Enchiladas Two Different Ways

(Recipes by Seven.)

SPINACH ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:*
-4 flour tortillas
-1/3 cup onion, minced
-1 1/2 cups spinach**
-1/4 cup sour cream
-handful of Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
-salsa verde/green enchilada sauce
-salt and black pepper
-vegetable oil for frying (not olive oil!)

Method:
1. Fry onion, stirring regularly, until it becomes soft and semi-translucent.
2. Add spinach. If using fresh, just cook until it wilts. If frozen, until it's completely thawed. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Assemble enchiladas by putting some of the spinach and a generous dollop of sour cream in each tortilla.
4. Roll up and place side-by-side in glass casserole dish. Cover liberally with cheese and salsa verde.
5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese has fully melted.


CHEESE AND BLACK OLIVE ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:***
-4 flour OR corn tortillas (I used flour, just for convenience's sake)
-1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
-1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
-about 10 large black olives, pitted and sliced
-1/2 tomato, chopped
-red enchilada sauce (not chunky salsa!)

Method:
1. Assemble enchiladas: add a generous helping of cheddar, several slices of black olive, a few chunks of tomato, and a bit of Monterrey Jack to each tortilla.
2. Roll and place side-by-side in a glass casserole dish. Cover liberally with enchilada sauce and cheddar cheese.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes or until cheese melts.

Notes:
*I actually did not measure any of my ingredients at all, because I'm one of those ridiculous people who cooks by eye if it's something I've made before or know how it's supposed to turn out. So these measurements are a rough estimate at best. Just a warning.

**You can use fresh spinach, of course. I find that whenever I buy it fresh, the majority of it goes bad before I can use it. Frozen tastes just as good and lasts forever. Buy it in bags, though, and not bricks or you run in to the same problem of having a whole lot of un-thawed spinach on your hands and nothing to do with it.

***Seriously, making the numbers up. That's the great thing about cooking things like this, though. Just add stuff until it looks right! You can't really go wrong here!

Serving suggestion: I served them with refried beans and slices of fresh avocado on the side, which I thought complimented the dish well. A fancy lime-and-agave-flavored beer made it just about perfect.

Verdict:

I love enchiladas but had never actually made them before, so I was really pleased with how well these came out. I don't think Carrie was thrilled by the spinach version, but I liked them both quite a lot. Ridiculously easy, not terribly labor-intensive, potentially modifiable in any number of ways...I'll definitely be making these again.

Carrie Says:

They were good. It seemed easy for Seven to make them all by herself and I enojoyed them. Seven--I did like the spinch ones, but maybe we could use ricotta instead of sour cream, or more of a mix? I don't know. Anyway, it was a good meal. Not fantastic, but good.