Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

I found this recipe soon after joining Pinterest. I even made it a few times before this post, but each time I was a little unhappy with it so I kept changing it until I found a version I wanted to share.

The original recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and was very good but a little too creamy for my taste. It also takes a while to make so I cut out a few steps.

What You Need:

3 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1 (7 ounce) can of diced green chiles

1/2 package of softened cream cheese (original uses a full pkg.)

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (7 ounce) can of green enchilada sauce

6 oz Monterey Jack cheese

Medium Tortillas

Sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine softened cream cheese and green chiles. Then add the chicken and black beans.

Lightly grease a casserole dish and spread about 1/4 cup green enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Fill each tortilla with bout 1/2 cup of the filling and a small amount of shredded cheese. Roll the tortilla up and place in the dish with the seam side down. Depending on the pan you use you can make anywhere from 8- 10 enchiladas. 

Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas and top with shredded cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.   

In case you're feeling fancy here's the ingredients and directions for making the enchilada sauce a little more exciting. 

What You Need:

•               2 tablespoons butter

•               1/2 cup chopped onion 

•               2 tablespoons flour

•               1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth

•               ¼ cup milk

•               ¼ teaspoon salt

•               ¼ teaspoon pepper

•               1 can (7 ounce) green chile enchilada sauce

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Then add the onion, stirring until the onion browns. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well. It gets very lumpy.  Slowly whisk in the chicken or vegetable broth and milk. This helps to make the flour and onion mixture less lumpy. 

Continue cooking over medium heat until the mixture has thickened. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the enchilada sauce.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

In honor of St. Patrick's Day this year I treated my office to delicious Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting. They were a huge hit.

The original post is from Gina's Skinny Recipes and for once I did everything the way they recipe said.  Shocking I know but I have never used beer in a cupcake before and I was afraid of messing it up.


What You Need:

5.5 ounces softened cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 tsp Bailey's Irish Cream
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1 cup flour
7 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup stout
4 oz unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
Cooking spray


Directions:

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and Bailey's in a medium bowl and mix until smooth with an electric mixer. Refrigerate until ready to frost cupcakes. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 12 liners in tin and lightly spray liners with oil so they don't stick to the liners. 


In a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Surprisingly, I don't have a sifter so I just combined the ingredients and I don't think it harmed the recipe. 


In a medium bowl combine the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.

With a mixer, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into cupcake liners and bake 30 minutes. 

• My only negative about this recipe are that the cupcakes didn't rise as much as they usually do so a few of mine didnt reach the top of the cupcake liner. So just fill yours up more than normal and you'll be set.

Crock-Pot Taco Chili

After an unusual spell of warm weather in Colorado we had a cold and rainy day that seemed the perfect day to have a crock pot of chili waiting at home.  Original recipe is from Skinny Taste and I stayed pretty true to it this time. The original recipe also has weight watchers points and nutritional info if your want it. 




What you need:


Crockpot (I used our bigger one)
1/2 chopped onion
2- 16 oz can black beans
1- 16 oz can kidney beans
1- 8 oz can tomato sauce
2- 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 package ground beef



Directions: 

Combine all ingredients except ground beef in the crock-pot. Since my ground beef was frozen I placed the whole thing in it on top. But if you have ground beef from the fridge you can cook it ahead of time and add it at the end or add it an hour or two before serving.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 6-8 hours. 


The orginal recipe only used one can of black beans, but when I looked at the pot mid-day it looked like there were too many tomatoes for my taste so I added and extra can of black beans.  The orginal recipe also included frozen corn but I didn't have any so I skipped it.