Chicken Enchiladas and Enchilada Sauce Recipe

It used to be that I stocked cans of tomato sauce in my cupboard for making pizza sauce and enchilada sauce.  But then I bought Thrive Tomato Powder.  It only takes a moment to turn the powder into sauce.  I've tried several different recipes but this week's trial seems to be a winner.  I used this recipe from Healthy Family Cookin to get started.

I grabbed my Thrive Tomato Powder and got to work.

 Adapting the original recipe just a bit, I added salt, Thrive dehydrated onions, and garlic powder to my tomato powder. 

After boiling the water, I added it to my tomato powder mixture.  Next up, convert this tomato sauce to enchilada sauce.

For that I turned to this enchilada sauce recipe I've used for years but I changed it up some (replaced the salt and garlic with garlic salt, and reduced the chili powder to 1 T per my child's complaint that it's been too spicy).

Now let's turn it into enchiladas.  I've used this recipe for years. I'm often asked "what should I buy?" by those just getting started.  My favorite advice is to pick a family favorite recipe and convert it to Thrive ingredients, then purchase those items.  This is one of those recipes for me.  And I have purchased the ingredients - I just didn't use them this time. 

This day, I chopped up leftover chicken breast, added 1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute (made from white bean flour), a can of Rotel and regular cheddar cheese.  Next, I poured in 1/2 of my enchilada sauce.  To convert, simply use rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried chopped chicken and rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese (or go crazy and use both the cheddar and Thrive Freeze Dried Monterey Jack!).

 Spoon into flour tortillas, roll them up and lay down in a sprayed 9x13 pan.

Once you've used up all the "enchilada goop" (we use fancy words like that at our house), cover the enchiladas with the remaining enchilada sauce and as much cheese as you like (we like a lot).  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Here are the recipes for you:

Tomato Sauce

(original recipe from Healthy Family Cookin')

¼ Cup + 2 Tbsp. Thrive Tomato Powder

1/8 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. Thrive Chopped Onions

¼ tsp. garlic powder

¾ Cup + 2 Tbsp. water, boiling

In a small bowl combine the tomato powder, salt, onions and garlic powder. Pour hot water over powder mixture and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Makes the equivalent of 8 oz of tomato sauce.

Enchilada Sauce 

2 T vegetable oil
2 T flour

1 T chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1 recipe tomato sauce (above)
2 c water
1 t garlic salt

Heat oil in 2 qt saucepan; stir in flour and chili powder.  Cook for 1 minute.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 min. 

 (converted and changed from recipe I found here years ago)

 Chicken Enchiladas

1 pkg flour tortillas (soft taco or burrito size - your preference or what's on sale)
1 can cream of chicken soup or 1 recipe of substitute
8 oz shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese (Thrive Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese)
1 can Ro-Tel (original works but the Mexican version with cilantro and lime is best)
2 cups leftover chicken or rehydrated Thrive Chopped Chicken
 Enchilada Sauce (recipe above)
 

Combine chicken, soup, Ro-Tel, 3/4 of the cheese and 1/4-1/2 of the enchilada sauce.

Spray bottom of 9x13 pan.

Put 2-3 large spoonfuls  into each tortilla.  Wrap tortilla around filling and place seam side down in 9x13 pan.  Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

October Specials - Vegetarian style

I LOVE when the specials for the month go so well with the things that I feel I need to stock up on today.  So my Q order for this month definitely includes some FD Mozzarella and more FD Sliced Mushrooms.  Looking at the new Fall Price List (which is effective Oct 2, 2012), I realized that by ordering these needed items in October I'm saving over $2 per #10 can of mushrooms, and $4 per #10 can on the Mozzarella Cheese over my normal Q Club/Home Party pricing.

Why do I buy THRIVE freeze dried mushrooms?  This is one of those items that generally no one else in my family will eat.  So when I buy a small can to have mushrooms on my portion of homemade pizza, I don't use the whole can and end up throwing half of it away when it goes bad.  But I have found one way my whole family eats mushrooms and I shared about it recently on the blog, here.  That blog post also shares my success story in sauteeing reconstituted Freeze dried mushrooms.

Why is Mozzarella a priority for me?  Sometimes I think my family would live on cheese alone if I let them.  So when I try to imagine us having to live off our home store, I KNOW that I need to have cheese.  Since I don't know if the reason for living off our home store will involve electricity or not, I don't want to depend upon stocking my freezer with cheese (although I keep some in there too).  If you haven't tried THRIVE Freeze dried cheeses, come to a home event/party (or host one yourself) and sample some.  You will be amazed.  Once reconsituted, the cheese melts amazingly.  And even while still freeze dried, the cheddar cheese is dangerously delicious (I'd recommend NOT letting your kids try it otherwise, you might not have any around to rehydrate).

I also have to point out the great Q-Pon this month on the Green Chili Peppers.  Except for my husband, my family doesn't like a lot of heat to their food so when I buy canned green chili peppers, I don't use even half of the can.  The THRIVE Freeze dried version lets me add just the amount of heat for flavor without wasting the rest.

There are times like this that I really wish I knew advance what is going to go on sale the following month.  I bought a Pantry can of Green Chili Peppers in September, and for not much less than the Q-Pon in October on the #10 can!  The Q-Pon saves you almost $4 per #10 can over my BEST current price.  If you have been thinking about getting your Q started, October is a great month to do it because this Q-Pon is ONLY available to Q Club members.