White Enchiladas with Chicken Breast, Spinach, and Corn

Cravings: a gluten free, healthy, rounded, re-heat-able dish

How do you spell reheatable? I put the dashes because I'm just not sure.
This reminds of my junior year of high school when my mom and I sat down to make a list of what colleges I would apply to and I went to write "Ivy League" and stopped and said, "Wait, how do you spell league...?"

Yes that came out of my mouth...At least I was organized and categorized things even back then.

Okay on to the food. Mmmmmmm. Enchiladas, yummmm.


(a corner with no cheese for Charlie)

After a while of no cooking I was craving it, BAD.  I would see a recipe on pinterest and get so upset I couldn't make it due to my no kitchen. Well, last weekend we were staying in Enterprise with Charlie's parents, and his Aunt Susan and Uncle Eddy were visiting. Aunt Susan doesn't eat gluten. Challenge accepted! (yes that was a Barney Stinson reference).

My new running buddy Alison had told me about white enchiladas she made, and I based my recipe off of hers, with some tweaks.

White Enchiladas with Chicken Breast, Spinach, and Corn
Ingredients:
-about 10 corn tortillas, or flour if you do not need it gluten free
-two containers of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
-one small can of chicken broth
-two jalapenos (you can use green chili peppers or omit if you don't want it spicy at all)
-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
-2 tbs corn starch (or 3 tbs flour, but then it's not gluten free)
-1 pound of skinless chicken breasts
-cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper for seasoning (I eyeball)
-juice from a lime
-2 cups of part skim shredded cheese (you can omit this if you are sensitive to cheese)
-small bunch of green onion
-one can of corn (frozen or fresh works as well, but I had canned on hand)
-one packet of frozen spinach, thawed

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400. Sprinkle your chicken with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, and cumin. Cook for 25 minutes. Let cool, and shred with a fork and knife (or two forks)



2. While the chicken is cooking, remove the setting from your gas burner, and put your jalapenos directly on the fire. I forgot to take a picture of this. I let them sit for about 10 minutes until they were charred and black. Put them into a ziplock bag so they steam.


3. While the chicken is cooking and jalapenos are steaming in the bag, start your "roux". Mix your olive oil and corn starch, and stir on medium low:



Add about a tablespoon of cumin, teaspoon of garlic and onion powder each, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Peel the skin off your charred jalapenos and chop them finely. Add half the jalapenos into your roux:


4. Add the chicken broth to your roux and stir it. Let it thicken on medium. I have no idea how long this took - you want it to be thick but still runny, it should coat a spoon. Once the mixture is slightly thick, let it cool for about 10 minutes, and add your greek yogurt.



5. Chop up your green onion, and slice your lime.



Add them, as well as the spinach, corn, and remainder of the jalapeno to your shredded chicken. If you are good to go on the cheese, add about 3/4 of it all as well. Mix well together.


6. Scoop the mixture evenly into your tortillas. Line them up in a casserole dish and secure with a toothpick.



7. Top your rolled tortillas with the yogurt mixture, and top with the remaining cheese. (If you love someone who doesn't do cheese, leave some naked, they still taste great!)


8. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. You can broil it at the end if you want the cheese to be a bit crispy.


Don't forget to remove your toothpicks before you serve!

In retrospect, I think I would rather make these as a Mexican "lasagna" next time, stacking layers of tortillas, chicken mixture, and sauce, (repeat), instead of rolling them. But they are still yummy, nutritious, and gluten free! You can also substitute almost anything for the stuffing - any veggies you fancy, shredded beef or pork, or even tofu. Hope you enjoy them, and let me know what creative combinations you come up with.

Who says superfoods can't be amazing, and thoughts on amendment 1 passing in NC

Here was my breakfast:


Oh wait a second! I was so excited to eat it, that I just demolished it instead of snapping a pic. Well here is what it was in approximations (I don't measure I just eyeball) Superfoods in pink (a super color).

Cinnamon banana overnight oats:
1/4 cup of old fashion oatmeal
2 tsp chia seeds (necessary)
3 ounces of vanilla greek yogurt
1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1/2 a banana mushed in
heavy sprinkle of cinnamon
1 packet of stevia sweetener (I've heard this is a good food not sure if it's super)

Mix well and let sit overnight in your fridge. Stir in the morning and put in more milk if you want. I usually eat these cold but felt like a warm breakfast so I nuked it for a minute. It was so good. SO GOOD.

In other news, what do you all think about Amendment 1 passing in NC? My thoughts are that let's remove actual human rights for a second, and look at separation of church and state. Aren't we supposed to be protected from that? If marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman because g-d said so, shouldn't marriage only be under g-d? Are atheists then not allowed to get married? Are people not allowed to have interfaith marriages, or just go to the courthouse or a drive through wedding w/no mention of g-d? Why is a g-dless marriage okay between two straight people but not okay between two gay people? I think that the church should make up its own mind about if they want to allow gay marriage (I know many reform rabbis that do ceremonies for example, and many that will not). However, the government allows a separation of church and state for marriages so why should gay people not be entitled to that?

Okay, that's about as political as I go. I don't want arguments or debates. That's my opinion, you can send me yours, but hostility will not be tolerated.

a bit of cooking

A few weeks ago I decided to utilize our 'engagement" herb garden. A lot of the herbs had died from it just being too darn hot, but since I cut all the dead leaves off, and used a lot of the good ones, they have now grown back quickly and are staying nice and green! 

Above is the basil I was able to use. I made a pesto and marinated some chicken. It's in the freezer still - will use for a big batch of weekend cooking at some point.

This is the curry plant. A lot of it had dried up from the heat. I used this with some tikka paste and chicken broth and chicken in the crock pot. It came out spicy and delicious, and lasted us FOREVER. The last bit of it I served over pasta and mixed goat cheese into the sauce. Yum!

A week and a half ago we had the Schlossbergs over for Shabbat dinner. Remy was my student in 8th grade and she is now in 10th grade, and I still have a very close relationship with her. This year they have taken in a girl named Noa who is a junior in high shcool from a reform jewish community in Israel that my synagogue sponsored to come as a student ambassador for four months. I wanted to make an Israeli dinner so I had a specialty bread made that you always get in Jerusalem and eat with zaatar, I made cheese bourekas, served Israeli pickles and olives, fresh pita, and we had rice and "ktzitzot". Ktzitzot are basically "patties" of anything, and they are usually about the size of a meatball, but flat. They can be meat (usually) but you can also do turkey or chicken (what I usually do) and you can make them with anything! You can shred up vegetables and bind it with egg, coat it in breadcrumbs and pan fry it, and it's a ktzitza! I made two different kinds. 

In the left bowl is a packet of very lean turkey meat, a small bit of lean beef, an onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, and ketchup. You basically mix it all up in a food processor, add salt and stir it in (if you put salt in the food processor it can dull the blade), let it sit for a bit in the fridge, and then form it into small meatball sized patties, and pan fry it. 

On the right, I have ground chicken, peanut butter, fresh ginger, cilantro, green onion, an egg, and panko breadcrumbs. I had made these once before and they turned out good, but I used too much peanut butter this time and they came out dry. I also should have added some soy sauce or some liquid to the mix. Any suggestions? I mixed up the two ktitzot with sauce for leftovers though and this one was fine. The other was great!

I don't really bake besides cheesecake (although I have recently discovered Ilana Shapiro's cookie recipe, and they are the best cookies in the world - seriously, they are). I've wanted to make a peanut butter cheesecake for forever so I did! It was Gail's birthday, and Anthony/Jess were arriving later that night for the weekend and it was Jess's birthday, so I made two cakes. This was what was remaining - plain cheesecake (that came out too lemony for plain, but not lemony enough for lemon), and peanut butter cheesecake.

We had a great time having a few drinks with Anthony and Jess when they came in, and the next day we went to a huge breakfast together (Charlie completed a dish that was on man vs food). We both had stuff to do that day, but that evening we joined them at Fleur for Jess's birthday dinner. It was great to finally meet them and I can't wait to go to their wedding in Antigua next month!!!

Here is some homemade chocolate yogurt that I made about 5 weeks ago. 

I made this the same exact way I made the regular yogurt which I have referenced before, but I used chocolate milk instead. At the end of draining, I added a a teaspoon of vanilla, and splenda to taste (don't remember how much). It was SO good. I had a bowl one night and gave Charlie a bite, and he literally just took it away from me and ate it like he hadn't had a meal in days! I made another batch about a week ago and something didn't work - I even tried to restart it and it just failed. I think the milk was getting old and it only works with fresh milk. I'll try again and report - it was so good!

iPhone temperature!

I was reading outside and about to swim in the pool and I got a text from Leslie, (who I am hopefully seeing tomorrow, happy anniversary by the way!). So I go to check my text and this is what it says:

HA!!!! The weather is too hot even for iPhones right now, and it's only gonna get hotter.

Yogurt is sort of mending. I used the same batch, but I will try again soon with a brand new batch and hopefully get it right on the first try this time!

My yogurt died

Well that's not entirely accurate. I tried to make homemade greek yogurt using this recipe and modifying it with a few others I read online.  I bought nonfat milk (half gallon), and microwaved it for 15 minutes (stopping every 5 to stir). I checked with an instant read meat thermometer until the temperature was about 185, and then let it cool to 120. I then stirred in a tablespoon of nonfat greek yogurt in, and let it sit outside for a few hours (covered of course). The temperature it's supposed to incubate in is about 100-110, and the temperature dropped below that, so I moved it to my crock pot. Like an idiot, I put it on low, not realizing that obviously that temperature is high enough to cook chicken (so probably around 200 degrees) and then when I took the temperature after an hour, I reduced it to warm and uncovered it. This morning it was still milk with a few chunks of yogurt. I guess the higher temperature in the crockpot killed the bacteria that needs to spread to make yogurt. Okay, take two going on now - I will report back!

Last night Nick and Jess came over. It was SO nice to see them. They are a wonderful couple. Jess is pregnant and due in the end of August, but unless you look directly at her belly, you can't tell, skinny little thing! She moved here from Germany in November. The other day we went to see the x-men prequel movie with them ( loved the movie!) and last night had them over for a bbq. I marinated chicken and turkey breasts and Charlie grilled, and we had salad, gazpacho (which was a bit too salsa like), and rice "meat balls", which Nick thought were actually meat! Success! I am very excited about the friendship with this couple. My parents joined us for dinner, and then after the four of us played scattegories. We allowed Jess to use German and English to come up with words. Very, very fun.

Yesterday we started cleaning out a lot of the storage in the garage. Phew, what work! We moved my temperpedic mattress up to Adva's bedroom which we are currently sleeping in because the AC in my room is very weak, and it's really hard to get a good night's sleep in this heat. We both slept so well, I love that mattress!

Today, besides fixing yogurt (and by the way Jess told me about a greek curd like cheese called quark which will be my next experiment!!!), I am going to go to the gym, read Water for Elephants, continue to clean out the garage, and clean out my office, because I am moving to a different one on Monday. I had a pretty discouraging week at work last week and just felt very unmotivated, but have snapped out of it. We wanted to go look at more houses tonight when Charlie is home from work but Mike, our realtor (who is amazing!), is busy and so we can hopefully go tomorrow evening.

Next week going to Boston which I am so excited about!

I will update on the yogurt situation soon!