Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

I think I need to work on my food photography skills....but it sure tastes good!!!

Feeding Finley as been quite the learning experience. She is a *little* independent and has NEVER let us feed her baby food or put utensils up to her mouth. She has wanted to do it all on her own. So the challenge has been to find foods that our toothless darling can eat. We were amazed at the way should could put down steamed broccoli, peas, even grilled chicken without any teeth.

In the last week, two little teeth have just begun to break the surface of her lower gums and it has opened up a whole new world of eating for our little darling. I'm not a big fan of having special foods just for the baby, instead I try to just feed her what we are having for dinner. I was SUPER surprised when she gobbled up this enchilada recipe. The tortillas were a bit too difficult for her to manuver without full teeth but she gobbled up the chicken and black bean filling. Now I know that spicy food is right up her alley (although this dish isn't too spicy, just a little kick from the chiles).

The original recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I like it because all of the ingredients are things that I typically keep on hand. These enchiladas are jam packed! So I said that it makes 6 servings, which would be 1.5 enchiladas per person. The original recipe would provide:

723 calories
40.5 g fat
55.3 g carbohydrate
6.4 g fiber
35 g protein

I made a few basic changes like using reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream. I also only sprinkled the top with a 1/2 cup cheddar, instead of putting a few tablespoons of Monterey Jack in each enchilada plus cheese on top. I also substituted good old La Tortilla Factory Low Carb tortillas.

This recipe would be great for doubling and freezing or just halving and freezing, depending on your family size. I will definitely be making it again!!!

Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
2 (4 oz) cans green chiles
1 pkg reduced fat cream cheese
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp light margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 Tbsp flour
1/3 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. skim milk
1 can (7 oz) green chile enchilada sauce
1/2 c. reduced fat sour cream
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
8 La Tortilla Factory tortillas

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine softened cream cheese and green chiles. Mix well. Add the chicken and black beans. Mix to combine, set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the margarine over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 2-4 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well. Cook for 1 minute until all the flour is cooked and nutty. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk. As you whisk and the mixture cooks, the flour will get less lumpy around the onions and the mixture will become smooth. Cook over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling and has thickened. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the enchilada sauce and sour cream.

Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Spread about 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Fill each tortilla with about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture. Roll the tortillas up and place seam side down on the prepared baking dish.

Pour the white sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with shredded cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the enchiladas are bubbling, hot and lightly browned. Top with chopped cilantro, if desired.

Makes 6 servings:

620 calories 26 g fat 67 g carbohydrate 15.7 g fiber 37.3 g protein

Black Bean Corn Salsa

Apparently I'm on a Mexican kick lately. I think that's just how I roll in the summer time. Anyone else like that?

A few years ago my mom introduced me to this recipe. It was in their church cookbook, submitted by some lady I've never met. BUT I have gotten some good use out of this recipe. It's perfect to take to summer BBQ's or pot lucks. I love that I typically have most of the ingredients on hand and if I don't, it only takes about $3 to pick them up from the store.

We like foods pretty hot and spicy in our house. This recipe does include a jalapeno. I usually leave some of the ribs and seed intact so that some of the heat remains. If you don't like very much heat, make sure you remove all the ribs of the jalapeno before you dice it up. I also like to cover my hand in the plastic produce bag while chopping a jalapeno. You can also keep rubber gloves on hand. I must have had a REALLY potent pepper one time that I made this recipe and ended up with a burning hand for 3 days. I haven't made that mistake again.

Black Bean Corn Salsa

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can shoepeg or white corn, drained and rinsed
3 Roma tomatoes, diced as tiny as you can get them
1/2 red onion, diced as tiny as you can get it
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing

Mix together all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Best if refrigerated for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve with tortilla chips, put in quesadillas, or serve with rice as a vegetarian meal.

Makes 12 servings

60 calories 1.4 g fat 10.2 g carbohydrate 2.6 g fiber 2.6 g protein

Paco's Tacos

(Pacos Tacos - all loaded up)

Our honeymoon not only created our love for pico de gallo. It also created our summer favorite - Paco's Tacos!! When we arrived at our all inclusive resort for our honey moon, by the time we got checked in and into our room it was already past dinner time at the dining facilities. EXCEPT for an open-all-night place called Paco's. So we headed there the first time.

OH. MY. GOODNESS. We were in love - with the food. They had authentic Mexican cuisine at its finest. Everything tasted so fresh and delicious. They had tacos and quesadillas and everything else you could imagine. So on our multiple trips to Paco's throughout the week, I tried to figure out how to replicate Paco's Tacos at home. Here's what we came up with:

Paco's tacos filling

Paco's Tacos

2 chicken breasts
Juice of 4 limes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
fresh cracked pepper

2 bell peppers - any color, sliced into strips
1 red onion, sliced into strips

In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, cilantro, garlic cloves, olive oil and pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup of marinade in a tupperware container. Add chicken breasts to larger bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to marinate for at least 2 hours.

When ready to grill, slice up peppers and red onion into strips. Create a pouch of tin foil. Put sliced veggies and reserved 1/4 cup marinade into pouch. Seal up pouch and put on top shelf of preheated grill. Grill chicken breasts for 6-7 minutes on each side until thoroughly cooked. Remove chicken and veggies from grill.

Slice chicken breasts into thin strips. Top tortillas with chicken and veggies then additional toppings as desired.

Enjoy!! Makes 4 servings.

***I did not calculate nutrition facts on this as it depends what you put on your taco.

Pico de Gallo

Four summers ago my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful week on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico for our honeymoon. We went all out and reserved a fancy-schmancy all inclusive which was above and beyond my expectations. One of my favorite parts about staying at an all inclusive is not having to worry about what to make for meals, where to go, etc. You have a HUGE selection of restaurants and buffets at your beck and call. Although this can be disastrous for your waistline, it doesn't have to be! There are many fresh, healthy options like fruits and vegetables available for you to try.

One of our favorite dishes at the resort we stayed at wasn't a dish at all, it was a condiment. PICO de GALLO!!! We loved it. It was so fresh and tasty and went with everything. I spent the whole week trying to remember exactly how it tasted so I could recreate it at home. When we returned, it took several tries but I think I perfected the pico de gallo. Now we have it all summer long. It would be great with oven baked tortilla chips or with Paco's Tacos (recipe to come!).


Pico de Gallo

1 large ripe tomato, diced into TINY pieces
1/2 red onion, small dice
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of 4 limes
salt to taste

Serve with tortilla chips, on tacos, with eggs, on quesadillas - whatever your heart desires!!! Store in refrigerator. Tastes best when flavors have been allowed to blend for a few hours or overnight.

Makes 6 servings

16.6 calories
0.2 g fat
4.3 g carbohydrate
0.7 g fiber
0.5 g protein
Provides 20% DV Vitamin C

Chicken Taco Bowls

Honestly, I'm not sure I realized we ate Mexican food this much until I started this blog. I think its a mixture of the facts that both my husband and I like spicy food, Mexican can be thrown together pretty quickly and I usually have all the necessary ingredients on hand.

On this day, I was driving home, planning to make chicken tacos for dinner. I was thinking about everything I had already eaten in the day and realized I needed to go easy on the carbs a bit. I didn't have any La Tortilla Factory tortillas on hand so I would need to limit my traditional tortilla intake. I decided to try to make a taco bowl so I could load up on the protein rich filling, but have less tortillas. It turned out great! And I think you'll like it too :)

Chicken Taco Bowls

6 small flour tortillas
nonstick cooking spray
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts, diced into small pieces
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
2 Tbsp taco seasoning
3 oz. Pepper jack cheese, shredded
Romaine lettuce, shredded
Reduced fat sour cream to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray the inside of 6 souffle ramikens with nonstick spray. Press one tortilla in each ramican. Spray tortilla with nonstick spray. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat olive oil in skillet. Add chicken and cook on all sides until opaque. Add can of diced tomatoes with chilies and taco seasoning. Stir to thoroughly combine and allow to simmer lightly while tortilla bowls cook.

When bowls are finished, they should be lightly browned along the edges. Remove from oven and spoon chicken mixture evenly among taco bowls. Sprinkle chicken with pepper jack cheese. Return to oven for 1 minute to melt cheese.

Remove from oven and top with shredded lettuce and reduced fat sour cream.

Enjoy!!!

Per bowl:
229 calories
8.5 g fat
20.4 g carbohydrate
1.9 g fiber
16.4 g protein

Turkey Tacos

Sometimes I don't feel like finding new recipes for meals, instead I just want the old stand-by's. But when trying to eat healthfully, sometimes the old stand-by's don't fit into a healthy eating regimen. That's where substitutions come in to play.

Substituting healthier options for not as healthy originals is a great way to eat healthfully without uprooting your whole family.

Take tacos for example.

Many people would make up a batch of tacos without even thinking about it. But an average ground beef taco with 2 oz of meat, 8" flour tortilla, lettuce, onion, sour cream, salsa and 1/2 oz. cheddar has the following nutrition facts:

439 calories
25.9 g fat
32.7 g carbohydrate
2.7 g fiber
18.4 g protein

But with a few simple changes, you can make this single taco a whole lot healthier. For this taco I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, a 50 calorie La Tortilla Factory tortilla, spinach instead of lettuce, reduced fat sour cream and 2% cheddar. This taco has the following nutrition facts:

212.5 calories
10.3 g fat
15.6 g carbohydrate
8.1 g fiber
21 g protein

That's a difference of 227 calories, 14.6 g fat, 17.1 g carbohydrate, 2.6 g protein and 5.4 g MORE fiber per taco! I'd say that's worth the effort!!

What are some of your quick and easy substitutions that pack a mighty punch???

Baked Tortilla Chips - 2 ways

So Megan at Muncher Cruncher pretty much has the same affinity (dependence) on La Tortilla Factory Tortillas as I do. I mean, seriously, how can you not love a little tortilla that is only 50 calories, 10 carbs, 7 g fiber and 5 g protein? But Megan kicked it up a notch by making an awesome snack with them.



Check out Megan's post here to see how she created baked tortilla chips out of La Tortilla Factory Tortillas.

Want a sweet treat instead? I sprinkled some with cinnamon sugar before baking and served it with vanilla low fat yogurt. Pretty much awesome...



Enjoy your snacking :)

Chicken Tacos

The Pioneer Woman is one of those blogger empires... she cooks... she photographs...she homeschools and somehow manages to blog about all of them. I'm not quite sure how it all gets done! All of her recipes look delicious. She uses the real deal ingredients and makes no excuses for how to make a recipe taste awesome. Unfortunately, some her recipes look incredibly sinful!

Although I'm not aspiring to become an awesome photographer and I don't plan on homeschooling my kids, I figured I can still try to healthify her recipe, right? This recipe for Her Brother's Chicken Tacos looked like the perfect specimen. I didn't know how to figure out the nutrition facts since they are deep fried. How do you calculate the amount of oil absorbed by the taco? One thing is for sure... I'm pretty sure they are awesome tasting...but not awesome for you.

I made a couple changes. First I didn't deep fry them. Second, I used La Tortilla Factory High Fiber/Low Carb tortillas (the 50 calorie size). Lastly, I used reduced fat cheese, sour cream and spinach instead of lettuce. They turned out great. My husband asked for a repeat performance - which is an awesome sign.

Chicken Tacos - BETTER

2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup salsa
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
6 La Tortilla Factory High Fiber/Low Carb tortillas (50 calorie size)
1/2 cup 2% cheddar cheese
2 cups chopped spinach
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 425. Heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat in skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Add salsa and taco seasoning, stir well.

Brush remaining olive oil onto a cookie sheet. Put equal amounts of chicken filling in each tortilla. Fold tortilla in half (like a taco) and place one side down on oiled sheet. Brush the up-sides of tortillas with oil. Bake for 13 minutes until tortilla begins to brown. Add remaining ingredients and enjoy!

Makes 3 servings of two tacos each.

Per serving:
346 calories
17.8 g fat
26.1 g carbohydrate
15.1 g fiber
33.6 g protein

High Fiber Enchiladas

Do you ever plan something for dinner but then when you're about to make it you realize you don't have a key ingredient? Since I started menu planning this doesn't happen to me very often but it does still occasionally occur. Much to my dismay, it happened last week. As I was driving home from work I did an assessment of the ingredients available in our house.

I figured we'd have something Mexican as I knew we had some tortillas. Have you ever had La Tortilla Factory tortillas? I STRONGLY recommend finding these in your area. They are half the calories and carbs of traditional tortillas with more fiber and protein. And still quite tasty!

This is an original recipe that I just created from ingredients in the house. They ended up being pretty low calorie yet high in fiber and protein. Each serving provides two enchiladas and the whole recipe makes 3 servings.

High Fiber Enchiladas

6 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb/High Fiber tortillas (Original size, 50 calories each)
8 oz chicken, pre cooked and shredded
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 cup salsa, divided
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 cup 2% cheddar cheese, divided
1 small onion, diced small

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a small 8x11 pan with nonstick spray.

Mix together chicken, black beans, sour cream, 1/2 cup salsa, taco seasoning, 1/2 cup cheddar and onion. Evenly scoop chicken mixture into six tortillas. Wrap up and place seam side down on prepared pan.

Spread remaining salsa over top of enchiladas. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Serve with lettuce, salsa and sour cream if desired.

Makes 3 servings of 2 enchiladas. Each serving provides:
381 calories
12.8 g fat
38.1 g carbohydrate
18.3 g fiber
41.7 g protein

Chicken and Black Bean Tacos on Flatbread

I love my husband with all my heart. But I truly believe that couples are brought together to complement each others' strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully, I enjoy cooking us dinner as my husband's culinary skills are....um....limited.

I like to stick to my mealplan as much as possible. Last week I thought that my husband was going to be late in the evening so I didn't plan anything for dinner. Much to my surprise, I found out late the night before that he would indeed be home for dinner. So I told him that I would figure out something for dinner and let him know via email so he could throw something in the crock pot before he left at 2:00pm. This might sound like the perfect plan but I was trying to keep it as simple as possible. So I sent him with the following recipe:
Chicken and Black Beans Taco filling

4 small chicken breasts, frozen
1 16 oz jar your favorite salsa
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

Combine chicken breasts, salsa and taco seasoning in crock pot. Cook on high for 3 hours.

Shred chicken with two forks. Add drained black beans to crock pot. Continue to cook on low for 1 hour.

Use as filling for tacos, quesadillas, on top of a salad, etc.

Makes about 8 servings. Each serving provides:
128.4 calories
1.1 g fat
12.4 g carbohydrate
3.8 g fiber
17.3 g protein

With this chicken concoction, I decided to try a variation of a recipe that I saw on Real Mom Kitchen. Instead of tortillas, she made "flatbread" out of refrigerator biscuits. I used the same method and came up with my own variation of flatbread tacos.
Flatbread tacos - BETTER

1 package reduced fat refrigerator biscuits (I used Grand's)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 cup 2% shredded Cheddar cheese

Roll each biscuit into a 6-inch circle. In a dry skillet over medium heat, cook each biscuit for 30-60 seconds on each side until browned. Keep warm in a tortilla warmer.

Spread each flatbread with a Tbsp of sour cream. Pile chicken/blackbean filling on top. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp shredded cheese.

Enjoy!

As prepared, each flatbread taco provides:
343 calories
9.9 g fat
39.4 g carbohydrate
4.8 g fiber
21.2 g protein.

HOT and creamy enchiladas

I make a menu plan each week before I go grocery shopping. It is super helpful in a.) knowing what ingredients to buy and b.) preventing us from going out to eat or getting pizza ALL THE TIME! I'm usually pretty ridiculous when it comes to my meal plan, grocery list, coupons, etc. Well apparently when you throw working full time, a 3 month old and Christmas shenanigans into the mix, sometimes your grocery list forgets a few items.

I planned on having tacos for dinner the other night but figured out that I didn't have any lettuce (How'd that happen?). I really don't like tacos without lettuce. But I REFUSE to go to the grocery store more than once a week for a single item. So I needed to come up with some kind of baked enchilada type dinner that didn't require lettuce. I pulled all these ingredients together from the pantry and made it up as I went.

I must warn you, my husband and I like spicy food and this was pretty much at the top of my comfort level of hotness. You can alter the hotness though by what type of tomatoes you put in. Just plain diced tomatoes for wussies, mild Rotel for moderates and HOT Rotel for the adventurous. I must also note that when I had leftovers for the lunch the next day, THEY WERE AWESOME! Like even better than the original night. So keep that in mind.

Add a vegetable to these enchiladas and you have a complete meal!

HOT and Creamy enchiladas - Original recipe

3/4 pound ground sirloin
1 small onion, diced
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with chilies (I used HOT)
4 oz. fat free cream cheese
1 Tbsp taco seasoning
4 oz. 2% Cheddar cheese, divided
6 flour tortillas (I used the 6" small size)

Brown ground sirloin in skillet. Once cooked, drain any excess fat. Add diced onion and saute until translucent. Add can of Rotel, do not drain, and taco seasoning. Allow to simmer for a few minutes to reduce a little bit of the liquid. Add the cream cheese and stir until combined.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray. Assemble enchiladas by scooping 1/6th of the filling into each tortilla, sprinkle with a little cheese (reserving 2 oz cheese for later), roll and place seam side down in baking dish. Spray tops of tortillas with nonstick spray so they get a little crispy in the oven. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Take out dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake additional 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Makes 4 servings (1.5 enchiladas each).

452 calories
19.9 g fat
31.7 g carbohydrate
2.2 g fiber
27.9 g protein

Jen's Frozen Beef Enchiladas

Make ahead meals are something I’ve thought about for a while but haven’t had much success in actually making them. Not because the recipes don’t turn out… but because I previously had no where to store them. When we built our new home six months ago we purchased a deep freezer and my make ahead possibilities seem to be endless. Many people plan make ahead meals when they are getting ready for a new baby. I, however, had a baby eight weeks ago and didn’t do much make ahead meals prior to delivery but rather now, during my maternity leave. I am preparing to return to work full time in a few days and hope to have several make ahead meals ready in the freezer for when I come home from work and still want a home-cooked meal on the table.

Upon searching for make ahead meals, I came across this post at The Sisters’ Café which lists many make ahead meal options. I chose to make Jen’s Frozen Beef Enchiladas. As listed, this recipe’s nutrition facts are as follows:

588 calories

21.3 g fat

55.3 g carbohydrate

3.7 g fiber

41.2 g protein

My husband and I really enjoyed these enchiladas, and I’m looking forward to when we have the second frozen portion in the future.

As a main dish, this isn’t too bad for fat or calories. But if you are trying to watch your waistline, every little bit makes a difference! I only made two small substitutions. I decreased the portion of meat and added a can of black beans for protein and added fiber, without the additional fat of meat. I also substituted 2% cheese as I often do in recipes. When cutting the fat in cheese, 2% typically cooks similarly to its full fat counterpart and I rarely notice a change in taste. Fat free cheese, however, I NEVER recommend. It doesn’t taste cheesy and it doesn’t melt – not exactly what I want on my enchiladas!

Jen’s Frozen Beef Enchiladas – BETTER

1 pound eye of round beef

1 can red enchilada sauce

1 ½ cups shredded 2% cheese

1 can diced green chilies

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

15 7-8” tortillas

1 additional can red enchilada sauce

½ c. shredded 2% cheese

Leave the roast in crock pot all day with a cup of water. After about 5-7 hours on high heat, it should shred pretty easily.

Add one can red enchilada sauce, 1 ½ c. cheese, green chilies, and drained black beans to shredded beef. Put meat mixture in tortilla and wrap. Place in a freezer bag. When ready to bake, put in baking dish (10 fit in a 9x13, 5 fit in an 8x8). Pour additional can of enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with ½ c. cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

529 calories

13.1 g fat

63.2 g carbohydrate

6.5 g fiber

37.4 g protein