ENCHILADAS--Hillary's Mother-in-law, Heidi, one of the BEST cooks

One large onion, chopped or two or three Tbs. of minced dried onions, rehydrated in water to cover.

One can chopped green chilies--4 oz.--I buy the whole ones and chop them myself as I've had a few cans of "chopped" that were green chili "soup"

1 can olives, cut in half--6 oz.

1 pound cheddar/jack cheese (plus a good cup or more extra for the topping)

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped fine

2 Enchilada seasoning mix pkgs.--1.25 ounces

2 cans tomato paste--6 oz.

4 cups water

14 corn tortillas

Make the enchiladas sauce using seasoning mix, tomato paste and water. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with vegetable spray. Put 1 1/4 cup sauce in the bottom of the pan, Tear seven tortillas into pieces and cover bottom of the pan with them.

Mix onion, green chili's, olives, cheese and eggs. Layer on top of tortillas. Top with a layer of sauce, about 1 1/2 cup/ Tear remaining tortillas and put on top of filling. Cover with sauce. You will have sauce leftover--just throw it away.

Bake in 350 degree oven about 1/2 hour or until hot. Cover with a good layer of shredded cheese and bake about three minutes more. Serve over salad, dressed with Ranch dressing or you favorite dressing.

I loved these but Phil says they are not his favorite. His favorite? Green enchiladas. Oops, I see that recipe isn't here yet. I'll add it one of these days.

PS Buy the pkgs. of enchiladas seasoning mix on sale for 3/$1.oo and the tomato paste for the same price, then when you want to make enchiladas you will be ready. I'd much rather shop in my basement than at the store.

MEXICAN CASSEROLE

Mmm, good. This was served at our Enrichment dinner last Tuesday. Our theme was, "What Can't You Do Without?" We had everyone bring what they couldn't do without--family and scriptures didn't count so it had to be something else. I took three things but which are all part of my one thing I can't do without. My little desk lamp which shines on my magnifying mirror which I use to pluck my chin hairs--which are actually stray eyebrows (according to Janette Barber: “I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows”). I pluck every single night, whether I need to or not. That is one of my pet peeves, women with moustaches or chin hairs. Pluck Lynne, pluck. So my one thing I can't do without were tweezers.

MEXICAN CASSEROLE--Carolyn Heaton

1 box Spanish Rice mix (Rice a Roni®)

1 (15 oz.) can chopped tomatoes—to use in Rice a Roni

½ pkg Doritos Tortilla chips
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can chopped tomatoes with green chilies
1 can Hatch’s green enchilada sauce
2 cups grated cheese, a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar

Make rice dish as directed, using the one can of chopped tomatoes. Put rice in 9x13 pan, top with 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies. Layer Doritos, crushed a bit. Top with beans, drained and rinsed. Top with enchilada sauce and cheese. Bake in 350 for 35 minutes.

Serve with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, dollop of sour cream and chopped avocado. Can add olives if desired.

OKAY, I DIDN'T EXACTLY MAKE IT LIKE THAT. THIS IS WHAT I DID.

Made the Rice a Roni as pkg. directions. I used a little more than half of a quart of diced, home-canned tomatoes in the Rice a Roni. Didn't put the extra can of canned tomatoes on top--saved it for later. Topped with a bunch of tortilla chips from Costco. Drained a can of pinto beans and black beans and mixed with one can--NOT drained--of S&W Caribbean beans--I buy them to make Cafe Rio salad so I have a bunch in my food storage--plus two Tbs. of Red Hot liquid seasoning. (I dislike kidney beans so I rarely buy them.) Topped them with the rest of the quart of tomatoes, drained. topped that with a can of green enchilada sauce--I would have made my own--I'm a home-made type girl but I'm all out of green chilies. Topped with Mozzarella cheese only as I was too lazy to hunt up any cheddar cheese in the freezer. Baked loosely covered--kind of tented so the aluminum foil didn't touch the cheese--for 45 minutes at 350°. Uncovered the casserole, turned the oven to 400° until it was a little brown on top and bubbling.

For the salad I mixed tomatoes, chopped multi-colored peppers, pepperoncini--also known as pickled banana peppers, and lettuce. I made guacamole, had sour cream and ranch dressing on the side.

Of course, I forgot to take photos until everyone was finished so no photo of the salad and guacamole and sour cream but everyone knows what salad and guacamole and sour cream looks like anyway.

It was very good. Lord Bumhampton had several servings and really liked it. We all really liked it. Go forth and bake some.

CHICKEN TACOS

Start with corn tortillas, fried in a little oil.Top it with sour cream.

Add hot sauce.

Pile on the chicken mixture,

and spinach.
Fold over and eat.

Yummy.
If you want to save calories just pile everything on spinach leaves. Delicious.

And soon this was all that was left. These are our favorite hot sauces, both are mild and I love them both.

CHICKEN TACOS—Good things Utah—original recipe here.

2 tablespoons butter
Canola oil, for frying I never use Canola oil! It does bad stuff to me.
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces I used already cooked chicken
3 tablespoons chopped onion (I used ½ red onion, next time will use a whole one, I think)
I added one chopped jalapeno but will use 2 or 3 next time
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped (I used one –15 oz.—can diced tomatoes, drained, because I was out of tomatoes)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt
Black pepper
Garlic salt I used garlic powder

12 corn tortillas

TOPPINGS:
Shredded Cheddar cheese, pepper Jack cheese, or a combination
Sour cream
Fresh spinach, thinly sliced I didn't slice it, just piled it on
Fresh Salsa or Tabasco sauce
Lime wedges.

6 servings--Ha! We each ate four. But we didn't eat any Mexican rice or refried beans. Does that make us less piggy?

Thanks to Aunt Sue, (this was the Aunt Sue from whoever gave the recipe on Good Things Utah) we have been making these tacos for over 30 years. This is an original Mexican recipe and is one of our family favorites. You may skip frying the tortillas and simply make soft tacos with heated tortillas.

1. Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and onions and cook and stir until the onions are soft and the chicken is tender and no longer pink. Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute more. Decrease the heat to low and stir in the tomato and cilantro. Add water (or chicken broth) if the mixture seems too dry. Season generously with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Continue cooking about 2 minutes. Cover and turn off the heat. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Heat 3/4 cup of canola oil (I only used a couple of tablespoons of expeller pressed safflower oil) in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Fry one tortilla: With tongs turn it once to cook both sides, then quickly fold halfway over and cook for a few more seconds to make the taco shape I just left it flat. Drain on paper towels. Place the tortilla in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, putting each one into the oven to keep warm. (If the taco shells cool, they lose their crispness and become tough and chewy.) For soft tacos, simply heat the tortillas one at a time in a dry skillet over high heat for a few seconds on each side. (Or wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and heat in the oven at 275 degrees for 20 minutes.)

3. To serve, place a small amount of the chicken mixture in each taco shell. Put the filled tacos on a platter and serve. Pass the cheese, sour cream, spinach, salsa or hot sauce and lime.

Serve with Mexican Rice with Fresh Tomatoes and refried beans with a little shredded cheese on top. We didn't do any of that and it was a great dinner.