Easy Peasy Chicken Enchiladas

Okay, are you ready for an oh-my-gosh-this-is-so-easy-and-tasty recipe?! Good! Corey texted me and asked if I could make chicken enchiladas for dinner. Suuuure.. why not?! Let me just whip those right on up, honey! :) He wanted "those ones we had last time:" "Those" were a long time ago and I have no idea where I found that recipe... so far back.. it was before the days of Pinterest *gasp*!!! I really do need to find that recipe though and Pin it. Since I couldn't find something that didn't require a trip to the store, I went ahead and made my own little concoction, using some things I saw in various other recipes. The result was very good, if I do say so myself!

***AAAAAHHHHH!! I had to reset my phone last night and all of the pictures I took of making this meal got deleted!! *cry*. I will make this again and will update this with pictures at that time. Until then, I'm sorry but all you get is words and a picture of them the next day. As a visual person, this irks me!

Ingredients:
* Flour tortillas (I actually used some Flat Out wraps as well, for a more "healthy" version, I'm sure you could also use corn if you prefer)
* 1 cup salsa
* 6-8oz of cream cheese
* 2 cans of chicken breast (of course you can use the real stuff and shred it!)
* 2 cups of shredded cheese
* Optional- a can of enchilada sauce (I'd use green since it's chicken, but go crazy and use red if you like it) or extra salsa

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350*
2. In a saucepan, melt your cream cheese over low heat with your 1 cup of salsa. Once it is combined, add in your chicken and stir to mix well.
3. In your 9x13 dish, open up a tortilla or wrap (when using the Flat Out wraps, cut them in half so they are closer to the size of a tortilla), scoop a heaping spoonful of your chicken mixture into the middle. Don't make it all one big gob, spread it out from top to bottom, but keep it in the middle of your tortilla. (GOD, I hate that I don't have pics of this!!).
4. Wrap your tortilla around the filling by pulling one side around it and then overlapping the other side on top of it slightly. Place your enchilada with the seam side down and repeat with the rest of your tortillas until you have filled the pan or run out of filling! (For mine, I ended up making 8 total and they fit in there perfectly!).
5. Pour some additional salsa (or enchilada sauce) over the top of your enchiladas and sprinkle generously with your cheese.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and  heated through. 25 minutes was the perfect amount in my oven.

These are so delicious! I served them with sour cream and Jalapinto beans on the side!

Menu Plan

Yes, we still eat, even if I do forget to post my plan! I seriously and NOT good at posting these! Oh well, I ask for your forgiveness!

	Dinner
Monday	Turkey burgers & Veggie skewers on the grill
Tuesday	EASY PEASY Chicken Enchiladas
Wednesday	leftovers
Thursday	Vegetable beef soup Grilled cheese
Friday	Spaghetti & Artisan Bread
Saturday	Baked Tilapia
Sunday	Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu

Meal Plan-ish

So.. I didn't post my meal plan last week. I just really didn't have the time! We DID eat though! :) I came down with strep the week before and I. was. miserable. I had a high fever, chills, horrendous body aches, and of course a sore throat. I went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon and got some meds that evening. I started feeling better by Saturday. I shared it with Corey, so in essence I was caring for 4 children at one point! Poor guy came home early on Wednesday so I could go to the doctor sans kiddos and by the time I got home, he was miserable. He never got it as bad as I did b/c we got him on meds before it got worse, luckily! I'm not sure I could have handled his drama- lol. Men are wusses.

Anyway, the sickies put my plan out of whack, so many things were shifted to other days or not made at all. I did make several of the things though. I have decided that although the table I made last time with breakfast, lunch, and dinner is pretty and all organized-like, it really isn't realistic... yet. I think I will just post some meal ideas and select from them. This is better for me right now!


Here's some highlights from meals past:

Baked oatmeal.

I added chocolate chips, so it came out pretty dark, but it was good- not great though.

Crock Pot chicken-n-dumplings. Delish!!

Calzone.

Birthday calzone!

Oatmeal smoothie.

It was very tasty!

Meatloaf. I made mini loaves for Benjamin (using his egg replacer and rice milk).

 

I was going to be gone for dinner time, so I left directions for the hubs! :)

Loaded chicken nachos night. 

These brown sugar muffins were really good- and Benjamin loved them!

Crock Pot taco soup- yum!

Mini pizzas for lunch one day.

The kids LOVED the mini pepperonis! Brooke says normal sized pepperoni's are too spicy, but not the baby ones... mmmkay! Ben's are the ones w/out cheese.

Loved the crock pot sloppy joes! Served them on rolls with a slice of provolone!

Crock pot steel cut oatmeal. This was pretty good. Benjamin LOVED it and ate seconds and thirds on the days he ate it! Winner! 

 This is the cilantro lime Chipolte-inspired rice. Totally loved this!!

The crock pot salsa chicken was SO good and I served it over the rice.

Banana cookies made so Ben could eat them. He ate them. LOTS of them.

Dump cake. Yummo! Apparently I forgot to take pics of the cookies and cake after they were cooked and before they were all gone! Oops! 

This was crock pot country style pork ribs and skillet potatoes. Yummy!

And finally.. Monster cookies! These are so good!

They have oatmeal in them. Oatmeal=healthy. So, yeah, they are healthy cookies... or something.

I made a delicious crock pot beef stroganoff.

This week we are really focusing on using up what we have in our freezer and pantry.
So, we will have leftover bbq pork tonight and the rest of the week we will have:
Tilapia w/ potatoes
That dang vegetable beef soup that I keep saying we are going to eat but haven't yet! (My mom made it and it is frozen).
Pot stickers.
Frozen skillet meal.
Baked chicken.
I know I will see something that I will have to try.. and I will throw that in the mix!

Sorry for the lame meal plan this week, I will hopefully do better next week! :)

Meal Plan: 9/26 - 10/2

Last week's meal plan went really well! I didn't stick to it 100%, but it was nice to have an idea of what we were going to be having! One night we had leftovers and my parents took us out this weekend for our birthday's. A change I will implement this week is actually printing out the Meal Plan and putting it on the fridge. I added breakfast and lunch for this week and we will see how that goes! I definitely need to be better about giving the kids a more complete and filling breakfast! :) We shall see if my plan is a little overzealous, but hopefully it isn't!

I am really trying to plan dinners that are quick and easy. With a newborn that cluster feeds ALL evening, I find myself sitting in the living room and nursing her through most dinners. Tonight, in fact, Corey said, "Hey, you actually got to eat your dinner with us!". I plan on doing a lot of crock pot cooking, using my awesome Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker, and other things that don't require a lot of prep work.

Here is the plan for this week! I've got a ton of other recipes lined up for the coming weeks that I'm excited about!

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Brown sugar cinnamon muffins	Mini pizzas	Loaded nachos
Tuesday My BIRTHDAY! :)	Banana & blueberry smoothie Cereal	Leftover chicken Baked beans Watermelon	Chicken quarters (baked or grilled) Salad, fruit, baked beans Some yummy dessert
Wednesday	Dairy & Egg free breakfast bars	Sandwiches Applesauce	Tortilla crusted Tilapia Steamed broccoli
Thursday	Banana pops rolled in granola	Hot dogs Baked beans chips	Vegetable beef soup Grilled cheese
Friday	Oatmeal  bites	PB&J roll ups fruit	Crock Pot sloppy joes
Saturday	Blueberry pancakes Turkey sausage	Sandwiches Chips	Crock Pot Salsa chicken soup Chipotle rice
Sunday	Crock pot steel cut oats	Tuna salad	Cookout! Meat, veggies, etc

Meal Planning!

I've missed blogging SO much!! But, let's be honest.. with three kids under 3 1/2, one of whom is 3 weeks old today, I don't have a lot of free time and when I do I'm either cleaning up or trying to sleep! However, I definitely have a lot of posts planned and will get to them slowly but surely!

I am super duper excited to start something new... MEAL PLANNING!! I stumbled upon the Keeper of the Home blog and was inspired to join her Plan It- Don't Panic 6 week meal planning challenge and joined the FB group as well! There's nearly 600 members in the group so far! Every Monday Stephanie is going to post her meal plan on her blog and anyone is welcome to link up and post theirs. People have already started posting their plans on the FB page and it is nice to get ideas from others! I love the accountability piece of this. I committed to it and I've wanted to meal plan for a long time (I did it for two weeks a while back then was hugely preggers and thus lazy and slacked off..) so this is perfect! I'm competitive to a fault so I'm looking at this as sort of a competition. I will win if I stick to it for the 6 weeks! Here's hoping that by then it will be a habit and will continue! I suppose the prize is less stress and a plethora of meal ideas, recipes, and such. I'm also thinking a bonus to this deal will be some new blogging friends!

While the idea of planning meals is totally appealing to me, the actual "how to plan it" part is a little daunting. I'm a recipe Pinterwhore. My "FOOD" category on Pinterest is obnoxiously full of recipes. I have made many of them, but there's probably no way I could ever try them all! I'm drawn to the pretty pictures like a mosquito is drawn to a bug zapper! Someone suggested a website called Say Mmm and I love it! I haven't had a ton of time yet to figure it all out, but I've added some recipes and links to recipes. It is going to be an awesome place to keep track of what we will be eating (on the calendar) as well as my grocery list! Love it!  It has some great features. I will be able to share my calendar, meals, and recipes with others. It even has a way to post it onto my blog. Looking forward to fiddling with it and hoping it can become a tool that I can really utilize. Oh and you are able to access it from your Iphone too!

** Here is a post with LOTS of different ideas for planning and recipe resources! Awesome! **

The challenge doesn't start until the 26th, but I think I will start this Monday, the 19th. Since I like to take pictures of my food, I'm thinking I will take pics of the food I make and update my post with them as well as review new ones I try. We will see.

As I was cleaning up the dishes from dinner tonight though, a thought crossed my mind. If I'm doing all of this planning, it means I will be doing all of the cooking! Methinks I need to strike a deal with the hubs. I cook, he cleans.  Sounds good to me!! Either that or I need to schedule some Triple D days (Dad Does Dinner)! :)

Another goal I have (assuming I get the hang of the dinner planning), is to be better about planning healthy breakfasts and doing a better job of having well rounded meals. It seems like too often we just have the main dish and not really side dishes, salad, fruit, etc. My 18month old son has a lot of allergies (milk, eggs, sesame, tree nuts, oranges....) so sometimes I alter recipes so that he can eat them! I will post if the recipes are egg/dairy free just in case you also are looking for egg and dairy free choices!

Here's what we have for this week so far:
Monday: Pillsbury Crescent Dogs
Tuesday: Smoked Sausage (from Indiana- we pack it with us across the country after every 4th of July Family Reunion!- yes, it is that good!), Beans, and brown rice
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings (changes I made: I used one can cream of chicken and one can cream of mushroom, instead of adding water I added one can of low sodium chicken broth (14oz), and I only used one can of biscuts- it was plenty). This was DELICIOUS and is definitely a keeper!
Thursday: Corey's birthday!! Homemade pizza (or calzone?...), salad, and lemon bars
Friday: ??
Saturday: ??
Sunday: cookout at friend's house

Other random stuff I have made this week:
Baked Oatmeal (I omitted the cranberries and added 2 mashed bananas and chocolate chips. I also cooked it in my Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker).
Rice Crispy Treats (made with Earth's Best faux butter so Ben could eat them)
And although I made these last week, you NEED this recipe and you NEED to make these. You will thank me.. or not since it's hard not to eat one after another after another. Somehow the fact that they have fruit in them and oatmeal, I can convince myself that they are "healthy". Go ahead and make Banana Cookies! Funny story about these- I didn't have any baking soda, so I asked my friend (and neighbor) if I could borrow some. I promised him that I would give him some cookies in return. He and his wife were busy all weekend and well.. when I saw him early this week and he asked about the cookies.. there were none left! oops!

So.. who is with me?! Take the challenge!