Remember your LABELS

When posting your recipe please remember to use the "Labels". Use as many labels as you need or want. Make sure to use your name and month of the recipe along with anything else, i.e chicken, pasta, beef, potatoes, Mexican, Italian, etc.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Honey Lime Enchilada's

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 large limes)
2 teaspoons to 1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 large cloves of garlic, finely minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large breasts), cooked and
shredded
12 corn tortillas
2 cups of Mexican cheese blend, shredded (1 small bag usually is 2 cups)
1 14-oz can of green enchilada sauce (mild or medium, to your taste)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of heavy cream
nonstick cooking spray
1 Tablespoon of chopped cilantro, to garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the cooked and shredded chicken in a
medium sized bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, place the honey, lime juice, chili
powder and minced garlic or garlic powder. Whisk together thoroughly to combine.
Pour this mixture over the chicken and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to marinate
while you prepare the tortillas, 30 minutes or up to 1 hour, in the refrigerator.
Heat a large griddle till a drop of water skitters across (about 350 degrees F).
Spray the surface with non-stick cooking spray or a oil it with a little bit of canola oil
in between each round of tortillas. Heat tortillas about 20 seconds on each side till
warm and flexible and some golden brown spots have appeared. Remove the
tortillas from the griddle and keep them between a couple of paper towels until
ready to use.
Spray the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish lightly with cooking
spray. In a medium bowl combine the enchilada sauce and the heavy cream.
Spread about 1/2 cup of the mixture in the bottom of the oiled baking dish. Add a
large spoonful (about 2 tablespoons) of the chicken mixture to the center of each
tortilla in a line. Cover the chicken with a large tablespoon (or big pinch) of cheese,
then roll the tortilla up from one side to make a rolled enchilada - it will be more of
an over lap on the seam side that rolled tightly. Place the enchilada seam side
down in the baking dish starting at one end with the long edge parallel to the
longest side of the pan so that you end up with two columns of six enchiladas
each.
Repeat with the remaining chicken, cheese and tortillas. You will use about 1
1/2 cups of the cheese for the filling and set the remainder aside for topping the
enchiladas in the pan. Add the remaining marinade mixture to the enchilada sauce
and cream mixture, if desired. Pour this mixture over the top of all the enchiladas.
Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Bake the enchiladas for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cheese is melted and
bubbly and starting to brown on top. Serve with sour cream, black beans, and rice
or a green salad for a great meal.

I used flour tortillas  
instead of corn.  That is how my cousin made it for me and I liked  
it.  I bet the corn would be good too.  I forgot to mention this, but  
you might want to mix up the sauce a bit if it separates after being  
frozen.  You could probably even mush it around in the bag before you  
use it. 


By Jennie

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Italian Tortellini Soup






2-3 lbs MILD Italian Sausage
4 Cans Italian Stewed Tomatoes
3 cloves garlic (minced)
Salt and Pepper
1 hand-full spinach (optional)
2 tsp. Italian Herb Seasoning
1 Large Chopped onion
3 Cans water
2 Tbsp. beef base (about 8 beef bullion cubes)
16-20 oz frozen cheese tortellini

Brown Sausage.  Add tomatoes and onion.  (I like to puree tomatoes and onion).  Add water, garlic, beef base and spices.
Boil 30 min.  Add additional seasoning if desired.  Add frozen tortellini and cook until the pasta is done.  Add fresh spinach and grated parmesan cheese to individual servings if desired. 

By Chelsey

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells.

*From December's meal swap*

I am not gonna lie!!  This is NOT a very LOW CAL meal!  I changed it up a little to cut out a few calories.  I only used 1 package of cream cheese (the 1/3 less fat kind), only 1/2 package of parmesan and only 1 cup maybe a 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella.   While I'm sure the "real" recipe is DIVINE, I think its still great with a little cut out. 

44 uncooked jumbo pasta shells (That’s about one and one-half 12-oz boxes)
2 c chopped cooked chicken
2 c fresh chopped spinach
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15oz) container ricotta cheese
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (5oz) package shredded Parmesan cheese (about 1 2/3 c.)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 Tb dried parsley flakes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 (26oz) jar prepared spaghetti sauce (any variety)

Cook shells according to package directions (be sure to stir every once in awhile so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan and tear apart); drain and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease 2 13x9x2inch baking dishes.
In a large bowl, combine chicken and all the rest of the ingredients except mozzarella and spaghetti sauce. Stir in 1 cup mozzarella. Spoon into shells. Spread half of spaghetti sauce into prepared baking dishes. Arrange shells over sauce; top with remaining sauce. Cover tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Bake for 5 to 10 more minutes.
Makes 8-10 servings.

A work in progress!

Still trying to work out design kinks, but our blog is up and running!!! 

Email me your recipes from this month and maybe even past months and I will add them. 

Thanks girls!