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 - 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!

Recipe - Back to School Breakfast Burritos

This past Sunday a sister in our ward asked me if I would talk about a great idea she had for a healthy breakfast-on-the run for school kids--Frozen Breakfast Burritos.  The recipe she likes calls for healthy ingredients, such as spinach and black beans, but this can be easily tailored to the tastes of your family.  This is the first August in 25 years that I have not sent at least one child off to school, so thinking about kids' breakfasts and lunches is bittersweet for me.  My high school girls liked me to make homemade cinnamon bread frozen in individually wrapped slices they could slip into their backpacks, but right up through his senior year, my son was not above taking a full-sized packed lunch from home.  There are so many ideas for sending children off well-nourished and prepared for a great school day.  The important thing is that they actually eat what they take and that it isn't full of empty calories.  A high-protein breakfast is just the ticket to help them stay awake and alert in class all morning.  For most busy families, this will only happen if moms prepare ahead.

I decided to experiment with making a few breakfast burritos to see how well they rewarmed after being frozen.  I used eggs, sausage, potatoes, green chilies, cheese, and salsa for my filling, but you could use most anything--diced bell peppers, ham, bacon--whatever your little (and big) people enjoy.  I made mine quite large so we could have them for dinner tonight, but you could make them much smaller for your elementary aged kids.  You can make a whole bunch at a time, and they'll take only two or three minutes to heat in the microwave straight from the freezer.  I thought they turned out great--so much more tasty and healthy than a similar commercially prepared item.

Back to School Breakfast Burritos

Here are the ingredients I used:  Cooked, shredded potatoes, eggs, cheddar cheese, green chilies, sausage, tortillas, and salsa.

-First, brown a pound of sausage.  I like to use either Tennessee Pride or Jimmy Dean 1 lb rolls, as they are quite lean and good quality.  Make sure it gets good and done, and spoon off fat.  To get even more of the fat off, blot with paper towels.

-Remove sausage from skillet and add a bit of butter to the pan.  Add shredded cooked potatoes (either boiled with skins on then peeled or baked in foil and peeled and cooled--I used leftover boiled garden potatoes) and brown them a bit, seasoning with salt and pepper.  As an alternative, frozen hash browns can be used, but make sure to get them completely done before adding them to the burritos.

-Remove potatoes from skillet, wipe it out, and spray with cooking spray.  Add about 10 whole eggs and season with salt and pepper.

Scramble them right in the pan, so that you still see both the whites and yolks.

When they are almost done, add a can of green chilies if desired. 

-Lay out all the ingredients and start layering them into the tortillas as shown below:

-Tuck the ends of the tortilla in and fold over.  I'm not very good at this, so do it your own way.

Freeze in a zip-lock bag.

To reheat, remove one from freezer and place on a plate in the microwave with another plate or bowl on top to cover.  I made large burritos, and they took 4 minutes at level 7 power on my microwave.  

Top with additional salsa and/or guacamole if desired, or just enjoy as they are.

Recipe - German Pancakes

I don't know about you, but I'm done with complicated recipes and fancy meals for awhile.  Everyone's back to work and school, the guests are gone, and it's cold outside.  I just want plain food that's on the table in 30 minutes or less.

Most of you have probably made German Pancakes at one time or another, but if you haven't, nothing is simpler and quicker--including regular pancakes.  And nothing makes the men in my life happier, or get out of bed more enthusiastically on a Saturday morning, than me yelling up the stairs that German Pancakes will be out of the oven in ten minutes.

In the time it takes to heat your oven, they are ready to go in.  They consist of only five ingredients--flour, salt, eggs, milk, and butter--things you always have on hand.  They are fluffy and buttery (well, not terribly buttery at our house since I've cut the amount of butter from the original recipe by half), ready to drizzle on syrup and serve with a cold glass of milk.  And if you're lucky--some crispy bacon on the side.

Speaking of bacon, cooking it in the oven instead of frying it in a skillet is something I've been doing for awhile now and never looked back.  No more standing over the stove struggling to get each piece perfectly cooked while being spattered periodically with hot bacon fat!  I now simply line up the strips on a cookie sheet and cook them 15 minutes or so at 400 degrees.  They come out perfect--evenly cooked and leaving me free to do other things--like get the rest of the breakfast ready.  I don't know why I didn't do this years ago!  If you're like me and never thought of cooking bacon any way besides in a frying pan, give it a try.  See photos and instructions for German Pancakes and Oven Fried Bacon at the end of the post.

German Pancakes

Ingredients:

6 large or 8 medium Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 cup Flour

¾ teaspoon Salt

5 Tablespoons Butter (4 Tablespoons is enough if you want it a bit healthier.  The original recipe called for 8)

First, preheat oven to 415 degrees.

Crack eggs into bowl and beat up with electric mixer.  Beat in flour, salt, and milk until smooth.

Melt butter in microwave and pour in a 10" by 15" oblong glass baking pan. If you only have a 9" by 13", you may have to cut the ingredients to a 3/4 recipe, which isn't too hard (and it will only serve 3 at the most).  Or try it with this amount of batter, but it will raise very high above the top of the pan--which is probably OK if you have a big oven.  Really, though, you need a Pyrex this size and they are easily found.  You will use it all the time, I promise!  Swirl melted butter around to cover the whole bottom of the pan.

 Mix well with an electric mixer.

  Pour batter right over the butter. 

Carefully place in oven without moving it much so the batter doesn’t mix into the butter.  Bake at 415 degrees for 23 minutes.

This isn't a thing of beauty, is it?  Make sure the family is assembled before you pull it out, as it quickly collapses--kind of like a souffle.

Slice into awkward looking squares and serve immediately with syrup, jam, or a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Serves 3-4.

Oven Bacon

1.        Lay bacon strips out evenly on a cookie sheet.

 If they don't all fit, lay a couple the other direction or overlap slightly.

2.       Place in cold oven.

3.       Turn the oven to 400 degrees after the bacon is in.

4.       Set timer for 15 minutes.

See how a couple of pieces on the end are totally done and some of the others are not? Take the done ones out to avoid overcooking.

5.       After 15 minutes, check on it, but it probably will need at least another 5 minutes.  Depending on the thickness of your bacon, the cooking time will vary, but when you see it isn’t quite ready, watch it very closely, because even a minute or two can mean the difference between done and overdone at this stage.
6.  Once in awhile some of the pieces will get done before others.  So that you don’t overcook any of it, remove from oven, take out the pieces that are ready, and stick the rest back in to finish.  Watch it closely. 

 Now the remainder of the bacon is also done.  

7.       Drain on paper towels and serve.

NOTE:  Even when I don’t need a whole pound of bacon, I cook it all because it’s so easy to throw in a zipper bag and toss in the freezer, pulling out a couple of pieces at a time as needed.  Reheat in microwave, wrapped in a paper towel, for 30 seconds or so, and it will be almost as good as freshly cooked.  Don't overcook in the microwave, or you will ruin it.  It really only takes a few seconds.