Sour Cream Enchiladas and Guacamole

One of the great things about coworkers is sharing recipes. I'm very lucky that a girl in my office has a father that runs a Mexican restaurant and occasionally brings in Guacamole. And by that, I mean she cuts everything up and makes it in the office. Amazing! Well, I had some sour cream left over from my ranch dressing and I found some chubs of ground beef in the freezer that I needed to use. So I decided I'd grab some avocados and do something Tex-Mex.

As far as using the sour cream went, I LOVE Chicken sour Cream enchiladas. And the nephews always have tortillas around the house. It seemed to me, that switching in ground beef would work out all right, so I looked up some taco seasoning for it and found a promising enchilada recipe. Plus, I ran out of chili powder so I couldn't do a red sauce, and I had no chicken. So, improvising!

Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce

This is the recipe I used as a guide. I picked it because I had most of the ingredients on hand, like the cilantro and green chiles. I think it's a little tough to ruin a recipe like this even when substituting things you have in the fridge. For example, other than using beef instead, I had cheddar, not monterey jack. And I used flour rather than corn tortillas. Use, they were a bit droopy, but they were tasty and I'm not that picky about them.

And they look pretty. So there! For the beef, I mixed up some seasoning and dumped what was left of a jar of jalapenos into it, plus half of my can of chiles as I had too many. If you buy pre-mixed seasonings you should search around on allrecipes or Yummly. Most of the time, you probably already own all the spices you need to make the mix.

Taco Seasoning

And of course, the aforementioned Guacamole recipe that is just perfect. Though I argue with one of the nephews as to whether or not Cilantro is a must. In my opinion, it is.

Guacamole 

Now to chase all that down, I decided to make a key lime pie. I've never made one before and rarely get a piece. Usually only if I go out to lunch with my sister and split one with her. But, we rarely get dessert, so...

Key Lime Pie

Note, the recipe uses sour cream. See a trend here? That's my justification for making pie right there. I was cleaning the sour cream out of the fridge... really...

Grating key limes, let it be said, it awful. Next time I try this I'm using big limes to see how it goes. Also, this little casserole dish is stoneware I got from World Market. It's awesome and cleans up great and is basically a 9" pie plate. The crust you see is just a standard Betty Crocker pie crust recipe out of Ye Olde cookbook.

And that little chunk out of the pie? That is a nephew, caught red-handed taking slivers. To "test" the pie before getting some. Right. Testing. Well, that is why I don't have a picture of an intact pie. :D

Why yes, it is a pretty tasty key lime recipe.

Welcome!

If you came to visit, well thank you! Rather than rehash what I'm up to here, let's get down to it. Now my initial idea was to post what I was doing each week and what I thought of it. But, now that we are 3 months in, I've already tried several new recipes. And I do want to share what I learned from a few of them. Just well, not all at once. I think that would be overkill. So I'm going to start with what most people know me for. Cookies.

Oatmeal Spice Mix

1 1/2 Tablespoons Truvia (or similar Stevia sweetener to taste)
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
2 Teaspoons Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Cloves
Optional: 1 packet of vanilla breakfast shake mix

Directions: Add all to jar and shake. Add 1 teaspoon to heated water before adding oatmeal. You can do it after, but the salt/sweetener dissolves better this way.


I know, it's not a cookie. But it came from one! Let me explain.

At Christmas, I make a lot of cookies for people. This year, one was a classic Oatmeal Raisin. They tasted great, but they thin and fell apart. So I had to find another recipe. But, I really liked the taste from the first one. So I took the flour etc from the second, but kept the spices from the first. It worked like a charm!

And I had a huge box of oatmeal leftover. Hmm!

In my pantry, I also have a stash of empty herb jars that my sister gave me. :D

You might see where this is heading. I looked at the basic oatmeal directions, salt, and water, mixed in the cookie spices and some Truvia brand sweetener. Genius! Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Breakfast!

Truvia, btw, is stevia. Stevia is a natural and potent sweetener derived from a plant, globally used and finally picking up steam in the US. It's virtually 0 calorie. I can't say that I like it in everything, but I couldn't tell the difference in the oatmeal. And since it's potent, it fits nicely in the spice jar as we don't need much. It's also diabetic friendly.

But, back to the cookies! I also borrowed a little of the cooking method. My old cookie cookbook had a tip to simmer the raisins in water, to plump them up, before mixing them into the batter. They are 100% better this way, I promise. In the time that it takes to bring the water to boil and cook the oatmeal, the raisins are nice and plump. I suspect that even if you microwave your oatmeal, you'd find this to be true. Personally, I use the stovetop. Though, I cheat and preheat my water with my Hotshot teamaker to get it to boil a bit faster. A coffee maker's hot water spot would work too.

From my Christmas cookies I got a very tasty and delicious oatmeal recipe that is pretty low-calorie. Far better than the expensive sugar laden pouches for sale in the store. And no more difficult to make, at all.


That's what cooking experience does for you. Once you know what spices you like, you can apply them in other places. Now most of my other posts will likely be straight up recipes,but this is all new to me, so who knows? Rather than get too wordy, I'll sign this off with a list of last week and next week's goodies. I'll probably update this again next weekend. Feel free to comment and email me any suggestions or critiques on this!

Last weeks meals were: Mandarin Chicken. Sesame Green Beans. Baked Buffalo Chicken. Herbed Potato Salad. Spinach Feta Bread. Apple Brie Braid. This week I'm trying a Turkey Butternut Squash Chili and some Spring Rolls.