Enchilada Sauce...Homemade!

I am not a big homemade sauce person.  Something about it just scares me.  But, lately, I have been venturing more and more into trying it and so far the results have been well received.  I have to send huge thanks to my Vitamix though.  It makes sauce making pretty simple.

So, I made a tortilla chip, cheese and enchilada type thing a few months ago and have been buying canned sauce to do it.  I decided tonight to try it myself.  And I'm happy.  :)

I found a recipe on Allrecipes and edited the heck out of it.  Took out the oil, added in canned tomatoes from garden in place of tomato sauce and even tweaked the spices.  And guess what?  It worked.

So here's the ingredient list I came up with:

• 1/2 t garlic salt


• 1/2 t onion powder


• 2 T flour


• 1 pint jar of canned tomatoes, or you could use sauce too


• 2 heaping T of chili powder


• 1 t salt


• 1/2 t cumin

I blended all of that together and it looked like this...



and poured it over the organic corn chips.  Just like this...



Then I shredded a little organic cheddar cheese over top of it.



I put it in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes and out came this.



And that is a quick, easy and tasty dinner!

 

Grilled Chicken Tostados

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all of you!  I love Mexican food so much but hate to go out for it today because our usual restaurant that never has a wait to sit down becomes a complete zoo.  So, of course, I decided on a special treat at home. I did have to do some planning because I wanted fresh tortillas and I hadn't yet gotten around to ordering a tortilla press.  Up until now, please don't laugh or shake your head, I was rolling them out by hand.  Let me tell you, that gets old really, really fast so I went back to buying them at the store.  So ridiculous for something that has 3 ingredients, but it was what I did.  No more.  Tortilla press in hand, I made tortillas yesterday.  If you don't know the recipe, it is ridiculously easy.  2 cups masa flour, 1 cup water, 1/4 t salt.  Mix until soft dough forms and separate into 14 or so balls and press them into tortillas.  Cook each tortilla on each side for about 3-5 minutes and you're done.  I'm sure it could become more complicated if necessary for different flavors, etc, but that's what I went with.  I stored them in the fridge overnight and went to work making plans to use them as deliciously as possible!

I decided that to top my tortilla shells, I would layer guacamole, pico de gallo, shredded chicken and cheese.  Baking seemed like the easy choice for cooking, but then I spied the grill.  I put the shells on a cookie sheet, layered the ingredients on top and put them in the grill until the cheese melted down and coated everything.  It was a beautiful mess I couldn't wait to bit into!

But I did hold the hubby off long enough to snap a few pictures.  And, finally, it was time to eat!!  They really were delicious and small enough that you didn't feel badly at all about heading back for seconds.  I only wish I'd had a margarita in my hand while I was eating it because it just felt like it deserved that kind of attention to detail.

I hope you are enjoying your day as much as we are here.  We had a beautiful bike ride last night and then headed out to the trails for my first run since the "marathon incident" and the foot felt pretty darn good.   I was excited!  I wish my legs hadn't been so spent from the biking but there's always another day.  Tonight's date night at a restaurant I've been dying to try so there's lots to look forward to...oh, and my new obsession with Starbucks Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino will again be fed at "frappy hour" when the drinks are half price.  I am not a frappucino person, instead usually opting for an espresso marked with foam but this drink is an awesome dessert!