Adventures in Cooking

Last night I tried a recipe for Beef Enchiladas! AllRecipes.com has got to be my favorite site for investigating new and possibly good recipes simply because they are rated and typically contain user commments. Instead of beef, I used a pound of ground turkey. I have found that turkey is less greasy and tastes about the same as beef when used in mexican dishes. I may have over done it on the cheddar cheese, but overall it was very good. Brian commented several times that he enjoyed it, and then finished my plate. (...Which was probably one of the most encouraging gestures I could have observed!)

I started cooking at 7pm when we got home from church. With about 17 minutes left on the bake time, I started boiling water for my mexican rice. Once that was ready, I moved on to heating my refried beans in the microwave. Everything was finished at the SAME TIME! I wasn't thrilled with the prepackaged mexican rice, but the enchiladas and beans were a great combo. It would have been great with sour cream to calm down the spicy enchilada sauce, but I forgot to buy more at the store.
Storage for left-overs was a breeze. We just piled all the rice and beans into the 8x11 baking dish and covered.

After dinner, we prepared tonight's meal - Crock Pot Pot Roast. It took Brian and I about 15 minutes to put everything together into our liner bag for storage in the fridge until this morning. I used 3.8lbs of chuck roast and covered in olive oil and steak seasoning before browning. Brian peeled and cubed the potatoes and chopped up a quarter onion for the mix. We tossed in about half a bag of baby carrots and a stalk of celery. It was ready within 7.5 hours in the crock pot on low. We didn't fix any sides to go with it because the carrots and potatoes were enough! It was very good as well. I think it could have had a few more spices, but I don't know much about those and which ones would go well with what. I'll need to pick up a book or find a good website for layman's spice usuage.

On a side note, I was craving something quick and sweet after such a savory dish, so I whipped up some "cook & serve" banana cream Jello pudding. (Our friend, Wesley, loves the "cook & serve" so I had purchased it awhile back hoping one day I could figure it out.) Super Simple folks! Mix milk and pudding. Stir until boiling. Pour into bowls. I added some cut up bananas just because. It would look great with fruit that is not yellow, but I was fresh out of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.