This recipe is one of my favorite go-to recipes. I pronounce it "enchiladas fantistique!" in my head for some reason. Who knows why. Regardless of how you pronounce them, they really are fantastic. They're easy to make and can be frozen and then cooked individually (which is why they're a good go-to). I haven't made them recently and then happened upon the recipe again last week and remembered how much I like having them on hand.
Perfect example of why: last night the hubs was teaching yoga (singer-songwriter, carpenter, yoga instructor...I mean is he a renaissance man or what???), and I knew he'd be hungry when he got home at 8:00. Dinner was a quandary, though, because I was leaving at 7:45 to meet my sisters to play "use it or lose it" in one of their closets with my friend over at www.doweloveit.com. (She has a business on the side and for a mere $25/hour she'll go through your closet with you, help you decide what to keep and what not to keep and put together outfits for you. She did it for me a few weeks ago and in one hour came up with about 12 v. cute outfits I would never have put together. At $25/hour that's much cheaper than buying 12 new outfits. Y'all should check her out!)
But back to the hubs' dinner quandary last night. Turns out it wasn't a quandary after all. Since I had these delicious go-to enchiladas in the freezer, I just pulled a couple out, popped them in the oven when I left, and he was there to get them out 20 minutes later. Voila! A hot meal waiting on him and I wasn't even home. Crisis averted!
Then today at about noon I got this text message from him:
Given that I was asking him something totally unrelated to his dinner last night (or apparently his lunch today) I guess he'd agree that I need to start making them regularly again. If you don't believe the hubs, ask my friend from Texas. I took a batch to her family when they moved houses (we all know moving is the w.o.r.s.t.). The hubs said taking a TX family enchiladas wasn't a great idea since they were, no doubt, Mexican food snobs. And who can blame them, right? I guess he was wrong because she emailed me and asked me for the recipe. She especially loved that they have spinach in them. "Sneaky veggies are the best," she said, when feeding children.
Bottom line: try these enchiladas. I think you'll end up keeping them in your freezer, too. Easy and good = win win.
Ingredients
1 pound grass fed ground beef
2 cups fresh salsa, divided
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 8-ounce package organic cream cheese
12 whole wheat tortillas (7-inch)
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional toppings: shredded lettuce, black olives, diced avocado, sour cream
Directions
In a large skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink, breaking into small pieces with a spoon. Drain and return to skillet. Add 1 cup of the salsa, the spinach, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cumin, and salt. Cook and stir 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
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| See? Sneaky veggies! |
Add cream cheese, stirring just until melted.
Spoon about 1/3 cup of the filling down the center of each tortilla.
Roll up and place seam-side down in a lightly greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish. (*At this point, I usually freeze them and disregard the rest of the recipe. Because I typically cook one or two at a time, I don't fool with the tomatoes but just top them with salsa after they are cooked. The only real difference is that the tortillas are crunchy instead of soft. See note below about how best to freeze. If you choose not to freeze them, follow the rest of the recipe).
Combine tomatoes and remaining 1 cup of salsa and 1/2 teaspoon cumin. Spoon over enchiladas. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until hot. Sprinkle with cheddar. Return to oven for 2 more minutes. Top as desired.
*To freeze: line enchiladas up on a cookie sheet (making sure they don't touch each other) and place in the freezer.
After they're frozen put them in a zip lock bag. They can then be pulled out individually or all together for cooking. To cook frozen enchiladas, put them directly into the oven from the freezer. The cooking time is basically the same, maybe 5 minutes more for the frozen ones.
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