Enchilda Sauce

I made a chili lasagna, and one of the ingredients was Enchilada sauce.  I decided to try my hand at making my own homemade sauce.  It was easy and delicious!  The one thing that I have learned because of this blog is that cooking does not need to be complicated, nor does it need to be expensive.  This is a great recipe and I will definitely be making some home enchiladas using this recipe for the sauce.














Ingredients:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 c water
2 8oz cans of tomato paste
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. heat oil, flour and chili powder together in a large pot, allow to cook for a minute or two.
2. Add reaming ingredients, bring to a slow simmer.  Stir well.  Allow to cook for at least 20 minutes on a low heat.  Stirring occasionally.

This sauce is simple, and so easy to make.  I thought I might mess something up because when you cook just the flour, water and chili powder it cooks funny, but nope did not mess it up and it was delicious in my lasagna.

Chili Lasagna

I love lasagna!  It is so easy to make, you can make it in advance, and it is delicious!  I recently found this recipe for Chili Lasagna that seemed delicious.  My husband thought the same thing when I emailed the recipe to him!  I made my own enchilada sauce, which I guess kind of makes the recipe my own.  I suggest that anyone who likes lasagna and anyone who likes chili to make this at some point.









Ingredients:
9 lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 egg
20 oz enchilada sauce
2 (15oz) Ricotta cheese
1 c monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend.

Directions:
1.  Cook noodles according to the package.
2. Preheat oven to 350° F.
3. Crumble beef into a nonstick skillet.  Add onion, green pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder, and pepper.  Cook until brown.  Stir in 3/4 c enchilada sauce.
4. In a bowl lightly beat egg, stir in ricotta cheese, 1/2 c shredded cheese, and remaining spices.
5. Spread 1/2 c sauce on bottom of pan.  Arrange 3 noodles on top of sauce, spread cheese mixture on top of noodles, arrange 3 noodles on top of cheese mixture, spread beef mixture on top of noodles.  Top with remaining noodles spread with remaining enchilada sauce.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Let set for 10 minutes before serving.

Baked Chicken Tenders

I have a fairly decent number of cookbooks and recipes.  I have a recipe box jammed pack of recipes from family members, and I am constantly googling new recipes and thinking of ways that I can make them my own.  I love to cook, hence the reason for this blog, but I do not consider myself a good cook.  I can take a recipe follow it to the "t" and it will taste good.  Recently, I have been trying to make alterations to different recipes, whether they are minor or major.  With my love of cooking also comes my love of food.  And as we all know loving food can turn into a very bad thing very quickly.  Well, one of the recipe books I have is "Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook" by the American Heart Association.  I got this book a few years ago.  It is filled with great tasting recipes as well as some great tips on how to make recipes better for you and your heart.  This recipe for Baked Chicken comes from this cook book.  I cut the chicken into little tenders so it would cook faster.  It's absolutely delicious.  I hate the term "low fat" because it can mean artificial sweeteners, or not flavor (especially when buying frozen meals).  Food is meant to be good.  We should enjoy what we are eating.  If I do not enjoy what I am eating I will not eat, and that is not very good whatsoever.  The thing I love about this cookbook is that all the recipes I have tried are very good, which is very important.  Here is a simple, easy, and healthier version of baked chicken.  I hope you all enjoy it.

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil spray
4 c cornflakes, lightly-moderately crushed
1-2 cloves garlic crushed, or 1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into tender pieces

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.  Lightly spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil spray.
2. In a bowl combine cornflakes and garlic.
3. In a small bowl coming ginger, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Sprinkle the seasoning on both sides of the chicken.
4. Roll the chicken in the cornflakes, lightly pressing the chicken and the cornflakes together.  Lightly spray the chicken on all sides with vegetable oil spray and put on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown, tender and no longer pink in the center.

Delicious!!  We had broccoli and mashed potatoes with this.

Insecurities

An insecurity is a form of fear.  Everyone is afraid of something, men and women.  Women tend to allow their insecurities or fears control us way more than men do.  Why is that?  Why do I allow such trivial things control me, or prevent me from doing something?

Lately, I feel like all the insecurities I experience have been controlling me more and more.  Take this blog for instance.  I started out saying I was going to do all sorts of posts, then I stuck with just recipes because they were the easiest.  Then I didn't post anything at all.  Even though I was cooking, taking pictures and typing up the posts.  I just wouldn't upload the pictures.  Absolutely ridiculous!  I started to think why wasn't I just taking the 3 minutes it took to upload the pictures?  At first I kept telling myself it is because I am so busy.  But, I know that is not the truth.  I was scared.  I did not want this to be a recipe blog but for some reason that is what it has become.  Why? Because it sure is a heck of a lot easier than writing about something I am passionate about, or my opinions.  When you write about your opinions then you are setting yourself up for ridicule and I most certainly do not want to ridiculed.  I am to scared to deal with that.  This blog is just one of my insecurities that I have been dealing with recently.

Key Lime Pie

My siblings came to visit last weekend, so we decided to have a cookout with them and invite our friends.  It was great!  I decided to make a couple of new desserts, which were very good.  I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com, its a Paula Deen recipe.  My older sister Rachel helped me make it, it was a lot of fun cooking with her.  This is a very good pie, however yet again I wished I would have read of the reviews.  You freeze this recipe so it is more like ice cream and it melts easily.  Still very good!

Roasted Asparagus

I love asparagus and am always looking for new ways to cook it.  I made some roasted asparagus the other day when I made this dinner.  It was very easy and so delicious!  The ends were just a little crunchy and tasted fabulous!

Pelotonia

For those if you who do not know what the Pelotonia is, it is a bike ride of up to 180 miles for cancer research.  The riders commit to raising money, and do whatever ride they would like to.  This year my husband has decided to ride 43 miles.  If you are interested in donating to help him reach/exceed his commitment (his commitment is $1250, he will be considered a high roller at $4000), or would like more information about how you can get involved follow this link.

Thank you for your support!