Chicken Enchiladas

Do you remember my last post when I made Slow-Cooker Chicken Tacos? And I told you that I make something fantastic with the leftover chicken? 

I got the Leftover-Chicken-for-Enchiladas idea from Cristina Ferrare. She was on Oprah and you know how I LOVES ME SOME OPRAH! Anyway, Cristina makes whole roasted chickens and then uses the cooked chicken for all sorts of recipes. It's kind of awesome. I knew my leftover chicken from the Chicken Tacos would work perfectly!

So I changed her recipe a little, and I'm pretty proud of my version:

Yum! Yum! Here we go!


Chicken Enchiladas

16-28 ounce can enchilada sauce (red or green)

12-18 corn tortillas

1 can refried beans

1 jar salsa (regular red or salsa verde)

1 small can diced green chiles (optional)

3 cups shredded cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

Leftover slow-cooker chicken, shredded

Garnishes: Sour cream, avocado, cilantro, lettuce, tomato, hot sauce - whatever you like!

A note about the ingredients:

I use the leftover chicken from my slow-cooker chicken tacos, but you can use any cooked chicken that you have on hand.

How many enchiladas you make will depend on how much chicken you had left over and how much stuff you pack into each tortilla. If you have a lot of chicken left over (2 cups or more), go with the bigger can of enchilada sauce (you can always freeze any extra sauce). I had so much chicken left over that I was able to fill a 9" x 13" baking dish to serve now and a small 8" x 8" baking dish that I froze for a later meal.

I also had some leftover taco garnishes (cheese, cilantro, and onions), so when I packed up my leftover chicken on taco night, I mixed them in, too. I packed up my leftover lettuce separately to serve on the side.

For these enchiladas, I used green enchilada sauce and salsa verde.

Make It:

Heat oven to 400°. 

Pour the can of enchilada sauce into a large bowl or small casserole dish. Warm it up in the microwave for a minute or two. Dip tortillas in the sauce to soften them.

On a cutting board or plate, gently spread refried beans on one side of each tortilla. Add enough leftover slow-cooker chicken to cover the beans. Sprinkle with cheese. Add chiles and salsa. 

This is a messy step! Your hands and enchilada prep plate are going to get messy messy messy, so make sure you have all your ingredients for this step accessible and easy to grab with your messy hands.

Roll up the tortillas and place seam-side down in a 9" x 13" baking dish.

Blend the sour cream into the remaining enchilada sauce in the tortilla-soaking bowl. Pour over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes until hot and bubbly. OH YUM. 

You could definitely eat your enchiladas just like that, with rice and beans on the side, or...

You could cover them with your favorite garnishes. Sour cream, avocado, cilantro, lettuce - I refuse to eat my enchiladas without sour cream. Really, what's the point? And I love the creaminess of the avocado and the freshness of the cilantro and the crispness of the lettuce. 

And I love diced tomato for its cool sweetness and extra beautiful color:

And if you're like me, you drizzle the whole thing with TAPATIO hot sauce! Spicy deliciousness!

Enjoy!

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tacos

MmmMmm TACOS! If I had to eat one kind of food for the rest of my life it would be tacos. Chicken tacos, beef tacos, fish tacos, shrimp, pork, veggie, scrambled egg tacos. The filling and the topping possibilities are endless. 

I grew up with ground beef tacos, which I absolutely adore. Especially when they're served in a freshly fried crispy corn tortilla. Not the store-bought hard taco shells - I'm talking about corn tortillas fried in oil right before the tacos are assembled. Fried deliciousness! It makes me happy just thinking about them.

BUT! These healthier slow-cooker chicken tacos are giving the comforting ground beef tacos a run for their money! They are the easiest and most delicious chicken tacos I've had. I originally found the recipe in Martha Stewart's Living magazine a few years back. I tried them and I WAS HOOKED. 

Martha. Seriously. You had me at Taco. 
And then you had me again at Slow-Cooker. 

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tacos

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6)

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 cup prepared tomato salsa

1 or 2 chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo

1 tablespoon chili powder

Coarse salt and ground pepper

8 corn tortillas

Toppings!
Cilantro, shredded cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, lime wedges, hot sauce, sour cream - whatever you like! 





A note about the ingredients:


I buy bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs because they're always cheaper than the other. And then I always kick myself later for being a cheap-ass. I take the skin off before I throw them in the slow-cooker and that's a pain. After the chicken is cooked, I have to shred around the bone and that's a pain, too. But I do it Every Single Time. And Lord knows, the next time I'm staring at the chicken in the grocery store, guess what I'll be buying. Yep. Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Because I'm a money-saving martyr.


I've talked about chipotle chiles in adobe before. If you have never tried them, don't be afraid! Start with one and see what you think. They really add such a nice smoky flavor. If you are too afraid, go ahead and make the tacos and skip the chiles. You'll still be my friend. But SO HELP ME if you tell me that you think cilantro tastes like soap... we might have an issue. The issue being that cilantro is fantastic and you're wrong. That's right. I said it.


Every time I make this, I double the chicken recipe. I use all the leftover chicken and garnishes to make FANTASTIC chicken enchiladas. I'll tell you all about those in my next post. They're worth the wait!


Make It:
In slow cooker, combine chicken, garlic, salsa, chipotle chile, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cover; cook on high, 4 hours (or on low, 8 hours).


Here's my chicken slowly cooking away. The dark red pieces that you see in the picture are the chipotle peppers. I also added a chopped tomato to this batch because I had one that was getting a little too soft. I didn't add it to the recipe above because I'm a rebel like that.

Transfer chicken to a serving bowl, and shred, using two forks; moisten with cooking juices. 

Here's my finished, shredded chicken. Doesn't it look delicious?

Serve in taco shells and load with your favorite toppings!

I've been trying to NOT fry my tortillas lately. You know, to make the tacos more healthful. It's SO BORING! They're still delicious, but I do think that frying the tortillas brings the tacos to a whole new level of tastiness. 

Ignore my soft corn tortilla picture and Go! Go forth and fry your tortillas! 

Enjoy!

If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Cold-Brewed Coffee

Have you ever had cold-brewed iced coffee? Because it is DELICIOUS. 

The New York Times posted this recipe for it, and then all sorts of my favorite food bloggers were talking about it, so I decided to give it a try.

It's kind of amazing. And really easy.

Here's what you do:

Mix 1/3 cup of coarse ground coffee (the darker roast, the better) with 1 1/2 cups of cold water in the container of your choice. I triple and quadruple the recipe because I likes me some coffee yo! 

Were you expecting mine to be in some sort fancy Mason jar? Ha! Turns out, clam chowder takeout containers are the perfect coffee maker. Take THAT Toddy McTodd Todd! 

Anyway, you mix the coffee grounds with the water, cover it up, and then try to ignore it for the next 12 to 15 hours. You don't even need to refrigerate it during this time, although you can if you really want to. I don't.

And yes, this is the same lid I used as a rainbow template for the Tooth Fairy Door. So?

When the coffee has served its counter time, you can strain it with a paper coffee filter or a double layer of cheesecloth. I've even heard of people using a couple layers of paper towels. Dude! I make mine in a clam chowder takeout cup, so I'm not judging. 

And maybe I need to clarify. I do own Tupperware. A lot of it. I even own a few Mason jars. But I've been going to the Crab Cooker since I was little little little. We used to eat there with my Nanny - my great-grandmother - and it has a very special place in my heart. It's a little bit of a trek for us to go there now, but whenever we're in the neighborhood, we try to stop by and eat in or grab some clam chowder to go. I just love my Crab Cooker containers.

Back to the coffee! I pour my coffee ground concoction directly into the coffee filter of my coffee maker. You know, without turning the coffee maker on or anything. I just use it for the filter.

Pour the filtered coffee into a covered container and stick it in the fridge.  It can stay fresh in there for a good couple of weeks. I know! This stuff is amazing.

At this point, it's basically coffee concentrate that you should mix with equal parts water or milk. I like my coffee strong, so I don't dilute it very much. Cold-brewed coffee isn't bitter at all! It's just pure heavenly iced deliciousness. Try it and see!

Fill a glass with ice.

Pour in some of your cold-brewed coffee. Since the coffee is not hot, it won't melt the ice cubes and get all watery and bland. You know what I'm talking about. Sad, sad melty ice cubes. Layer of watered-down coffee and half-melted ice cubes on top of regular coffee. I will no longer drink that sort of nonsense.

Iced coffee made from hot coffee is a little bit delicious. 

Iced coffee from cold-brewed coffee is VERY delicious. 

Then you can fix your iced coffee however you darn well please. 

I like Coffeemate or half and half and Torani flavored syrup. It makes me feel fancy.

And then I drive by Starbucks and yell out my car window, "Suck It!" 

Okay, I've never done that. 

But just look at it! Seriously! It doesn't get any better. 

Mmmm Mmmm! Refreshing!

Try it and let me know what you think!

Tooth Fairy Door

So Ali was all, "Hey, we should make this!" 

And I was all, "What the heck! $15 worth of supplies from Hobby Lobby for a Tooth Fairy door? Plus a bazillion dollars for shipping? Rip off!"

And then I ordered them anyway. Because, c'mon, that door is ADORABLE! And when I showed James, he basically demanded that I make it for our kids, saying that it was the cutest thing ever.

Or maybe he just said, "Hmmm..." 

And before he could say anything else, I screamed, "Okay! I'll make it! Geez!"

I bought this door, this door handle, and this door knocker. The door handles come in a set of two, and since I wasn't going to use one on the inside of the door, Ali and I shared. It's good to have friends who are as crazy with the crafting as you are.

Peyton and Ella will be sharing the Tooth Fairy Door because they share a room. So we had a family discussion about what color I should paint it. They agreed on rainbow colors.

So I used my fancy rainbow template to pencil on some rainbow arcs. 

I knew that if I didn't, my rainbow colors would be all crazy and uneven. They were anyway. But I do think my fancy rainbow template helped. Eat Lots A Fish!

And then I started to paint. First, I just did the major color blocking.

And then I spent the next 5 freaking hours trying to make the rainbow curves actually look like curves amidst all the angles and cutouts of the door. 

I am SURE there is some mathematical equation out there that explains at what angles to color each little nook and cranny to make the rainbow look perfectly curved. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT EQUATION IS. 

I'm telling you - save yourself the agony. Paint your door one color, the moulding another color, and call it a day. 

I do love the way it turned out, though. It's so bright and cheerful!

Peyton and Ella wanted to help with the painting. We decided I would paint the inside of the door yellow, and then they would each decorate a side.

Peyton did the left side and Ella did the right. 

So, imagine this. You're the Tooth Fairy and you're about to enter through this door into my kids' room. Are you thinking, "Hey, cute! The kids painted the door! How lovely!" or, do you see it and think, "Great. It's a crack house. I'd better make it quick."

Crack house. Right?

I love my kids.

I glued on the door handle and door knocker with tacky glue. And I added some glitter glue to the door moulding. TO MAKE IT MAGICAL FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

I didn't want the kids to open The Magical Fairy / Crack House Door to just see the wall on the inside.  Because that's just boring.

So I went through my craft supplies and grabbed handfuls of stuff I might be able to use. 

I cut out some some white felt clouds and embellished them with white sequins. And then I glued the clouds to some starry night scrapbook paper.

Then I called Ali and we brainstormed the mini clothespins idea. I strung little tiny clothespins through some twine and backed the twine with red ribbon. 

Then I glued it all to the backside of the door frame. 

I cut the top off a little 2x3 inch zip top bag (just like I did here) and stuck in some orange burlap and added the red polka dot stickers to frame it.  It's the perfect size to keep a little lost tooth safe until the Tooth Fairy comes and leaves some cold hard cash.

James says it looks like it came straight out of a magical story book. Peyton and Ella love it!

I used Command Strips to attach it to the wall by the upper bunk of Peyton and Ella's bed. And then we put their two most prized loveys, Pink Puppy and GG, in charge of watching it for us. 

I can't wait 'til the Tooth Fairy comes!

Rainbow Cake

So, last post I was telling you about how I was going to make THE Rainbow Cake to celebrate the last week of school. 

Well. It's official.

The Rainbow Cake ROCKED. IT. OUT.

It took some time, but really, it was quite simple to make.

I used 2 boxes of regular white cake mix, but I'm sure you could get all fancy and make some really delicious cake. I might do that next time. But for our first go round,  I wanted it as easy as possible.

I just made the batter according to the directions on the box.

I used this Wilton icing color gel. I got mine at Walmart for $1.50 each. It was a baking investment for that price, but I can probably get at least a good 4 or 5 more Rainbow Cakes out of them.





And technically, when you are photographing your color gel, Ella says you should arrange them into a happy face, like so:



Miss Ella and I had fun while we made the cake batter and separated it not-so-evenly into 6 bowls. Then we added about 1/2 teaspoon of gel color per bowl. Supposedly the two boxes of cake mix should divide into about 1 1/2 cups of batter per bowl. Our purple layer ended up much bigger than the others, but purple is Ella's favorite color, so it worked out well for us.

Ella is the stir master!





We baked and we cooled (in two batches because even though I bought two brand-spanking new cake pans for this endeavor, that only brought my cake pan ownership up to a whopping four pans).









See how big the purple is? I tried to cut the rounded tops off all the layers to make them flatter and more layer-worthy, but our purple layer was still huge. And, also, my layers were never actually layer-worthy. Not straight AT ALL I tell you!



I assembled and frosted. I also tried to do that trick where you place pieces of wax paper underneath the edges of your cake before you frost it. And then, when you're done frosting, you pull the paper out and your plate is all sparkling clean and frosting free. Except I placed a couple of the pieces of wax paper too far in and the whole purple layer tried to escape when I tried to pull the paper free. So I had to hold the bottom layer in place and get frosting all over my hands while trying to rescue the wax paper.

Note to self: Try not to be an idiot.



And then I frosted some more. I used this buttercream recipe because I had never made buttercream frosting before and it sounded yummy and easy. And it was, but I had to double the recipe, and even that wasn't enough to frost every layer and the entire outside of the cake, soooo.... Every time I took a bite I was thinking about the 4 STICKS OF BUTTER that I used. Next time I'll try something else.



Peyton and Ella were in charge of the sprinkles, so most of those either got dumped on the cake or were rolling willy-nilly on the table and onto the floor.

Ten seconds worth of sprinkling:



And then the sprinkle pour and pat down technique:



Then we stuck it in the fridge until after dinner.

Isn't my new platter adorable? I won it in a giveaway from Ampersand. I love it!!!

Back to The Cake!

I was excited, because I've never made a 6-layer cake before, and apart from it being semi-naked from lack of frosting, it looked nice from the outside. And when I cut out the first slice OH MY GOSH! I was jumping up and down and squealing with joy!

It's so beautiful and rainbow-y!!!



And James and Peyton and Ella were as thrilled as I was! Even though Peyton and Ella helped me make the cake, they were still totally in awe of their fantastically skilled baking mama. And even though it took absolutely no great baking skills, I will take all the kid admiration I can get. I love this cake!

My sweet family has declared that The Rainbow Cake needs to be a new Last Day of School tradition.

I'm in!



Oh Rainbow Cake, how I love thee.



Thanks for rocking it out.