What's Cookin' Wednesday: Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

Num Num Num.  That is all I have to say to introduce this recipe.  This is probably one of my favorite meals to cook.  It is easy, can be altered if needed {just wait and see what I mean} and delish.

We had leftovers, and I have had this for lunch for the past two days.  I don't usually "do" leftovers, so that must tell you something, right?

So I pulled the original recipe from a magazine, back in the day.  It is a Campbell's recipe, so yes "cream of something" soup is part of the recipe.  But Netherlands friends, don't fret, I have adapted it for life here in the land of no convenience.  I kid, I kid.  Well, just a little.

And for those of you in the U.S. now thinking to yourselves, "they don't have cream of anything?", all I have been able to find readily available is cream of mushroom soup.   And it has huge mushroom chunks in it.  Just sayin'.    On our trip to Scotland in May I did scope out the soup situation, and we are in luck.  I don't think it was Campbell's, but they do have some more "cream of ___" soups.  Whew.

Alright, I am done babbling now.  Since I have a few versions of this recipe this is going to be a long recipe post. :-)

Click here for a clean version of the original Campbell's recipe, because I am going to show you how we changed it up below in the U.S. AND in the Netherlands.

Campbell's professionally food styled photo of the recipe.  Num, right? 

What do you need? 

IN THE U.S.:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup Pace® Picante Sauce Enchilada Sauce

2 teaspoons  1/2 teaspoon chili powder

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

6 flour tortillas (6-inch), warmed

1 small tomato, chopped (about 1/2 cup) (OPTIONAL)

1 green onion, sliced (about 2 tablespoons) (OPTIONAL)

So, the notes on this recipe... We don't do whole tomatoes (or even sliced) in our home.  We have peeps with issues with tomatos, so that is why we use the enchilada sauce and make the tomato (for garnish) optional.  And we are NOT major spicy fans. So, that would by why I have cut the chili powder down to a fourth of the original amount.  Feel free to include more if you like the spicy stuff. 

IN THE NETHERLANDS: 

1 can Unox Kerrie cremesoup

1/2 cup sour cream

1/8 tsp. chili powder

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1/2 cup shredded cheese (of your choice, we use the Goudse Belegen, 48+)

6 flour tortillas (6"), warmed

1 small tomato, chopped (about 1/2 cup) (OPTIONAL)

1 green onion, sliced (about 2 tablespoons) (OPTIONAL)

Do you see the tiny sour cream containers that we get here?  

And sometime when you see me in person, ask me about the time I could barely reach the sour cream.  Yeah, not a pretty moment. 


Notes for everyone:  Feel free to add more cheese.  Always. To every recipe.  Especially this one.  And no, I am not saying that because I used to work in the marketing department for a company that sells cheese.  I just love cheese. 


Alright, so what do you do?  
I am not going to change this for each country.  You all are smart cookies, you will know what applies to you.  And if you don't feel free to contact me with questions.  I won't laugh.  Trust me.  I almost posted a question on how to tell if an avocado is ripe on Facebook today.  


You can stop laughing now. 

• Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Stir the soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder in a medium bowl.
• Stir 1 cup soup mixture, chicken and cheese in a large bowl.
• Divide the chicken mixture among the tortillas. Roll up the tortillas and place seam-side down in an 11 x 7 x 2-inch baking dish. Pour the remaining soup mixture over the filled tortillas. Cover the baking dish.
• Bake for 40 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling. Top with the tomato and onion (if desired).

Please refer to photo at beginning of post.  Trust me, this is fabulous.  But I am still working on my food photography. 


So, can anyone tell me how to tell when an avocado is ripe? 


Make sure to check out the other nummy recipes at Life as We Know it with Two Twinkies & a Tator Tot. 

What's Cookin' Wednesday? Chicken Fried Rice!

Eventually maybe I will share a difficult or involved recipe here.  


Maybe not.  That's just not the way I roll. 


At least not yet.  


Today's recipe came through an email to our Mums & Toddlers group from one of the members.  So GLAD it came through. It is easy, FAST and has just a few ingredients.  


What else can you ask for?  Oh, probably taste too. 


Well, no worries then.  It is delicious. 


The recipe?  Chicken Fried Rice.  Perhaps that would be easy enough for most people to make without a recipe.  But I need a recipe for just about everything. 

First, the ingredients.  This is all folks.  

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups cooked white rice, cold
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup cooked, chopped chicken meat

What to do with it all? 

1. In a small bowl, beat egg with water. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add egg and leave flat for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from skillet and cut into shreds.
2. Heat oil in same skillet; add onion and saute until soft. Then add rice, soy sauce, pepper and chicken. Stir fry together for about 5 minutes, then stir in egg. Serve hot.

So this recipe is fast (as long as you cooked the rice earlier in the day).  So fast I barely had time to get photos of the process. I got a few egg photos.  One of it cooking in the pan and  one of it cooked and in a bowl.  But I think ya'll know what that looks like.  


I also got a photo of one of the other eggs in the carton I bought (watch for a Wordless Wednesday post shortly with that).


Here though, is the essential photo in an recipe post.  The finished product. 

I know it looks bland, but it doesn't taste bland. 


Want proof? 

Numnumnum. 

Today's recipe has become probably the favorite recipe in this house in literally the last five days.  I made it for the first time on Sunday, and then since I had enough leftover ingredients we had it again on Monday night!  Which means, folks, the husband likes it.  


Oh, and the best thing I have found at the grocery store in the past week? 

kipreepjes gerookt = smoked chicken strips 

We have been here for ten months now, and I am STILL making discoveries.  This most definitely made my day.  One of my favorite convenience foods that I thought I was going to have to live without for as long as we are here. Oh, woe is me, right? Ha. 

Oh well.  It DID make my day.  

Even if J#3 was about five feet away throwing random bakery goods(that I didn't recognize) into the cart.  

So, what is your favorite convenience food?  The one you would have a hard time living without? 

Of course, as I do every Wednesday, I am linking up with Heather over at Life as we know it with Two Twinkies and a Tator Tot.  Oh, and seriously check out her recipe. It looks delish.  Please try it and let me know how it turns out.  Won't be made in this house...a certain person doesn't do pineapples.  And that person isn't me. 

What's Cooking Wednesday? Banana Bread!

I think I have mentioned that I am one-trick pony when it comes to baking (from scratch).  

And what is that one trick?  

Banana bread.  

Probably one of the easiest baking recipes known to womankind.  I mean, you don't even need a mixer for this recipe.  

And, staying true to my novice blogging self, I don't have a ton of photos, but really--with as easy as this is?  You don't need very many.  

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily be reduced to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup of all purpose flower

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C).  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.  Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla.  Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture & mix in.  Add the flour last, mix.  Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Cool on rack.  Remove from the pan, then slice to serve.  

Recipe from: simplyrecipes.com

So, about an hour and fifteen minutes (if you aren't using a micro/stove combo like me) you should have something that looks like this.  If you have a combo micro/stove, then you have to wait until you have melted your butter to start preheating your oven.  Bah Humbug.  

And it looks even more appetizing all cut up...

Numnumnum. 

I am linking up with Heather(TwinkieTotMom)'s What's Cookin' Wednesday? link-up.  Take a few minutes to check out some of the other recipes.  Heather's looks great.  

If only we had a grill.  

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday?

As I had mentioned in a previous post, today I am going to link up with TwinkieTotMom for her "What's Cookin' Wednesday?"  link-up. 


One of the advantages of being a new SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) is that I am absolutely perfecting improving my cooking skills.  I am happy to say that J#1 actually said to me yesterday "just trying to keep all of your different recipes straight".  


Ha.  I NEVER thought that would happen. 


While I have been trying a lot of new recipes, I do always revert back to a few of my "sure things". 


One of those is a Chicken Ranch Pasta that I have been making forever.  We had it at a friend's house way back when, but it is from a Land O'Lakes monthly cookbook, and can be found on their website.  You will notice the name of their recipe is different than mine, and it looks they have updated it to be low fat now.  Just as good though, I am sure.  


Here is the recipe that I use: 


Chicken Ranch Pasta
Ingredients: 
7 ozs (2 cups) uncooked dried penne pasta
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
3/4 cup Ranch (or Caesar) dressing
1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup chopped green onions (OPTIONAL)
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper (OPTIONAL)
6 oz. (1 1/2 cup) mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cup croutons 


Directions: 
Heat oven to 350*.  Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.  

Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients except croutons in large bowl.  Add cooked pasta; stir to combine. Green onion and red bell pepper marked optional because we don't use them (we have sort of bland taste buds) and this casserole still tastes great. 


Spoon pasta mixture into ungreased 2 quart round casserole.  Top with croutons.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through croutons are golden brown.  


Serves: 6 
20 minutes prep/20-25 minutes baking


Unless you are in the Netherlands.  Then it will take about 40 minutes prep.  Why?  Exhibits A-E below. 

Ranch dressing isn't available in the Netherlands.  For the readers I have here I would suggest using the Casear dressing instead. Tastes just as good (maybe even better).  But anyway, since it isn't available, I stocked up on some of the dressing powder packets while I was back in Minnesota.  So, I present exhibit A.  Might need to make additional ranch dressing.  About 5 minutes, but needs to cool in the fridge for a bit before using. 


Exhibit B-D. 

I almost NEVER would have used three burners at a time before moving here.  But, here I am cooking chicken (can't find pre-cooked chicken ("kip" in Dutch)), boiling broth (can't find canned broths, like in the States) and boiling the noodles.  This is the part of the process that increases the prep time for me.  

Exhibit E.

Once I cook the chicken, I always cut it a bit smaller, because the chicken pieces that I buy are a bit too big to be bite size, which is how I prefer it for this recipe.  

This is just a token package photo.  I always think it is interesting to see Dutch on the packaging (when it isn't making me stressed out having to translate it).

Finished product.  Please note, this is before cooking it.  I forgot to take the "after" photo.  Just imagine it looking like it was cooked (browned a bit?). 

In the interest of full disclosure, these photos are from early July.  I also made this recipe just this past Sunday. And royally screwed up.  Didn't have mozzarella cheese pasta kaas, so had to just use regular shredded "oud" cheese.  And we tried a different kind of croutons (thanks to J#3 throwing them into the cart)...tip:  stick to what you know.  It was eatable, but definitely not as good as usual. 

So, how about you?  Fill me in on some of your favorite recipes.  Even better, link up with TwinkieTotMom and check out some other new recipes by clicking here.

http://www.twinkietotmom.com/2011/08/whats-cookin-wednesday-6.html