Ugly Cooking - Enchiladas

I love food. This is a newsflash to no one. Yesterday my mom asked if I could put together a main dish to take to the funeral of a family friend. In order to find some inspiration I found myself scrolling through 383 pins on my Feed Me Seymour pin board. Alas to no avail there was not a single thing that called out to me. The pictures were gorgeous, the complex mix of flavors tantalizing, but all I needed was some good comfort food to whip together and drop off. I tried my hand at chicken enchiladas for the first time just a few months ago and they turned out pretty delicious so I decided I'd make up a new version to stretch the meat farther (Because who really wants to buy a gagillion pounds of meat when you're not even going to eat it? Tell me I'm stingy...but just sayin').

As I was slicing open the package of ground beef (meaning getting it all over my hands and not minding that it felt like cold playdoh) I was reminiscing on those picture perfect recipes I'd been ogling over. Making the food takes enough effort, and then taking perfectly professional pictures of it?

&

Amiright? Thank you Sweet Brown. Ain't nobody got time for that. So to share this uberdelicious recipe that I made up I took some crappy cell phone pics because that's what I DO have time for. And besides, I never claimed to be a photographer, just a decent cook!

Mighty Meaty Enchiladas

I made this recipe to feed 2 families so it makes about 20 enchiladas. It would be very easy to half the recipe for a smaller batch

Filling

*3 lbs ground beef

*20 8" tortillas

*1/2 an onion (diced)

*1 small can sliced olives

*8 oz can green chilies

*2 15 oz cans black beans

*1 15oz can corn

*1 cup grated cheese 

*as much cheese at you want for on top

Sauce

*3 packets enchilada sauce mix

*18 oz tomato paste

*6 cups water

1. Saute onions in a large non stick pot. Add meat and brown. This is a smell that will draw any man into your house. Except for vegetarian men. But those aren't real men anyway.

2. While meat is cooking drain beans and corn in a colander in the sink and rinse away all that gooey bean junk. Drain meat and return to pot. Add in beans, corn, chilies and olives. 

3. You have to be a woman to make these because multitasking is required. While the meat is cooking and while you're draining cans and putting on a bandaid because you cut yourself on all of those wicked sharp lids, make the sauce. Basically mix the 3 ingredients in a medium sauce pan and stir it every now and then. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until you're done with everything else.

4. Add about 2 cups of sauce to the filling and a cup of cheese. Stir that goodness together. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. This is where it gets tricky. Putting it all together. I was an idiot and burned my thumb on boiling sauce. You can dip the whole tortilla  in sauce using tongs (obviously I was a blonde at that point) or you can do it like this picture, holding onto the sides of the tortilla and dipping the middle in the sauce. I would maybe in hindsight pour some sauce in the bottom of the pan first. So anyway, back to the dipping. Do that and then put some filling in and roll it up! Repeat 20 times. Like a robot.

6. Now that you've squished all of this mess into pans and hopefully kept your fingers alive and made a mess across your stove, pour the rest of the sauce over these rolled up puppies. Top them with liberal amounts of cheese. We're talking tree hugger liberal here. COVER them. It's so delicious. Pop these suckers into the oven uncovered and bake for 20 minutes. Let them cool a bit before you let your minions devour them. 

You can serve these with mexican rice but I won't share a recipe for that because mine flopped. Oh well. It tasted alright at leftovers! Let me know if you make these and anything you did different so I can try it out too!