Too good not to share. White Bean Enchiladas-kid approved!

Recipe below.  These are a few tips that have helped me along the way:

1.  The enchilada sauce is normally in a can and located near the salsa in the grocery store.

2.  If you were to accidentally buy one can of white beans and one can of garbanzo beans (traditionally used to make hummus) like I did.  It still tastes just fine!  Don't ask me how I did that.

3.  I make the bean mixture for the middle ahead of time and then just assemble at the end of the day.

4.  As you can see in the pic I used a 9 x 13 pan and used 4 large wraps for a family of four and had left overs.

White Bean Enchiladas

tbsp. sour cream

2 16-ounce cans white beans (I used Great Northern), rinsed and drained

1- 1 1/2 cups shredded blend of cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese, divided

4-ounce can chopped green chilies (I use mild)

4 tbsp. fresh, chopped cilantro, divided, optional

2 tbsp. sliced green onions, optional

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 15-ounce jar/can of EITHER (but NOT BOTH) enchilada sauce or green salsa

water

10 8-inch flour tortillas

Combine the sour cream and white beans in a food processor until smooth. Stir in half of the cheese, all of the chilies, onions, half of the cilantro and all of the cumin. Set aside.

In a large non-stick skillet, combine 2/3 cup of enchilada sauce (or green salsa) with about 1/3 a cup of water. Heat until warm. One at a time, drop a tortilla into the sauce mixture and coat it on both sides. Lay it on a plate and fill it with 1/4-1/3 cup of the bean filling and lay it seam side down in a 9x13 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Repeat, making more sauce/water mixture as needed, but trying to reserve about 1/3 of the full strength sauce. Top the enchiladas with the remaining (full strength) sauce and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with remaining cilantro, if using.

Recipe from http://thyhandhathprovided.blogspot.com/

Potato skins worth making!

I had a hard time keeping the nice shape of the potato-but they were still very yummy!  They could be veggie potato skins without the bacon, but that wouldn't be any fun.  They were so good I forget what I served them with last week.  They actually could be a really good meal with a salad on the side.

Potato Skins

Taken from The Pioneer Woman Cooks


8 slices of bacon
8 russet potatoes, scrubbed clean
canola oil
kosher salt
1 1/2 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 C. sour cream
4 green onions, sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 F
Rub the outside of the scrubbed potatoes with canola oil. Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the potatoes are fork tender. Let potatoes cool so they are easy to handle. Slice in half lengthwise.  (I microwaved my potatoes for speed)

With a spoon or small scoop, scrape out the inner flesh of the potatoes, leaving a small margin of potato in the skins. Brush both sides of the potato skins with canola oil and salt liberally. Place the skins cut side down on the pan and return to the oven. Bake for 7 minutes and then flip the skins over to the other side. Bake for 7 minutes more or until the skins are crispy.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet and chop into small bits. Set aside. Grate the cheese if you haven’t already.
When the skins are crisp, remove them from the oven and sprinkle each with cheese and bacon pieces. Return to the oven just until the cheese melts (2 minutes). Just before serving, spoon sour cream onto each skin and sprinkle with sliced green onion. Serve piping hot.

Fruit rainbow

This week is "Celebration week" for Abby at school. She gets to bring in 5 show and tell items to speak to the class about each day. We I struggled a bit with what she should bring in and in the end, I let her pick what she wanted no matter what the item was and what type of circus her teacher would think we lived in. She choose her favorite lipstick in the shape of a blue ladybug, the move Tangled that she got for Easter, her collection of sea glass and shells from the beach, a my little pony complete with mane combing brush, and an Easter egg filled with 16 little hearts that she made out of paper. One for each member of her class. The last being my favorite. So cute.


Other highlights for her week are running to the office with a special friend of her choosing. Turning off the lights. Erasing blackboards etc. and she also has to bring in a snack for the entire class.

One of her classmates has an allergy to gluten.  From what I have heard from Abby is that the little boy often misses out on the snack the child of the week has brought in as most often it appears to be cupcakes or cake. And also she mentioned something about her teacher complaining about gaining weight with all the delicious snacks that come thru the door. That made me laugh. Maybe I will send in a cake or some fudge. She could stand to gain a few pounds from what I can see. heh heh. Ok, getting off the point here. And I do really like her teacher, a lot. I can only wish to be that thin.......

So back to the snack. Abby choose to bring in a fruit rainbow that we had spied in a Family Fun magazine a while ago and now we had found the perfect occasion!

Here is a picture sans the marshmallow clouds. I made it the night before, stored in the fridge and just added a nice fluffy layer of mini marshmallows to the bottom to complete the look in the classroom. Abby was thrilled and proudly told me everyone, even the teacher, asked for seconds!

Sweet Potato Pizza

Sweet potato pizza!  What, that does not sound good to you??  Let me tell you it was wonderful.  My 2 year gobbled it down, but the 4 year old thought the sweet pots looked WAY too much like the dreaded vegetable called squash-so she nibbled around the crust.

Here is the recipe from over at Hand Thy Hath Provide.  Super easy and yummy!

Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion and Feta Pizza

2-3 cups thinly sliced (and peeled) sweet potatoes

3 cups thinly sliced onions (I used the sweet onions-I can eat those plain! yum)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups roasted tomatoes (I did not have tomatoes-so I just used a jar of spag sauce)

1 1/2 cups feta cheese

pizza dough to cover a 17 x 13 inch baking sheet (see my EASY pizza dough recipe)

Place sliced sweet potatoes in a large bowl and toss them with 1 tbsp. olive oil, thyme, pepper and salt. Spread them on a greased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until they soften, checking frequently to avoid burning them.

In the meantime, saute onions in 1 tbsp. oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Turn heat down to medium and saute for another 15 minutes.

Spread pizza dough out on a greased baking sheet. Spread pizza sauce on the dough (or if you have the roasted tomatoes).  Next, lay roasted sweet potato slices on top.  Top with Feta.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crust is slightly browned.