Bean Enchiladas (Veg Friendly)

The dish that I can absolutely eat until I'm sick: enchiladas. I've loved them since I was little and last night, as a birthday week present for myself, I cooked bean enchiladas for dinner.

An easy crowd pleaser, my mom and I have often made hundreds of enchiladas for events, and it never takes longer than an hour or so.

So, here is my easy, fool-proof recipe for enchiladas:

Makes 10

Bean Enchiladas (or meat if you want)

Ingredients:

• 1 can of refried bean
• shredded colby jack cheese
• 10 flour tortillas
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 packet McCormick enchilada spices
• OPTIONAL: ground beef or ground turkey (cooked)

Directions:

1. Simmer tomato sauce mixed with spice packet until warm.
2. Fill each tortilla with a large spoon full of beans, a sprinkle of cheese and a spoonful of sauce (add the meat and anything else you might want here too); spread evenly down the center of the tortilla.
3. Roll tortillas and place them side-by-side in the pan (the closer the better)
4. Top generously with cheese and sauce.
5. Cook at 350 F for 25 minutes, or until enchiladas are hot in the center.
6. Serve immediately.
7. Enjoy!

These enchiladas are great re-heated! You can also freeze them for about a month and take them out one at a time for lunches or dinners.

Fried Goat Cheese Salad

While I was in Spain I developed an undeniable adoration for goat cheese (like eat a pound of goat cheese in one sitting, even when I'm full, kind of love). So, upon returning home to Texas it has been my goal, or rather a necessity, to incorporate goat cheese in to my life. While watching one of the new shows on OWN (I will always follow Oprah), I saw a chef cooking fried goat cheese and it looked easy. So, I decided that Valentine's Dinner was the perfect time to attempt this fancy-ish technique. My little goat cheese bubbles where hard to flip and cooked much faster than I expected, but they were absolutely wonderful!

Fried Goat Cheese Salad (serves 2)

Fried Goat Cheese

1 6 oz. package of goat cheese (or 3/4 of a 8 oz. package)

1 egg

panko bread crumbs (I used italian flavored)

flour

olive oil

Salad

Baby Spinach

Honey Balsamic Dressing

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. olive oil

1-2 tsp. honey (depending on how sweet you like)

Directions:

1. Roll goat cheese in to small 1/4 balls.

2. Make three bowls, one with flour, one with an egg (well stirred) and one with bread crumbs. With your thumb, lightly press each ball in to a disk.

3. Coat each goat cheese ball in flour, dip it in egg and coat it in bread crumbs. Repeat the final two steps, dipping the ball in egg and then bread crumbs once again.

4. Heat 1/8 inch of olive oil in pan.

5. Place each disk in oil, cook for 30 seconds to a minute, flip the disk and cook the other side 30 seconds to a minute.

6. Mix all dressing ingredients.

7. Serve warm goat cheese disks on a bed of baby spinach, topped with the honey balsamic dressing.

8. Enjoy!

Sliced and Spiced Baked Potatoes

I adore potatoes, all forms of them, baked, fried, mashed, you name it, I love it! My mom used to make these potatoes when I was little and I always loved them because they look so fancy, but believe me, they're incredibly easy, versatile, yummy and healthy.

Ingredients:

Potatoes (1 for each person you're serving)

Olive oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Your choice of herbs--rosemary, thyme and oregano are some of my favorites

Optional Parmesean cheese (whatever kind you have in your pantry)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Slice thin cuts 3/4 of the way through the potato, the thinner the slices the better the potto will cook. Be careful not to slice all the way through, you want the potato to stay together for serving.

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle each of them with olive oil. Make sure to get a little oil in between each cut (a basting brush is good for this...or fingers).

Mix together salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs to taste (truly taste the mixture with each addition so you can get it just right. You will want 1-2 tsp. of mixture per potato.

Sprinkle the mixture on each potato and in between all cuts. Sprinkle parmesean cheese on top of the potatoes if you would like (I wouldn't recommend other kinds of cheese because they will get melty in the oven rather than crispy).

Bake the potatoes in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until all potatoes are cooked through (they should be slightly soft to the touch but not mushy).

Bon Appétit!

Gorgonzola Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Today was my fifth snow day in the past week, so my roommate and I decided that it was a perfect day for some gourmet cooking. In our search to find a recipe that only included the array of ingredients that we had in the kitchen (it's way too cold to go to the store), we decided on a recipe that my roomie has made before...Gorgonzola Stuffed, Bacon Wrapped Chicken! YUM!!

Ingredients (adapted from allrecipes.com)
Feeds 2 people

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (our chicken breasts were sliced)
1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (we used dried parsley mixed with about a tablespoon of water)
2 tablespoons minced shallot (we used a white onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
4 thick slices of applewood smoked bacon
salt and ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Mash together the Gorgonzola cheese, parsley, shallot, and garlic in a small bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Using a sharp knife, cut a slit into the thick side of each chicken breast about 2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches deep. If your chicken breasts are sliced, you can simply spoon the filling in to the center and roll them up).

Divide the filling in half, and stuff each chicken breast with cheese filling. Wrap 2 slices of bacon around each breast, and secure with wooden toothpicks. Place the chicken breasts into the prepared baking dish.
Bake in the preheated oven until the bacon is browned and the chicken is no longer pink inside, about 35 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a breast should read about 165 degrees F (75 degrees C).

If you want crispier bacon, you can pan sear the bacon/chicken presents in a little olive oil for a minute or until the bacon is crispy to your liking.

Enjoy!