Busy Mama in the Kitchen & AWESOME healthy enchiladas recipe

I am not a chef.  I never really had a passion for cooking or a love for the culinary arts.  My experience in the kitchen has been purely necessity based. 

I started cooking for my family about a year and half ago....I know I know why didn't I do it sooner?  By then, my oldest already had 6 years of McDonalds twice a week (at least) and junk food.  I'm pretty sure one of her first words was "McDonalds".  I'm not proud of this.  In fact, it makes me sad that I didn't try harder when she was little or when my son was little.

I made the excuse that I was a working mother, I didn't have time to prepare meals for my kids!  I could just as easily now make that excuse.  I am just as busy as ever!  The truth is, if I had really planned and committed to do it, I could have made it happen. I just didn't want to. 

I had no idea how to cook, I needed recipes.  But there are so many recipes out there!  I was completely overwhelmed.  I decided to try eMeals, a meal planning program that creates my weekly shopping list for me, along with recipes for 7 dinners with side dishes.  Another bonus is that it is endorsed by Dave Ramsey, for keeping families on a grocery budget.  I started out on their low fat family wal-mart plan.  The weekly grocery list was between $80-$90 (plus cost of any needed staples and breakfast/lunch foods).

This worked GREAT for me.  For about 8-10 months, I did this program exclusively.  Since I basically never cooked before this program, I learned A LOT.  I figured out what kind of spices go with what.  I learned which kitchen utensils and appliances I needed.  I experimented with cooking all types of meats and how to cook them to enhance the flavor. 

When I started doing more research about nutrition and clean/organic eating, I started wandering away from eMeals because it had a lot of processed foods.  For the past couple months, I've been getting my recipes online and creating my own grocery lists.  This has actually worked pretty good but is a little time consuming.  So, this week I went on eMeals.com to see if they had any new plans and they do!  Now they have a "natural/organic" option, which has less processed foods and more fresh foods. Here is the list of 7 dinners and side dishes I took with me to Walmart today:

My total for food at Walmart was $89 and another $12 at Target for organic beef and broccolini.  So, a little over $100 for all these meals (and there's always tons left over for lunch the next day). 

Not interested in trying something like eMeals and want to venture out on your own?  Well, it's pretty easy to put together meals yourself.  Get recipes online (ex: Gracious Pantry or SkinnyTaste) for main dishes you would like to try.  Then, plan your meal around that main dish.  Add a complex carb (such as brown rice, whole wheat pasta, fruit, whole wheat bread, etc), a veggie dish and BAM!  You're good to go! I use a website called Pepperplate (and the corresponding app for my iPhone) where I can input recipes and I can create grocery lists easily.  This would be very helpful if you decide to do your own meal planning. 

Now on to dinner....
I found a recipe on Amy's Organic for clean enchiladas.  I love me some Mexican food!  So, with the enchiladas, I decided to serve it with some brown rice, black beans, and salsa.  This is probably one of the easiest dinners I've ever made, so I really recommend this for a busy day.   Here are some pics and the recipe! 

Amy's Clean Enchiladas (adapted from Amy's Organic)

 

Ingredients:

•  4 whole wheat tortillas

• 4 ounces cheddar or Jack Cheese, grated (I used organic cheddar)

• 3 tablespoons additional Cheddar or Jack cheese, grated

• 2 Amy’s Burgers (your choice); I used Morningstar's Veggie Crumbles

• 1 Can Amy’s Tomato Soup

• 3 Tablespoons Salsa

• 1 onion, sliced and sautéed in 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Directions: Preheat over 350 degrees
1. To make enchilada filling: Defrost burgers/veggie crumbles and crumble if using burgers. Combine onions with crumbled patties and 4 ounces grated cheese into a bowl and set aside.

2. Coat casserole dish (I used 11"x8") with cooking spray.
3. Take one tortilla and place some of the filling on one half of the tortilla.

Roll the empty side of the tortilla into the filled side to make a enchilada roll. Place in one end of the casserole dish.
4. Fill remaining tortillas in the same way and place in casserole dish.  I made 6 total enchiladas

5. Combine Soup and salsa and pour over filled tortillas.

 Top with remaining cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbling.

Did I mention this was SO EASY??  I had about 15 minutes before I had to pick up my 4 y.o.from school so I decided to get the casserole dish ready so that I could just pop it in the oven later.  I had this prepared in less than 15 minutes. So, when the kiddos got home from school, we could enjoy some quality time together being active!  We walked down to the park and played in the beautiful 60 degree weather!

 When we got back home, I put a can of black beans (low sodium) on the stove with a tsp of cumin.

 And I served the enchiladas with the black beans and some "Mexican" rice.  My idea of "Mexican" rice?  Brown rice mixed with salsa.  Yummmmm!  Oh yes, and the kiddos and my husband LOVED it. 

I hope this helps those of you that are culinary-challenged, like me.  You can still plan and cook healthy dinners for your family.  Thanks again for reading!