Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Dave joked to me the other day that my body content is 80% sour cream.  Which is probably true considering how much of that deliciousness I was eating with my breakfast when he said.  So much, in fact that I almost reached for his ramekin of sour cream after I finished mine.

There's no real point to this anecdote other than a) I love sour cream and b) this recipe uses it.

This recipe is slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats' Lazy Girl's Chicken Enchilada Casserole but I made a few modifications.  First, I made the enchilada sauce.  It's not turribly difficult to make and I wanted to try this tomato-less sauce.  The sauce recipe I used is listed below and I used the full 2 cups it yielded 'cuz we like things nice and saucy!

So without futher ado,

Chicken Enchilada Casserole (slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats)

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

salt

pepper

1 cup sour cream

1 batch enchilada sauce (below) or 2 cups prepared sauce

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

4 oz can of diced chiles

8ish corn tortillas, cut into strips

1 cup shredded cheese 

salsa, for serving

green onions, for serving

extra sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray and set aside.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown in a well-oiled skillet.  Remove from heat.  Mix sour cream, enchilada sauce, corn and chiles in a large bowl.  Add chicken and tortilla strips to the bowl and mix well.  Pour mix into baking dish and top with cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.  After allowing to cool slightly, serve garnished with salsa, green onions and sour cream.

Enchilada Sauce (slightly adapted from Gimme Some Oven)

1/2 onion, minced

2 tbsp canola oil

2 tbsp flour

3 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp Chipotle Southwest seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp oregano

2 cups chicken broth

Put a pan over medium heat.  Add minced onion and cook until slightly softened.  Add oil and flour and stir until slightly browned.  Add seasonings and stir well.  Slowly add chicken broth and stir well while it thickens, about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Meal Plan Monday (3/3-3/8)

You might've noticed some recipes move from week to week.  This is my way of using up things in our fridge before they go bad if we veer from the menu plan.  Which happens quite a bit.

When I was planning this menu yesterday morning, it was 60 degrees and humid.  Today it's 25 and we've had an ice storm overnight so that may change the way we eat this week.  We'll see...

Monday
Lunch: Tomato soup (canned)
Dinner: Chicken Noodle soup (homemade)
Tuesday 
Lunch: Chicken Noodle soup
Dinner: Jet's Pizza!
Wednesday
Lunch: Arnold's!! (only the best soul food in Nashville)
Dinner: Pork loin rice bowls
Thursday
Lunch: rice bowls
Dinner: Honey Sriracha chicken thighs and roasted sweet potatoes
Friday
Lunch: TBD
Dinner: Butter chicken and curry roasted broccoli
Saturday
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Pesto tortellini

Meal Plan Monday (2/24-3/1)

I reviewed my meal plan from last week and while it accurately reflects how my meal planning goes, it doesn't reflect what we actually ate.  I think meal planning is important for grocery shopping and it's nice to not have to decide what to eat when you're already hungry.  But there's no point in feeling bad if you don't adhere to the plan.  At least I don't.  So here's my plan for this week. I'm including lunches this week because I feel like that's a place where I could step up on planning.  And I'm struggling with a lunch plan so here's hoping we have enough leftovers not to starve!

Monday
Lunch: Chicken, veggie and couscous bowl
Dinner: Beef stroganoff with egg noodles and roasted asparagus
Tuesday
Lunch: leftover stroganoff
Dinner: Takeout
Wednesday
Lunch:
Dinner: Pork loin rice bowls
Thursday
Lunch: with colleagues
Dinner: Penne with bleu cheese sauce
Friday
Lunch:
Dinner: Creamy tomato basil soup with crostini
Saturday
Lunch:
Dinner: Pesto and chicken white pizza

Meal Plan "Monday"

I try to make a meal plan every week that will guide my grocery shopping.  Most weeks I do okay, which is fine with me.  Cooking after work seems like a good idea when it's Sunday morning, I have a giant mug of tea and all the time in the world to flip through cookbooks and food blogs for inspiration.  I'm going to start posting my meal plans in hopes that I will be further motivated to cook.  Let's see how it goes?

Dinner Plan 2/17-2/22

Monday: One Pan Coconut Shrimp bowls
Tuesday: takeout (class on Tuesday night = no cooking)
Wednesday: Roasted chicken breast with couscous and spinach/arugula salad
Thursday: Baked potatoes with broccoli cheese soup
Friday: Dinner and a movie?
Saturday: Beef stroganoff

Shrimp and Cucumber Brunch Salad

Brunch is my JAM! A decadent brunch buffet is one of the best treats I can think of. I happen to be in love with many of the dishes on the Paulo and Bill's brunch buffet, but one of my favorites is a shrimp and cucumber salad that they don't even list on the website. Apparently they don't think as highly of it as I do. This is my spruced up version.

Ingredients:
Shrimp (boiled until just pink and cooked through, then ice bath 'em)
Cucumber, peeled and seeded
Tomato, seeded
Avocado
Yellow bell pepper, roasted and cooled
Baby greens

Dressing:
4-5 tbsp Olive oil
2-3 tbsp Red wine vinegar
1 tsp Honey
1 clove Roasted minced garlic
1/4 tsp Onion salt
1/2 tsp Garlic salt
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/4 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/4 tsp Black pepper
Pinch Red pepper flakes

For the dressing, combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container, and shake it like crazy. Then chop/cube all of the salad ingredients into about 1/2 inch - 1 inch pieces. I like to chop the greens too so that it mixes in well. Combine everything in a large bowl and coat it in the dressing. Cover and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours (enough time to get really cold and marinate), and then serve cold (in a beautiful hand-painted bowl from Algeria that you got as a Christmas gift).

And I tell you... GOOD GERTY, THIS IS AMAZING. I want to eat this every day. It is crisp and tangy and fresh and freaking awesome. The avocados limit the amount of time that leftovers will stay good, but that just means you have to eat it all faster.

Wilted Spinach

Wilted spinach can be totally delicious... as long as you don't buy it frozen... and as long as you mix some interesting stuff into it. My current favorite is a combination of dried fruit and nuts. If you want to get real crazy you can toss in some cheese too. Basically, choose something from column A, B and C.

Column A                        Column B                          Column C

Currants                                       Pecans                                            Parmesan

Golden raisins                           Slivered almonds                       Feta

Cranberries                                Walnuts                                          Blue

Dates                                             Pine nuts

Apricots                                       Sunflower seeds

What I like to do is saute a giant wad of spinach in a pan with a liiiiiiiittle bit of olive oil and wilt the shit out of it. Like to 1/5 its original volume. You might like it crunchier, tis your preference.

This...

Turns into this...

I actually would have liked to cook it down even a bit more, it was a little watery for my taste.

Then I make a little hole in the middle and toast the nuts in the pan for a few minutes. You can do this in different pans or do one, remove it and do the other, but my way is the nice and lazy way.

Then toss in the fruit and or cheese, toss it all around, and have yourself a flavorful little side dish!

I went cheeseless because I served it with another cheesy side dish along with my pork chop. Side note, I used this method to cook the chops and GAAADDAYAM they were delicious.

Chocolate Chip Currant Low-carb Cookie Cake Thing

I decided to try to make a low-carb baked good that didn't taste like shit, or more specifically, weird spongy eggy shit. I tried a couple recipes that used just almond flour or coconut flour and they required so many eggs that eggs were all I could taste (and I hate eggs). I was searching the fancy-pants aisles at the grocery store and came across something called Low-Carb (or crab as I just type... hahahahaha low-crab baking!... heh) Baking Mix which had a bunch of different expensive ingredients mixed together.

I adapted a traditional choco-chip cookie recipe to incorporate the baking mix and xylitol, which is a sugar substitute that I actually think tastes good. It is made from birch trees (if you get the right brand, some are made from corn) and has a very low glycemic index which makes it better for diabetics.

I decided to include a little molasses since most cookie recipes call for brown sugar too, and I wanted to stick with the xylitol. I am not sure if it was necessary, but it made the batter look the right color.

I also went high on the salt to try to balance out the extra-sweet taste of the xylitol. I was a bit worried when I tasted the batter that it would be too sweet, but the finished product was definitely not overly sweet.

They didn't come out like cookies exactly, so much as like a dense cookie flavored cake, which all in all, I think is a win. The baking mix is very "whole grain" in flavor and texture, so it is kind of muffin-y in that sense. Still, I like it, and it is worth eating. Although the baking mix is expensive and so is the xylitol, so at some point it may be worth just making regular baked goods and eating smaller portions of them.

Post script... these are really growing on me. Two days later I am loving them! They are so different than anything else I have made, and the combo of chocolate and currants is just delightful.

Ingredients:
2 c Red Mill Low-Carb Baking Mix
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 c butter
1 c xylitol
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
chocolate chips to taste
currants to taste

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Grease a large pan. Beat butter, sugar, molasses and vanilla in a large bowl, then beat in each egg. Gradually mix in baking mix, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and currants. Spread into pan, bake 20 minutes.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Dave came back from our Thanksgiving trip home with a cold and when asked what kind of soup he wanted, he told me "chicken tortilla soup but no tomatoes".  I did some Googling and voila!  Pioneer Woman had a chicken tortilla soup that sounded delicious though I had to do some tweaking because Dave later informed me he didn't want beans in it either.  Which I later found out was good because we'd eaten all the canned beans we usually keep stocked.  You'll notice I added tomato paste to the soup.  First of all, I asked Dave if it would hurt his feelings if I added the paste and he allowed it.  It doesn't add a tomato-y flavor but it adds a depth that worked well with the spices.

This tasty soup was warm and filling and I wanted to make it again because we ate it rather quickly.  I haven't made it again yet but we still have some corn tortillas left so I'll probably make it again soon.

Ingredients:

2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 onion, diced
6 sweet mini peppers, diced (could use 1 bell pepper instead)
3 cloves garlic
4oz can diced green chiles
4 14 oz cans chicken broth
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 corn tortillas cut into strips
avocado
sour cream
cilantro
shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix together cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and salt in a small ramekin.  Drizzle chicken breasts with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and enough seasoning mix to coat both sides.  Place seasoned breasts in a glass dish and roast about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

While the chicken is roasting, drizzle about 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pot over medium heat.  Saute onion and bell peppers a couple of minutes, until they start to soften.  Sprinkle with remaining spice mix and stir until veggies are well coated.  Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the green chiles and chicken broth and bring to a simmer.  Let simmer while your chicken cooks.

Let chicken rest about 5 minutes after removing from oven.  Cut into pieces and add to soup.  Simmer about 5 minutes.  Add corn and tomato paste.  While flavors are melding, slice up your tortillas and cut up avocado.  Place a small handful of tortilla strips to your serving bowl, ladle soup over it and garnish with avocado, sour cream, cilantro and shredded cheese.  Then eat up!

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Leeks and Mushrooms

Martha really knows her stuff. I do not have near enough free time to be Martha Stewart, but whenever I use one of her recipes or techniques or whatever, it is always pretty damn awesome.

I bought some leeks at Trader Joe's when I was in there the other day because they looked good even though I didn't have a plan for them. They were nice big ones and were pre-cleaned without the giant extra green part that you can't eat. When I had a free night to cook them I looked around for a recipe and Martha had a nice simple one here. It looks really simple, and you think, eh, how special could it be, but I am telling you, this was awesome. Easy to make, and I didn't even include the parmesan because it was so delicious without it (and I was so hungry I forgot it)!

Ingredients (sweetened with some Taye Diggs in the background):

Leeks

Mushrooms (I used baby bellas)

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

That is it! And guess what, toss it all together and saute it until carmelized. That is also it!

Martha said to put in the mushrooms first and do some fancy stuff, but I just threw it all in together and it was fabulous. That way the mushrooms still had a little firmness to them when they leeks were good and browned. I think I deglazed the pan with some water, maybe a 1/3 cup; if you like white wine, that would be good too, but I hate white wine.

Plate it and gobble it! I truly looked forward to eating the leftovers. That is how good this was. I love finding a new (to me) vegetable side dish that is easy to recreate.

Spinach and Artichoke Wonderpot

I've been seeing the wonderpot pop up on Pinterest and Facebook.  To digress a bit, is anyone else a bit annoyed by people sharing recipes on Facebook?  I don't know why it bothers me but it does.  Anyhoodle, the wonderpot seems like a genius idea.  Throw pasta and sauce fixin's in a large pot and let it do its thang.  Easy peasy, right?  I made this for dinner and it was solidly okay.  I asked Dave to rate it and he gave it a B+.  Which is to say that we both ate it but weren't terribly impressed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it's not bad.  It just didn't earn rave reviews.  I may still play with it and tweak it because it has potential though.

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, sliced
1 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
5 cups chicken broth
12 oz box of fettucine
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
salt
pepper
5 oz frozen spinach (about half a bag)
cooked bacon, for garnish
parmesan

Put sliced onion, artichoke hearts, garlic, olive oil and chicken broth in a large pot.  Break the fettucine in half (I did this in batches because my puny arms couldn't break the entire boxful in one stack) and add it, your dried spices and salt and pepper to the pot and stir well.  Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 10-15 minutes, until pasta is cooked through.  Stir every couple of minutes to make sure pasta doesn't stick.  Once the liquid has mostly absorbed, dish up and top with crumbled bacon and grated parm.

Adapted from Budget Bytes