Ole! Chicken Enchiladas!

I received this cook book and my oh my the joys I am having with it.

I came across the chicken enchilada recipe and had to test it out- my style. I mean, what a better substitute for our normal taco night! I thought to myself, how do you make healthier recipes healthier? Well, I decided I didn't need to. I just changed some spices around, added some extra tomatoes, maybe a little less chili powder and a bit more cayenne. But whatever I did, I'm doing this again. If Mr. Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen says, "this is the best new dish you've made all year," I'm sure as heck making it again.

This dish is spicy. It's cheesy. It tastes like it belongs at a Mexican restaurant. And it's under 360 calories per serving. Unless you eat the whole tray. Like my husband tried to.

Ole!

• 1 medium yellow onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup whole tomatoes (peeled, in a can, about 5 of them)
• 1 cup water
• 16 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 2 large chicken breasts will suffice)
• 10 white corn tortillas (about 6")
• 5 ounces picked jalapeños, chopped
• 1.5 cups of 2% shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions--Preheat oven to 400

Saute chopped onion in vegetable oil.
Cover, reduce heat, cook for 8-10 min.
Add spices (cumin, cayenne, salt, sugar) and minced garlic. stir for 30 seconds to a minute (you'll smell this).

Add in tomato sauce/tomatoes/water; mash up the tomatoes so they loosen up. Let the sauce thicken for about 5-10 min.

Add chicken. Cook for about 15 minutes.
Take chicken out of sauce, when cool, shred chicken into small, tiny, pieces.

Then, drain sauce in a colander, you'll have a lot of "pulp" left over. Place chicken back in pot, and add about 1/2 cup of pulp and 1/4 cup of the sauce. Let simmer for another couple minutes.

Next, add chopped jalapenos and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and a 1/3 cup of enchiladas sauce to chicken mix. Warm tortillas in plastic wrap in microwave for 45-60 seconds until they are pliable.

Place about 1/4-1/2 cup on filling in each tortilla. Place seam side down into a 13x9 baking pan.
Next, layer the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas and then sprinkle 1 cup of cheese on top.

Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes. Spray some tin foil with cooking spray and lay that on top of the pan. Should look like this-- enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 2 enchiladas

Amount per Serving

Calories 358

Calories from Fat 98.0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 10.89g

16%

Saturated Fat 4.07g

20%

Cholesterol 70mg

23%

Sodium 1016.72mg

42%

Total Carbohydrate 31.72g

10%

Dietary Fiber 3.98g

15%

Sugars 4g

Protein 30.08g

60%

Burgers en Latke (sans photo)- Passover Friendly

Ok, this recipe deems no fooling around.

It comes from Mr. Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen and it's good. It's real good.

How do you serve it (yes, I realize a photo speaks a thousand words, so I'll keep this succinct):

• Place latke on plate.
• Place burger over latke.
• Serve with salad.

Tada!

So let's get right to it.

For the burgers (makes 4 burgers):

20 ounces 93% lean ground beef

1 egg white

1-2 cloves crushed/minced garlic

About a tbsp of lower sodium Montreal steak seasoning

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, make 4 patties.

Grill 4-5 minutes each side, depending how rare or well done you like them!

Remember, if it's Passover, our kitchen stays kosher, so no meat and cheese in this recipe!!

Serving Size: 1 burger

Amount per Serving

Calories 217

Calories from Fat 90.0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 10g

15%

Saturated Fat 3.75g

18%

Cholesterol 81.25mg

27%

Sodium 248.75mg

10%

Total Carbohydrate 0g

0%

Dietary Fiber 0g

0%

Sugars 0g

Protein 29.75g

59%

For the Latkes (Makes 4 servings; 2 Latkes each)

4 large russet potatoes

2 eggs

1 tsp Kosher Salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 yellow onion

3 tbsp matzo meal (unsalted)

Shred or grate the potatoes as well as the onions in a food processor. Add in the eggs. Then the seasoning. Now the matzo meal. Take mixture and place into a colander and let drain; or you just place the mixture inside a bowl lined with a paper towel. The bottom line? Drain the excess "juice" from the mixture.

Next, using less than 1 tbsp of oil (heck, try using cooking spray, let me know how it works for you), heat oil in pan. Make patties from mixture. Place patties in pan and cook about 3-4 minutes each side, until golden brown. Num Num Num.

Serving Size: 2 latke

Amount per Serving

Calories 172

Calories from Fat 20.3

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 2.25g

3%

Saturated Fat 0.75g

3%

Cholesterol 107.5mg

35%

Sodium 629mg

26%

Total Carbohydrate 34.56g

11%

Dietary Fiber 2.94g

11%

Sugars 2.94g

Protein 7.06g

14%

Passover Breakfast!

Matzo Brei (fried matzo) is one of those dishes that you grow up eating if you celebrate Passover. My great grandmother made it, my grandparents made it, my parents made it...my friends parents made it...Now, I make it. To me, it's a variation of a common favorite breakfast food, French toast. And in some ways, it's like scrambled eggs, too!

It's a quick and easy way to eat something...but does it taste like anything? Well, the way I make it, it does taste like something and you can have two ways. So the only question I have for you is, savory or sweet?

Base Fried Matzo recipe (Make sure you buy Kosher for Passover ingredients!)

1/3 cup of water

1 egg white

2 eggs

4 sheets of matzo

1 tablespoon butter

Break matzo up into pieces.

Boil water.

Pour water of matzo pieces in a bowl. Drain matzo with a strainer immediately (who wants soggy matzo, ick ick ick).

Heat butter in a fry pan.

Beat eggs and special ingredients (*see special ingredients section!)

Pour mix onto matzo.

Pour matzo into bubbling hot fry pan (medium heat would be fab), You want to cook this until golden brown. I like mine broken up style, some people like it frittata style (as in not broken up at all).

Now some special ingredients!

Savory:

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Pinch of paprika, a pinch of cumin

1-2 tbsp chopped tomatoes

1-2 tbsp chopped yellow onion

OR

Handful of chopped smoked salmon

Sweet:

1 tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon, and a handful of raisins

OR

1 tbsp any flavored preserves

Here are the facts for the base recipe:

Nutrition Facts

Recipe Serves 2 people

Amount per Serving

• Calories 325Calories from Fat 48

% Daily Value *

• Total Fat 5.36g8%
• Saturated Fat 1.73g9%
• Monounsaturated Fat 1.99g
• Polyunsaturated Fat 0.71g
• Trans Fat 0.05g
• Cholesterol 212.97mg71%
• Sodium 97.56mg4%
• Potassium 24.19mg1%
• Total Carbohydrate 0.4g0%
• Dietary Fiber 0g0%
• Protein 7.8g16%

You could serve matzo brei with a poached egg (check it out here- great directions!)

Enjoy!

Chocolate "French" Almond Macaroons

These macaroons are delightful and sweet.

I knew I was making them right when I took them out of the oven. They plumped up just the right amount and had those little wrinkles in them to let the baker know, "Hey, take me out or I'll burn and taste nasty." Seriously.

When I made them I did also make a non Passover friendly version, because, well, it's not Passover quite yet.

Passover friendly version:

You'll need the following ingredients-

1, 7 ounce tube of almond paste

1 cup, plus 1.5 tbsp granulated sugar

2 large egg whites, room temperature

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375

In a stand mixer (this is VERY handy. Should you decide to do this by hand, know that you will not need to work your arm muscles at the gym anytime soon), mix the almond paste and sugar until combined. I broke the pieces of almond paste up prior to mixing to help speed up the process. This will take about 5-7 minutes.

Next, mix in the cocoa powder until combined.

Here's the trickier part.

• SLOWLY add the egg whites...but what I mean by slowly is you want to add a drizzle of egg white at a time.
• To help you do this, place a spatula as a shield (or to "cut") between the egg white mixture (I used a pyrex that has a spout on it) and the almond paste mixture.
• Mix well after each addition.

Once the mixture looks more wet, take your spatula and scrape the bowl. Add enough egg white to make the mixture consistent enough to squeeze out of a pastry bag.

Cut the tip off the pastry bag. Fold end over to form a cuff, and fill bag with mixture.

On a cookie sheet, that is well sprayed with cooking spray (or, you could be professional like and use parchment paper, but this is not something I keep in my house), place same shaped dollops of mixture on the pan.

Next sprinkle the tops of the unbaked cookies to be with sugar.

Bake 8-9 minutes per batch.

When they are done, they will have crinkles on the top of them and will have spread a little (make sure you space these babies 1 inch a part on the baking sheet).

Take them out, and sandwich two likewise shaped macaroons together. Voila.

Now for the Non Passover friendly version (a filling of fun!)

Peanut Butter Buttercream:

1 stick of Land o Lake Light salted butter

1/2 cup of all natural creamy peanut butter

1 cup of powdered confectioner sugar

In a stand mixer and using the whisk attachment, cream the butter until fluffy. Next, add the peanut butter and cream the two ingredients together. Last, add the powdered sugar on low speed.

Place mix into a pastry bag, cut the tip off bag, cuff the sleeve, and put a touch of this mixture on each macaroon. Place two cookies together, you have Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons!

These make about 20 sandwich cookies.

The facts for the Passover friendly fare:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 sandwich cookies

Amount per Serving

Calories 92

Calories from Fat 17.6

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 1.95g

3%

Saturated Fat 0.13g

0%

Cholesterol 0mg

0%

Sodium 5.5mg

0%

Total Carbohydrate 17.76g

5%

Dietary Fiber 0.8g

3%

Sugars 15.56g

Protein 1.4g

2%

For the Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 sandwich cookie

Amount per Serving

Calories 143

Calories from Fat 69.8

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 7.75g

11%

Saturated Fat 2.33g

11%

Cholesterol 8mg

2%

Sodium 67.5mg

2%

Total Carbohydrate 15.6g

5%

Dietary Fiber 0.8g

3%

Sugars 12g

Protein 2.8g

5%

Passover (Skinny) Friendly Dishes

It's March.

The month of March means a few things to me.

It means it's almost spring.

It means Mr and Mrs Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen's anniversary is arriving (and this particular year, Aruba is oh so so soon!!).

It means Mr and Mrs Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen's birthdays are coming up (I am 4 lovely days younger than him, what can I say, I dig older men).

Lastly, what does the month of March mean?

It means Passover is near.

So the next few posts, I will post some Passover friendly dishes (with some modifications for non-Passover meals on some).

Some dishes to look forward to:

• Chocolate "French Style" Almond Macaroons
• Burgers en Latke (a la Mr. Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen)
• Poached Egg & Matzoh Brei
• Eggplant Salad

Of course, some of my other recipes on the blog can most definitely be made Passover Friendly (just make sure the ingredients you buy are Kosher for Passover!):

• Check out the Chicken Soup & Tzimmes here!
• Brisket, here!

Check back often, lovies!