it to about 1 1/2 tsp. That was plenty. I have half of the dough in the frig and will make a couple of grilled pizzas with that later this week.

For the Queso Fundido: I heated about 1 cup white wine (a sauvignon blanc is good) in a double boiler. Stir in one cup shredded natural pepper jack cheese, 1/2 cup mexican cheese blend with cheddar, monterey jack, queso, and asadero, and 1/2 cup mozzerella. You can use whatever cheeses you like, these were just what Ihad on hand. Just be sure they are natural cheese not processed. Stir over low heat until blended and smooth. Transfer to fondue pot or small ramekins and serve with warm flatbread. Serve this with the rest of the wine or any cocktail you like.

The steaks were seasoned with a heavy rub of Spicy Monterey Seasoning Blend and grilled on the Weber over very hot coals, 3 mins /side. Perfection!

My favorite potato salad is this super simple warm version. The flavors are mild and uncomplicated and it goes together quick so it is no more trouble than any average side dish.

Warm Potato Salad: Wash and cut 4 medium unpeeled red potatoes into 1 1/2" chunks. Boil in well salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and return to pan, let stand on warm burner to dry. This is important, you don't want any excess water on the potatoes to water down the dressing. Add a couple of tablespoons diced red onion, 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1 Tbl dijon mustard, about 1/3 cup mayonnaise to pan. Sprinkle a couple dashes of rice vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar, salt, pepper and a good pinch of dried herbs of choice. Stir to mix, taste for seasoning, adjust if needed.

Cowboy beans: I use almost any variety of canned beans I have on hand for my cowboy beans, but most of the time I use pinto, black bleans and butter beans. Dice and cook a couple of slices of bacon in saucepot until it is beginning to crisp. Add 1/2 cup onion and saute over med low heat. Add 3 cans drained beans, about 1/4 cup barbeque sauce and a couple tablespoons brown sugar, a dash of cayenne pepper and a few dashes of Tobasco or Franks Red Hot sauce, simmer over low for 15 to 30 mins. or until ready to serve. I also add a small handful of chopped nacho slice jalapenos sometimes because I like the extra kick.

Now, to the no-knead bread. Definitely, I will be playing with this recipe alot more. All I can say it is everything I expected and not nearly as fussy as you might think. I substituted active dry yeast for the instant and used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for part of the bread flour. I also had to leave for an appointment and got back later than expected so let the second rise go for a little over 4 hours. No problem, it turned out just perfect.

I didn't wait until it was all the way cooled, cut into it after I had waited as long as I could. The outside is so crunchy and the inside soft and a bit chewy. Try this even if you are not a baker! I might try it with a little more yeast for flavor next time. Mark Bittman does it with more yeast and less rising time so you can actually get it done in one day. But I do like the long and not so precise nature of this recipe and see no reason to hurry it.

Finally, the Irish Stew. This was just very similar to my basic stew recipe. I like to use chuck roast and cut it myself. You can buy the packaged stew meat too, but I like cutting my own so I can trim the fat as I like.

I don't peel the potatoes. I quarter them and quarter a couple of small onions. I use peeled baby carrots and baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced.

I sprinkle a good scoop of flour over the meat, and then season heavily with garlic pepper blend, salt and pepper. Mix well with your hands. Then place in hot pot with heated oil to brown well over medium high heat. Use your heaviest pot, cast iron is good. Remember if it starts browning too fast or smoking remove from heat and lower the heat before continuing! The floured meat will act as a rioux when you add the liquid, so nice golden brown is good, burnt is not so good.

This recipe called for a dark black beer. I used Sam Adams Black Lager because that is what I had on hand. Guinness is good too.

Then I added about 3 cups beef broth, 1 small can tomatoe paste, 1 bay leaf and some dried herbs. Bake in 325 - 350 oven for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours until meat is tender. If liquid gets too low after 1 1/2 hours add a little more broth or water. This makes a really rich and tender stew. I served some boiled cabbage with it since it was St. Patricks day, and the homemade bread with soft butter.

Enjoy!

Frozen Pasta Chicken Parmesan 15 minute meal

Tonight Mr. Rainbow Creek got home late and I was in the middle doing battle with a quilt I wanted to finish by this weekend. (That is another story for another time!) But I knew he was hungry and so was I since I had been down in the batcave all day working. I decided to offer to cook him some breaded chicken tenders and that was fine with him, but sounded pretty crappy to me. Then I remembered that I had some precooked angel hair pasta in the freezer so I threw together a big plate of chicken parmesan, it took about 15 minutes after the oven was heated and I was happy not to have a big mess to clean up.

I know you can buy those refrigerated pasta's that you just dunk in boiling water for a minute and they are really good. I used to buy those back in the day before I was being frugal. But they are really expensive. Now, when I make a meal with pasta I cook the whole package and it makes a lot more than we need, so I take the extra and drizzle a little olive oil over it and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. All you have to do when you need some pasta is heat some water to boiling in the microwave and pour it over the pasta in a large bowl. Take it out of the bag before you do this! It will defrost and heat through in a minute or so and you can hold it in the water til everything else is ready.

This chicken parmesan recipe is kid friendly and good for hardworking dads too. Add a salad and some garlic bread and you can do this meal in under 30 easily.

Cook frozen breaded chicken tenders according to package directions. Top with a little bottled spaghetti sauce and mozzerella and parmesan cheese, put back in oven for a few minutes to melt cheese. Serve with pasta and extra heated sauce.

If you don't like the breaded chicken you can use raw chicken breast tenders for this too, just bake about 10 minutes and cover with sauce and cheese.

Enjoy!

Beans for Breakfast - Frugal Friday

I like almost all kinds of beans. Especially beans and cornbread like my mom used to make when I was a kid. It was one of my dad's favorite meals because he grew up during the depression and they never went hungry because they always had a pot of beans to feed him and his four brothers and 1 sister. Some people who grew up during the depression had bad memories of "poor" food and when times got better they never wanted to eat beans or meatloaf again. But my dad always said that when he was in the Navy during the war his favorite day aboard ship was when they had Navy beans, I guess it reminded him of home.

I did a search for The Great Depression foods and found that most people did not go hungry during the depression. Due to deflation, food prices were pretty low and people were very resourceful. Charity groups sprung up to take care of the truly needy and they even had "penny diners" for people who were too proud to accept charity and wanted to pay for their meals despite the fact that they had no income. You can read about it here.

I visit some foodie forums and there always seems to be a thread with a question about your foodie secrets. Mine is that I sometimes eat leftover beans for breakfast. Just a bowl of hot beans and a corn muffin with a little butter. I like it because I won't be hungry for the rest of the day and really it is probably healthier than most regular breakfast food.

I usually cook pinto beans instead of white beans and I add a little ham or bacon and onion for seasoning. And I cook them down until they are really thick, then I add some water if I want to make a bean soup, or I can smash them to make refried beans for burrittos or heuvos rancheros.

Here is a quick Heuvos Rancheros recipe that makes a great breakfast or a fast dinner. If you don't have leftover beans to smash you can use canned refried beans.

Heat the beans.

Melt 1 Tbl. butter in large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium heat, break the eggs in the pan and cook until whites begins to turn opaque. Add 2 Tbl. water to pan and cover pan for a minute until the eggs are done on top.

Plate the beans and eggs.

Add about 1/4 cup per serving of salsa verde or tomatillo salsa to hot skillet and heat through quickly. Pour hot salsa over eggs and beans and sprinkle a little grated cheddar cheese on top. Serve with warm tortillas.

If you prefer, use scrambled eggs instead of the basted eggs.

No Boil Spinach and Cheese Manicotti

I wanted to make manicotti on Sunday night and Mr. Rainbow Creek suggested that it could be done "no boil" like you do the lasagna. I wasn't so sure of that, even though I do use regular lasagna noodles without boiling rather than buying the no boil kind. I googled for a no boil manicotti recipe and found a few, but then some of them started out with directions for boiling the pasta first. So I decided to wing it and I was really happy with how easy it was and it turned out fantastic.

The thing I hate about making manicotti is that the boiled pasta usually splits open when you stuff them with the cheese mixture, not to mention that you have to dirty a pan to cook them, then drain them and keep them from sticking together.

For the no boil method I used a large pastry bag with a large straight tip and just squeezed the filling in, no muss, no fuss. If you don't have a pastry bag you can try putting the filling in a large zip lock bag and cutting off the corner to make a large enough hole to pipe the filling through.

This recipe makes a 13 X 9 pan size. I always spray my pan with non-stick spray for easier cleaning.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

4 ounces white mushroom or baby bella mushrooms chopped

6 ounces fresh baby spinach chopped

1 clove garlic

olive oil

1 package manicotti pasta shells

8 ounces riccotta cheese

1 cup grated mozzerella cheese + extra for topping

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 jars spaghetti sauce

Saute the mushrooms and smashed garlic clove on medium heat in large skillet with a Tbl of olive oil. Add the spinach and saute until wilted.

Cover the bottom of pan with about 1 cup of the sauce.

Mix cheeses, eggs and the spinach mixture. Fill uncooked shells with filling mixture. Pour sauce over the top to completely cover. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of water over the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 50 minutes. Uncover and top with additional cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

This is a good make ahead dish too. If you are going to make ahead I wouldn't add the water before refrigerating. If your family doesn't enjoy spinach and mushroom you can do this with just cheese and maybe a little fresh chopped basil for the filling.

Enjoy!

February 23 Menu Plan Monday

I changed up my menu a little last week, but I think we did pretty well on budget and getting things used that we have on hand. I am seeing a big decrease in food waste and have space in my frig to put things since it is not crammed full of unused leftovers. So I have to say that joining Menu Plan Monday has been a great success for me. And it keeps me motivated to tweak my menus and try to get even better at budget cooking.

I have also gotten better at going through my freezer and noting what I have on hand to incorporate in my plans. I have stopped buying new items and shoving the old to the back to be forgotten. I remembered I have some ham that I froze after Christmas and pulled that out to use for the Crockpot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham.

Monday: Leftover Manicotti

Tuesday: Crockpot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham from Snow White (I am excited to try this recipe, it looks so good!)

Wednesday: Pinto Beans and cornbread (didn't get to this last week)

Thursday: Grilled Teriyaki Chicken, grilled veggies, rice pilaf

Friday: Bean and cheese burritos, green chile sauce, chopped lettuce

Saturday: Hot ham and cheese sandwiches on onion rolls, chips

Sunday: Grilled Pork Tenderloin, black beans, yellow rice

I am going to get my green chile sauce with pork recipe posted this week, and my no boil manicotti recipe too. Hope you will visit me again soon! Enjoy all the menu plans at orgjunkie.com too!

How to Cook Seasoned Rice

I had a craving for chicken fajitas today but decided to do a chicken fajita rice bowl instead of tortillas. I sauteed onion, red and green peppers, and mushrooms and then cooked the chicken tenderloins in the same pan. I seasoned with grill seasoning, chili powder and lime. I heated a can of black beans with a little diced jalapeno, a spoonful of petite diced tomatoes and chopped cilantro. We spooned the veggies and beans over rice and sprinkled a little cheese on top. I found avacodos on sale today so sliced that on the side. It was so good we didn't have as much left for lunches as I thought we would.

Rice is a good inexpensive side dish and is perfect for quick and easy 30 minute meals. What I like about rice is that you can start it first and then turn off the heat and let stand while you finish up the rest of your cooking. It stays hot for quite a while and when everything else is ready you just fluff it with a fork.

You don't have to pay extra money for seasoned rice mixes, just use plain white rice and add your own seasonings.

Use one can of chicken broth or two cups of water with a teaspoon of chicken boullion, 1 cup of white rice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and let cook for 20 minutes.

Use the above recipe and add whatever else you like to match your main dish.

Here are some ideas:

Saute 1 Tbl of fine chopped onion, 1 Tbl fine chopped red pepper, 1 tsp dried parsley and a Tbl of slivered almonds in a Tbl of butter for about one minute, add rice and chicken broth, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Carrots, onion, bell pepper and cajun seasoning.

Onion, 1-2 Tablespoons salsa, cilantro.

Curry powder, onion, carrots.

Soy sauce, onion, garlic, carrots, almonds.

I try to keep the seasonings on the light side, and remember that the chicken broth may have salt, so you might not want to add any additional salt.

Enjoy!