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Vegiladas and Muddy White Russians, though not necessarily together
I’ve been tweaking and tweaking my old enchilada recipe and I think I’ve finally settled on a dish that everyone likes. Except now it’s not very much like the original chicken enchilada dish and we’ve been calling it Vegiladas because it has so many vegetables crammed into it. It’s not vegetarian, it just has a lot of vegetables.
So here it is if you are interested.
Vegiladas
Ingredients:
- 1-1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken (breast or thighs will work)
- 1 large (28-oz?) can of enchilada sauce (mild or spicy, green or red—your choice)
- about 16 10-inch tortillas (flour or corn, your choice)
- 2-4 cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese
- 1 15-oz can of black beans
- 1 head of broccoli
- handful of asparagus
- 1 medium onion
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 bell pepper (I like orange or yellow)
- olives and sour cream for garnish
Directions:
1. Put your chicken in a slow-cooker set on high with about 3/4 of the can of enchilada sauce. Reserve last 1/4 of can for later.
2. Let it cook, let it cook, let it cook! (for 4-6 hours while you get on with the rest of your life)
3. A half-hour before you’d like to have dinner turn off your crock pot. Chop up all your vegetables into bite-sized pieces. You can preheat your oven now to 350 F if you like.
4. Pour a little olive oil into a skillet set over medium heat and saute the onions, celery and bell pepper until soft.
5. With two forks shred the chicken right there in your slow-cooker.
6. Add drained and rinsed black beans to pot with chicken.
7. Add 3/4 of cheese (save some for garnish on top).
8. Add sauteed vegetables and broccoli and asparagus.
9. Mix together. Cheese will begin to melt.
Don’t worry contents of slow-cooker are far yummier than they appear.
10. Scoop a large spoonful into a tortilla, roll it up and place in a 9×13 baking dish with the seam side down.
11. Repeat until baking dish is full of rolled enchiladas. They should be in there pretty snug; usually that size dish will fit 16 filled and rolled tortillas.
12. Top with remaining enchilada sauce, cheese and sliced olives.
13. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until sauce bubbles.
14. Serve with sour cream as a garnish.
Enjoy!
I was supposed to have a photo here of a nicely garnished plate but we were so hungry we gobbled them all up and forgot completely about the camera.
Later on that night Troy and I decided to attempt to make a White Russian. I’d seen the recipe earlier on Jora’s website and have been wanting to try one ever since. We didn’t have the right kind of glasses so no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep the cream separated from the vanilla vodka and Kahlua.
Nevertheless, they were quite delicious even if they were muddy. Especially when paired with Bethany’s freshly-baked black and white cookies (care of Smitten’s recipe). I might not have seen all the tourists sights while I’ve been on vacation but I have definitely tasted a lot of yummy food! Going home is going to be very sad and diet-filled.
So, tell me, what do you like to eat when you are on vacation?
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Meet-ups, Ikea visits and a spy museum!
Since I’m here in DC and I know a lot of bloggers and readers who live around here (Hi Shanee and Christine and Carrie!), we decided to organize a meet-up at a local coffee shop in Alexandria. Thanks to the tip from Kris.
Alexandria is such a cute neighborhood. It sort of reminded me of home, with the houses super close to each other and the coffee shops, parks and little delis all in walking distance of each other. The shop owners even give out dog treats to the patrons who have dogs which is TOTALLY just like home.
We stopped at a little cheese store called The Cheesetique. We do not have cheese stores at home, what a shame. It was such a cute little shop. Troy told me to pick out a bottle of wine to take home to their house for dinner but I was so busy chatting with my new friends and making sure Bug didn’t knock over something breakable that I got distracted and before I knew it everyone was moving on to the ice cream store down the street and I forgot about it. My loss! I could have had a thirty dollar souvenir bottle thanks to Troy. Oh well. It probably wouldn’t have packed very well in my suitcase anyway.
They also sold eight dollar candy bars! That’s almost as expensive as back home. Just kidding. I really liked the paper they used to wrap these candy bars. That paper alone probably cost a buck a sheet.
I love discovering little neighborhoods like this and hanging out with web buddies. I know everyone thinks it’s scary to meet people off the internet but I have found that they make the best kind of friends. We so often have the same interests and same sense of humor no matter how far apart we live from each other. I know… you’re rolling your eyes at my sappiness but it really is true. That’s how I met Bethany after all. And now she’s flying me across the country to unpack her house!
Which by the way is 80% done! It only required about five trips to IKEA to get there. Just kidding…only three trips, I think. We probably need to go at least two more times to return stuff that didn’t work out.
One of those trips was to meet Mamalang who couldn’t make it to our blogger meet-up in Alexandria. Ikea is such a great place to meet friends. You can stroll around and talk while your kids live it up in Småland. Bug LOVES Småland these days. I know Toby is going to kill me when I tell him I dropped Bug off at some random playland in the middle of Washington DC to be watched by complete strangers but actually Småland is super safe and you pretty much have to show your passport and a DNA test just to get your kid back.
The next day (I think, I’ve sort of lost count of the days) we went back to Washington DC to visit the Spy Museum that I’ve been wanting to see ever since Bethany told me about it two years ago.
I was really looking forward to taking some super cool spy photos for my collection but guess what? They don’t allow photography in the museum!!!! I was bummed. But I guess it makes sense. They probably couldn’t charge as much admission if bloggers like me revealed all their secrets and there were some documents, like a real letter from George Washington, that could not survive flash photography. It was a disappointment but we still had a pretty good time. It wasn’t the most kid-friendly museum and I probably would have spent a bit more time if I didn’t have a little person exclaiming they were bored every five minutes but I’m glad I went.
The museum was divided up into several parts. Most of the parts were devoted to different times in history and the different kinds of espionage and intelligence that were used. I really liked the stories about female spies. But what stuck with me is that all the stories both fiction and non-fiction pale in comparison to reality. Because a real spy never tells their secrets. Or at least not all of them anyway.
Bethany and I did sneak one stealth photo from Bethany’s camera in her purse. I know, tsk tsk…but it was a spy museum after all. They were practically daring us.
At least we got some cool spy eyes photos outside.
And of course some stealth ninja moves…
