Chicken Enchiladas, Anyone? Olé!

Scott and I both love Mexican food, but to novice chefs, there is only so much that we know how to make. We've done tacos, we've done fajitas, and we've done burritos. So, when we wanted to cook Mexican two weeks ago, we hit a brick wall. This time around, I did not go to Pinterest. I had an epic eureka moment of my own, and suggested chicken enchiladas. Since, I've never made enchiladas, I decided to look at some of the recipes on the Food Network, but I never actually replicated one. I took some of the ideas and ran with a thought of my own. I am pleased to say that this recipe is Food Network inspired, but Christine Nanio crafted. 

There are only a few ingredients to this recipe, so it'll be easy on your wallet.

• 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 1 pkg mushrooms
• 1/2 of a green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 of a red onion, chopped
• 4 tortilla rounds
• 1 pkg Mexican blend cheese (or whatever you may have in your house)
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• 1/2 jar of mild salsa
• sour cream (for topping) 

Start off by shredding the entire rotisserie chicken into a bowl. It'll be tedious and messy, but totally worth it. Combine the chicken, the onion, the pepper, the mushrooms, and the salsa in a large saucepan on medium high heat. Cook down the mixture for a few minutes so all the vegetables have a chance to soften. Season with salt, pepper and I also use Italian seasoning. That stuff is my go-to seasoning for everything! I love Mrs. Dash! 

Once the mixture has reduced a bit, you can fill each tortilla shell with a little bit of the mixture, a dollop of sour cream, some cheese, some hot sauce if you're adventurous, and roll it all up nice and tight. Place the enchiladas in a baking dish and cover with the enchilada sauce and the rest of the cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes. 

Here is our final product! 

It looks a little sloppy, and the refried beans look a tad bit scary, but I promise you, this is definitely a recipe worth trying! I wouldn't write about anything that wasn't delicious. And next time, someone please remind me to take pictures during my cooking process. I suck at that. 

What's your favorite Mexican dish? 

Date Night Dinner for Two: Chicken Cordon Bleu

The days I'm not on Pinterest surfing through dinner recipes, I look to the Food Network for inspiration. Since my Typical Thursday journey, I have adopted a few fancy, yet inexpensive go-to dinner recipes, and Chicken Cordon Bleu is definitely one of them. Tyler Florence of the Food Network, hits it out of the park with his version.

Minus the thyme leaves, Scott and I stick to this recipe step by step. It's absolutely fool proof and absolutely delicious. All you need is:

• 4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
• 4 slices of thin prosciutto
• 1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, grated (you can use any type of Swiss cheese)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs 
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a mallet, a rolling pin, the back side of a pan, anything you have handy in the kitchen that can pound the chicken down to a 1/4 inch thickness. Scott has a surfboard shaped, wooden carving board that I use to pound out the chicken. If you're having a bad day, I suggest you be in charge of this step...It's a great stress reliever! 

Remove the plastic wrap from the chicken. Place a piece of the prosciutto down on each chicken breast. Then, sprinkle with some of the Gruyere cheese. Roll up the chickens like a jelly roll. Be sure to not over stuff the chicken so all the contents stay in side, and be sure to roll everything up tight so it stays intact. 

Season the flour with salt, pepper, garlic, melted butter, and thyme (if you choose to use it). Lightly coat the chicken in flour, dip into the egg wash, then into the panko bread crumbs. Be gentle with the chickens during this step so they don't unravel. 

Place the chicken roulades into a greased baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes. When the chicken is done, it will come out crispy, and bubbly, and delicious. If you're trying to impress a mate with a fancy date night dinner, pull out this recipe! I guarantee that it will score you brownie points! Do you have a go-to date night recipe that you would like to share?

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

After two months of not writing, I think it's time to update. My break was unintentional, but I have had a lot on my plate lately. At long last, I will finally bring everyone up to speed with my culinary adventures. 

If you like it spicy and you actually like carbs, then this Buffalo Chicken Pasta is the recipe for you! If I do remember correctly, Scott and I prepared this meal before we went away for the weekend of my 23rd birthday back in April. It was a Thursday night, obviously, and we needed something fast, simple and delicious. So, I decided to boldly go to Pinterest, where I found the recipe.

The Blog where I found the recipe is super cute and super easy to follow. As usual, Scott and I varied from the original, but our version still turned out pretty good! Here is what we used:

• Marie's Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing (1 jar)
• Hot Sauce (whatever was on sale that day at Publix, about 1/2 to 3/4 of the jar)
• 1 diced red onion
• Diced chicken breast (about 2 depending on their size)
• pasta (we used spirals)
• 1 pkg diced mushrooms

Now, just add everything in a large mixing bowl and stir it all up! Alli's Blog instructs you to add salt and pepper to taste, and to chill the mixture. I discovered that it is delicious both hot and cold! Here is how ours turned out!

Instead of using celery, Scott and I substituted shrooms. I'm not too big on celery...and instead of rotisserie chicken, we used chicken breasts, which are a lot less messy. This recipe was super fast to make, and there was so much of it that Scott had left overs for days! 

I love pasta and I love different sauces, so this was a homerun for me! What do you like to drown your pasta in?