Cheese Enchiladas

Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE Mexican food fan, so you will probably be seeing a lot of enchiladas, casseroles and soups of the Mexican persuasion. Cheese enchiladas seemed like a fun challenge, something I had never made before and something I can't remember having homemade before. Here are the ingredients:

1 (8oz) can enchilada sauce
1 (16oz) can tomato sauce
2 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 C water
1 large onion, diced
10oz Monterey Jack cheese
10oz Cheddar cheese
12-15 corn tortillas

I began by sautéing the onions in a skillet with butter, I wanted them to be nice and soft when I put them in the enchiladas. Cook until the onions are translucent. In a wide shallow bowl, mix enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, chili powder and water; set aside. Shred both cheeses and mix together in a bowl (don't use pre-shredded cheese, it won't melt right). Line up the bowls of cheese, onions and enchilada/tomato sauce by the stove to make it easier when assembling the enchiladas. Warm a skillet with oil just covering bottom of skillet. Soften tortilla in the pan just until it becomes a little limp, just a few moments. Then dip the heated tortilla into the enchilada/tomato sauce mixture and place into a greased square or rectangular casserole dish. Fill the tortilla with cheese and onions, probably about a 1/4 cup of cheese or a handful. Repeat this process until the dish is full (I made 14 enchiladas with this recipe). Pour remaining sauce evenly over the enchiladas and top with remaining cheese and onions. Bake at 35o degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, it took longer than 12 minutes for me!

These enchiladas were delicious! Even my sister who isn't usually a fan of cheese enchiladas liked them. The whole process of making the enchiladas was a little bit messy, but it was worth it. If you have leftovers, make sure you heat them until the cheese inside is melted again. We had chips and salsa, refried beans and guacamole with the enchiladas.

Swift Rascals...Taylor Flatts???

I know I said this would be a cooking blog, but I need to write about this amazing concert! Last night Avery, Maddie and I made the trek to Tulsa to the new BOK Center to see Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift. We bought the tickets for Maddie for her 16th birthday back in April, needless to say we have been anxiously awaiting September 25 since then! So we left Edmond yesterday around 4:45 and made it to Tulsa in time to go eat at Olive Garden in Utica Square before the concert. We headed over towards the BOK Center, not exactly sure where to park, but we made it!
Here we are in front of the BOK center, you can't really tell but its HUGE and one side is entirely glass!
I didn't expect much from Taylor Swift because I had heard she wasn't great live, but she totally impressed me. She was very, very humble and so thankful to all her fans for supporting her. And she was very energetic on stage, here she is 'playing' the trash can. Then there was intermission, and we took a few pictures... we were laughing in this one
Then, the climax of the night for me was Rascal Flatts. I have wanted to see them in concert for years now and have always seemed to miss their concerts (I am what some might refer to as a 'concert junkie' I go to them all the time). So this was it, I have been waiting for this moment for over 6 years. And they certainly did not disappoint. Theirs was the coolest entrance to a concert I have ever seen.
They came in from a set of stairs descending from the top of the arena, it was fantastic! They sang ALMOST every song I wanted to hear, but for some reason did not sing Oklahoma-Texas Line, I thought that would be a given since we're in Oklahoma, but oh well! It was a great concert. And then we got lost on the way home...I'm still not exactly sure how we ended up in Stillwater, but we finally made it home at 1:30am. Good times!

Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake

I kind of created this recipe the other night from what I had on hand. It is a combination of two of my favorite pasta dishes, Cheesy Mostaccioli and Chicken Parmesan Bake. Here are the ingredients you will need:

2 Cups cooked chicken, diced
1 can/jar of pasta sauce (I used the garlic flavor)
1 can Cheddar cheese soup
3 C Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
16oz penne pasta, cooked and drained
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 C Italian bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking dish. Combine chicken, pasta sauce, Cheddar soup, Mozzarella, pepper and Italian seasoning. Then stir in the cooked penne. Pour into greased baking dish and top with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Cook for 40 minutes, or until heated through. I like to serve this with garlic bread and a salad.

Sorry no pictures this time, I made this recipe before I decided to start the blog, and now its all gone! It was a big hit at the house.

New to the blogosphere...

Welcome to my blog! I have been blog-stalking for a while now and have decided to start my own. I wasn’t really sure what I would write about since my life as a young, single woman living at home with her parents and sisters isn’t all that exciting when compared to those who have children to write about. But I decided to jump on the bandwagon anyway. I love cooking and baking, they are my passions right now, so I thought I would start this blog to pass on some of my favorite old recipes, as well as some new ones. I have ‘dinner duty’ on Thursday nights now that I am back at home so I will most likely be adding new recipes to the blog on Fridays and Saturdays (and hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with taking pictures as I am cooking to help out those visual people like me). This week on the menu is a Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake that I made for lunch yesterday (sorry no pics of this one), so be looking for that recipe tomorrow!Thanks for reading and check back soon for my first recipe post!