Housewife Food- Cheesy Chicken Black Bean Enchiladas

Wait....housewife food? What the heck is housewife food? I actually made this term up but I'm sure it will be a trending topic before long- once the internet sees how ingenious of a term it really is. That's my hope anyway. So back to what I'm talking about. You all know The Chef and I cook all the time. He in the restaurant kitchen, myself for competition and recipe development. This usually doesn't include a lot of homestyle food and casseroles and the types of things a busy homemaker might make to feed her 4 kids and hungry hubby. THAT is what I call housewife food- the simple, easy to make, but filling and homey meals that reminds us of an era in the past. Maybe we remember our own moms being at home when we got home from school with a big pot of spaghetti sauce simmering away or just searing off that pot roast, or maybe we remember the television moms that never seemed to leave the kitchen......

Sometimes even The Chef and I crave those comforting foods. We both are absolutely nuts over a pan of tator tot casserole, and who wouldn't be? Beefy, creamy mushroomy goodness topped with crunchy tots. Yum. We even sometimes get a serious craving for tuna noodle casserole. Imagine that, with all the gorgeous produce and interesting foods we have to cook with, we sometimes just want something that starts with a can of cream of something soup.

The Chef, of course, cooks for a living. Myself, my career field is far less glamorous-insurance. My day can be a little on the dull side, or it can be stressful as heck with angry insureds calling about one reason or another. It's not unusual to be yelled at several times a day by a person in a bad circumstance who just wants to blow off some steam and raise a little hell and I'm the person on the other end of the line. It's all good. We've all been there.  I also spend a lot of hours in front of dual monitors typing. Typing a lot. Notate every conversation. Document every specific. Make notes, check notes and make more notes. While not physically demanding, it can be mentally demanding and many days I get home and regret planning on making an elaborate pounded, stuffed and rolled steak dish with a potato side that includes numerous steps, a specific baking dish and a countertop full of ingredients. Plus a salad- always a salad, right?

I was so thankful today when I got home from just such a day that I had the foresight to buy a couple convenience products. Especially that can of soup. Tonight's dinner took some of the simplest ingredients and turned them into something really good, really filling and definitely housewife food. What did I use? A bottle of store-bought salsa, a jar of queso dip, a can of black beans, a couple chicken breasts and a can of nacho cheese condensed soup. Amazing results from everyday ingredients, let's make some enchiladas!

Cheesy Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

1 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 bunch scallions, sliced

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 small bags shredded cheese

10 flour tortillas

1 jar queso cheese dip

1 jar salsa

1 can condensed nacho cheese soup

1/2 cup water

Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper and cook until done. I poached them in just a small amount of water until cooked through. Let cool slightly, then shred or cube and place in a large bowl. Toss with one bag of the cheese, the black beans and half of the sliced scallions. Set aside.

In another bowl combine the queso dip, 1 cup of the salsa, the nacho cheese soup and water. Mix well. Add about 3/4 cup of this mixture to the chicken mixture and mix. Divide the mixture among the 10 tortillas and roll up.

Spread a few tablespoons of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan or two square pans. Arrange the enchiladas in the pan and spoon remaining sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the other bag of cheese.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes until hot and bubbly. 

Serve with additional salsa and the remaining sliced scallions. They are delicious with a dollops of sour cream or even some guacamole, but guess who forgot to buy sour cream when she was at the grocery store?

This recipe absolutely goes against our rule about fresh cooking and real foods and not buying stuff in cans and bottles but every once in a while you just have to. It doesn't make us bad people, or lazy, or unhealthy. Let's face it, sometimes life is hectic and cutting the occasional corner isn't a bad thing at all. 

Meatless Monday meets Taco Tuesday

Every now and then we like to throw a vegetarian meal into our rotation. We get to be creative with food and it doesn't hurt to give up meat every once in a while. In fact, lots of vegetables and other foods  make great protein replacements and can be just as hearty as a piece of steak or chicken.

When it comes to bulking up a meal when we're not eating meat, we love mushrooms. The modern grocery store has so much variety these days that the produce section often has four or more different fresh mushrooms at any time. We have the usual suspects- button mushrooms and portobello mushrooms, but we also see cremini, porcini, shiitake, oyster and others. When you consider the variety of dried mushrooms too, wow, you can really have fun with textures and flavors.

I didn't want just boring old button mushrooms. A while back I was sent a package of mushrooms and peppers from Marx Foods to try, cook with and share what I thought, so the chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms are going on the tacos. They were big and great quality, rehydrated easily and cooked perfectly. They added a nice woodsy flavor to the tacos.

Today we're talking tacos. Now your mind probably immediately went to the old boring Americanized taco- a blah tortilla with greasy spiced hamburger, shredded processed cheese, wilted lettuce and, often, leaky old sad tomatoes. Trust me people, it isn't like this in Mexico. At all. I'm not claiming my mushroom tacos are authentic either, but they are a nice change with lots of flavor, none of the grease, none of the gross fake cheese.

I had to use dehydrated mushrooms for my wild mushrooms.
These mushrooms are from Marx Foods. 

Lakehouse Mushroom Soft Tacos

1 1/2 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms

1 large sweet onion

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cumin

1 garlic clove, smashed/bruised

1 14.5 ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, divided
2-3 tablespoons adobo sauce

1 cup sour cream, divided

diced avocado, sliced radish, cilantro leaves, etc.

whole wheat soft tortillas

Divide the sour cream into two small bowls. Add 2 tablespoons cilantro to one bowl, and the adobo sauce to the other. Cover and chill.

Clean the mushrooms and slice. If using shiitakes, pull off and discard the stems; if using portobellos (the big ones), scrape the gills off with a spoon- an optional step but it helps the dish not be so brown. I used white button mushrooms, rehydrated chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms.

Clean the onion and slice into thin wedges. Use the flat side of a knife to smash and bruise the garlic clove without chopping it up. We want the garlic flavor but we will be discarding it later.

Place the vegetables in a large zip top plastic bag.

Combine the oil, lime juice, salt, cumin and mix well. Pour over the vegetables in the bag. Close the bag and pop in the fridge for about an hour.

Preheat the broiler. Remove vegetables from bag and drain off marinade. Discard the garlic clove. Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet and broil for about 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking time, until mushrooms are nicely browned.

Drain the tomatoes and toss with mushrooms and onions. Pop back in the oven for a few seconds to heat the tomatoes. 

Serve the vegetables in soft whole wheat tortillas drizzled with the cilantro crema, adobo crema, crumbled queso fresco and whatever toppings you like.

Tonight we topped ours with cilantro leaves, shredded radish
greens, sliced scallions, sliced radish and queso fresco.

The mushrooms and tomato mixture is also good served over shredded lettuce as a mushroom taco salad with avocados and the cilantro cream. You can add salsa if you like- I like mixing salsa and the sour cream in equal parts and using that as a dressing for taco salad. 

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