Enchiladas!!!

Every week my family always has an enchilada night, and it's usually our favorite meal of the week.  Now when I say enchiladas, you probably think of the unhealthy guilt food that's loaded with chicken and cheese, but our enchiladas are much better.  My mom helped me make them because I have a hand injury that must be rested, but I still took pictures!

Our enchilada filling has . . .

• 2 cans black beans
• 1 can olives
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 large sweet potatoes
• 1 can Trader Joe's Green Chiles
• 1 package Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix
• 2 bags tortillas (ideally handmade from Trader Joe's)
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 jar salsa (I used Rojo's Tomatillo Avocado Salsa)
• 1 bag cheese (I used Trader Joe's Fancy Shredded Lite Mexican Blend)
• Olive oil (for coating pan)
• 1 can of Kirkland Tomato Sauce
• 1 cup sour cream

. . . so they are very healthy and delicious!

Roughly chop 3 large sweet potatoes.  Be careful with the knife!  A good technique to avoid getting cut is to hold all of your fingers up and away from the knife, using your palm to press down.

Put the sweet potatoes in a glass bowl and microwave them for 10 minutes.  I know it seems like a long time, but you need them to be soft!

Cut one onion into quarters.

Put it and five cloves of garlic into a Cuisinart Food Processor.  Nothing's good without garlic!

Pulse the onion and garlic until they are finely chopped, but not smooth.

Put them into a pan with preheated olive oil.

Pulse 2 red bell peppers in a Cuisinart Food Processor until they are finely chopped, but again, not smooth!

Add them to the pan with the onions and garlic and turn the heat to high.

Open 2 cans of plain black beans, 1 can of olives, 1 can of Trader Joe's green chiles, and put them in a colander to drain.  Don't rinse them!

Once the canned ingredients are drained, add them to a Cuisinart Food Processor.

Pulse them until they form a paste.  The reason for all the pulsing is so that the filling forms a kind of paste, then it doesn't fall out of the enchiladas.

By now the sweet potatoes should be soft, but if they stay on the fork like this, put them in for another 2 to 5 minutes.

Maybe it's just me, but I love this Rojo's Tomatillo Avocado Salsa.  I put it on practically all of my mexican food!  But if you don't have it, you can use any other kind of mexican salsa.

Add about ¼ cup of salsa to the bell pepper/onion mixture and mix.

Add all of the bean paste to the pan and stir thoroughly until it's all mixed in.  This takes a while, the paste is kind of thick!

Now normally I would NEVER use prepackaged seasoning, but we recently found this wonderful Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix that has just the right amount of everything, so I'm making an acceptation!

Add half of the package to the taco filling and stir thoroughly.

There is some cheese in this recipe, so I use Trader Joe's Fancy Shredded Lite Mexican Blend.  Add ¼ cup of the blend to the filling.

Put half of the sweet potatoes into the Cuisinart Food Processor and pulse until a paste forms.  Repeat this process with the other half of the sweet potatoes.  If you do all of them at once, they won't mix properly, so don't go thinking you an save time!

Add all of the sweet potatoes to the filling, stir thoroughly, and turn of the heat.

Now it's time to make the sauce!  This is what makes the enchiladas so good!  Put 1 can of Kirkland Tomato Sauce, ¾ cup salsa, ½ sour cream, and the rest of the taco seasoning mix into a 4 cup measure.

Mix well until all of the ingredients come together to form a beautiful, tasty sauce!

Now for assembling the enchiladas!  But first, I think we need to have a talk about tortillas.  Many people think that all tortillas are the same, when in fact, some are much better than others!  That's why I buy Trader Joe's Handmade Tortillas instead of the ones from the grocery store that are filled with preservatives and corn syrup.  Well I'm glad we've had this talk, now lets get back to cooking!

Scoop a generous amount of filling onto the middle of a tortilla,

Roll it up,

And put it in a 13"x17" glass dish.  Repeat this process until all of the filling is gone, which should be about 2 pans of enchiladas.

Once all of your enchiladas are assembled and lined up in their pans, coat them in the sauce,

Sprinkle them with the Trader Joe's Fancy Shredded Lite Mexican Blend cheese, and put them in an oven preheated to broil.  Once the cheese on the enchiladas is melted, take them out of the oven.  Let them cool for 5 minutes before eating, them dig in!

I promise you everyone will love these healthy enchiladas just as much as (if not more than) regular ones.  I certainly do!

Apple Turnover Time!

Last Christmas my aunt gave us a Bouchon Bakery cookbook, which has wonderful pictures of all the recipes.  Yesterday I was just flipping through it, looking at all of the pictures, when I saw the recipe for apple turnovers!  Now I have always been a big fan of anything made with apples; apple pie, apple ice cream, apple sauce, apple turnovers, you name it!  I have had apple turnovers many times before, but never home made, so since everything is always better if you make it at home, I decided to make apple turnovers!

I wanted to make them right away, so I bought my puff pastry at Ralph's, but if you have the time, make yours at home!

The first thing you will need is apples, eight apples to be precise.  I'm used Granny Smith apples because they are very tart and crispy, so the sugar doesn't make them too sweet, but you can use any other type of apple.

If you have an apple peeler, use it, it makes peeling and coring the apples so much easier!  But if you don't have one you can always do it by hand.

Cut the peeled and cored apples into quarters and put them into a bowl with water and lemon juice so they don't get brown.

While the apples are soaking, add 1/2 cup sugar to a large pot with a lid,

Along with 1 tablespoon warm water,

And stir them together until the sugar is completely moistened.

Turn on the pot and let the sugar mixture melt.

Drain the apples and add them to the pot with some lemon juice.

Put on the lid and let the apples cook down.

After about 5 minutes, once the apples have cooked down a bit, it's time to add the spices!

I'm using mace, ground cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of mace,

1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves,

1 teaspoon of nutmeg,

1/2 teaspoon of allspice,

And 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Once you've mixed in all of the spices and your apple mixture is a dark golden brown, put the lid back on and let it cook down for about 5 for minutes, then turn off the stove, take off the lid, and let it cool.

While your apples are cooling, it's time to tackle the puff pastry!  (Don't forget to preheat your oven to 350 F)

Unwrap the box, take one of the sheets out, and put it on a well floured surface.  You don't want anything sticking!

Cut your sheet into 4 identical squares.

Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put a scoop of the cooled apple filling in the middle.

Brush the edges with egg wash (1 egg yolk & 1/4 milk.)  This helps the pastry seal at the edges.

Fold over the pastry, making sure it is completely sealed at the edges.  You don't want any of your filling coming out!

Repeat this process with the second sheet of puff pastry.  Once all of your turnovers are assembled, put them in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until they are very crispy have doubled in size.

When the turnovers are cooked, take them out of the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack.  Let them cool for 10-20 minutes.

I'm so glad I decided to make apple turnovers, they're just so good!  They probably would've been even better if I had taken the time to make my own puff pastry, but that takes several hours, and who wants to wait that long?  I hope you enjoy your apple turnovers!