Easy Chicken and Chese Enchiladas

Monday nights are "New Recipe" night in our house - I have tons of recipes I've pulled out of magazines or that I've just come across so I use Monday night to try them out.  (I will also plug in new recipes other nights but that is my "Theme" for Monday and yes, each night does have a theme . . it makes menu planning easier)  Sometimes these new recipes are total bombs (we are hungrey a lot of Mondays! :-) ) but tonight was a success so I wanted to post this recipe!

Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup salsa
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 cups cooked, diced chicken
1/2 cup Monteray Jack shredded cheese
6 flour tortillas, warmed
1 small tomato, chopped
1 green onion, chopped

In a large bowl, mix the soup, sour cream, salsa, and chili powder; set aside. 
In another large bowl mix chicken, cheese, and 1 cup of the salsa mix
Divide the chicken mix between the flour tortillas; roll up and place seam side up in a 2 quart (8x8) baking dish.
Pour the remaining salsa mix on top of the tortillas; cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Sprinkle the tomato and green onion on top before serving
(Serves 6)

** I did add about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese on top of the enchiladas because we love cheese :- )
** Next time I think I will also add chopped black olives on top as well
** You could also add about 1/2 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed, to the chicken mixture

I served it with Savory Rice (I was going to do the Skillet Rice Recipe I shared in another post but forgot to thaw out my Vegetable Juice!), Corn, and Biscuits with Homemade peach jam for "dessert".

31 in 31 - Day 13

Well, today was just a "regular" day.  I had the feeling this morning that I was going to have to search for a picture for today and I was right.  So I started looking for "things" - things that made my life easier; things I liked; things I thought were "perfect".  This is what I thought of:

This is a snack cup.  I just bought it this weekend thinking that it would make snack time a little easier.  I allow Josh to have his snack and juice while he is playing in the living room.  It isn't a big problem except China, the dog, likes to eat the snack out of the bowl when no one is looking; Josh always catches her and than falls on the floor in a crying heap - heartbroken that his snack is now gone.  PLUS he LOVES to "spill" the snack on the floor and than "rescue" it from the dog.  Well, I saw these and thought it would do many things like 1) Keep the snack in the bowl and 2) keep the dog out of the snack.  Well - nothings perfect!  First, Josh doesn't like sticking his hand through those rubber things so when he wants more snack he brings it to me and waits for me to push those things open so he can put his hand in . . snack time is supposed to be mommy free LOL.  Second, I watched China take the snack dish, hold it down with one paw, use the other to push the rubber things out of the way and use her tongue to get the snack out.  So apparently, it is dog friendly and not meant for kids!! 

31 in 31 - Day 12

The funny thing about a "photo of the day" is that sometimes, you plan one picture and a totally different one just pops up :-)  I had taken a picture at the Alive concert today as my photo of the day since that is what we did today BUT than we stopped at Culver's on the way home for lunch and this picture literally had us falling off our seats laughing not to mention that this is only the 1st in a stream of pictures we took and the faces just got more funny.  I decided to post the first picture we took because that is what made us laugh to begin with - so enjoy and hopefully, if you've had a rough day, this will make you laugh!

Josh, after enjoying some Really Reese's Chocolate Custard from Culver's.

31 in 31 - Day 11

Today we had a family day and went to Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids.  Darryl and I have not been there together since the first year we were married when we went to see the Christmas Trees right after Thanksgiving.  We were shocked by how fantastic it was and can't wait to go back.  Currently there is a special exhibit by Chihuly.  So here's my picture of the day - a breathtaking glass sculpture.  When I saw it from afar, I actually thought it was a real plant. 

We also had a blast in the Children's garden - Josh could have seriously played all day in that area.  If you haven't been in awhile - you should really check out the Gardens especially while the Glass exhibit is there!

31 in 31 - Day 10

Today was grocery shopping day and I had a goal - to only spend $74.50.  Why that number?  Because my budget is $75.00 for everything - Toiletries, cleaning supplies, animal food/supplies, baby item etc.  Normally I am anywhere from $5.00-$30.00 over and I get very frustrated with myself!  So I took my coupons, bottles to return, and calculator and headed to the store.  In the end, I had to put a few items back by eliminating one "fun" item I had thrown into the mix for the week but otherwise, I got what was on my list.  This is where it landed:

In case you can't read it - it says $74.98 - I was $0.48 over . . had I double checked my "cheese" drawer before leaving home, I would have seen that I had one box of cream cheese so I wouldn't have had to buy 2 and I would have ended up being about $1.30 under!!  Oh well :-)  So very close!!

Rigatoni Bolognese

This is a new recipe I tried out on Monday and despite the fact that I had to substitute a few things it turned out well.  I did forget to take a picture at this point though!

Regatoni Bolognese
Serves 6

1 box (1 lb) rigatoni pasta
2 medium carrots, halved
1 medium onion, quartered
1 pkg (8 or 10 oz) whole mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp olive oil
3 links Italian Turkey sausage, casing removed
1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
1/2  chicken stock
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes in thick puree

Cook pasta as box directs.  Meanwhile, put carrots, onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a food processor; pulse until finely chopped.  Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Saute chopped vegetables 6 minutes.  Add turkey sausage and cook, breaking up clumps, 4 minutes or until no longer pink.  Stir in rosemary, salt, pepper and stock; boil 1 minute.  Stir in crushed tomatoes, reduce heat and simmer, covered, 5 minutes.  Spoon over drained pasta

My substitutions (sounds better than errors!):  I often read a recipe and don't comprehend it LOL  When I read "links Italian turkey sausage" I thought it meant breakfast sausage??  But realized as I was cooking up my maple flavored sausage links that they are not the same.  Oops!!  I don't care for mushrooms so planned to substitute yellow squash to use up some my Mother-in-law gave me but they were both bad . . .so my sauce had a little less veggies.  Finally, again, not comprehending, I bought pureed tomatoes not crushed tomatoes so I was missing the chunky tomatoes in mine.  Despite ALL of that - my husband and I both loved the recipe.  It's easy and pretty inexpensive as well!

40 goals by 40 - Update

Since it has been a few weeks since I posted my 40x40 list, I figured it was time for a little update.  There are a few that I'm working on currently.
1) Canning - I have canned Jam - Peach Jam to be specific; and some of it even turned out
2) Scrapbooking - I am working towards the goal of being current; in all honesty, my goal in January was to be current by year end.  I've made a lot of progress so we'll see!!
3) Owning a German Shepherd - We contacted a breeder back in May hoping to get one this month but were unable to save up the money yet; so we continue to be on each litter's wait list as I continue to save my change :-)
4) Finish my quilt - I just need to finish a small area of binding and I had hoped to get it done by month end but the project I'm forcing myself to finish before I start that - my library update - is taking slightly longer than planed.  I still have a week and half though! 

Instead of posting the full list on the sidebar; I"m going to post the updates - meaning I'll put the # and name and update it or mark it completed; hopefully you'll see that list grow!