chorizo & sweet potato enchiladas

A few weeks ago, I was lurking over at Budget Bytes- one of my favorite blog haunts- and I came across the recipe for chorizo and sweet potato enchiladas. My initial thought was, all that crap? In enchiladas? No way. I think I've gotten too comfortable in my cheese and black bean enchilada rut. I sat on this thought for a week or so, and finally decided to be bold, and to try out this dish on a couple friends for dinner last night.

I stuck to the recipe pretty closely, except I used regular sized whole wheat tortillas for jumbo enchiladas, substituted Old El Paso sauce for Las Palmas, used Anaheim peppers since the store was out of Poblanos, and finally, used vegetarian chorizo instead of the meaty kind! That's right. Those chorizo enchiladas got vegatized!

So I chopped and sauteed everything according to direction, and pulled out a casserole dish. Budget Bytes says to coat the pan with non-stick cooking spray, but if you cover the bottom of the dish with a little enchilada sauce, it works just fine. I rolled the enchiladas, popped them in the oven, and 25 minutes later, I was rewarded with an outrageously delicious meal.

Oh my, doesn't that look amazing? Trust me, they taste even better than they look! I told myself I would only eat 1, but that didn't happen- I ate a few :) The sweet potatoes give this dish a great chewy bite, and the Anaheims + faux chorizo give it just the perfect amount of spiciness! All three of my carnivorous friends said they were damn good too! This is a dish I will definitely make again. And again. And again.

Oh! And if you're looking for a meat-free chorizo, I used Field Roast's Mexican Chipotle Sausage, and I highly recommend it! The texture is dead on - it even comes in a casing- and the flavor is great. Moral of the story is that the vegatized version of the sweet potato and chorizo enchiladas were a huge hit, and I can't wait to make them again! Yum!

enchilada lasagna

I've been meaning to try this recipe out for a while now, but life keeps taking me out to dinner or requesting a movie night with friends, so finally, after much ado, I had a chance to try out my ingenious enchilada lasagna. I've seen tons recipes for enchilada casserole, and I love the concept. So, tonight I winged this one, and made up my very own version.

Stuff you need: Corn tortillas- although, I 'spose wheat would work too 2. 1 can enchilada sauce 3. 1 onion 4. 1 can black beans 5. cheese of some sort (optional) 6. Your fave spices

Start by preheating your oven to around 350. My ghetto oven doesn't have an "I'm preheated alarm", so I turn on the oven while I prep, and then throw everything in and hope for the best. While the oven is preheating, open and drain your can of beans. Chop up your onion, and add that and the beans to a good sized bowl for mixing. Add your favorite spices (I like garlic salt and cumin) and mix everything together.

Pull out a small baking dish, and pour a little enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan- just enough to cover the entire base. Then cut 2 tortillas in half so they fit flush against all 4 sides of the dish. You will put each half on one side of the pan, and then one whole tortilla goes in the middle. Thus, each layer of the casserole will use 3 tortillas total.

On top of the tortilla layer, put more enchilada sauce. Then top that with the bean/onion mixture, and cheese if you're using it- I only had a little cheese, but more cheese and tomatoes would have both been a fine addition :)

Keep layering your casserole in this fashion until the pan is full or you're out of ingredients. Sauce. Tortillas. Sauce. Filler. Sauce. Tortillas. Sauce... etc. etc. etc.

Finally, throw everything in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until warmed through. Cut your portions, and serve it up with some chopped lettuce and your favorite salsa on the side.

For my first attempt, this was a total success. The flavors were great, and it was just what I had been hoping for. Next time, I think I'll definitely add more cheese, sauté my onions before assembly, add fresh tomatoes to the filler, and cook it with foil on top, instead of just bare. Try your own alterations to make this dish your own too! After a few more tweaks, this will definitely be a winning recipe :)

apocalypse enchiladas

For those of you enjoying weather in the positive digits today, I am jealous. Denver had a high of -1 this afternoon, and the rest of the day has been impossibly frigid. This is why when my roommate and I got home tonight, neither of us wanted to leave the house to get dinner. So we looked around the kitchen, gathered what ingredients we could find, and put together a Mexican feast- we refused to leave the house to buy real items, so the strange recipe we created felt like we were scraping the bottom of our supplies during some kind of global disaster. Thus, our apocalypse enchiladas :)

Stuff you need: 1. Some kind of enchilada sauce 2. some kind of tortilla 3. some kind of filler

Tonight, our kitchen yielded 5 corn tortillas, chili beans, half a red onion, a bag of Frontera green chili enchilada sauce, and some leftover Daiya vegan cheese (from my breakfast burritos, which I must say, have grown on me).

While the oven is preheating to 350, combine the chopped onion, chili beans, and cheese in a bowl with some garlic salt and cumin for the enchilada filler. When the oven is ready, put a enough sauce in a baking dish to cover the bottom, and nuke the tortillas in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Take the tortillas out one at a time, fill them with the bean mixture, toll them up nice and tight, and place them in the baking dish til it's full. Cover the enchiladas with the remaining sauce, and then sprinkle on some cheese to top it off.

Cook up the concoction for about 15 minutes, until it's bubbly and warmed through.

Look at that! A delicious meal created from what we found in the pantry. As long as you have some kind of sauce and tortilla on hand- green, red, flour, corn- you can really be creative with this dish. Any kind of cheese will do, and your filler could be any assortment of vegetables and/or beans and/or whatever your cupboard's hiding! Let me tell you, when the apocalypse rolls around, you're gonna want to be dining with us :)