Black Bean Enchiladas

These are a concoction. Something I created the other night in an attempt to make life easier. I had to be out for the afternoon/early evening yesterday and my dear madre volunteered to watch the zoo. I did not want her to also have to worry about dinner so I tried to think of something easy and simple she could pop in the oven or such. I had a fierce craving for mexican. I had whipped up some black bean dip for lunch last week and wanted more. I also wanted enchiladas. Black Bean Enchiladas. Easy right? Prepare the night before; toss in the oven. Simple. All I needed was a recipe. That was much more difficult to find one I felt was simple enough but also seemed tasty. I ended up blending some ideas in my head with a few different recipes I came across.

Maybe I was just really hungry or had a serious need for mexican but these enchiladas were so yummy. I had them for leftovers for lunch today (which is why the pictures aren't as yummy looking...leftover enchiladas will never appear all that amazing). Trust me...you want to make these. They will leave you wanting more!

All of my recipe is a rough estimation of what I did. Feel free to improvise and add more/less of somethings.

The filling:
2 -26.5 oz can low sodium Bush's black beans, rinsed/drained
2 large sweet potatoes peeled, diced and cooked (then mash slightly)
1/2 large onion, diced

2-3 cloves fresh garlic

1/4 c lime juice

1 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp chili powder

1-2 Tbsp EVOO

4-8 oz chives and onion cream cheese

Sauce:

7 oz can diced green chiles

2 c chicken broth

2-3 Tbsp EVOO

2 Tbsp APF

8 oz jar sliced mushrooms, drained

4 oz sour cream

Other ingredients:

tortillas (I mixed flour and corn)--this batch of stuff made roughly 20 enchiladas...using the small tortillas

fresh corn (roasted and cut off the cobb)

melting mexican queso (shredded)

Other toppings:

fresh chopped spinach

fresh salsa (I buy mine in the produce section)

sour cream

more queso

fresh chopped cilantro

avocado

fresh mango

You could add spanish rice to this dish too...I was spent by the time I got the enchiladas made

To make the filling:

1. Place a large stock pot on the stove and heat olive oil in it on medium high. When it's hot add onions and garlic. Sautee them until the onion is browning....careful not to burn the garlic! (stir frequently)

2. Toss in the beans

3. Add in about 1/2 can of water and lime juice, cumin, chili powder

4. Allow to simmer on medium-low for about 15 min or until the liquid is reduced by about 1/2.

5. stir in sweet potatoes. Allow to simmer another 5-8 min.

6. Bring your food processor or blender over next to the stove. 

7. Working in small batches (or as large as you can manage in your appliance) puree the mixture and return it to the pot; repeat this process until it's the consistency you desire. I liked mine mostly pureed with a little bit of whole bean left.

8. Allow it simmer a bit more until it resembles refried bean consistency. (if at any point you think it's too thick add a few tablespoons of water)

9. Allow it to cool for about 10 min. Then stir in the cream cheese. Set it aside.

Assemble you enchiladas. 

I heated my corn tortillas on a cast iron skillet coated in nonstick cooking spray first.

I used this order:

tortilla, bean mixture, roasted corn, cheese; roll up and place seam down in a 9x13 baking dish. (I recommend lining your pan with aluminum foil for easy clean up!)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sauce:

1. In a medium sauce pan heat EVOO on medium high heat. When it's hot whisk in (quickly) flour; then add green chiles; constantly stirring so they don't burn. Then slowly whisk in chicken broth so as not to create any lumps. Reduce heat. 

2. Stir in mushrooms and allow mixture to simmer on medium low heat-stirring occasionally--until the liquid thickens and is reduced by about 1/3-1/2 (depending on how runny you like your enchilada sauce)

3. Once it is to your liking, remove from heat and allow to cool for 10-15 min. Stir in sour cream until it's all well mixed. 

4. Pour mixture over the top of your enchiladas. 

5. Bake in the oven for 30-45 min or until bubbly and brown. You may want to keep it covered with foil for the first 20 min and then remove foil and toss on some extra cheese for the remaining 10-15 min.

Top as you wish and enjoy!

When the moon hits your eye

like a big piece of pie!

I have posted about pizza before. I had this great dough recipe that I loved but it was a bit cumbersome in the sense that it required you to prepare the dough at least 24 hours in advance! Who wants that?! When you want pizza, you want pizza...and now dangit!

Pizza was on the menu this past weekend. It was a celebration of sorts. You see, back in Janurary we had to rush my baby to the doctor's one morning shortly after New Year's. There was serious concern she might have an obstruction in her intestines and so we went through all the testing and such. She did not have an intestinal obstruction (which I was very thankful for!) BUT in the process they determined she had a severe milk-protein allergy. Which basically means her little gut couldn't process or break down the protein found in milk (whey, casein, etc). It explained why she had been such a colicky baby! I ate greek yogurt every morning for breakfast (along with cheese on my eggs or whatever) and by 5p or so she would be screaming bloody murder. After 3 solid months of her screaming in the evenings/nights I was so relieved there might actually be a solution.

The solution? Oh well....her food supplier (aka ME) had to eliminate all dairy from my diet. Easy enough....right?! Oh it was so hard at first. I did not realize how much dairy I actually ate! I hate plain milk. So I thought I wasn't a real dairy lover....wrong. And dairy protein is in everything! Read some labels of your favorite foods. Guarantee most of them have dairy. Eventually we found a groove and I was able to find a new approach to my eating.

In the last month or so I have been paying less attention to what I eat. I was trying to "test" and see if I could slow re-introduce dairy and what effects it might have. It seemed to be going well. About a week ago Senor and I went out for dinner and had a delicious meal that had all kinds of cheese. I had decided in advance I didn't care if it caused a problem for 1 night/day I was willing to pay the price. Oh my the cheese was amazing!!!!

I was bracing myself for when the cheese would "hit" baby but it never did! She seemed totally unphased! I began trying a bit more dairy. Nothing. The one meal I had missed the most (other than desserts and breakfast items) was pizza. With this new "green light" I decided it was time for a celebration and put pizza on the menu!

I used my newer-ish recipe which I originally found from my friend Sarah. Now this recipe is originally from a Kitchen-Aid mixer recipe book; thus it is implied that you use a mixer. I can't. The thing I love most about mixing dough is using my hands and working out all my pint up stress kneading the dough 'til my arms hurt. So I mix this by hand and insist it makes a huge difference.

Here's the recipe. And my thoughts/tips on making it the ultimate pizza. Forget ordering out ever again.
1 pkg active dry yeast (I use Fleischman's rapid rise in the yellow packets) or 2.5 tsp of the jarred stuff

1 cup warm water (just wait til the tap water begins to feel warm to you)
1/2 tsp salt (I like to use Kosher salt)
2-3 Tbsp EVOO (plus extra for kneading)
3-4 Tbsp vital wheat gluten--this helps to give the dough a nice smooth soft texture

2-3 c APF
1 Tbsp cornmeal

Utensils needed:
a large mixing bowl
a fork
measuring devices (obv)
a baking stone or pizza stone is preferable
cookie sheet or pizza pan or some other flat metal baking item you can flatten out your dough on

Toppings
For this pictured pizza I used:
fresh green peppers-chopped
fresh onion-chopped
fresh roma tomato-sliced thin and squeezed to eliminate excess liquid
fresh spinach finely chopped
Bertoli Tomato and Basil sauce
Boar's Head Pepperoni from the deli
Fresh parmesan cheese + fresh Romano cheese
fresh mozarella cheese
Basil pesto

1. Mix water and yeast in a bowl. Let it sit for 5 minute.
2. Add EVOO and salt. Dump in 2 cups APF + vital wheat gluten and stir with a fork.
3. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Scrape fork and use extra EVOO to douse your hands in olive oil (think of it as your spa treatment for the day).
4. Now if your mixture is holding together and is relatively cohesive but sticky add another 1/2 c APF.
5. Work that in and knead with your hands.
6. Fold the dough over itself (kneading it) for about 10-15 min. Add little sprinkles of flour and grease your hands as needed until the dough forms a nice smooth ball but isn't dry.
7. Now grease a large bowl and set dough down inside. flip it once to coat the top of the dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1-2 hours (until the dough AT LEAST doubles in size...the longer you can let it rise the better).
8. About 30-45 min before you plan to bake the pizza turn on your oven to as high as you can crank it and place your pizza stone in there while the oven is cold.
9. Chop and prep & organize all your toppings as you wish.
10. Once your dough has risen lightly coat a round metal pizza baking dish with EVOO. Dump your dough out onto the center of the metal pizza dish. Begin (coat your hands again in EVOO; use your fingers and palms) to flatten/roll out the dough towards the sides of the pan forming a nice crust and a thin center as you go.
11. Once you have wrangled the dough into an acceptable shape dust the top with corn meal and let it sit for about 10 min.
12. Now use some hot mitts to remove your pizza stone from your hotter than hades oven and set the stone on a safe spot for something so hot (I use my oven top). Decrease the temperature setting on the oven to 475F. Quickly grab your pizza dough (on it's pan) and invert it onto the pizza stone--so that the cornmeal covered top is now on the stone and you have a clean dough surface facing you. (DO NOT panic if it folds or wrinkles...just quickly straighten it out and stretch the dough to your liking)
13. Place the dough on the stone back in the oven for 3 min.  (@475F)
14. Take it back out and set it on a safe place. Top it with a very thin layer marinara sauce (for 1 large pizza I would say no more than 3-4 Tbsp...you do not want a super saucy mess of a pizza....I won't tell you about the time I over did the sauce and managed to slosh all of the toppings off the pizza while trying to remove it from the oven...)
15. Layer your toppings as you wish. I recommend veggies, meats, some cheese, tomatoes/fresh herbs, more cheese...but it's your pie so do as you wish. I also like to brush my crusts with pesto; but that's me.
16. Return it to the oven and bake for another 8-12 minutes @450-475F; until it's brown and bubbly!
ENJOY!!

Antipasto Salad

What you need:
1 cutting board
1 chef's knife
1 pot of boiling water

Kitchen remains relatively clean. Oven remains off. Dinner is beautiful and tasty!

I wanted to go with the antipasto concept. Senor was not feeling it--thinking it would be too fruff or girly. I decided to really add some umph and spend a bit more dinero for some key ingredients. Even the little monkey liked it!

Ingredients:
cherry tomatoes
tri-color rotini
fresh baby spinach
english cucumber
kalamata olives
I added frozen (thawed) green peas to mine
prosciutto
fancy pepperoni
fancy Parmesan cheese 
fancy romano cheese (I selected all the meats and cheeses from the gourmet section near the deli)
goat cheese
ciabbatta bread
For the dressing I had 3 choices. We ended up mixing the pesto and tomato stuff; it seemed to taste the best.

The bonne maman was for the bread (the entire meal was quite salty/savory so a little bite of sweet at the end was nice)


Senor dumped all of his chopped, into a bowl. I left mine on the plate and mixed and matched. LuvBug had ravioli instead of rotini with hers but she had a little dish of pesto and all the veggies to dip. 
Easy meal! Yummy and cool!

Thai Spaghetti

It's hot. Ridiculously hot. I can't really tolerate it much longer. I might have to move to the North Pole. Or buy a cooling suit. Have you ever even seen a cooling suit? Husband is an engineer; I am sure he can whip one up if necessary.

Due to stated heat, I have refused to turn on the oven. Well, except in dire circumstances...mumble, mumble, cough, cough. That may or may not have found its way into my oven this evening and be baking even as we speak. Senor requested it! I could not justify making it during the day though so here it bakes at 11pm so as not to blow up my A/C. It smells delicious in case you were wondering. Pret-ty sure you can't screw up butter, flour, sugar and 3 types of berries smothered in more sugar.

Anyways. That was not the point of this post. I digress. I might be experiencing heat exhaustion.
First, a recipe from the little person. She informed me yesterday she was going to make some eggs for me. Good thing her little oven doesn't produce heat because she cooks up a storm these days.
Here (in case you need a new one) is a recipe for eggs. Mind you, it does not actually call for eggs. She's genius I tell you. Creating things without using the actual food. Amazing.

Eggs...by LB
2 1/2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp milk
(I thought at this point she might actually be onto something but then she went a different direction:)
2 Tbsp yogurt
(interesting. But her next step really took it to a new level)
2 Tbsp green beans
2 Tbsp waffles

That's it. No further instructions. You're on your own!

Okay...so that still is not the point of this post. The point of this post is that I came across a recipe from Smitten Kitchen (I think she and I would get along swimmingly by the by) for cold noodles with chicken and peanut sauce and the word "Cold" caught my eye. I marked it as part of our menu this week. I proceeded to finish out the menu and prepare a grocery list. As I went through this recipe I started to get really flustered just reading it! Too many steps. Too many ingredients. Too much work. I scanned through it once more and realized I already had a recipe that had pretty much the same results and was much easier. The menu was changed.

Thai spaghetti is actually a recipe I took from my SIL. While Senor and I were engaged we flew out to meet his sister and her family. Had a lovely time and one evening she whipped this delightful little meal up for us. It was quick, tasty and had a different flavor than alot of recipes in my repertoire. Even more curious to me was that her (then 3 yr old) son was so excited to find out this was dinner!

Thai Spaghetti

1 lb wheat spaghetti*

1/3 c peanut butter, softened (I like creamy for this but crunch would work)

2 Tbsp honey

¼ c soy sauce

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp hot pepper sauce**

1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/8 tsp garlic powder)

3 Tbsp veg oil

2 c cooked, cubed chicken ***

2 c fresh spinach, chopped 

1/2 c shredded carrots

4 scallions, sliced 

1/3-1/2 c chopped peanuts (recommend roasted, lightly or no salted)

¼ c cilantro fresh, chopped

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt (1/2 tsp), add pasta and cook til al dente, drain, rinse in cool water—set aside
2. While pasta is cooking, in large bowl whisk together pnut butter, honey and ¼ c warm water.  Stir in soy sauce, lime juice, pepper sauce and garlic…mix well, pour in oil in slow steady stream while stirring. 
3. In large bowl, coat noodles with pnut mixture ( I skip this leave everything separate and let everyone create their own dish; using the peanut mixture as more of a dressing)

Divide noodles among 4 bowls, top with chicken, spinach, carrots, scallions, pnuts and cilantro



Alterations:
* sub cold rice noodles; I've also used rice before. I personally do not like the spaghetti noodles.
**I omit this
I tend to increase the amount of veggies; added chopped sweet red pepper tonight
***tonight I cooked boneless/skinless chicken on the cast iron skillet with lime juice and fresh minced ginger. In the past we've used plain rotisserie chicken but I definitely liked the added flavor of the chicken tonight.

So it serves up like a little salad bar. For little ones I roll up her rice noodles like "nests" and give her a small container of the dressing to use as "dip" and give her a small amount of each ingredient on her plate with some toothpicks!