Stacy's Chicken Enchiladas

So good, so easy, so filling!
*see additional instructions below to make this dairy-free

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked & shredded chicken
1 brick cream cheese
2 cups salsa (spiciness to taste)
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tbl Olive oil
8 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese
1 cup enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 350'
Combine first 6 ingredients.
Coat 9x13 pan with olive oil.
Fill tortillas with Chicken mixture & wrap in burrito style.
Place wraps in pan.
Bake 20 minutes
Cover with cheese
bake additional 10 minutes
Cover with warm enchilada sauce
Serve with corn & large side salad. YUM!

If you want to make these super-healthy I have included some easy add-ons. Feel free to use any or all, they should go unnoticed by all but the most sensitive of tasters.
Puree 1/4 cup canned white beans and sub these for same amount of cream cheese.
To chicken mix add 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach.
Add 1/4 cup chopped carrots to salsa.
Cover with 1/4 cup chopped fresh or canned (chopped) tomatoes, along with enchilada sauce.

To make this dairy free and more allergy friendly simply use soy cream cheese and omit the corn. I have it on good authority that soy cream cheese is an excellent and nearly undetectable replacement for cow's milk cream cheese.

Leftover Turkey or Chicken

After picking apart the remains of your Thanksgiving turkey or perhaps even a rotisserie or whole roasted chicken use the leftover meat and turn it into this zesty asian-inspired soup.

To slow cooker or crockpot add:
3 cups leftover turkey or chicken
3 cans chicken broth
1 can refilled with water
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup frozen, chopped spinach
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup instant brown rice
1 cup chopped cabbage

Cook in crockpot till done. Yummy!
Side note about the last four ingredients. If you like it less spicy reduce both curry & pepper by half the amounts listed.
Add the rice & cabbage during the last 3 hours, if possible. If they cook the whole time they'll be a little too mushy for my tastes.

Slow Cooker Carnitas (Re-posted due to popularity)

2lb. Pork Shoulder roast, or boneless loin, ribs etc.
1/4-1/2 cup water
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp curry powder
1 can seasoned, stewed tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup orange puree, if available, or throw in some chopped carrots
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Add water, seasonings, tomatoes and orange puree (or carrots) to Crock Pot, stir until well blended. Add roast and coat in seasoning juice.
Pour garlic over roast. Cover and cook on low until roast is done, 6-8 hours, turning & stirring occasionally if you can. The carrots will disappear as they turn to mush. Your family will eat secret veggies!
Once done pull out roast and cut netting off, then shred and cut up roast removing any fatty pieces. Return to Crockpot, add beans and continue to cook as long as possible, up to an hour.
Serve with tortillas, cilantro, guacamole, cheese, hot sauce and sour cream.

Breakfast Cookies for Killian

Killian and I (and Preston, but that's a different post) started attending play group. It's very "feel good" and crunchy, focusing on non-violent parenting and establishing independence in your toddler. I hate it. Not because of what they teach but because Killian is forced to change activities every 15 minutes or so and he hates to sit still for story time. He will at home, where he can touch the book and help turn pages, but not in a group setting with so many other things to do.
In addition they serve snack which seems to consist of stupid Goldfish crackers! The playgroup is sponsored by the Idaho Healthy Families Initiative. How, exactly, do Goldfish crackers fit into that? Killian can't have Goldfish crackers, as I remind them almost every week, so he gets whatever I brought as a replacement and I am wracked with nameless bad feelings and guilt over my son's allergies. I hate separating his food like he's some little freak and I get so annoyed that they continue to serve these rainbow colored demons within arm's reach of him.
Last week I left Killian's graham crackers there so I wouldn't have to remember them every week. But someone stole them! Of course this week they were serving breakfast cookies with egg listed in the ingredients and I had no replacement. Granted Killian's allergies are mild enough that baked cookies with egg as an ingredient don't bother him but they don't know that and I try to keep the egg and milk intake to a minimum. He does get an upset tummy and we both pay the price if he overdoes it. The very, very kind lady that ran the group took the orange out of her lunch and served that for snack instead. I was extremely appreciative!
So this whole long vent leads to a great outcome. I modified a No Bake Cookie recipe from Allrecipes.com to come up with healthy, delicious Vegan Breakfast Cookies. They contain loads of anti-oxidants, oats, not too much sugar and protein in the form of peanut butter. Recipe follows:

Vegan Breakfast Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan over medium heat combine the maple syrup, oil, & cocoa. Boil for three minutes or until thickened and smooth, stirring constantly.
   
2. In separate bowl combine peanut butter and vanilla until well blended.
3. Add oats and stir as much as possible into peanut mixture.
   
4. Remove chocolate mixture from heat and stir in the oat mix. Stir until well blended.
   
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and chill to set, about 30 minutes.

Hearty Breakfast

There's a chill to our mornings and that means autumn is upon us and winter will be settling in soon. In the hopes of replacing Cheerios I have been exploring warm breakfasts. This morning I made up a super healthy, anti-oxidant rich and very tasty breakfast that my notoriously picky toddler ate up. I used organic, no sugar added blueberry juice and just plain old Malt O' Meal. I think I'll cut the portions in half next time in order to decrease the cooking time and finished portion.

1/2 Cup blueberry juice
1 1/2 Tbl Malt O' Meal

Basically just follow the instructions on the box from here. I microwaved it for 1 minute, stirred, then continued the microwave then stir in 30 second increments. I stirred in an ice cube to cool it and it was a nice, smooth consistency. It had natural sugars from the juice for sweetness so I didn't even have to bury it in brown sugar! In addition, Malt O' Meal is pretty cheap so it helps to offset the relatively high cost of juice.
Let me know how you and your wee ones like it.