Enchiladas: Part Three

Finally, time to make the enchiladas! Most of the work is done, and now it is mostly assembling.

Here is the recipe I used for these particular enchiladas again: Shredded beef enchiladas.

You can also make shredded chicken, ground beef, bean, or even just cheese enchiladas - just adjust the protein accordingly. I highly suggest using this method though. The beef is SO GOOD. I used a 2 lb chuck roast from Triple S Farms - a local farm that raises organic grass fed beef. I've seen this farm and its cows, and feel good eating meat from here. If you can find a local farm like this near you, the meat is totally worth it.

So. I put the roast in my crock pot with all the glorious spices and let it sit overnight on low. Have you ever let something cook in your crock pot overnight? Try waking up NOT hungry! The house smelled fantastic.

I shredded the now super-tender meat and picked out any pieces of chewy fat that I can't stand touching my mouth. I then added a can of mild diced green chilies. If you like spicy  use the hot ones. You are a more macho person than I am.

I'm going to give you one more picture of this delicious, moist, flavorful meat. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

OK! So then you just take your tortillas and fill them up at one end and roll them. I was able to put a lot of meat in each tortilla - so these things were really stuffed. One of these babies fills you up good, and a second sends you into a food nirvana. Sometimes, it just feels good to be really full.

As you can see, I put some of my Homemade Enchilada Sauce at the bottom of the dish to prevent sticking and to help coat the enchiladas. See how huge those things are?

I actually got all the enchiladas stuffed into my large glass baking dish. I didn't think it was going to happen, but they were nice and cozy in there. I then covered them with the rest of the enchilada sauce and made sure it got into the crevices. I probably used 3 cups of sauce.

Now this part is very important. Load the dish up with Montery Jack Cheese. I mean, really put as much on there as you can. There is no cheese in the enchiladas themselves, so you really want the tops smothered in it. Forgive yourself, and add some more.

Then, when you are ready to cook it, put it in the oven set at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Nothing has to cook, it just has to heat and melt all that cheese. Then serve it nice and hot. I had trouble finding the individual enchiladas because I packed them so tight, so if that is important to you, you might want to use two pans. While dinner was cooking, Uncle Tom played helicopters with Gavyn.

And here is a nice serving!

Om nom nom

Everybody enjoyed the enchiladas. I can't wait to have the leftovers for dinner tonight!

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Enchiladas:

* 2 pound beef chuck pot roast
* 1 tsp cumin
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 1 tsp garlic salt
* 1 tsp Mexican oregano
* 1 pinch coarse salt
* 1 pinch freshly ground pepper
*  1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
* 3 cups of sauce from the recipe Enchilada Sauce
* 8 flour tortialls found here Homemade Tortillas
* 2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese, or more

Arrange the beef in the slow cooker and toss all the spices in (through the black pepper), cover and cook on the lowest setting for 6 -8 hours. Shred with two forks. Taste. You must taste it to make sure it is good. Place in a bowl and add the diced chilies. Combine. Preheat oven to 350. Pour a little of your sauce into the bottom of a large casserole dish. 

Evenly divide the beef mixture at the edge of each tortilla; roll up tightly and layer in the dish seam side down. Continue until the dish is filled. You might need two dishes. 

Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Get it in every crevice. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Throw it in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Enchiladas: Part Two

I don't want you to think these enchiladas are really involved and they are going to take you forever, because that is not the case. I just did all these things in my own time over a couple days and I also thought it would be helpful to have the sauce and tortillas separate for future reference. So now, tortillas!

This is one of those things that everybody should at least do once, because it is so satisfying. I didn't get to many pictures of the whole thing because I was chatting it up with my brother while making them, but the steps aren't too hard to comprehend.

I used this recipe from The Prairie Homestead to start. I followed it exactly and it came out great. I started with two cups of whole wheat flour, added the salt, and then used my fingers to incorporate the coconut oil.

I then added the milk and mixed it all up! I had to knead it a little bit. Then I let it rest until I was ready to make them. Then I cut them up into 8 equal portions (if you are picky you can use a food scale, but I'm not so picky :)). Rolled them out as thin as I could and got my frying pan ready! I really really wish I had a cast iron skillet. I have a cast iron dutch oven , but that wouldn't have worked for this, clearly. I just used my nonstick pan and it was fine. I didn't need any oil. I just heated the pan over medium high heat and flopped one of the discs in there. They cooked for about 30 seconds each side and they were done! I didn't even get a picture of the finished products...shame on me. However, this is how they looked filled with delicious shredded beef filling going into the casserole dish.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

2 cups flour (I used all white, but next time will use a combo white/whole wheat)
1 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
2 T coconut oil in its solid state. If it is summer and it is liquid put it in the fridge for a bit first.
3/4 c warm whole milk

Mix the flour and salt in a medium sized bowl, and then cut in the coconut oil, as in making a pie crust or biscuits. Then add in the milk and combine and knead a bit to form a uniform dough. Let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 portions, roll out using a bit of flour to prevent sticking, and then cook in a dry skillet for about 30 seconds on each side. Done!

Attempted Hot Dog Buns

Also in honor of my brother coming, I am taking some of our venison hot dogs out of the freezer. I've never seen my brother or my husband pass up a hot dog. I don't think I have to get into what my problem is with hot dogs, but these are legit.

So I wanted to make some nice homemade hot dog buns to go with them. I can't think of anyplace where I could buy unprocessed hot dog buns around here, so this is really  my only choice. I figured they were just going to be like making bread only I would shape them into buns!

I used this recipe from Foodie with a Family. It seemed to have everything I wanted. I didn't use the potato flakes because not only did I not have them, I just don't trust potatoes in flake form. So I just left them out.

I warmed up my milk and added the butter right to it to soften it. I also added in the sugar since I was using raw sugar and didn't want it to be too grainy.

I put the flour, salt, and yeast in the mixer and blended, and then added in the wet ingredients, followed by an egg.

This gave me a pretty good looking dough. I set it aside to rise in the kids room, which tends to be the warmest place in the house, and let it sit for a little over an hour.

Well, it didn't rise. Wah-wah. I always have issues with instant yeast. I don't think I'll ever use it again. I always do better with active dry. Anyway, sometimes this has happened and it still rose in the oven, so I carried on.

I divided it into 12 portions. I did use a scale to start dividing when I didn't really trust my eye.

See that cute little hand? Gavyn loves to help in the kitchen

Gavyn helped me roll the pieces into 7 inch long rolls. They then went onto the pan and out to rise again - for about another hour. They rose MAYBE a little bit. Ah well, no going back now. I sprinkled them with some salt for fun, and into a 375 degree oven.

They did rise a little, but not enough to consider them hot dog buns. They ended up being pretty good bread sticks for the leftover soup we had Monday night. I might try to make a bun out of one, but I will certainly need a knife and a fork to eat. So while not all was lost, I didn't really end up with hot dog buns.

I may try again, if I have time. If I am successful, I'll let you know!

Enchiladas: part 1

Uncle Tommy is coming! My brother Tom hasn't met his new niece yet and is coming in from Colorado to see her and Gavyn! He should be here tomorrow morning. So I asked him what he wanted for dinner, and like most men, he said he didn't care. After I gave him some options, we agreed on enchiladas. We both developed a love for enchiladas after tasting a casserole a friend made up in Minnesota. This recipe is a little more authentic, and hopefully even better!

I am going of this recipe from Bev Cooks. They are shredded beef enchiladas. Usually I would make my enchiladas vegetarian by using beans, but I know my boy likes meat. Anyway, I wanted to make it completely unprocessed, for blogging sake. So I am going to start with the enchilada sauce. When I looked up this recipe, most had me using canned tomatoes. Not bad, but I wanted to take it a step further and use fresh tomatoes.

I started by peeling the tomatoes with the ol' boil and shock method. I started with 10 roma tomatoes.

They boiled for just a minute or two, then....

started to get nice and peel-y, so into the cold water they went!

 The peels came of nice and easy

I then put them in a blender and let 'er rip! I didn't seed my tomatoes because I really don't mind the seeds or the extra juice, but some people do.

Then to make the sauce. I made a rue using olive oil and flour - 4 tablespoons of each (it seems like a lot, but this is a big batch) and I also added in the 5 tablespoons of chili powder.

I then slowly started adding my tomato sauce. I knew if I tried to just dump it all in it wouldn't blend well, so I did it slowly.

Once it wasn't such a goupy mess I added it to the rest of the tomato sauce

And then added the spices. Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and cumin.

I also added chicken broth (not my own yet, I know - but soon).

After it started to simmer I let it do that for a bit and then it was done! This is about enough to make 3 batches of enchiladas. Totally cost efficient.

I'm going to use 1/3 for this week, 1/3 for a taco pizza, and the jar is going in the pantry

Tada! I waited until after I made the stuff to take a look at the can and see what was in it - and this is what I found:

Can someone tell me why this sauce needs color added? I'm so excited to use my own sauce!

So step two will be homemade tortillas and then in step 3 I'll make the enchiladas! Come on back and check it out!

Homemade Enchilada Sauce
8-10 roma tomatoes
4 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 T flour
5 T chili powder
1 1/2 t onion powder
1 1/2 t garlic powder
1 1/2 t salt
2 1/2 t cumin
3 cups chicken stock

Boil the tomatoes until peeling, and then put into a cold water bath. peel with your hands and then add to a blender and whir them up. Combine olive oil, flour, and chili powder in a pot and whisk until combined and thickened - a couple minutes. Slowly add in tomato sauce, whisking as you go. Then add all the seasonings and the stock, and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. It should thicken slightly. If you wanted to make it hot and spicy, go ahead and add either some hot sauce or cayenne pepper or even fresh hot chilis - whatever you like.

Product Review: Unreal Candy Coated Chocolate Pieces

In other words, M&Ms. When it comes to chocolate, I prefer mine not covered in a candy shell, but I can't escape the popularity of this candy. It is brightly colored, making it very appealing and pretty for all seasons and holidays. However, this also means it is full of artificial food dyes. Food dyes scare me.

While I would love to give a go at making M&Ms myself, I think that is waaayyyy down the line. I also know they would end up looking NOTHING like real M&Ms, if that is what I really wanted.

Over the summer I found these at a Walgreens while I was waiting for a prescription to be filled. Since then I have seen them at CVS and Target. I thought it was a marvelous idea! I may not eat much of this type of candy, but recently I had reason to buy some:  to decorate my son's birthday cake.

The Unreal brand also sells their version of peanut M&Ms, snickers, milky way, and peanut butter cups. I have tried the peanut butter cups as well (my favorite candy) and they were pretty good. They don't taste exactly like a Reeces, but that is because they aren't filled with hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup and other laboratory ingredients. It was basically just peanut butter in a dark chocolate shell - pretty darn good.

Anyway, the un-junked m&ms are really very good. They do have a little different flavor, and I can't decide whether it is from the colorings or the better ingredients in the chocolate itself. The colors aren't as bright, but they are natural looking, and I feel so much better letting my son have a few of these rather than food-dye covered candy. They also worked really well on his birthday cake, since I also used concentrated vegetable coloring to color the icings.

These are much more pleasing to my eye

This was Gavyn's Choo-Choo cake. The candy is used in the back two cars. 

I'm no dietitian, but I would suggest you don't go buying these thinking you can now gorge yourself on candy since it is chemical-free. They do have less sugar than M&Ms, but they can only be part of a healthy diet in moderation. However, when you do indulge, you can feel better that you aren't putting so many chemicals into your, or your family's, bodies. Oh and aren't those pastels perfect for Easter?

Chocolate obsession

I blame my mother. She introduced me to it, encourages me to eat it, and supplies me with it. Boy I love her for it. Chocolate - I know most women do enjoy it, but I'd say I am downright addicted to it. Sometimes I will tell myself NO MORE because I'll get to this point where I can eat a Hershey bar with a cup of hot cocoa with a piece of chocolate cake on the side. After some time away, however, I always comes back to it.

So of course, on this quest, I had to check the ingredients. Nothing is more pure than  bar of chocolate right? Sigh, wrong. Turns out there is soy lecithin, PGPR, and artificial flavor in it. I didn't know what PGPR was, so I used handy dandy google. Polyglycerol polyricinoleate. Yes, I copied and pasted that instead of trying to copy it out. It is a manufactured emulsified fat that replaces some of the cocoa butter in chocolate - because cocoa butter is more expensive. Well I don't like that, not one bit. You also know how I feel about artificial flavor. What does that even mean?

I face an even bigger problem now. My son. The boy LOVES him some chocolate. I know it is my fault, but I knew we couldn't avoid giving it to him forever. I want him to have the best of the best, and still be able to enjoy the best things in life, so for our house, I am going to try a few different recipes of homemade chocolate. 

This one came off pinterest, from this site. So it is one of those fashionable paleo recipes, because I am oh-so trendy. It uses coconut oil as the fat, which is something I've bee trying to get more of in my diet anyway. 

These are my ingredients:

I'm too poor to buy "the best" cocoa powder, but I seriously can never tell a difference like most foodies claim to. 

The directions say to melt the coconut oil and then blend everything in the blender, but you see, I had this going on:

So I didn't want to be running my extra loud blender. So I just put everything in the pot on the stove. This worked perfectly - and no need to dirty the blender!

It all came together pretty quickly over medium heat. Then I just poured it into 12 muffin cups and stuck it in the fridge!

Well, don't mind if I do. 

I was worried they wouldn't come out of the paper lining that well, but they came out perfectly! Also, they are delicious. A very fudge-y consistency and very rich. It melts fast in warm hands, but don't eat to too fast - savor it. Then lick your fingers. 

They also past inspection with my boss. Approved!

Next I think I'll try and order my own cocoa butter and use that. I just happened to have all these things at my house already, so that is another plus. Oh, I also didn't add vanilla to the recipe because that is something I didn't have, but they are still really good. I'm guessing a little vanilla would make them even better. I also put a little sprinkling of salt over a few of them just for me. In my opinion, salt compliments chocolate really nicely. Well, in my opinion, salt kind of compliments everything nicely...

Enjoy!

Chocolate peanut butter fudge

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup high quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1/4 cup raw honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt all ingredients except vanilla in a pot over medium heat. Once combined and melted, remove from heat and add vanilla.  Pour into paper-lined muffin tin cups or silicon muffin cups and fill half-inch full.  Makes 10 -12.   Chill for 30 minutes or freeze for 10 minutes.  When firm, remove.  Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.  Mmm-mm!

Cashew cream

I've just started this blog and I think I've mentioned cream cheese twice already. The stuff is magnificent. After I had Alli and didn't really have time to make myself lunches, I would bust out the crackers and cream cheese and go to town while I was walking her around the house in her mei tai carrier. It was fast, satisfying, and took care of my craving for chips and dip. Lets face it, cream cheese isn't exactly a nutritional power house. So that is one reason why it probably shouldn't be a daily part of my sustenance. Second, it isn't exactly cheap! Philadelphia original cream cheese also has whey protein concentrate and carob bean gum - not exactly bad things but things that I can't just pull out of my pantry. So I went looking for a substitute.

I came along a recipe for cashew cream cheese and thought I would give it a try. When I was a vegan back in college I used to make cream sauces using cashews and they always came out great. This one only had a few ingredients: cashews, salt, water, and a little yogurt. I didn't really think any miracles were going to happen, but since I like cashews anyway I thought I would try it.

You start by soaking the cashews.

Then you just drain them, put them in a blender with some water and blend them up. In hindsight, I should have used my food processor. Once I dirty one appliance though, I don't dirty another one. So I had to do some poking and proding to get it all blended up.

Then you add a few tablespoons of yogurt. The result was basically just cashew butter. It is good, but it doesn't satisfy my need for cream cheese. I think I'll eat it with some veggies or maybe put in in smoothies or something. I'll find a use for it.

Then after I made this, I realized there WAS a better alternative to cream cheese - goat cheese! Why hadn't I thought of that before? I love goat cheese, and it has that creamy consistency. There is a local farm here - Prairie Fruits Farm - that makes their own goat cheese and while it is horribly expensive, if I really need that creamy spread I should buy the stuff that at least has some nutritional value. Goat cheese, and most products for that matter, tend to be  lower in fat, higher in protein, and generally better for the human body to process.  I don't think I'll be blending up cashews anymore - they taste pretty good in nut form.

Cashew cream
2 cups cashews
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T yogurt

Soak cashews for over 2 hours in water. Drain, and add to blender or food processor. Blend until a paste is formed, and then blend in the salt and yogurt.