Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Bean & Cheese Enchilada Casserole

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Bean & Cheese Enchilada Casserole

This is kind of a no recipe recipe.  


Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients:
Corn Tortillas
Refried Beans – I use regular, but you could use the spicy variety if you like it hot.
Enchilada Sauce
Mexican Shredded Cheese

Spray your dish with cooking spray or grease with oil or butter.  
Begin layering
the ingredients starting with tortillas, beans, sauce, cheese.  Keep
layering until your ingredients are gone.  Ending with the cheese.

Cooked until heated through, about 20-30 minutes.

I also have made this in the crockpot – turn out great I cooked it on low for a couple of hours. It did get kind of crispy around the edges, so you’ll have to watch for that.  Test it out based on how hot your crockpot gets

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Menu Plan Monday – August 8, 2011

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Nothing like carefully planning your menu out only to realize that you don’t have what you need to make certain dishes. Or that you didn’t take the food out of the freezer…..That’s why it’s a plan and sometimes plans change.  Mostly I just switched stuff around but I didn’t have the stuff to make one dish and I will work that in not this week, but next.  The White Bean & Sausage Soup was for my mom, she’ll be gone so I’ll do it when she gets back.

I did reformulate a recipe for Hawaiian Sweet Bread over the weekend that was a huge success, though not without it’s need for tweaking.  We used it for French Toast, it had been quite a long time since we’ve had French Toast and the last time wasn’t so good.  We are all very excited around here about this new found treat.  I will try and make it again soon, with a few changes and see if it comes out better than before, then I’ll post a recipe.  Here’s a sneak preview, though the picture is a little blurry, I took it with my phone and I didn’t take any others.

Well, on to the menu:

Monday:
Cranberry Chicken
Rice
Veggies

Tuesday:
Meatloaf
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans

Wednesday:
Chicken Enchilada Bake

Thursday:
Teriyaki Beef
Rice
Veggies

Friday:
Bean & Cheese Enchilada Casserole

Saturday:
Rosemary Penne  Pasta with Chicken & Peas

Sunday:
Chili

For more great ideas head over to:

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Snack Cookies….aka Breakfast Cookies

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I’m trying to change the name, as the previous name “breakfast cookies” indicates to my children that they should be eaten for breakfast and while I think that they are probably healthier than a bowl of store bought cereal, I’m still a little hesitant to make them a morning meal habit.  Though I fear the name has already stuck.   These cookies are a delicious combination of many yummy ingredients…..molasses, oats, chocolate chips, cinnamon and nutmeg, just to name a few.

I dare say these are like a Lay’s potato chip – you can’t eat just one.


 

skip to main | skip to sidebar In a mixing bowl, whisk together these dry ingredients:
2 cups GF Artisinal Flour (contains xanthan)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 cups Sucanat
¼ cup ground flax or flax meal


In a separate bowl blend:

1/3 cup light olive oil
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons vanilla coconut milk, as needed to moisten oats

Add to the wet ingredients:

1 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill steel cut oats

Allow the oats to soften for at least twenty minutes.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients- I used my Kitchen Aid with paddle attachment, until moistened. 

2 eggs, beaten

 Add the beaten eggs to the cookie batter and combine well. The dough should be thick.

 Now add and mix well:

½ cup dried cranberries, raisins OR other dried fruit

1 cup chocolate chips

¼ cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

½ cup chopped nuts

If the batter appears too wet, add a tablespoon of rice flour; add more flour as/if needed. Chill in fridge at least an hour.

 Preheat the oven to 375°F.

 Using a scoop make rounded cookie dough balls and place them on a parchment lined or greased baking sheet. Press down slightly- but not too hard because if the dough balls are too flat the cookies will spread too thin. Place the baking sheet into the center of a pre-heated oven and bake until the cookies are golden and set- from 10 to 20 minutes, depending upon how big you make your cookies. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 – 3 minutes, then use a thin spatula to carefully remove the cookies to a wire cooling rack.

I made about 4-5 dozen medium sized cookies.

 


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Menu Plan Monday – August 1, 2011

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I varied a bit this past week on my menu plan.  It is so incredibly hot, I couldn’t bring myself to turn the oven on and I changed up a few things.  So there are a few repeats from last week that I never got to….we’ll give it another go this week.

This week I’ve been implementing some of my changes and it’s going fairly well.  I still don’t have it all working yet, but still trying.  One of my successes was making bread only once per week.  I will make bread early in the morning and then we’ll have it for the week.  I’ll let them have sandwiches tomorrow at lunch and then we’ll use it for toast the rest of the week.  That’s been a big change that hasn’t been too widely celebrated, except by me.

If you’re wondering what happened to my garden, well….it suffered while I was away.  Some of it will not recover.  Right now I’m considering planting some things for fall.  I did just plant some Black Eyed Susans.  They were everywhere up in TN, they are suppose to be extremely hardy and I hope they hold up to their claims.  My mom bought two plants which I divided to make four plants.  I also separated my basil plant into two pots as it is growing like crazy and kind of squeezing out the oregano and thyme that’s sharing the pot.  I will try to take pictures this week and post them.

If you have any recipes, ideas or stories on how you’re keeping your kitchen cool, I’d love to hear them.

Monday:
This is a recipe that I found here.  It is an Indian dish and this will be my first go round with it.  I’m sure I’ll change it up a bit, I rarely seem to follow a recipe exactly.

Chicken Korma
Rice
Veggies

Tuesday:
Sloppy Joe on homemade buns (super simple – but not healthy- bun recipe)
Chips
Salad

Wednesday:
Santa Fe Chicken

Thursday:
Pasta with Prego
Salad

Friday:
Chicken Sausages
Not sure if I’ll do rice/beans OR oven roasted potatoes – guess it depends on how hot it is

Saturday:
Rice Bake

Sunday:
My mom picked up a recipe from one of her friends and I’m going to try and recreate it.
White Bean & Sausage Soup

For more great menu ideas: