Avocado Chicken Enchiladas

I have posted about my love for chicken enchiladas before, but I've had some trouble finding a replacement for the use of cream of chicken soup used in the original recipe. When I started to make this recipe for avodaco chicken enchiladas, I realized it would be much better as a combination of the two recipes. I loathe avocados...I've tried to like them but just hate them, but this recipe was really quite excellent.

Ingredients:
white corn tortillas*
4-5 chicken breasts
2-3 cups grated cheese*
2 avocados
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
3-5 jalapenos*
2-3 tsp lime juice
2 Tlbs butter
2 Tlbs whole wheat flour
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

*I prefer white corn tortillas. The original recipe called for small flour tortillas, but I think the corn ones are better here. However, corn tortillas are a bit brittle, so you might need to treat them differently. In college we dipped them in hot oil for 10-15 seconds before using them. I used pepper jack cheese because that's what the recipe called for, but it is really your choice. We used to use the bags of Mexican mix cheese in college. The number of jalapenos are totally dependent on the jalapenos and your heat preference. Jalapenos vary in heat, so I have put in as many as 6 and it was bland, and I have put in 4 and it was almost too hot. Just taste as you go. In addition, cumin gives me severe heartburn, so I always cut that in half.

Directions:
Bake, cool, and then shred the chicken. Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a food processor, process the avocado, jalapenos,  cilantro and lime juice until smooth (the jalapenos can be tossed in whole, just cut off the stems). In a large saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the flour, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Add in the chicken broth slowly, whisking constantly, then bring the mixture to a mild boil, whisking frequently. Turn the heat down to low, then add in the Greek yogurt, stirring until smooth. Add the spices and stir again. Then add the avocado mixture and stir again, until it is totally smooth. Keep the heat on low throughout the assembly process to keep the sauce from stiffening up.

Assembly Process:
Preheat the oven to 375. Spread a thin layer of avocado sauce over the bottom of the pan. Take a corn tortilla, and dip it in the avocado sauce to coat it. Take about 1/8 cup of chicken and 1/8 cup of cheese and make a line down the center of the tortilla, then roll it up and put it in the pan with the folded edge on the bottom. Repeat the process, pushing the rolled enchiladas together and filling the side space with enchiladas placed vertically. When the pan is full, sprinkle cheese on top, then bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and browning slightly. Take them out and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I only made a half recipe because I only had 8 tortillas, but this made an estimated 4-5 cups of sauce. I would estimate a full recipe (this one is a full one) would make an entire 9x13 pan of enchiladas. If you have any extra sauce, just toss it on top of the enchiladas before you add the cheese. I ended up freezing my extra sauce.

Rating 5/5
Why? Hello awesomesauce. Despite the fact that I do not like avocados at all, I do like this recipe. The avocado taste is very mild, almost unnoticeable, and they are incredibly silky smooth when they are processed. I have heard of using avocado in place of butter in cookie recipes before and based on the texture and feel of the processed avocado in this recipe, I am definitely going to try it.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I have mentioned my love of pumpkin before on this blog, and although I mostly associate it with fall, I really do like it any time of the year. We are having a family get-together tomorrow and since it is summer and I can't get rid of my baking projects at school like I usually do, I made these to take down with me tomorrow. The original recipe was here, but I made several significant changes.

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar (I used more like 7/8)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:
Whisk the pumpkin puree, sugar, applesauce, and oil together in a bowl. Add the eggs in one at a time and mix well. Fold in the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg and then fold in the chocolate chips. Spray a 9x9 pan with olive oil and add the dough, then bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

I have tried this recipe before and it was an unmitigated disaster. It was a soggy mess and did not bake all the way through even after an hour in the oven, but this time worked better. Part of the issue was that the original recipe was written by someone in Singapore, and the only unit of measurement she used was grams. This seems like a simple enough fix until you realize that grams is a weight measurement and so 250 grams of flour and 250 grams of oil are not the same amount. After about an hour of research, I finally figured out something that I think is close enough. On top of the unit conversions, I used applesauce in place of 2/3 of the oil, added cinnamon and nutmeg (because you can't use pumpkin without those!!), and reduced the sugar. In addition, I baked it in a 9x9 pan instead of a loaf pan.

Rating: 4.5/5
Why? This comes together really fast, with just a bowl, a whisk, and a spatula. It is very good but I wish I could figure out how to further reduce the sugar.

Tomato Basil Grilled Cheese

I was never much of a grilled cheese fan growing up, and I am still not a big fan of cheddar grilled cheese, but I have grown up a little bit, and branched out. I have previously posted a grilled cheese recipe here, but I saw another one a few days back that I wanted to try. Unfortunately I couldn't find the recipe this evening when I went to make dinner, so I winged it.

Ingredients:
2 pieces honey whole wheat bread
fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 tomato, sliced very thin
20 basil leaves, rolled and sliced

Directions:
Heat a pan over medium-low heat. Spray one side of one piece of bread with evoo and place it evoo side down in the pan. Put down a layer of mozzarella on top, then a layer of sliced tomato, then the chopped basil, then another layerof mozzarella. Top it with the second piece of bread, then spray the top with evoo. Very slowly toast the bread while the cheese melts. When it is toasted, put a plate over the pan and flip the entire thing to turn the sandwich without everything falling out. Let the other side toast, then remove from the heat and cut in half to serve.

The fresh mozzarella cheese makes this an amazing sandwich, and the slow roast and the fresh basil just make it that much better. This will definitely be made again.

Rating: 4.5/5
Why? mmm....melty and basily. It is just a little rich for me, next time I will work on slicing the mozzarella thinner.

Chocolate Syrup

When I was growing up, every day when I got home from school, my sister and I would make chocolate milk for our after school snack. Most of the time we had powdered Nesquik, but sometimes we had Hershey's syrup instead and that was amazing.On pinterest recently, I saw a pin for homemade chocolate syrup, and thought it looked really easy, so a few days ago I made it. Long story short, I'm never buying this in a store again.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
dash of salt
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Mix the sugar, salt, and cocoa together in a saucepan, then add the water and stir it all together. Heat it over medium heat, stirring frequently until it comes to a rolling boil, then let it boil for 90 seconds while stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. Stir it all together, and pour into a pint sized jar, then let it cool. Store in the refirgerator.

Seriously, this stuff tastes like the real deal. The original poster said she found it in an old Betty Crocker cookbook, and I guess it is completely logical that it started from something people made on a semi-regular basis, but it had just never occurred to me to make it. I didn't change anything in the recipe.

Rating: 5/5
Why? Easy and in comparison to the ingredients on a Hershey's label, far fewer chemicals. From Answers.com, "Hershey Syrup's ingredients include High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Water, Cocoa, Sugar, Contains 2% or Less of: Potassium Sorbate (a Preservative), Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Polysorbate 60, Vanillin, Artificial Flavoring." Um...I'll take the one I made.

Creamy Garlic Pasta

This pasta should be called "Holy Cow Amazing Garlic Pasta" but that's a bit of a mouthful, although very descriptive. This will definitely be made again and again. But how could it not be amazing when the original recipe comes from a blog called the cheese pusher? I did make some tweaks to her recipe, as I'm pretty sure it would have been approximately 1000 calories per bite, but still.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
4-6 garlic cloves
1 tlbs butter
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 box whole wheat linguine
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1-2 Tlbs chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Mince the garlic cloves while warming the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the garlic cloves for 1-2 minutes, then melt the butter in the pan. When the butter is melted, add the salt, pepper, and chicken broth. Turn the temperature up to medium-high, then bring it to a boil. Add the linguine, and let it boil until it is cooked. Keep a close eye on the pasta, as it can easily burn with this little liquid. When the pasta is cooked, turn the temperature down to medium-low, and stir in the parmesan until it's totally melted. Take the pan off the burner and stir in the Greek yogurt and the parsley.

Seriously, this is amazing. My cats BOTH came and whined by the kitchen wanting some of this, and it's unbelievable. I did cut her recipe in half, changed the heavy cream to Greek yogurt, changed the regular pasta to whole wheat pasta, reduced the salt, doubled the garlic, and increased the chicken broth.

Rating - 5/5
Why? Super easy, super tasty, and keeps the vampires away. ;)

Honey Mustard Dressing

This school year, I have been taking salad to school every day for lunch. It is a loaded salad, with a mix of green leaf lettuce and spinach as the base, and black beans, garbanzo beans, olives, tomatoes, red peppers, and carrots on top. At the beginning of the year, I also brought salad dressing, but soon realized that no salad dressing was that healthy, so I decided to make my own. The original recipe is from allrecipes.com, but I have made some significant changes. I make this once a week and have it every day.

Ingredients:
1/3-1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1-2 Tlbs horseradish mustard*
1-2 Tlbs honey
1 Tlbs lemon juice
dash of milk (optional)

Directions:
In a pint jar, mix all the ingredients except the milk. Stir it well to combine. If the dressing is too thick, thin it out with a little bit of milk. Keep refrigerated.

I like this a lot with the horseradish mustard, but if you can't find it, you could probably use dijon mustard and prepared horseradish, or just use dijon mustard instead. I think the horseradish gives it a nice zing. I also like that this recipe is easy to adjust for taste, with more or less honey and more or less mustard. I also like that it keeps really well. I changed the original recipe from regular mustard to dijon, majo to Greek yogurt, and increased the amount of lemon juice.

rating - 5/5
Why? Quick and easy, and no preservatives.

Roasted Balsamic Green Beans

Since joining Pinterest, I have saved many, many recipes to try. I have actually tried many of them, some successfully, some not so much. This one was definitely one of the successes, to the point that I even ate the mushrooms, which I normally hate. I have modified it slightly from the original.

Ingredients:
6-8 cremini mushrooms
1 lb fresh green beans
1/2 Tlbs olive oil
1 Tlbs balsamic vinegar
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 Tlbs grated parmesan

Directions:
Trim the ends off the green beans and cut them in half, then wash and dry them.* Slice the mushrooms into 1/4"-1/2" slices. Put the mushrooms and the dry green beans into a bowl that seals tightly, and add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss it well to coat everything evenly. Put a layer of tinfoil down on a baking pan and spray it with olive oil. Spread the green bean mixture on the tin foil. Try to make sure everything is in a single layer. Put the pan in the oven at 450 for 20-30 minutes, checking often after 20 minutes. Beans should be slightly crispy on the outside. Pull them out and sprinkle the parmesan over the top before serving.

I can easily eat an entire pan of these by myself, and I don't even like mushrooms. In the original recipe, she adds the salt and pepper at the end, but I think it is more evenly coated and tastes better when you add them at the beginning. I also have trouble with the beans sticking to the tin foil unless I spray olive oil on it. Also, you might need to sitir the beans once during the baking process.

* Once you've washed the green beans in a colander, lay them in a single layer on half of a dish towel, then fold the other half over the top and gently press down. Let the beans sit for 15 minutes or so and they will be completely dry. It is important that the beans be dry before you put them in the oven or they will be soggy. I have tried this recipe with frozen green beans and while the taste is good, the beans get soggy easily.

Rating - 5/5
Why? It' easy, delicious, and awesome.