The Whole Enchilada

Roger and I started going to Dream Dinners in 2005.  For the next five years, we showed up to their meal prep kitchen once a month to assemble anywhere from 15 to 30 meals to feed our freezer, and later ourselves.  When we moved cross country from California to Florida, we moved several of our frozen meals with us, but had to find a local meal prep facility that captured some of the convenience, but none of the flavor or fun of Dream Dinners since they don't have a franchise north of Miami.  Now that we've moved to Orlando, there are no meal prep businesses at all so we've had to go back to our pre-Dream Dinners process of weekly menu planning and cooking from scratch.  Of course, after five plus years of once a month cooking, I especially am not thrilled to go back to the daily dance of preparing a meal.

Since our budget won't allow us to eat out or get take out every day, (You mean we're not millionaires? Who knew?), we've decided to try to do once a month cooking on our own.  Unfortunately, going from zero meals to 30 days worth can be an expensive prospect so we're working in stages.  Last week, we purchased a huge pork shoulder roast, cooked it in the slow cooker for 20 or so hours, shredded it and now have two BBQ pork meals in the freezer, plus two pounds of chile verde shredded pork ready to make into taquitos.  I also slow cooked a two pound beef chuck roast to make shredded taco meat, and made a slow cooker full of spicy refried beans. 

The shredded beef and beans are destined for homemade beef, bean and cheese burritos which will be individually wrapped and frozen for later use as lunches or quick dinners. Most of the pork taquitos will be flash frozen, then bagged for later quick meals, but a few are scheduled to be dinner on Saturday.  Photos of both will be coming in a future post.

Of course, one of the easiest ways to build up a freezer full of meals is to double or triple dinners.  Tonight, I made a pan of my favorite Tex-Mex Enchiladas, so I just went ahead and made a second pan.  These freeze beautifully before adding the chili sauce mixture, so these are currently chilling in the freezer as I write this.

Sauce-free Tex-Mex Enchiladas

The other pan received a coating of chili sauce, a sprinkle of cheese and 30 minutes in the oven.  Here's a shot of the ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness.

Cheesy Tex-Mex Enchiladas

This is a very tasty, but not at all low-calorie meal.  Fortunately, we don't eat it very often so we really get to enjoy it when we do.  It also provides a ton of leftovers that can be frozen for future consumption, or simply refrigerated for lunch the next day.  In case anyone is interested, here is the recipe:

Tex-Mex Enchiladas

Prep Time: 15 Min          Cook Time: 30 Min          Ready In: 45 Min

Servings: 5 (3 Enchiladas each)

Ingredients

• 2 (11.25 ounce) cans chili without beans
• 1 cup enchilada sauce
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 15 corn tortillas
• 1 pound shredded Cheddar or Mexican-blend cheese
• 1 onion, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Mix the chili and enchilada sauce together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally as it simmers.
3. Heat the vegetable oil and chili powder together in a small skillet over medium heat. Gently lay a tortilla in the hot oil and cook until the tortilla starts to puff. Remove with a spatula and place on a plate. Immediately sprinkle about 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese and 1 tablespoon chopped onion down the center of the tortilla; roll the tortilla tightly around the mixture and place, seam-side down, into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Repeat this process until all the tortillas are used.
4. Sprinkle about 2/3 of the remaining Cheddar cheese over the rolled enchiladas. Pour the warm chili mixture evenly over the enchiladas. Scatter the remaining Cheddar cheese over the layer of the chili mixture.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy!