Amazing Enchiladas!

I’ve been thinking about last night’s dinner for about a week now. I’ve never really been into enchiladas. At mexican restaurants, I usually order fish tacos or something cheesy and fried. For some reason (mexican cheese, cream cheese, quesadilla cheese…), this enchilada recipe has been stuck in my mind. It seemed relatively easy and had a hint of health to it (greek yogurt!). It also suggested a delicious looking side dish to go along with it.

So, we had ourselves a wonderful mexican feast last night. I loved this recipe. I thought it was really tasty and will definitely make it again. Here are the ingredients for the enchiladas:

Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas:

• 1 pound of chicken, shredded. I poached about 5 chicken breasts and then shredded them with forks. You could use pre-cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken too.
• 1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
• 4 oz. cream cheese- you could use regular or light
• 1/2 cup shredded mexican cheese
• dash of salt and pepper
• cilantro-chopped. You can use as much or as little as you’d like. I love cilantro so I pile it on!
• queso melt cheese- I found this near the shredded cheese. It’s basically used for quesadillas or any other food you need nice, melted cheese.
• 5 tortillas- I used wheat
• 1 can of enchilada sauce- I used a can of mild sauce…I thought it was pretty good!

First up- poaching the chicken breasts. I’ve never poached chicken before (or anything for that matter) so this was new to me. I found some pretty easy directions online. I just placed the chicken breasts (about 5, they were pretty small) in the bottom of a sauce pan. I made sure they were all lined up on the bottom of the pan and not on top of one another.

Next, I poured chicken broth over the chicken until there was about an inch of broth covering them. Then, I brought the broth to a boil. Right when it started boiling, I turned the heat down, covered the pot just slightly, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

After the ten minutes were up, I took the chicken off the heat and let it sit in the hot broth for another 20 minutes. Then it was done!!

Next up-shreddin’ that chicken! I just used two forks and tore the pieces of chicken apart until they looked like…well, shredded chicken. Not too difficult!

Now it was time to make the filling…mm cream cheese…how could it not be amazing with cream cheese?!

I mixed the greek yogurt and cream cheese (which I warmed in the microwave for about 20 seconds) in a bowl.

Then, I added the shredded mexican cheese.

Then some cilantro…

Finally, the chicken!

So, the filling was done! Next, I grated some of the queso and poured a little enchilada sauce in the baking dish. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Finally, it was time to fill the enchiladas! I filled 5 of them and laid them into the pan so the “crease” (or whatever you call it) is facing down.

I poured the rest of the enchilada sauce onto the enchiladas and sprinkled them with queso.

I covered the enchiladas with foil and baked them at 375 for 15 minutes. I baked them for another 15 minutes without the foil. They smelled so amazing!! Literally, my mouth is watering looking at the pictures….

While those little wraps of heaven baked, I made the side dish:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

• half a container of cherry tomatoes-sliced in half. I would have used more but Cliff’s not a huge fan of the tomatoes.
• half cup of corn
• half an avocado-diced
• about 1/3 red onion-diced
• chunk of cilantro-diced
• lime juice to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

This was pretty simple. I just mixed all the ingredients together!! The lime juice and salt and pepper I added slowly and just kept tasting it until it had the perfect amount of limeyness.

This is a great side salad or salsa-so refreshing! It would be great too with mango! Maybe next time I’ll add some. I cooked some black beans along with this salad and the enchiladas. It was an awesome dinner!

Those enchiladas looked drool worthy when I took them out of the oven. Probably could have used a little more queso on top…

Dinner is served!

I loved everything about this dinner: the filling, the cheese, the sauce, the side salad-everything! I will definitely make it again. It was really easy and I’d like to think not terribly unhealthy…? Even if it was, it was worth it!

Marathon Training- Week 3

This week is my third week training for the marathon. Today was a low mileage run of 3 miles. For some reason those lower mileage runs annoy me more than the long runs. I think because I expect them to be done so soon that I continuously check the clock and drive myself nuts!

Anyway, here were my stats from today:

• Distance: 3.01 miles
• Time: 25:08 minutes/sec.
• Pace: 8:18 min/sec.
• Calories: 261

Not too shabby. I also did the plank 3 times for 45 seconds each.

Along with marathon training, I’m focusing on finding a new job. Between the two of them there won’t be much time for anything else! Hopefully, I can find a new job soon. Wish me luck! Oh, and try those enchiladas!