Skillet Enchiladas

The majority of my time in Arkansas was dreaming about coming to Louisiana where I was promised a hotel with a kitchen.  Seriously, having no kitchen and nothing to do was really wearing on me.  While telling my husband how the first thing I wanted to make was enchiladas because it seemed impossible to find good Mexican food in southern Arkansas, he responded that he didn't think the hotels would have ovens.  Whaaa?  My heart completely sank.  Not just for the enchiladas but I was planning on baking to fill up this boring unproductive time in the hotel while he works.  Fortunately, I've found ways to adapt and use the stove more than I was planning.  Still craving good Mexican food, I created skillet enchiladas, made completely on the stove top.  It turned out great and I think it's a great way to make enchiladas for a couple people without having to heat up the oven.  

Lucky for me, the night I figured out a way for this to work, I had leftovers from tacos I made the night before.  The ingredients don't matter so much with this as it is more about the technique, but I used green enchilada sauce, refried beans, ground beef, Spanish rice, flour tortillas, salsa, and cheese.

 I found that the key to doing this was having all the ingredients warm in the first place.  Whether you are using leftovers or starting new, make sure all the ingredients going on the inside the enchilada are heated through.

 I even warmed the enchiladas up for a few seconds in the microwave.

 Put a layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Do not turn on the pan yet or you probably end up burning the bottom of the enchiladas.

 Smear more sauce onto a tortilla then add your fillings down the middle.

 Roll up the tortilla then place it in the pan, seam-side down.

 Once you have filled your pan, evenly poor more sauce over the enchiladas.  I ended up having about a half a can left.  Cover the pan and turn on the heat to medium.  There is no real science to this but you do have to time it right so the whole thing is heated through but the bottom isn't burned.  You just want to keep it on until the centered is heated through.  This shouldn't take long because everything should be warm before going in.  For me, this took about 10 minutes.

 At this point I covered with cheese and and salsa.  The bottom of my enchiladas were a little brown but far from burned, and my husband thought that was the best part.

 I paired up this husband-sized portion with some salad and peas.  Yum!

Chicken with Creamy French Onion and Mushroom Gravy

I developed this recipe by trying to figure out what to do with a box of dry onion soup mix that I bought, for some reason, when we first got into Arkansas.  There is really no reason why I should have bought it.  I try to avoid using powdered mixes when I feel like I can achieve the flavor on my own using natural ingredients.  So for this recipe, if you want to use this mix for your French onion soup that isn't full of artificial ingredients or extremely high in sodium, I strongly encourage it!

The first thing you need to do is dissolve the onion soup mix in 2 cups of hot water.  Let it sit until needed.  Take 3-4 chicken breast halves and brown the outside in as little oil as you can get away with.  At this point, the chicken will not be cooked through but remove it anyway and set aside.

With about another tablespoon of oil and add 1/4 cup of chopped onion and 1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms.  Cook until the onions have softened and the mushrooms have started to brown and caramelize.

Carefully add the dissolved soup mixture to the pan, holding back some of the dry onions with a spoon.  Bring the soup back up to a high simmer.  Continue to simmer for 2-3 minutes to reduce a little.  Add the chicken and turn down to Medium.  Once there is less of a simmer, cover and let the chicken cook for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked, stirring occasionally and turning chicken halfway through.

Remove the chicken once again and add 1/2 cup of milk.  Bring the pan back up to a simmer, careful to avoid boiling because that will cause the milk to curdle. Let it simmer and reduce some more for a couple minutes.(Because I have a child who insists on hanging on my legs and whining anytime I'm in the kitchen, my came to a rolling boil before I got to it...  Good thing my husband doesn't know the difference!)  Remove from heat and stir in 1/4-1/2cup of sour cream.  This is needed to mellow out the strong onion soup mix so use as much as you need.  Add the chicken back in again and let it rest for about 5 minutes to thicken.

I served my chicken with mashed potatoes and ladled some gravy over both.  Rice instead of potatoes would also go well with this dish.

Notes:

Definitely taste the sauce to make sure it isn't too strong for your taste.  Add more sour cream if it is too strong.  

Because I didn't add any thickeners this gravy is pretty thin.  If you prefer a thicker gravy you can thicken the same you would thicken any other gravy.  

If you choose to make your own dry onion mix, you may need to salt the chicken and other as you go as it will probably be pretty mild.

Recipe:

• 1 dry French onion soup mix packet (or 2-3 T. of your own mix)
• 2 cups hot water
• 3-4 chicken breast halves
• oil as needed
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of milk

1. Dissolve the onion soup mix in 2 cups of hot water.  Let it sit until needed.  
2. Take the chicken breast halves and brown the outside in as little oil as you can get away with.  Remove it and set aside.
3. Add more oil to the pan if needed.   Add chopped onion and sliced mushrooms.  Cook until the onions have softened and the mushrooms have started to brown and caramelize.
4. Carefully add the dissolved soup mixture to the pan, holding back some of the dry onions with a spoon.  Bring the soup back up to a high simmer.  Continue to simmer for 2-3 minutes to reduce a little.  Add the chicken and turn down to Medium.  Cover and let the chicken cook for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked, stirring occasionally and turning chicken halfway through.
5. Remove the chicken once again and add the milk.  Bring the pan back up to a simmer. Let it simmer and reduce for a couple minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 1/4-1/2cup of sour cream.  Add the chicken back in again and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
6. Serve with potatoes or rice.

First Birthday Luau

As I mentioned in my last post, we celebrated my daughter's first birthday party a little early so we could have a party with family and friends before coming out here to Arkansas.  We decided a luau would be cute and with the help of Pinterest, the party turned out great!  Because Pinterest was such a big help, I'll be linking you to the blogs to which these original ideas belong.

Here are a few pictures of the decor:

Balloon Streamers

I really didn't want to give my baby a sugary cake topped off with sugary frosting.  This is an applesauce-sweetened cake with whipped up cream cheese with maybe a tablespoon of powdered sugar for the frosting.  The flowers are actually made out of fruit rolls!



Apple Spice Cake
Fruit Roll Cake Flowers



Here are some pictures of the party girl:

 

YUM!



We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and they were delicious!

After dinner we sang to the princess and let her eat the cake.  I took the flowers off the cake but some of it glued itself on and wouldn't come off.



After picking at it for a minute she dug right in!  She didn't even know the difference without the sugar.

Summer Plans

It has been way too long since I have posted anything but I have many good excuses.  Really, I do!  I went through a pretty tough bout of mono... actually still going through it but life goes on.  My husband came down with it before I did but was diagnosed with strep throat (no throat culture was done).  When I came down with it we rushed to urgent care because it was a Sunday morning.  I tested negative for strep but because my husband "had it" the doctor said the test he did was wrong 20% of the time and it looked like strep to him.  He wrote me a prescription for some strong antibiotics and sent me home.  (I say wrote me a prescription and sent me home like he did it in a timely manner... ha!)  My husband at this point was pretty much back to himself after only having it for a week, but for some reason mine wasn't going away.  I finally made an appointment with my doctor after about 2 weeks of pain.  She asked me a few questions then told me she thought I had mono so she sent me into the lab for a blood test for mono to which I tested positive.  At this point I was a little stressed out because of all we had going on (which I will dive into later), and I was worried because we had a 10 month old baby girl.  After much googling, I found that the younger you are the less mono affects you.  Some children can have it with no symptoms while others will seem a little tired with maybe a runny nose.  With that information I decided that our Little Miss most likely had it first and gave it to us because about a week before my husband came down with it  she had been a bit cranky and sleeping for a good 12-13 hours at night.  She also had a runny nose.  So there we have it.  I still have no idea why my husband was able to get through the mono so fast and I still am dealing with it.

Not long before this whole mono thing happened, my husband was accepted into graduate school to obtain his PhD in psychology!  He was accepted very early in the process, before most students even get interviewed.  It is very nice knowing that he is already so valued by the professor he will be working under.  He has worked so hard to be qualified to work with this man in his field of study.  With this acceptance comes a HUGE move for us.  Although I'm not comfortable making our location known on here, I'm talking we can't take very much with us.  We have already had three garage sales, sold things off craigslist, and given stuff to family.  We still are trying figure out what else we can leave behind.

We are currently in Arkansas where my husband has joined a team doing sales for this summer, hoping to make up for the lack of income we will be experiencing very soon when we move.  I am fine giving up this location because it is so short term.  By this weekend we should be heading to Louisiana for the team to finish up the summer!  We will be leaving early in July so we can tie up loose ends before the big move.  But right now I am living it up, exploring this part of the country I have never been, and making good memories with these cuties!

My baby girl turned one out here in Arkansas!  I was in a frenzy before we left to get her birthday party planned and done before we came out here.  It was a big success and I will be posting about it soon!