Beef Enchiladas...by Jenny

So I don’t know why my sister wants me to blog things.  I’m guessing so she can mock me but whatever. 

I told her clearly I have nothing to blog.  I cook nothing good, I craft nothing exciting. So if she REALLY wants my blogging then here it is. 

The Husbands favorite meal.  Ok well his favorite meal that isn’t King Crab Legs. LOL.

This is NOT exciting but is actually delicious.  Super super easy and delicious.  Oh and 4 ingredients.

• 1 lb Beef
• 2 cans Enchilada Sauce (1 medium and one mild is the perfect mix)
• 1 bag of flour tortillas
• 1 bag any kind of cheese (I like Colby/Jack)

I do add more ingredients for mine and the kids.  We like refried beans in ours.  Crazy easy and super delicious.

Brown and drain the beef.  Mix in ½ the enchilada sauce.  Mix in 1 cup of cheese. Fill each tortilla and roll seam side down.  Cover with the rest of enchilada sauce and the rest of the cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 minutes or until hot. 

I try to pretend I’m healthy by adding a pile of lettuce, light sour cream and jalepenos to the top.  Oh and I slip him 90% fat free beef and carb smart tortilla’s.  He hasn’t caught on to that yet or he will automatically proclaim that he can taste the difference.  Which he can’t.  Lucky for me I’m doubting he reads my sisters blog so he will have no idea.

5.8.18: tip: watch battery 
5.8.17: tip: organize salad dressing

Sloppy Joes From Scratch

My sis had a work function and signed up to bring sloppy joes - so guess what I made yesterday? Yep, since I'm her personal caterer/gopher/assistant/slave I made the sloppy joes for her. On the plus side it gave me a chance to experiment on people I don't know and make sloppy joes from scratch which I've never done before, and now I can blog them :) Win-win.

Hold on - I need a break in the post to tell you a backstory: she was originally supposed to bring a dish-to-pass and asked if I felt like making anything, she didn't care what. I remembered a recipe that a friend gave me years ago for Green Chile Frittata and I thought that'd be a great buffet thing for her to take to work, but I questioned the recipe because it says it takes 3 pounds of cheese! 3 pounds? Hmmm, I worried that wasn't right - can anything that fits in a 13x9 cake pan take 3 pounds of cheese? So a few days ago I made a tester run of the frittata and halved the amount of cheese just to see if that was going to taste right - and it does. It is a delicious casserole and I was confident about sending it into work with her. Then she tells me that she doesn't need the frittata anymore, she needs sloppy joes instead. Now you know the rest of the story.

Back to the sloppy's...Cathy told me once that they put grape jelly in their sloppy joe sauce - yep, you read that right, grape jelly! I don't have her recipe but I googled to see if anyone else makes it like that and there are lots of recipes to pick from...I know, weird - right? I combined a few recipes to come up with this one, and fortunately this sauce turned out so good (otherwise I planned to make a store run for Manwich!). I had Dave try it and he said it tasted just like his mom used to make, I take that as a big compliment (Shirl was a great cook!) and it's now a keeper recipe. I'm never using Manwich again, these are SO much better!

Pssst: don't tell my sissy but it's really easy to make homemade sloppy joes - I might have made it sound like I slaved away all day on it but it comes together very quickly ;)

I used 6 pounds of burger so needed a lot of sauce - I made 6 cups and used almost all of it - here is what I will do next time for a smaller batch (if you want 6 pounds worth just triple these amounts!).

Joes:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• garlic salt

Put the beef and onions in a large skillet and sprinkle with garlic salt, cook over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink. Drain it really well then wipe out the pan - greasy sloppy joes are gross. 

To make them sloppy: 

• 1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3 Tablespoons grape jelly
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a big bowl and taste it - I added a few more dashes of this and that to get it how I wanted. If you like it sweeter add more jelly or brown sugar, more tangy add additional vinegar or mustard. Play with it. Once it tastes good to you, add it to the drained ground beef and cook until it gets hot (or put it in a slow cooker on low for 4 hours). 

For Jen to take to work I put it in a big ziplock baggie (I had a little worry that the bag was going to break open it was so heavy!) and then she transferred the mixture to a crock pot once she got to work. Easier than trying to carry a full crockpot in from the car! 

PS: I'll post the frittata recipe soon - the sloppy joes were a hit but they have no idea how good the frittata was that they missed out on! :)


One year ago: s'more pie
Two years ago: mashed cauliflower

Taco Pie

True story - I flew home last month for a very short visit and my sis was nice enough to invite me over for dinner since I didn't have any food in the house. Thoughtful, right? I asked if she needed anything since I have to drive by the grocery store on my way to her house... and she basically said she needed everything for dinner and had to work late so wouldn't be home in time to make it - you can see where this is going right? Inser eye roll.  I stopped and bought all the ingredients, and then made dinner at her house... so much for my one chance of having her make me dinner!! LOL ;)

I kept it simple and made Taco Pie. Usually we make this in a round dish so it's like a pie but I wasn't sure how many people were eating it so I doubled the ingredients and made it in a 13x9 dish.

You can totally adjust this to your liking - I browned 2 pounds of ground beef (if you buy leaner meat you won't have so much grease to drain off, I usually get the lowest fat one) and a chopped onion together in a frying pan until the meat was cooked thru (I don't like big chunks of ground meat so I really break it up while it's cooking).

In a bowl combine 2 cans of refried beans with a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes with chilies (or just regular diced tomatoes) and a small can of chopped jalapeños. You can add a little chili powder or taco seasoning if you want. Mix in the cooked burger and onion mixture.

Spread a little of the meat mixture in the bottom of the dish. Top with flour tortillas, it's ok to overlap them. Spread 1/3 of the meat mixture over the tortillas and sprinkle with a handful of shredded cheese. Add another layer of tortillas and repeat twice ending with cheese on the very top. Bake for 30 minutes at 350' until hot and cheese is melted. I like to serve with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream but you do whatever you like!

You're welcome sissy :)