Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

I'll add a picture of these when I make them later this week. I've made them several times, and they are one of my all time favorite recipes! If not the best, it is one of the best things my mom makes. All credit goes to her, for her famous chicken enchiladas!

Faye's Chicken Enchiladas

-1/2-1lb chicken breasts (3 cups cooked)
-1/2 cup onion
-1 small can green chilis
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-milk
-10-15 corn tortillas
-Shredded cheddar cheese
-1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions:
1. Boil chicken in water for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Shred the chicken, save the broth.
2. Saute 1/2 cup chopped onion in butter or olive oil until clear in large skillet
3. stir in 1 can green chilis (can use a large can if you like it spicier)
4. stir in 1 can of soup
5. fill soup can halfway with milk, add to soup mixture
6. fill soup can halfway with broth from previously cooked chicken, add to soup mixture
7. stir soup mixture in skillet until warm.
8. (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART) Put tortillas, 3 at a time into soup mixture in skillet. Add one tortilla at a time as you build each enchilada. Use the tortilla that has been in the mixture the longest to build each enchilada, they should soak for 1-2 minutes or so, until soft but not falling apart.
9. to build each enchilada, pull a tortilla out of the skillet, add some chicken and cheese, roll up, and place seam side down in a 9x13 glass baking dish.
10. As you build tortillas and the soup mixture starts to diminish, add broth 1/2 cup at a time as needed to stretch soup mixture.
11. When the pan is full, add 1/2 cup sour cream into remaining soup mixture. Pour on top of enchiladas. Top with more shredded cheese.
12. Top with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

These can easily be prepped ahead of time and baked later. They're so good!

Sesame Chicken

CNN did a story this week about how unhealthy and fattening chinese food is for you. This came as no shock to me, I've always known every yummy, greasy bite was full of fat and sodium. The story did inspire me to start looking around for recipes so I could recreate one of our favorites at home, where I could control the ingredients at least somewhat. Sesame chicken is the only thing James will eat at Chinese restaurants, and it's usually my favorite too. I combined several different recipes from allrecipes.com to come up with this final product. It's still breaded and fried, but it's a lower sodium, all white-meat version of the original.

James told me all weekend he was going to be scared of this recipe, but the skeptic came around when he tasted it: "Babe, this is actually pretty dang good, can I have a lot more?" Yay!

Sesame Chicken

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I KNOW I said no more white flour, but I was scared to try wheat flour. I'll try it next time!)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and white pepper)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into chunks
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, cut into wedges
1/2 cup green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1/8 cup low sodium teriyaki sauce
1/8 cup tablespoons honey

1 Tablespoon pineapple juice

2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

1 teaspoon brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large resealable plastic bag, combine flour, black pepper, five-spice powder, and red pepper flakes. Place a few pieces of chicken at a time into the bag, and shake to coat. Remove to a platter.
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Place chicken into skillet, and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

Stir onion wedges and bell pepper slices into the skillet with the chicken; cook until slightly browned, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
In a separate bowl, mix honey, teriyaki, pineapple juice, brown sugar and sesame seeds. Add it to the chicken and vegetables, stir until sauce thickens.

I served it with a box of Simply Asian noodles.

3/26 Edit: I made this a second night in a row tonight, but skipped the flour and used the same amount of seasonings to season the dry raw chicken breasts pieces. Then I sauteed the chicken in a pan with a little cooking spray, and did the rest according to the recipe. It turned out great! I would cut down some on the red pepper flakes, for some reason skipping the dredging escalated the heat a lot! It's a little different, but a much lower-fat alternative that will be great for normal dinners. It passed the James test too!

No Pudge Brownies!

I tried these brownies after a lot of recommendations from girls on The Nest. Instead of adding oil or water or anything, all you add to the mix is fat free vanilla yogurt. They're so good! We used plain yogurt and a tsp of vanilla extract instead of vanilla yogurt. I highly recommend these to anyone who loves a warm brownie but doesn't want all the fat from a regular recipe. My Kroger only carries the original, but I'm going to request the mocha flavor. Yum!

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

This was my first experience with butternut squash, it turned out great! I separated this recipe into 4 individual tupperware bowls to take for work for lunch this week. Much better than the canned soup I usually take.

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup:

3 cups peeled, diced butternut squash (about 1 small)

2 cups grated carrot

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 Tablespoon of butter

2 14 oz cans of low sodium-chicken broth

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup half and half

1. In a large covered saucepan cook squash, carrot, and onion in hot butter over medium heat about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 25-35 minutes until vegetables are tender. Cool slightly.

2. Place one-third of the squash mixture in a food processor or blender. Cover and process or blend until almost smooth. Repeat with remaining squash mixture. Return all of the pureed mixture to the saucepan. Add pepper and nutmeg, bring just to boiling. Add half and half; heat through.

This recipe is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They suggest garnishing with toasted pumpkin seeds.