Last night I went over to my friend's house. She planned on doing some cooking and baking for today and this week as well, so I took some of my stuff over and we caught up and cooked together.
I had her help me make twice baked potatoes, since I've never made them before. I made some muffins for breakfasts this week, and I chopped up some green peppers and onions.
I try to chop up vegetables beforehand if I plan well enough and have enough time.
Twice Baked PotatoesThese were a lot simpler that I thought they would be
Ingredients -
Baking potatoes (I used 4)
Sour cream (1 ish cups)
Shredded cheese (1 1/2 -2 cups)
Instructions
Wash potatoes, leaving skins on
Wrap in tin foil
Bake in the oven.
The temperature for mine varied from 350 to 435, since we were making other things at the time. We left the potatoes in for 45 minutes to an hour.
Once the potatoes are done baking, remove from the oven and remove the foil. Allow the potatoes to cool until you can handle them.
When they're done cooling, either cut the potatoes in half or cut along the top so you can scoop out the middle. Scoop out the inside a of potatoe leaving an the outside "shell"
Mix the inside of the potato with sour cream and cheese, then put it back into the shells.
I'm saving these in the fridge to eat later this week. I'll put in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes to reheat through.
Pre-cooking and Enchiladas
Since I planned on making both chicken enchiladas and quesadillas this week, I put chicken breasts in the crockpot today with some water and taco seasoning. I used about 3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts.
I really like cooking with my crockpot, it's easy, and most of the time hard to mess up. I cook a lot of meat in the crockpot. I swear by the crockpot lines you can buy - they're usually by the ziplock bags and oven bags. It makes clean up really easy.
I cooked the chicken for 6 hours on high. I threw the chicken breast in when they were frozen. I think that's a big no-no, but I do it all the time with chicken and roasts, I just cook them a little longer usually and add some extra water. I don't especially like, or make recipes that require meat (other than hamburger) to be browned ahead of time.
Once the chicken was done I shredded it with two forks on a plate. Half of it I saved for quesadillas later in the week, and the other half I used to make chicken enchiladas.
I have
this recipe saved for beef enchiladas, and just changed it a little for the chicken.
Ingredients:
About 1 1/2 lbs shredded chicken
1 1/2 cups water
2 cubes chicken bullion cubes
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon group cumin
1 large onion chopped
1 can chopped green chili peppers (should probably be 2 though)
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups sour cream
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
flour tortillas
As mentioned above, I pre-cooked the chicken in a crockpot.
I boiled the water, put in the chicken bullion cubes (chicken broth), then added the red wine vingear, chili powder and ground cummin. Then I added the shredded chicken, brought to a boil, then covered & let simmer for about 10 minutes.
I followed the recipe for the cheese sauce, except now as I'm typing this out, I should have used 2 cans of chilis, but I only had 1 can.
In a large skillet, saute the onions, Mix in flower and green chilis stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Stir in sour cream and 2 cups of cheese. Cook on low until cheese is melted (about 10 minutes), stirring often.
I used flour tortillas instead of corn, so I didn't do anything with them ahead of time.
Preheat oven to 375
I lined my 9x13 pan with tin foil for easier clean up.
Put some of the cheese mixture and them some of the meat in the tortilla, roll up and place face down in the pan. Sprinkle cheese on top. Back for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Here's my final product:
I didn't look in on it while it was baking as my toddler was whining to go in the living room, so I just waited for the timer to go off. They were baked a little too long, and I forgot to spray the bottom of the pan with Pam, so the bottom stuck a little.
Overall I think they turned out about a 6-7 out of 10, don't completely love them, but didn't hat it either. Definitely better than the store bought canned enchilada sauce. I started to hate that stuff.... but I think I'd like it better if the sauce was a little creamer, and if I put some of the cheese sauce on top - but that could have a lot to do with only using half of the chilis that I was supposed to.
I'll probably make this again and see if I can change it to my liking a little better.
This made enough for dinner tonight for our family of three (me, my husband, and 2 year old daughter).
