Enchilada sauce adventures!

Let’s face it, life is busy! And because of it I’ve been spending a lot of time and money on convenience food and take-out meals recently to feed my family. It’s not only expensive, but it’s also a lot of frankenfood I am not exactly proud to put on my table. So to combat this issue I’ve turned to freezer meals as a simple solution to get real food on the table on nights that are too busy to cook. Recently I’ve made 10 pans of lasagna, and today made 10 pans of cheese enchiladas with brown rice. I was surprised by the sheer mass of food it takes to fill 10 pans of food! Huge portions of onions, 4 of cheese and an entire bag of Costco tortillas, but what amazed me the most was how inexpensive it was to make my own enchilada sauce. While calculating the cost of each unit of enchiladas I decided it was not economical to buy pre-made sauce. It would raise my cost per pan by more then I was willing to pay, and included more artificial ingredients then I was willing to eat. Instead I made this simple enchilada sauce below that I ended up very pleased with. Keep in mind this makes a lot of sauce! It will make about 6qts of sauce, but this sauce freezes well, or you can make 10 pans of enchiladas and still have about 16 oz. of sauce left over for another meal as you can see below.

It starts with a puree of chilies. The pepper used here is Chili Negro and can be found in most supermarkets, or Hispanic markets.  

1 table spoon olive oil
2 large white onion
4 gloves garlic
2 bags chili negro
2 cups water

In a large Dutch oven add olive oil and onions; cook until onions are slightly translucent. Add garlic and continue to cook. Seed chilies and put into pot. Add hot water and cook until chilies are soft and re hydrated.

After chilies are cooled pour into blender and blend until smooth.

To make the rest of the sauce:

Chile paste above
2 large cans tomato sauce
1 large tomato can filled with water
1 cup vinegar
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp California chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Simmer until flavors are well combined.

This sauce was rich and dark. The pepper adds an almost raisin flavor with a slight sweetness and a mild heat. The seasoning adds earthiness and the tomato and vinegar add bright slightly tart vibrancy. I’m really pleased with this sauce and will use it again and again. The best part of it is though is the price! My sauce works out to be about 0.02 cents an ounce, whereas this Old El Paso sauce is .13 cents an ounce if purchased at amazon. It might not seem like a lot of savings when looking at it oz by oz but when you make 192oz of sauce this is $24.96 vs $4.41 (not including shipping of 12.57) and this is where our savings are! We are talking just a hair shy of 25.00 on savings just by making our own sauce- and the best part is, it tastes better!

I hope you enjoy. If you end up making your own sauce I would love to hear about it. Drop me a line and let me know.

Mushroom stroganoff- a broccoli adventure

I came across a recipe contest from www.gratitudegourmet.com in regards to a vegetarian or vegan recipe using broccoli. This really got me thinking about how I eat broccoli. I basically only eat it four ways.

1)      In a stir fry

2)      Roasted in the oven with olive oil

3)      In a baked potato.

4)      In soup

It made me realize it's reallytime to expand the ways I cook broccoli. I started thinking about what I think of when I think of broccoli, warm comforting soups on cold nights, steaming baked potatoes in the dead of winter. To me broccoli is a comfort food, so what better way to serve it then in mushroom stroganoff?

Serves 4 adults

4 servings of Egg noodles (or 1/2 small package

2 tablespoon Coconut oil or butter

2 tablespoon flour  

1/2 sweet white onion

2 cloves garlic

10-15 button mushrooms diced chopped into small chunks

2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups fresh broccoli florets broken into small pieces

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

1 cup Greek yogurt

Cook 4 servings of egg noodles in boiling water until nearly tender. Drain and set aside.

While noodles are cooking:

Add oil and flour to a heavy bottom skillet. Cook for about 3 minutes until flour is no longer raw.

Add onion, garlic and mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add 2 cups of vegetable stock and season with salt and pepper.

 Allow pot to simmer for about 15 minutes until flavors come together. Stir in broccoli and allow to cook for about 3 minutes, or until broccoli just turns bright green.

Stir in egg noodles, parsley and Greek yogurt and serve warm.

This stroganoff turned out filling, hearty and full of flavor. The meat in this meal isn't really missed due to the hearty meaty flavor and texture of mushrooms.

Vegetarian Red Cabbage Borscht A.K.A Purple Soup!

We started a spending freeze today- where we don’t plan to bring out the debit cards, or cash in our wallets or anything not vital, pre-planned, or required for us to get to work for the rest of the month. Because of the spending freeze, it means making smart choices with the items that we have on hand to maximize flavor, and taste. I decided to start this freeze off with a beautiful hearty soup. Red cabbage borscht!  A flavorful tasty and warm soup perfect the last little bit of winter. This soup is made with pickled beets, shredded red cabbage, orange juice, potatoes and celeriac. It’s topped with two tablespoons of sour cream for a stick to your ribs feel and a little extra protein. My daughter liked it because it was purple, and purple is of course a princess color. I have to be honest, I like it because it's purple too!

In a large Dutch oven combine:

1/2 TBSP butter

1/2 TBSP coconut oil

1 small white onion diced

1 large carrot peeled and diced

1 celeriac peeled and diced

Cook until onion is translucent

Add 2 cloves garlic minced

1 small head of red cabbage shredded

2 small peeled potatoes

1 granny smith apple peeled, cored and diced

Add:

4 cups water

2 cups orange juice

1 can pickled beets diced and their juice

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 TSP caraway seed

1 TBSP dried dill

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

Allow this soup to simmer for about two hours until all the flavors are melded together and an amazing soup forms.

On a side note relative to the soup above, for soups like this I fell head over heels in love with my Staub La Cocotte Dutch oven. It allows me to simmer my soup on low, and keeps all of the heat and broth inside the pot. There are times I want a broth reduced to concentrate the flavor, but this is not one of those times. I put so many flavorful things in this soup that I wanted to keep as much flavor in the soup as I could. I’m not a champion of expensive cookware, or kitchen toys, but I believe every home cook should have a heavy enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven for soups and cooking beans. There are of course less expensive brands to start out with, such as Lodge that will do the trick. I promise once you go cast iron though you will not go back to a lightweight aluminum pan for simmering soups.