Day Forty-seven--Chicken Enchiladas

Hello everyone. What a fine day it is today! School is done. Bread is baking. All is right in our little world. Last night's dinner was a success. What else could I ask for? Well, I'm sure I can come up with a couple of things.

Last night dinner was fun to make. It took me the entire hour that Connor was at karate. Part of that was the chicken needing to be cooked. I bought a beautiful chicken from the farm. I have been buying organic roasting chickens or breasts at Wegmans. I got to thinking though that I can't really know how these chickens were raised. When I was at the dairy last week, I ventured over to the section in their little freezer that had chicken in it. I picked up a near 4 pound chicken. I'm not going to lie. It was expensive. It was $17. BUT, it's from a local farm, it was a pastured chicken and it was organic. I swooped it up and took him home.

The bird was a whole roasting bird so I had to chop him up and boil him. I had Tim help me chop the chicken up a bit. Big knives tend to scare me sometimes because I'm not the most graceful person. Sadly, Aidan seems to have inherited this trait from me too. We are both accident prone. Tim did most of the chopping but then he had to leave to take Connor to karate, or else Connor would be late. I was kind of grossed out hearing the bones crack and feeling the raw chicken flesh in my hands. Tim then, ever so kindly, reminded me that when we get to the point of having some land and raising animals that I better get used to it. I think I'll let him do it. =)

Once the chicken was all chopped up it went into a big stock pot and boiled for about 30 minutes. While it was cooking, I prepped everything else for the dinner. I chopped onions, opened cans of diced chillies, grated cheese and got tortillas ready (as in nuked them because I didn't want to fry them again). After the chicken was done, I shredded the meat off of the bones. I started frying the onions and then added the shredded chicken to the pan. Then I threw in half of the chillies. After than cooked for a bit, I added a half cup of the chicken broth and a half cup of cream. A dash of paprika was added to the mix and this pan was done and set aside while I started on the next part.

The next part of the meal was the cheesy part. Yum. I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter and then whisked in a couple of tablespoons of flour. I then added a cup and a half of chicken stock, a half cup of sour cream, and about a cup and a half freshly shredded Monterrey Jack cheese. Oh, and I threw in the rest of the green chillies. This all melted together into a glorious cheesy gravy.

Then came the fun part. Putting it all together. I took the corn tortillas out of the microwave, slapped a bit of the chicken/onion mixture into it, topped it with a sprinkle of cheese, wrapped it up and plopped into a baking dish. I ended up with a 13x9 pan full and a 9 inch cake pan filled. Over the top of the rolled up little enchiladas, I poured the cheesy sauce. It went in the oven for 30 minutes. That's it.

White Chicken Enchiladas

I topped the enchiladas with my favorite salsa. I usually make my own salsa, but when I can't get to it, I always get Frontera salsa. I love the chipolte one, the tomatillo one and the jalapeno cilantro one. Yum! All natural goodness.

Three out of four of us liked this dinner. Aidan said he didn't really like it, but he ate a few bites. I think I like the other enchiladas I made a couple of weeks ago because they were more flavorful to me. Although, these were really good too. I guess it is a milder flavor on this one. Tim and Connor loved them. Thankfully we had a ton of leftovers, so I know what lunch is going to be today!

I think that is all I have for now. I am going to run out to the dairy today. I have to get into the habit of Thursday shopping. Our farmers market starts in three weeks and it's on Thursday. I am going to make Thursday my market day. That means I better get into the habit of doing my menus and shopping lists on Tuesday and Wednesday. Until later, happy cooking!

Day Forty-two--Mexican Quinoa Salad

So, remember yesterday I was saying how hot it was. Compared to today, yesterday was as cool as a cucumber. What happened to spring? Crazy. Dinner tonight was an easy one again. It did involve the stove but only for 15 minutes or so.

Mexican Quinoa Salad

First, let me just say that I also made this:

Fresh salsa with organic tortilla chips

And after my day, I was glad to have a cold beer to go with the whole shebang.

The salad. I'm not sure what I was thinking with this one. I guess I saw Mexican and that was enough for me. I did have my doubts about the quinoa. I'm not a big fan of quinoa. I've tried to like it, really I have. I knew I was in trouble when I was mixing the spices into the quinoa to cook. The recipe called for cinnamon and nutmeg with cayenne. It smelled horrid. The other things that went into the salad were good. Tomatoes, an avocado, black beans, corn and feta cheese. I should have just left it with that and not added the quinoa. Ick. It was gross. The kids both took a big "no thank you" bite, and both shuddered. I can't blame them. I took a couple of bites and gagged.

Thankfully, I had also made a huge batch of fresh salsa. I'm going to be eating salsa for the next couple of days with the amount I made. It was delicious. It was spicy and I think I might have used a little too much cilantro but it was good. Connor, Tim and I enjoyed the salsa. It was too spicy for Aidan.

So, to sum up. This salad was awful. I will NOT be making it again. I'll spare you the recipe. Trust me, it wasn't good. Tomorrow will be another salad. It should be interesting though because we have to leave at 6 to go see a live TV show being taped at our PBS station. I guess we are going to try to eat before hand. It will be rushed. I just hope it will be better than this one was. Until tomorrow, happy cooking!

Day Twenty-two--Fajitas!

I'm a dork. I had to have Mexican today in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Not that I really need an excuse to eat Mexican food. It's one of my favorites!

Of course, dinner had to start out with one of these:

Good 'ol Corona.

I had pondered drinking one while I was cooking up our dinner, but then thought better of it. I just can't drink like I used to. That is probably a good thing.

Chicken Fajitas with roasted peppers and onions

Dinner tonight was delicious. I just chopped up 3 organic chicken breasts and cooked them with a Simply Organic Fajita flavor packet. I also had a pan with onions, green peppers and red peppers frying up along side the chicken. Connor came home from karate and helped me stir the veggies and chicken while I made the guacamole. Connor also shredded some cheddar cheese for me too. He's quite the helper in the kitchen. It's interesting because Connor likes to do cooking on the stove and preparing meals and Aidan loves the baking side of the cooking. He's always helping with the breads, cakes and cookies. I'm very lucky to have two little helpers who enjoy playing in the kitchen.

Dinner was a great success. We each had two fajitas and then we were stuffed. It was thumbs up all around. I have to say that it's been pretty easy to keep up with the cooking so far. I'm happy because I know we are all eating real food and that is going to keep us healthy. I hope everyone has had a great day. Until tomorrow, happy cooking!

Day Sixteen--Dinner out

Last night's dinner was supposed to be one thing, but life happened and we had to celebrate it. Connor tested for his next belt in karate and passed with flying colors. By the time class was over it was 6:30 and Tim and I decided to let Connor pick someplace special for dinner. He had earned it from not only his karate class, but he had also gotten up early and gone for his PSSA testing. He was funny because when we told him he could pick he was happy. He says, "I know it's not good for us, but the first thing that popped into my mind was Chuck E Cheese." Tim and I groaned. Connor chuckled and then said, "No, I don't really want it, it's just the first thing that popped into my mind." Chuck E Cheese would be happy to know that their advertising dollars are working well. It's strange too because the kids rarely watch TV anymore. When they do, it's through the tivo and we fast forward through the commercials. It must have been lodged in his brain a couple of years ago. He thought a bit more and then chose La Tolteca. A local Mexican restaurant. I was pleased because it meant I could have one of these:

A JUMBO margarita. It was so good and I really needed if after a couple of very busy weeks.

We were careful and limited the numbers of chips and salsa we consumed before our actual meal showed up. Last time, the kids pounded down so many chips and salsa they were ill by the end of the dinner. Then they were mad that we wouldn't let them get fried ice cream. Both Connor and Aidan were gunning for the fried ice cream this time so they were careful with the chip consumption.

For dinner I had an enchilada dish. The enchiladas were full of crab and shrimp and then covered with cheese. Served with rice. Honestly, my favorite part was the rice. It was really good. The enchiladas were ok. They didn't really have a lot of flavor and I only ate half of them. I should have ordered something with a little more pizazz. I was proud of myself though because I did try something new and didn't get what I usually get in Mexican restaurants.

The kids managed to get their ice creams too. We got two and split them between the four of us. It was a very nice dinner that everyone enjoyed and we all left with smiles on our faces. It was nice to have a night where I didn't have to prepare and clean up after dinner too. Tonight, I am back in the kitchen.

Congrats to my newly yellow belted son. Great job!

Until tonight, happy cooking!

Day Four--Cool Mexican Bean wraps

Tonight we were cooking in a different kitchen. We got into Olean this afternoon and then went food shopping for tonight's dinner and tomorrow nights dinner. It's always interesting shopping in grocery stores that your not used to. For one thing I found the Stevia that we used to always buy and was discontinued at Wegmans. I scooped up three bottles of it for 38.00. Expensive...yes. It's worth it though. We use it in KoolAde for the kids. We try not to use any chemical sweeteners and Stevia is all natural. I was happy to find it.

Anyway, on to dinner. Tim helped me again. Actually, I thanked him because he has pitched in each night so far and not only is it a huge help, it's fun for both of us to be working together. We went the Mexican route tonight:

Cool Bean Mexican Wraps ala Jamie Oliver

We've made these before so they are a repeat for us. They are awesome. I made guacamole and picked up a container of fresh salsa from Tops. I'm usually not one for store bought salsa. That being said, every time we are in Olean I have to get a container of it. I don't know how they do it, but it is so good. So, we enjoyed a bean wrap with some Corona and I'm pleased that instead of eating out on vacation, we cooked real food.

Not much else to report. Until tomorrow. Happy cooking!

**edited to add cost of meal...Total cost was $33.85. It served 6 so cost per person was $5.64. Not too bad for orgnaic beans and tomatoes. That is about what you would spend for a Value meal and it wouldn't have any nutritional value.