Recipe - Five-Minute Enchiladas

I remember years ago hearing a sister in our ward tell about how she had spent a long summer day with the family at Lagoon.  "Hey Mom, what's for dinner?" one of the kids queried as they piled into the car for the trip home. "How should I know?" she answered in frustration.  "I've been here with you all day!"  For some reason little people (and not so little ones) assume Mom will always come through with some form of sustenance, even if she's nowhere near the kitchen.  And believe it or not, after the kids grow up and leave home, six o'clock still rolls around with insistent regularity and hungry people still seem to show up at the table.

During the remodel I've relied on various forms of convenience foods for dinner.  One day last week I had planned to throw some rice into my trusty rice cooker and serve it with this delicious looking entree retrieved from the depths of my freezer:

Sounds easy, right?  But soon I realized I had no idea where my rice cooker had been stashed the last time we moved everything from one room to another as the work progressed.  After searching high and low I finally realized it was probably on the far side of this room (my former living room, if you can believe it).  Yep, it's back there somewhere. . .  I think.

After a couple of bold attempts, I realized there was no traversing my clumsy self to the far side of this room, so that plan was scrapped.  Next idea for dinner?  Pancakes made from a mix, I decided, and commenced another futile search for an item that had clearly been moved to parts unknown.  After no luck finding my pancake mix, I trudged to the basement and started pondering the contents of the food storage room for Plan C.  Browsing through cans on the past-date shelf,  a bright idea began to form.  I call it Five-Minute Enchiladas because no kidding, these enchiladas, using the  ingredients pictured below, really did only take five minutes! 

A half hour in the oven, and we were eating by 6:45.  I was able to assemble them in a 2 foot square area of counter space by opening a few cans and pulling some items out of the fridge. It literally took five minutes to have these made and ready for the oven.  We ate them for two days in a row because they were very tasty and did I mention they only took five minutes?  In my life right now (and maybe in yours) that's no small thing.  See my almost laughably simple instructions below, and dare I say, bon appetite?

Five-Minute Enchiladas

To make this incredibly easy meal, you need only the following items:

1.  A large can of Green Chili Verde Enchilada Sauce  (I recommend getting the LaVictoria brand.  Maceys is the only store I've found to consistently carry this).
2.  Two cans of Stagg Steakhouse Chili with no beans
3.  An 8 to 10 count package of Flour Tortillas
4.  Shredded Cheddar Cheese 
5.  Optional:  Sour Cream and Shredded Lettuce

It is important, in my opinion, to use high quality canned goods for this dish.  LaVictoria Enchilada Sauces, both green and red, are excellent, but for this dish the green sauce goes best with the red chili filling. 

Instructions:  First, open the enchilada sauce and pour 1/3 of it out in a big oblong glass casserole.  Spread over the bottom of the pan. Next, lay your tortillas out on paper towels on the counter.  Divide the two cans of chili between them so it comes out even.  Spread the chili down the center of each tortilla and top with a generous amount of cheese.  Roll these up tightly and place in casserole dish, side by side.  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce evenly over and top with more cheese.  Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes uncovered until hot and bubbly.  If desired, top with sour cream and shredded lettuce.  That's it!

Recipe - Slow Cooker Beef Stew

My slow cookers have been faithful friends even more than usual during the remodel.  It's funny how you don't really think about modern kitchen conveniences (like stoves and ovens) until you don't have them anymore!  I have always appreciated using slow cookers, and have over time amassed a fairly large personal collection featuring all sizes to suit a variety of purposes.  Some may say I have more than I need, but really, can you ever have too many of this useful kitchen appliance?

The introduction of the first slow cooker, dubbed the Crock-Pot by Rival back in 1971, was perfectly timed, as many women of that decade begin working outside the home. Moms could start dinner in the morning before going to work and quickly have a meal on the table when the family gathered back home in the evenings.  As a girl I remember many early morning sessions of chopping vegetables and browning meat so that the Crock-Pot could be turned on before we all left for work and school, and nothing could have been more welcoming, especially to my mother, than coming home to the smell of a delicious meal almost ready to serve a hungry family.

Last Sunday I tried a new Beef Stew recipe designed specifically for the slow cooker which we really liked.  It may appear pretty traditional looking in the photo above, with lean beef, carrots, potatoes, onions, and peas--but it also has a secret ingredient--bacon!  I think the bacon gives it an extra robust flavor well suited to a frosty Sunday afternoon.  Our church schedule recently changed to 9 a.m., but I was still able to get this in the Crock-Pot before we left, put some frozen roll dough out to raise, and we were ready to eat by 2:00.  I could have even done some of the prep work the night before, like peeling the vegetables and leaving them in a bowl of cold water in the fridge overnight to speed things up.  But even starting from scratch, it didn't take too long to get it going before church and it was very nice to come home to!  Please note that Maceys offers a great price on a Boneless Eye of Round Beef Roast this week ($2.99/lb) that would be perfect for this recipe as well as Western Family Canned Tomatoes for $.59/can. See easy instructions below.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

-3 lbs sirloin steak or other boneless cut of beef (rump roast, London broil, etc.) cut into 1-inch chunks
-1 cup bottled Italian Salad Dressing
-1 lb bacon
-1.5 lb carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
-2 lb red potatoes, quartered
-2 onions, cut into chunks
-1 bag frozen petite peas
-1 can (14.5 oz) tomatoes, drained (or one bottled home-canned tomatoes, drained)
-1 can beef broth
-2 small cans tomato sauce
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon black pepper

The night before, cut up your meat.

Pour dressing over stew meat in gallon zip-lock bag.  Squish the bag around to distribute the dressing evenly over the meat.  Marinate overnight.

The next morning, peel all the vegetables--except peas of course--and cut up. (You can also do this the night before to save time, but if you do them ahead of time, cover with cold water and refrigerate).

Cook the bacon on cookie sheet in oven at 400 degrees until fully cooked (15 minutes or so).

Drain and break into large pieces.

Drain off marinade and brown meat in hot skillet.  After it's cooked a few minutes, you will start to see liquid in the pan which you should spoon off (this is more of the salad dressing coming out from the meat as it browns). The meat does not have to be fully cooked, just browned a bit. 

Drain tomatoes and place in crock pot with all other ingredients except peas.

Stir together well.

Turn crock pot to high and cook for 1 to 2 hours.  This is how it looks after a couple of hours.

Do not stir.  Turn to low and cook for another 4 to 5 hours for a total of 5 to 6 hours.  About 1/2 hour before time to eat, pour a bag of frozen petite peas on top and cover again.  Do not stir yet.

When the peas are no longer frozen, gently stir the mixture together so as to not mush it all up.  Serves 8 to 10.

Recipe - (No-Fry) Fried Ice Cream

Hi!  This is Jan's daughter, Dani.  I usually blog over at Craft Rookie, but with my mom's kitchen ripped to shreds for her remodel at the moment, I told her I'd step in and mix things up a bit this week.  I'm excited to get to share a fun (and extremely easy!) recipe here at Savings for Sisters today.

My mom's birthday falls in the beginning of December, so my sister and I always try to throw her a little party before the holidays get too busy.  This year we had it at my house and had a bit of a Mexican Fiesta. 

Jessie and I worked together to make southwest salad, chicken enchiladas, roasted corn with garlic, cilantro lime rice, and for dessert cinnamon bundt cake, and Easy No-Fry Fried Ice Cream.   

Fried Ice Cream is one of my all-time favorite desserts, but it seems so intimidating to make--I mean, FRIED ice cream?  It sounds like a deep-fry disaster!  The good thing about this recipe is that it involves no hot oil--or hot ANYTHING--near your ice cream, so it's foolproof! We looked up a few recipes online and sort of figured out what we thought would work well for us, and this is what we came up with.  This recipe was a snap to make, and it turned out really impressive and delicious--see the easy instructions below!

(No-Fry) Fried Ice Cream

Ingredients:

-One (18 oz) box of cornflake cereal
-1/2 cup (one stick) butter.
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 TBSP cinnamon

-3 Quarts of vanilla ice cream (if you plan to use all the topping)

*Some of the following photos are taken from other sites since we didn't think to snap photos of the process until the end of making it!  (Fail.)  Please click on the photos to go to their sites if you'd like to read more about their processes.*

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Crush cereal in a food processor, blender, or in a large Ziploc bag with a rolling pin.

3. Once you have it crushed to the texture you want it (like large sand particles, with a few larger pieces--not completely pulverized into dust), put your crumbs into a large mixing bowl and add the melted butter.  Stir in cinnamon and sugar until it is all well-mixed.

4. Place mixture in a thin layer on two (sprayed) cookie sheets and bake until golden-brown, stirring after every 3-5 minutes.  We actually burnt our first batch by not stirring frequently enough, so watch it carefully!  Remove from oven and let cool.

TIP: For more adventurous palates, you could add additional things to the mixture like chopped nuts, coconut, etc. before you bake the crumbs.  Or you could add things like sprinkles or mini chocolate chips after it's cooled.

While your crumbs are baking (but don't get distracted and forget to check it!), you can roll your ice cream balls.

5. Line baking sheets with waxed paper or parchment paper.  Make sure whatever pan you use can fit into your freezer.  Roll 1/2 cup portions for small balls, or 1 cup portions for larger balls. (Approximately--you don't have to measure, that would be a mess!)  

We rolled the ice cream into balls with our (very clean) hands at this point, but I read later on that you could actually just scoop them into approximate shapes (as pictured) and then mold them into more perfect balls right before you roll them...which probably would've given us less frostbite! Haha! 

You want to work quickly and get them back into the freezer as soon as possible.  Re-freeze them for as long as you can, but make sure you give them at least a couple of hours so they get nice and solid. 

When you are close to ready to serve:
6. Working in batches, roll the ice cream into the coating.  Don't pull all your ice cream balls out at once or they will melt! TIP: You might want to separate out only part of your coating at a time if you don't plan to use it all, so you don't contaminate any leftovers for future use with ice cream drips.

If you aren't quite ready to serve them at this point, or you need to roll several, you can put them back in the freezer until you are ready.

TOPPINGS:  We did caramel sauce over ours, but you could do whatever combination you want.  Some popular topping choices are hot fudge, strawberry sauce, maple syrup, honey, etc.  You could even have a bit of a toppings bar if you wanted people to have choices.  You could also serve with whipped cream on top.

YIELD: This amount of topping will cover about three quarts' worth of vanilla ice cream balls (will make 36 small/18 large).  If you don't need that many ice cream balls at once, this topping will store for awhile, so you could make more at a later date.  We even sprinkled some over some leftover ice cream and didn't roll it into balls a few nights later and it was awesome that way too.

Thanks for the great post Dani!

Recipe - Easy Eggs Benedict

Now that the deep, dark days of winter are fully upon us, it's a good time to tackle those tasks we tend to put off, like organizing and revamping our food storage.  Lack of desire to face the cold winds of January spurs my creativity for making meals out of things I have on hand without a trip to the store, including close-dated pantry and freezer staples.  Since my major cooking appliances currently are a hot plate and toaster, it seemed like a perfect time to whip up an old favorite I had all the ingredients for, Eggs Benedict.  I meant to make this for the fam over the holidays at some point because it's my parents' favorite, but since I never got around to it and my weekly deadline was looming, I made some today at lunchtime so I could take photos.  So if you are reading this, Mom and Dad, please forgive me for eating without you, and I'll make it up to you one day just like with that unfortunate Orange Roll misunderstanding a few weeks back! It's better not to explain.

Since the hardest part of this classic egg dish is the Hollandaise sauce, I use a packet mix which saves lots of time and comes pretty darn close to tasting like homemade.  This post also gives me a chance to spotlight one of my favorite kitchen items, my beloved Egg Poacher, which makes for a consistently successful outcome.  I have tried poaching eggs the old fashioned way many times, but never really got the hang of it.  I love using this pan, and if you don't have one and like to make poached eggs, I highly recommend the investment.  Here's mine.

This little fellow has been used for years, and is none the worse for wear.  I can make five poached eggs at a time, pulling them off at the desired level of doneness for each person, so everyone is happy.  You just spray the cups with cooking spray and fill the bottom of the pan half full with water, and a few minutes later, perfect poached eggs emerge.  Some of my Relief Society sisters and I made Eggs Benedict for the entire RS for our early morning visiting teaching conference a few years back, using just this pan and keeping them warm while making more.  Making enough for the fam is a snap after that!  See my easy instructions below the grocery listings, and remember, eggs aren't just for breakfast anymore. 

Easy Eggs Benedict

First, gather together the following ingredients: 
-Large eggs, two per person
-Ham slices (most any kind and any thickness you have--sliced from the deli or packaged from the lunch meat/cheese aisle).  
-A package of Hollandaise Sauce Mix - any brand
-Milk and Butter to make up the mix
-Lemon juice 

-English Muffins, one whole muffin per person
-Paprika if desired to sprinkle on top

Fry the ham slices until crispy.  Set aside.  Use as much as you need for as many servings as you want.  It can either be a thick slice for each person, or several layers of thin sliced.

Make up the Hollandaise Sauce by following directions on packet, which will consist of melting butter, stirring in the mix, adding milk, and cooking until thick and bubbly. 

Stir in lemon juice.  The package will say to add between 1 and 3 teaspoons.  I use 1.5 teaspoons.

Set the sauce aside, but keep warm (as well as the ham) while you make the eggs.  If you don't have a poaching pan, just poach eggs in the usual manner, which involves carefully sliding the eggs from a small bowl directly into simmering water.  Some people are really good at this--I am not.  The white always falls off and I never know when they're done.  If you have an egg poacher like mine, just fill the bottom half way with hot water and put in the cups. You don't need to use them all--just remove the cups you don't need). 

Spray the eggs cups with cooking spray.

Crack an egg into each one.

Cover and bring water to a simmer over medium high heat.  See my remodeling stuff in the background?  Not a pretty sight.  If you wonder why the sauce is not finished but the eggs are already cooking, it's because I actually made it while the eggs were cooking, not before like I told you to.  Do what I say, not what I do!

Once you can tell the water is simmering, set a timer for 3 or 4 minutes.  After that time you will want to start checking them.  Some people want the white cooked but the yolk very runny.  Some (like me) want the yolk to be set, but soft and a bit runny.  Some want it cooked almost as hard as a boiled egg (I don't recommend this, but I always have to make it this way for my dad).

As you can see, I broke one of my yolks when cracking the egg.  You can usually tell when they are ready by pressing gently on the top of one of the eggs. It should press in easily, but the white should look fully cooked.  The egg in the first photo below was cooked 4.5 minutes.  I think that was just right.  The egg in the second photo was cooked 5 minutes, which would be perfect for those who want it soft but not runny at all.  It's just a bit too done for my tastes, but still nice. The little handles on the cups make it so you can pull them off at different points to please the desires of your people.

Now, assemble your Eggs Benedict.  While the eggs were cooking, hopefully you had a chance to toast your English muffins.  Get them nice and crispy.  I don't butter the toast if I'm making it for the family because, well, we can do without the extra butter.  But if I'm making it for guests, I butter the muffins because they taste better that way.  Look at these lovely, crispy English Muffins!  I usually buy a cheaper brand than this, but they were on a buy one get one free deal.

Place a portion of the ham on each muffin.

Center the eggs carefully on top.

Put your Hollandaise back on the heat a moment if it's cooled off.  Salt and pepper the eggs lightly. Spoon sauce over the top, sprinkle with paprika and serve immediately. 

I like to serve this with hash browns and orange juice as well as fruit if I'm making a nice brunch for company, but it's a hearty meal by itself any time of the day.  The egg on this one looks perfectly cooked to me.  Enjoy!