Shrimp Enchiladas

This was also the night we discovered how fat we really should be. It also happened to be Valentine's Day.

We've made enchiladas before and both agreed enchiladas with shrimp in them would be quite delicious. I made the suggestion to make something with shrimp for Valentine's Day, since we never splurge on good shrimp (eco-friendly shrimp is nearly impossible to find). So it was natural that shrimp enchiladas was going to be our VDay menu. (That, and Rich had been asking for enchiladas for almost two weeks...)

Oh, you're in the kitchen? There must be food I can snub.

We've also recently discovered Whole Foods. Not in the sense that we didn't know it existed, but in the sense that until the last month or so Whole Foods was the wildly expensive yuppie grocery store you went to if you wanted to talk to staff members with dreads and those beanie hats that are only half on your head (how do those things stay on?). But I'd gone in there a couple times to find some body products for my ridiculously sensitive skin and discovered the prices weren't as ridiculous as I'd thought, especially for the quality. 

One day we went in there together. The Hillcrest location forces you to enter through the produce section, where everything is organic and there's space for locally grown produce. Towards the back is the meat counter. I'll admit that the meat counter at Whole Foods is enticing. For a bunch of dead animal sitting on lettuce behind a glass it's a very sexy part of the store. And this is coming from an almost-vegetarian. Rich? He almost looked aroused at the meat counter. 

And then we got to the beer aisle. So. Much. Beer. And it's all good and lots of it is local! Rich found heaven.

All the beer!

Anyway, so Whole Foods has a seafood counter within the meat counter, and every species is labeled with a form of certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (which may or may not be a great thing... best to do your own research on your seafood ahead of time). We bought shrimp. However, we were not the only people to want shrimp for our Valentine's Day dinner and were only able to get about a half pound of the uncooked shrimps. Should be plenty, right? It's enchiladas... how much shrimp do we need?

Get a full pound. Maybe we're just fat kids, but the thought of making an 8x8 inch dish of enchiladas seemed unfilling. A 9x13 dish was more appropriate (and leftovers!). But we did not buy enough shrimp for a full dish... so we had to get creative chopping them. A half pound would have been perfect for a 2 person serving, but we stretched it into a 4 person serving. Oh well.

Ingredients:

Shrimp

Tortillas

Pepper jack cheese

Enchilada sauce

Onions (optional, but awesome)

Cook your shrimps, if they don't come pre cooked. Stick them in some boiling water for 3-5 minutes (uncooked shrimps are slightly gray when purchased and turn pink the second they hit the water... it's really cool to watch!). Also, de-vein and de-tail your shrimps.

Cut them into little pieces, if necessary, if you didn't buy enough. We sliced them in half both vertically and horizontally.

Soften your tortillas. We use a tortilla warmer that goes in the microwave. Layer each tortilla with a small bit of cheese, as many shrimp bits as you want (but don't go overboard...), and onions if you want. Roll 'em up.

Once your pan is stacked with rolled enchiladas, pour enchilada sauce so that the rolled tortillas are covered. Cover that with shredded cheese.

Cook for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the cheese at the edges of the pan starts to bubble and brown.

Top your serving with sour cream, avocado, hot sauce and any other toppings you want. But in the interest of keeping the shrimp flavor, it's a good idea to not get too crazy with the toppings or other ingredients. We'd forgotten toppings so all we had was sriracha, but it was delicious anyway.

Total Cost: $10, plus market price of shrimp (serves 2-4, depending on how many shrimp you buy)

Total Time: ~35 minutes

We weren't about to share the shrimp with her, but she can have cheese!

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Spicy Bean Burritos

These aren't your typical bean and cheese burritos. These have a kick.

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil
Garlic
Chili powder
1 Chile from a can in adobo sauce
Ground cumin
Cayenne pepper
Pinto or black beans
Brown rice (cooked)
Salsa
Tortillas (burrito sized)
Cheese
Lettuce
Green onion
Sour cream

One of these days I want to try cooking my own beans, rather than getting them from cans every time, and will probably start with this recipe, since it's so flavorful. It would be very easy to make spicy beans from scratch.

Chop a few cloves of garlic and one of the peppers from the can of chiles in adobo sauce and put them in a hot pan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, a teaspoon of chili powder, a spoonful of adobo sauce, a teaspoon of cumin, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. Depending on how hot you want it you can add more or less of those spices. Cook all that for about a minute to let it all simmer together.

Add the beans! If you're making a ton, use two cans (should feed 6 people). The recipe we used said to use a can of pinto and a can of black beans, but it was just the two of us so we used the one can, which gave us 3 medium sized burritos each. With all those spices it sure comes out hot. 

Add 1/3 cup of water with the beans and mix everything together real well. Make sure all the spices and adobo sauce covers the beans and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Once it's a little bubbly lower the heat to medium low and mash the beans a little bit with a spoon. Continue cooking for 8-10 minutes, stirring and mashing as you go.

Ricey, beany, spicey.

Mix in about a cup of cooked brown rice and about a 1/4 cup of fresh salsa. Stir everything together real well so the rice is coated in the bean spices and the salsa. 

A little bundle of everything yummy. 

Assemble the burritos! We got a package of medium sized tortillas, and they really could have been bigger. Two of the medium sized equals one of the normal, large burrito sized tortillas, so we each had to have two to feel nice and fed. 

The trick to rolling a good burrito: don't overstuff it. Put what looks like a very small amount of the bean mixture in a line in the middle of the tortilla and add the toppings. After you put the cheese, onions, lettuce, sour cream and avocado on it (and maybe a dab of extra salsa) your burrito will be quite full. If you've ever been to Chipotle and watched them roll the burritos, try to copy that method. They take one side of the tortilla, fold it over quickly and use the tortilla to pull back all of the ingredients into a nice little package. Then, fold one end side inwards like you're wrapping a present and continue rolling the burrito over the end fold. If it's too stuffed it'll split down the middle, spilling bean goodness everywhere.

Add sriracha!

Total Cost: ~$15 (feeds 4-6, assuming you already have the spices... if not it's time to invest)

Total Time: ~30 minutes (including chopping, excluding time to cook rice)

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Black Bean Enchiladas Suizas

Enchilaaadaaaaaaas

Before Rich and I got together I made these enchiladas once or twice a month (or more) with my lady friend. They're fantastically delicious and easy enough to make a giant pan to have leftovers for a couple of days (or feed several people). I made them for the first birthday I spent with Rich and they were gobbled up. Fast forward to very recently when Rich asks why I haven't made the enchiladas since his birthday almost a year ago.

Ummm... 

Probably because we've been making these every week? 

Oh god... tomorrow is Nacho Night.

Anyway, now that the weather is potentially getting cooler I think these babies will have to make a comeback. I've also made a promise to not let it get that long in between enchilada nights (which, honestly, I'm kind of surprised at myself... I love these things!). 

Ingredients:

Tortillas

Cheese (pepper jack, but cheddar or Monterey Jack works)

Black beans

Corn

Large can of verde sauce

Toppings (jalapenos, hot sauce, black olives, bell peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, avocado, sour cream, whatevs)

Get enough ingredients to fill a 13x9" pan and you'll feed the whole house for two days. Seriously. It's a good idea to warm the tortillas so they're pliable and can be rolled without breaking in half. I use a tortilla warmer (my favorite kitchen tool) but a damp paper towel over a stack of tortillas in the microwave works, too.

The great beginnings.

Spoon black beans and corn into the middle of a tortilla and top with a small fingerfull of cheese (you can also put the jalapenos in the tortilla). Roll it up nice and tight and place it in the pan. You don't want the tortillas to be too full or they won't roll very well. Repeat this until you have a full pan of rolled tortillas.

Saucy!

Sometimes we end up with leftover ingredients and I'll spoon them over the top of the pan. Cover the whole pan with the verde sauce and sprinkle a good amount of cheese over the top. Get the corners so it comes out a little crunchy. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is as bubbly as you like it or until the smell is too overpowering to wait any longer.

Cheese!

Once it's done, top with whatever toppings you like. I always have black olives, sour cream and hot sauce, but it goes so well with everything else, too. 

Ah. Maze. ING!

Nom.

Damn, I totally want enchiladas now. Here it is again, just because it's so delicious looking.

NOM

Total Cost: $11-$17 including toppings (feeds 4-8)

Total Time: 45 minutes

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Portobello and Eggplant Tacos

Please oh please click on the picture for a bigger shot. It's so pretty.

This truly genius idea came about when I asked Rich one night what he wanted for dinner and he said eggplant, and this eggplant jambalaya dish we make (that will make its way on here eventually...) just wasn't doing it for us. Rich introduced me to the vegetarian taco at Fred's Mexican Cafe here in Old Town and I've ordered it every time since then: portobello mushroom, eggplant, corn, avocado and cotija cheese. So. Frickin. Good. 

And then the lightbulb went off and we realized we can make them. OURSELVES! It was every bit as good as we imagined and then some, and they turned out even better than the ones in the restaurant (if we do say so ourselves). The only disappointment was preparing a whole cookie tray of veggies thinking it would be more than enough, and it so wasn't. We're fat kids... I should have known. But we had leftover raw veggies so this was also lunch the next day, and I have a feeling we'll be eating this again soon and frequently.

Ingredients:

Eggplant

Portobello mushrooms

Corn

Avocado

Mexican cheese (cotija, pepper jack)

Tortillas

Salsa

Seasonings (garlic, salt and pepper)

Chop the eggplant and mushrooms to thick bite sized pieces and spread on a cookie sheet with the corn.  Cover everything with a healthy coating of your seasonings, and flip or stir so the seasons get on all sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes on each side, flipping once.

Once the veggies are done to your liking (the mushrooms get a little brown and juicy) warm your tortillas and spoon the mixture into them. Top with avocado, shredded cheese and a tiny spoonful of salsa. 

We had enough veggies prepared for each of us to have four tacos, but that still wasn't enough. These were so good. So good, in fact, that here's another photo just to showcase the delicious goodness that these tacos are. 

Are the skies opening up and angels singing? I realize this is tooting my own horn quite a bit but they really are fantastic; the ingredients work together perfectly. This would be even better with roasted corn from the cob. Next time!

Total cost: ~$10 (essentially feeds 4)

Total cook time: ~35 minutes

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Five Layer Dip

This should have been a six layer dip, but I forgot the salsa, and the bottom layer was, like, 7 layers in and of itself thanks to the joy that is leftovers. 

I seriously love leftovers. We know people who do not like leftovers, and to us they're just crazy. Sometimes the best part about a meal is the leftovers (hello, turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving?), especially when that meal gets to marinate in itself overnight, becoming even more flavorful and delicious. 

The bottom layer of this bean dip is actually the rest of the stuffed bell peppers we made last week, which were bomb (go check out that recipe, it's amazing). Basically beans, rice, tomatoes, soyrizo and a ton of spices. And corn, I'm pretty sure there's corn in there.

This photo does a much better job of showcasing the layers:

Bean mixture

Sour cream

Cheese

Avocado

Cilantro (not pictured... it didn't occur to me until right before eating it to use cilantro)

Just goes to show that every bit can be used and reused. We threw this together in about 5 minutes; it would have taken 10 if I wasn't lazy and actually mashed the avocado into guac with some tomatoes, but it worked this way.

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Nachos!

You won't miss meat with these.

We've been making nachos a lot lately. Like, at least once a week, sometimes more. It started when my roommate and I bought a $5 bag of chips from Costco for our Halloween party (if you've never purchased chips from Costco,  it's two huge bags of tortilla chips in one, for something like 5 pounds of chips). We went through about half of one bag during the party and since they were there we just ate the rest. Actually, I began making nachos when I was home alone and one night made them for both of us. Rich loved them so much he wanted to make them all the time.

And they're so delicious that I never say no.

Ingredients: 

Tortilla chips

Can of beans (black or refried)

Soyrizo (optional... ground turkey or beef can also be used)

Cheese (enough to blanket the chips)

Tomatoes

Onions

Bell peppers (color of your choice)

Avocado

Sour Cream
Cilantro and/or green onions

Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and spread your chips in a single layer. Drain the can of black beans (if you're using refried you might want to heat it separately first to help it spread) and spread it evenly over the chips. 

This is also where you'll want to add some chopped onions.

Optional soyrizo: Cook in a pan on the stove like you would ground turkey or beef (and if you're using ground turkey or beef brown it in a pan on the stove). Cook it thoroughly but don't make it dry cause it's going in the oven in a minute. Spread your cooked soyrizo on the beans and chips evenly so every bite has some. We didn't use soyrizo in these pictures because we ran out.

Cover  the chips and beans with shredded cheese. In the pictures, we're using a mix of pepper jack and cheddar. 

Stick the cookie sheet in the oven at a high temperature, like 400 degrees. Keep an eye on it while it's cooking so you can get the cheese to your perfect level of melted.

This was in the oven about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, chop your tomatoes, bell peppers and avocado (and onions, if you haven't done this already). Once your nachos are nice and gooey stick the fresh ingredients on top with sour cream. Black olives and salsa are also great. 

One cookie sheet of nachos feeds us both, but it has also fed 4 people when we're not being complete fatties.

With this many chopped veggies nachos are healthy, I don't care what you say.

Enjoy!

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