Beef Enchiladas

I love Mexican food. When I was pregnant with Lucy, I craved Mexican food all the time. Thankfully, I didn't burn myself out on it, so I still make these amazing enchiladas as often as I'm able. They're probably not totally authentic, but they taste good, so for my American taste buds, they work. I'll talk more about them after the recipe.

Beef Enchiladas
(Printable Version)

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean (at least 80%) ground beef
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 8 corn tortillas (5 or 6 inch)
• Shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped onions, if desired

Directions

• Heat oven to 350°F.

• In 10-inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain. Stir in sour cream, 1 cup cheese, the parsley and pepper. Cover and remove from heat.

• In 2-quart saucepan, heat water, chili powder, oregano, cumin, chilies, garlic, and tomato sauce to boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Pour into ungreased 9-inch pie plate.
• Dip each tortilla into sauce in pie plate to coat both sides. Spoon about 1/4 cup beef mixture onto each tortilla; roll tortilla around filling. Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas.

• Bake uncovered about 15 minutes. Top with cheese and cook for additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped onions.  

My Take

I love this recipe, because you don't use a canned sauce, so you can make it as spicy or mild as you want. The original called for a 4.5 oz can of green chiles in the sauce, but I fear that will make it too spicy for me, and I don't really like my enchilada sauce to be too chunky. 

Most of the time when I make this recipe, I usually use ground turkey. This past time I used a combo, as I only had a half pound of turkey. Also, I find that when I make the sauce as written, I don't have enough left over to pour over the enchiladas, so I usually make 1.5 times the amount of sauce. I found that this gives me enough sauce to pour over them but also gives me the texture that I like from my enchiladas.

A few more notes: For some reason, whenever I roll my tortillas, they always crack. Doesn't matter if they're straight from the fridge, room temperature, or warmed up in the microwave. I just roll with it. By the time they're covered in the sauce and cheese, you can't really tell the difference anyways. May not be the prettiest enchiladas ever, but they sure do taste good!

Chile Colorado Burritos

Find the original here

 I found this recipe via Pintrest, and it just looked too good to pass up.I knew this was going to be one of those Pins that I just *had* to try. And so, the other night, I did. It didn't turn out quite like I thought it would, but I have some ideas to make it better next time.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds stew meat or other beef cubed
• 1 large can mild (red) enchilada sauce (at least 19 oz.)
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1/2 can refried beans (optional)
• 5-7 burrito size flour tortillas
• 1 cup or so of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions 

Place the beef, enchilada sauce, and bouillon cubes in a large heavy sauce pan. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Let it simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is very tender (flakes off when you stir it). 

Heat up the refried beans and spread them out over the tortilla. Then, using a slotted spoon, dip out some beef and place it into the tortilla. Wrap it up like a burrito. Place it onto a cookie sheet or an oven-safe plate. Cover the burrito with the enchilada sauce and some cheese. Put it in your broiler, and broil until the cheese is nice and bubbly, about 2-4 minutes.

I also added some extra toppings

My Take
  
There were several ways on the original blog of how to cook this, but I chose the stove top way as I don't have a Dutch oven, and I thought of making it too late to cook it in the slow cooker. Next time, though, I'll be trying it in the slow cooker with a different kind of meat.

I'll admit, I forgot to set a timer while letting it simmer, but I'm nearly positive that I let it cook long enough. Even so, the meat (I used 2 pounds of stew meat) never really got that super tender. I'm not sure if it was because of the cooking time or because of the meat. The meat itself was tender, but it never got to the "flaking" stage. Next time, I may attempt to do something like my pulled pork and cook it for awhile in the crock pot, shred it, then cook it for a bit longer in the sauce. 

The original blog also said something about tasting it after it was done cooking and adding salt if needed. Mine did not need any salt, and it even tasted a bit too salty. I used the low-sodium beef bouillon cubes, so I don't completely understand where the salty taste came from. Probably because I used canned enchilada sauce instead of making my own. I'll probably do that next time. I also added a bit of homemade taco seasoning because in the comments, people were saying they couldn't taste the enchilada sauce, so I was hoping this would help. 

Also, if you don't feel like turning the oven on, you can also just melt the cheese in the microwave. However, the tortilla will be a little mushy, as it can get a little bit crispy when broiled. But the taste is all the same.

Ooey gooey goodness

Overall, this was a very good dish, and something I'll definitely make in the future.  

Sorry. Again.

Life has suddenly become quite busy and stressful for me as of late, so when I get home, I'm not really in the mood to cook anything extravagant or anything like that. The thing I've cooked the most as of late has been pancakes using Bisquick mix. That stuff is amazing. I went through a box in a month. :p

Anyways, I finally sat down and planned out some menus (which is really usefully, by the way) and I have 3 days which I'll be cooking meals. Tonight, I'm going to be attempting to be making calzones with cheese sticks. I have a recipe for the calzones (never used it before), but the cheese stick recipe I'm totally making up as I go along. I'll keep you guys posted on how that all turns out.

Secondly, I'm going to be making turkey burgers with home made fries. Both of those are things which I do all by sight, but I'll post what seasonings I use so you can maybe try it at your house.

And finally, I'm making beef enchiladas. Again, this is a recipe I've had, but never used before. I was kind of hoping to use my mom's recipe, but I found that I didn't have that one, so I'll try a new one instead.

So, those are the recipes I'm going to be making this week. I'll try to post the recipes either the night of or the day after I make them. Now I have to run to the grocery store so I can get all my ingredients! Ciao~