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!

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!

SAHM dinner FAIL... almost!

So we had pulled some chicken out of the freezer for dinner and Corey  had been mentioning all of these different ways we could cook it. I said I would figure something out and he said he trusted me! :) I had planned on roasting it in the oven at a low temperature all day.. but um... totally FORGOT about it EEK!! It's not like I'm one of those "Ohhh honey, you will have a nice hot dinner ready for you as soon as you walk in the door" types. But, since he gets home right at dinner time, it makes sense to have dinner ready.. most nights! :) The day got away from me and I walked into the kitchen after 5 and said "OOOOHHH SH*T!!!" I had done NOTHING for dinner, and the thought hadn't even crossed my mind! So.. I frantically set to work.

My mission: prepare a full meal in less than an hour and have it be convincing enough that Corey would have NO clue that I didn't slave away all day preparing it!

My "on the fly" menu: Baked chicken, skillet potatoes, green peas, and homemade apple cake!

My chances of success: HIGH (because I have super powers, in case you didn't know)

Tactical Maneuver: Called the hubs and told him we needed more bananas. Good stall tactic. ;)

 I began this frantic dash at 5:19pm.

Praise God for the invention of the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker and thank you Mama for getting it for me for Christmas!  I plopped the chicken quarters in there. (ick... raw chicken is just gross).

Haha... I'd like to thank The Pampered Chef for making this meal possible...

I grabbed the Rosemary Herb Seasoning Mix.

and went to town seasoning it all over and under the skin.

All ready to cook in the microwave for 20 minutes.

 Anyone see the problem here?...

It beeped at 5:20... I had set it for 20 seconds, not 20 minutes. Genius, I am!

Ahhhh... that's more like it! :)

On to dessert prep. Easiest and most addictive cake ever.. Apple cake! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and mix the batter.

Here's what you need:

4 cups (2 boxes- but you won't use all of the 2nd box) of white cake mix

1 1/2 cup of applesauce

Mix together.

(Call me lazy, but I just mixed this directly in the 9x13 pan to save a bowl!)

Spread it out as evenly as possible before baking at 350.

I had 4 minutes and 44 seconds left on the chicken when I popped the cake in

 

to bake for 30 minutes.

 Give the kids some olives to play with/eat to keep them entertained...

I cubed up a large tater and popped it into the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften them up a bit. The microwave had finished cooking my chicken. I had taken it out and let it continue to cook in the baker while I finished the meal. Then I plunked the potatoes into a skillet that had a little EVOO and fresh chopped garlic, I pan fried them and they were SOOO good!

Doesn't that look delish? Wish you could have smelled it! YUM!

I got some peas cooking as well

 

and added some "I can't believe it's not butter because nothing about it IS butter" (so that Benjamin could eat it). He ended up not eating the peas, actually he spit them out... not that you care, but wanted to share.

It was at about this point in the prep that Corey walked in with these. These bananas are large. I find it funny that he got big bananas because he complained the last time I got big bananas and insisted it was better to get smaller ones. Again, useless information  and you will not get back the time it took for you to learn that tidbit. My apologies.

While the potatoes were still cooking, I made the "icing" for the cake. You need:

4 Tablespoons butter

1/4c milk

1/2 powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

 

 Melt the butter in the saucepan and then add the remaining ingredients. Mix until bubbly then remove from heat.

 (that little wisk is also Pampered Chef and is an awesome and very handy little toolie to have!)

When your cake is done, remove from oven and poke holes in it with a toothpick. I have found this to be the best way to get the carmely goodness to soak in all over the cake! Mmmm!

 I just dump the caramel on top and spread with my ..... wait for it.... Pampered Chef spatula (I need a kickback from them...)

Dinner is DONE at 6:11pm. Rock on.

I would show you a picture of the cake.... but well I would be embarrassed at how much of it is left after two days...

Mission Outcome: SUCCESS! Although, I am going to be honest, I think I sort of shot myself in the foot with this. He had NO clue that I did this mad dash, but I fessed up. Bad move, Tracy... because he quickly said that I can't ever have the "We should go out to eat since we don't have time to make dinner" excuse. *rolls eyes* He then commented on how quiet I was when he first got home.. I was FOCUSED! Had to keep my eye on the prize! LOL!

Pinsperation: Food Edition #2

More yummy food inspiration from Pinterest!
Here we go!

1. Pizza Braid

Gather your ingredients. I just used a Pillsbury French Loaf since Benjo can eat that, you could also use one of their pizza crust, I'd bet! You need the basics for pizza: Sauce, cheese, and whatever toppings you desire. 

Please notice the rectangular dough awkwardly laid out on the round pizza stone. This is a perfect opportunity for me to tell you that my husband owes me a Large Bar Pan from Pampered Chef since he broke mine. My dough would have been much happier on a rectangular pan, just sayin'.

I don't measure ingredients. Just follow along with the pictures to see how to make one for yourself! (this is about half of a jar of pizza sauce, btw)

The boy loved the pepperoni!

I told him to smile. I'm guessing this is going to be his cheesy smile. All kids have them. Brooke's makes her look Chinese and super goofy.. not so cute actually! haha!

I cut off the end here since my non-dairy boy can't have the goodness that is cheese. It really makes me sad the he can't have cheese. 

So, here you will cut the edges into about 1" strips. 

Pull the ends up so the toppings don't gush out when it bakes. Then wrap your pieces around... however you can! 

Bake at 325 for 30 minutes, take it out and brush w/ olive oil and oregano, put back in for 5 more minutes.. 

DONE!

YUMMY cheesy goodness!

Yummy, non-cheesy goodness!

2. Blender Madness!

I have seen several posts about how to make your own homemade Frappuccino's or Iced Coffee for super cheap at home. Had to try one! The one I went with is from the Money Saving Mom blog and it is super easy and delish! Now, I don't have a Magic Bullet (yet, lol!), so I just used my blender and guesstimated. Worked out beautifully! I may or may not have had one yesterday and today.. and fully plan on one tomorrow.. 

Now, to get my cold coffee, all I did was fill up a big glass (two servings worth) and pop it into the fridge. We always dump out about that much when we make coffee in the morning, so this worked out perfectly. I didn't make it stronger or anything, just used it the way we drink it hot.

Since mommy was making a blender drink for herself, Brooke, of course wanted a blender drink. So, I whipped up a couple of strawberry-banana and rice milk smoothies. All I used was a banana, 5 strawberries, ice, a  little sugar, and rice milk!

This was during the blending process.. Lol!

We are sitting on the counter. Of course...

3. Parmesan Knots and Lasagna Rolls

Both recipes can be found at the Chef-n-Training blog (one of my new fave blogs!!). I love that her recipes all require few ingredients, many of which you may already have on hand, and they are un-complicated!

Parmesan knots. It says to roll them and then tie them into a knot. My literal self got out the rolling pin.. and then quickly realized she meant roll like a log.. hahaha!

These were both HUGE hits! I did not make the sauce like she has in her recipe. Instead I had made my own from this recipe a couple of weeks ago and had frozen. So, I just used that! Ben couldn't eat the rolls b/c of the filling and the cheese on top, so I just cut up some noodles and added sauce and he goggled it up!

4. Crock Pot Chicken Enchiladas

One word: YUM!

I actually made these over two days. You have to do your chicken separately than the enchilada part. Let me just say that if you can't do that (like if you need to put it in before work and come home to a finished meal), then you should do this on two days as well. Do your chicken one day (on low) and then shred it and prep your enchiladas the next day and come home to a finished, and delicious, meal! 

Also- her method of adding chicken, water, and taco seasoning makes for some super moist and yummy chicken! I shredded it simply by stirring it with my fork after I took it out! It would make a good chicken for other recipes as well, such as tacos. 

You make this in two layers. I took pics of the order of one layer.

The sour cream sauce mixture (she says one container of sour cream, I used the 16oz size)

Corn tortillas

Green enchilada sauce

Check on the boy playing on the counter...

The lovely shredded chicken

Cheese!!

Repeat. Then set it and forget it!

Drool!