Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Here is an easy recipe for a yummy weeknight meal. I wanted to try making enchiladas by making them without the traditional green or red enchilada sauce (which is really good too, but can get a little messy). I have been thinking about doing this for a while, and I finally got around to it!

1 rotisserie chicken
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I used crimini)
8 oz cream cheese
1 packet taco seasoning (or Carne Asada flavoring)
2 Tablespoons dried onions
salt to taste
2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese (or cheddar)
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
7 or 8 taco size tortillas (I used low carb ones)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place the meat from the rotisserie chicken on a cutting board and chop it up pretty fine. In a large bowl, add chicken, chopped mushrooms, cream cheese, taco seasoning, and dried onions to the meat and mix until the ingredients are incorporated. Taste and add salt and more onions or taco flavoring if necessary (to suit your taste).

Grease a 9 by 13 baking dish. Place about 2-3 spoonfuls of mix into the center of the tortilla and wrap up tight. Place in baking dish seam side down. Repeat with the remainder of the tortillas. Add Monterey Jack cheese to the top of the tortillas and spread evenly. Drizzle the cream evenly over the top of the cheese. Sprinkle more taco seasoning over the top if desired.

Place foil over the top and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes. The top should be bubbly and toasty looking.

Enjoy!

In The Mood For Caldo Verde

Caldo Verde is a Portuguese soup that is TO DIE FOR. It's Portugal in a bowl. The ingredients are so simple and the end result so satisfying.

• 3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes (the white ones),or 6 to 8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (like potato au gratin style)
• One big sweet onion (spanish or yellow), minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 TB olive oil
• 1 TB butter
• 10 ounces chourico, chorizo, or pepperoni if you can't find those, sliced thin (I used pork chourico that wasn't in a casing and it worked great, found at Sprouts)
  
• 3 Liters cold Water
• 1 lb Kale (this is what I used) or Collard Greens, washed, middle vein removed, and julienned (use a basil chiffonade technique)
  

Put 3 TB olive oil and 1 TB butter in the bottom of a big heavy saucepan and on med-high heat, cook the onions and garlic for about 2-3 minutes until onion becomes translucent being careful not to brown the onion.
Once onion is translucent, add potatoes and saute until they start to get some color, about 3-4 minutes.
Once the potatoes are getting some color, add the water, cover the pot, bring to a boil and cook for about 20-25 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, julienne the greens (there will be a lot of it, don't worry, it's supposed to be that way)
and cook the chourico in a skillet until most the fat is cooked out. (If you are using a sausage with casing, remove the casing before you cook it)
Drain fat from sausage and set aside until the potatoes are ready.
Once the potatoes are soft, take a potato masher and mash the potatoes in the pot.
Next, add the sausage and lastly add the greens to the pot. Let cook for another 5 minutes until the greens incorporate into the soup. Taste for salt and pepper and pour the last Tablespoon of Olive Oil over top. serve with bread.

Here is a link to a website with some good visuals and a little more traditional recipe.

Slightly Sweet White Wine Salmon

This is the first meal I ever cooked for Anthony back in my little NYC apartment in early 2007. He's been hooked ever since. Serve with rice and asparagus.

Ingredients:
1 lb salmon
1/3 cup white wine
2 T butter
1 T honey
3 T brown sugar
juice from 1-2 lemon slices

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350. Place salmon in rimmed cooking dish. Salt and pepper both sides. Place rest of ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes. Pour sauce over salmon and bake in oven for about 15 minutes, or until just opaque inside. Turn oven to broil, place salmon dish on 2nd to top shelf and broil for 3-5 minutes, until slightly browned. Enjoy!

Note: You can make this without the white wine, it's delicious either way.

Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Stuffed Chicken

I have never made a stuffed chicken before and when I saw this recipe along with this recipe I was inspired to make a few adjustments and make it mine. In this picture you can see the melted goat cheese and pesto oozing out of the side. Yum!! It was easy but it looks elegant and difficult. The fun thing about it is experimenting with a ton of different fillings. Once you have the technique down, the possibilities are endless (and the technique is not that hard to get down). The filling that sounded good to me this time around was a Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Goat Cheese combination (if these ingredients sound too exotic for you or your children, my 8 year old sister who can be picky LOVED it.) For the best results, I highly recommend making your own pesto. The store bought options for Sun Dried Tomato Pesto just aren't that good (in my opinion) unless they are super expensive.

Ready, Set, Pesto!

1 (8.5 ounces) jar Sun Dried Tomatoes packed in Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves
Salt and fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed in
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, packed in
Splash of Lemon Juice
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Blend all ingredients together except the Parmesan Cheese in a food processor until tomatoes are finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in Parmesan.

Now for the dish:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
6-8 ounces goat cheese (Chevre is the brand I used and I used about 7 oz)
1 Tb dried basil
6 ounces sun dried tomato pesto
1 egg
Parmesan cheese for breading (or bread crumbs if you like) about 3/4 cups
Fresh Basil for Garnish
8 toothpicks
Baking dish, greased

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the chicken breasts one by one inbetween wax paper or a freezer ziplock bag and pound with a meat mallet until 1/4 inch thick.

Combine pesto, goat cheese and dried basil in a food processor just until the cheese is more evenly distributed throughout mixture, but not completely incorporated.

Lay out one of the chicken breasts and fill with 1/4 Pesto mixture and roll up starting with the smallest side to the largest side, tucking in any parts of the chicken that you need to. Secure with 2 toothpicks.

Crack an egg into a large bowl, pour 3/4 cup parmesan cheese into large plate. Dip the chicken into egg mixture to coat outside, then dip the chicken into Parmesan to coat. Place chicken into baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.

Make sure the chicken is spaced out in baking dish (not touching the other chicken) and bake for 40-60 minutes (mine took 55). Watch for the chicken to brown on the outside and be firm to the touch. Remove chicken from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with some fresh basil. The chicken is actually quite filling so you want to keep your side dish light, like some grilled veggies. Enjoy!

Here is a hint for printing the recipes since we don't have one of those fancy options for printing the recipe only. Copy (right click on the mouse to find it) the whole recipe and open up a new document in Word (or whatever software you have) and Paste it onto the page and then print.

Portobello Burger

This healthy and delicious vegetarian meal is satisfying...don't let the portobellos scare any of you meat-lovers away!  My hubby loves a good burger, he was savoring every bite. I made homemade hamburger buns which made them even tastier. 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced 

6 T olive oil 

1/2 t dried thyme 

2 T balsamic vinegar 

salt and pepper to taste 

4 large portobello mushroom caps 

4 whole wheat hamburger buns 

1/4 cup low-fat mayonaisse 

1 T capers, drained

tomato, spinach and avocado to top

Directions:

In medium bowl, mix garlic, olive oil, thyme, vinegar, salt & pepper.

Remove stems from mushrooms and place caps bottom side up in a shallow baking dish. Brush the caps with half of the sauce. Broil caps under the broiler for 5 minutes.

Turn the caps, brush with remaining sauce. Broil 4 minutes.

Toast hamburger buns lightly.

In small bowl mix capers and mayonaisse together. Spread mayo mixture on the buns, top with mushroom caps, tomato, spinach and avocado.

Ancho Chile Mushroom Enchiladas

If you have access to ancho chiles (we find ours at the local Mexican market), you have to have to have to try this dish. I got my inspiration from the ancho chile enchiladas at Z Tejas, one of my favorite restaurants. They are so delicious and pretty easy to make. You can make the sauce ahead of time too, and freeze any extra for future uses. I make these enchiladas about once a week (and don't get sick of them), they make for excellent leftovers. Anth takes the leftovers to school the following days (where his fellow classmates drool over them).

serves about 5 or 6
Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1-2 T. mole sauce (optional)
  
• 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 12 ounces fresh wild mushrooms (such as oyster and/or stemmed and sliced shiitake and portobello)
• 5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (you could also use queso fresco)
  
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped
• 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• 8-12 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas

Preparation:

Bring 2 cups water to boil in small saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat, add chilies and soak 30 minutes. Drain chilies, reserving 6 tablespoons soaking liquid. Cut stems off chilies. Cut chilies open. Scrape out seeds and discard. Combine chilies, 6 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid and garlic in blender and puree until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine whipping cream, sour cream, & chili puree in heavy large skillet. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes. Whisk in lime juice and mole sauce (optional). Season with salt. (Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Melt butter in another heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté until onion is translucent and mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add cheese, cilantro, tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of the cream sauce. Simmer until just heated through, about 4 minutes. Stir in avocado. Season filling with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Dip tortillas individually into warm sauce & transfer to baking dish. Spoon generous 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, enclosing filling completely. Arrange seam side down in baking dish. Cover enchiladas with foil.

Bake enchiladas until heated through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates. Spoon some sauce atop each. Serve, passing any remaining sauce separately.

Notes: The corn tortillas crumble really easily. Since we eat them with a fork anyway and don't really care about presentation, it's not a problem. But, if you are worried about presentation, it might help to fry the tortillas briefly in some hot oil before dipping them in the sauce and filling them. It should help keep them from crumbling. I have tried microwaving them for 30 seconds, and although it helps they still seem to crumble. Another solution would be to use flour tortillas. They rarely crumble and taste heavenly too.

Lemon and Basil Marinated Cod

Anything marinated in these things has to be good right?! In Portugal, they eat Cod like it's nobody's business. They call it Bacalhau. After spending a year and a half there, I learned that there are literally thousands of ways to prepare it and it is a main staple of their healthy Mediterranean diet. Cod has a meatiness to it that most fish don't, which makes it an ideal fish for a winter meal. When Grant tasted this dish, he was surprised it was cod and said, "I would have told you not to buy cod, but I'm impressed." Another upside to buying cod is it is usually caught in the wild, therefore it is not farmed and does not have any added hormones or coloring, and if you get it at a reputable store, it usually hasn't been frozen. It's delicious.

For the Marinade:
4 cod fillets
A handful of fresh basil leaves (about 8), minced
the juice from 2 lemons
Leaves from one stem of rosemary, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger,
1 handful of fresh chives, minced
1/3 cup soy sauce
Kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper

Stir all ingredients together (or use a food processor or Magic Bullet) and put the cod fillets in the marinade and let sit for 30 minutes in the fridge.

While they are marinating, Saute in large skillet
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks (white part only), minced
3 shallots, minced
1 yellow onion, minced
8 cloves of garlic minced
kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper

Until onions are transluscent. Add cod to pan. Turn the heat up and brown the fillets, then turn down the heat and let them simmer until cooked through. (up to 20 minutes, it will vary depending on the thickness of your fillets)

Spoon the Cod and the Sauce over Mashed Potatoes or Mashed Cauliflower (what we used) or Rice. Pour parmesan cheese over top and a dollop of sour cream. Garnish with a parsley sprig or whatever you have on hand. A half of a lemon would be nice to drizzle on top.

So healthy and so good, you'll think you're in the Mediterranean.

Delicious Angel Hair Pasta

Ingredients:

1/2 pound angel hair pasta
1/4 c. olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
8 oz. mushrooms
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese
2-3 fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
fresh basil leaves, cut into pieces
salt & pepper

Boil pasta according to package instructions. Drain pasta and place in serving bowl. While pasta is boiling, saute garlic in olive oil on medium heat until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and cook for about 4 minutes. Pour over warm pasta and toss. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss. Add half of the Parmesan cheese. Toss again. Let noodles cool slightly. Right before serving, add diced tomatoes and basil and rest of Parmesan cheese. Lightly toss and serve. This makes a great light dinner!

Oven BBQ Chicken

Despite these pictures being slightly on the unappetizing side of things, this chicken is yummy.

2/3 c. catsup
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 1/2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp. dry mustard
Add some honey if you like it sweet

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken in baking dish.

Combine sauce ingredients and spoon over chicken. Bake just until chicken is no longer pink inside. Serves 4.

Curry Chicken

Allow about 1 hour start to finish

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 potatoes, cut into chunks
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
8 oz stewed diced tomatoes (Italian style works)
8 oz tomato sauce
5-6 tablespoons sugar-of course you don't have to add this much but I love me some sweet food!
Rice (cooked)

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Heat oil, curry powder, and paprika in a large skillet over medium-low heat for two minutes, until fragrant (but don't let it burn). Turn the heat up to medium and stir in onions and garlic and cook ten minutes more or until onions are very clear. Add chicken, tossing lightly to coat with curry oil and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and is cooked through. Add potatoes (you can keep the skin on), then add coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and sugar into the pan, and stir to combine. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes or until sauce thickens. The sauce thickens upon standing, but is great served hot too. Serve with rice and garnish with cilantro, if desired.

I love to cook, it makes my hubby very happy!

Fajitas

One of Anth's all time favorite dinners are these fajitas. Delicious-and super easy too!

Things you'll need:

1 red pepper (cut in slices)
1 yellow onion (cut in slices)
1-2 T. olive oil
chicken (either fresh or the frozen strips from Costco)
juice from 2 limes
avocado
cilantro
sour cream
cheese
flour tortillas (we use the kind you cook yourself, they're so much better)

Directions:
In large skillet, heat olive oil. Add red pepper & onion and cook until slightly browned. Set aside in a bowl. Using same skillet, cook chicken. When chicken is just about cooked all the way through, add the onion and peppers with the chicken and squeeze lime juice into skillet. Cook until all is heated through. Heat tortillas in fry pan and melt cheese onto one side. Add chicken mixture to center of tortilla and top with items of your choice (we can't live without sour cream, cilantro and avocado).