Using what we got

  I've been doing my best to clear out our fridge and freezer.  If you've ever seen mine, you know both are always filled to the brim.  (I'm not so good at meal planning so I have to have a lot on hand if I need to whip something up.)  I've done a pretty good job using up everything we got.

 

  From the phyllo dough I bought just to try out to the homemade cranberry sauce to the peaches I had to freeze from this summer, I did my best to use them.  That meant trying my hand at indian spiced spanakopitas, lots of turkey-cream cheese-cranberry sandwiches, and peach cobbler!  Remember that 1/8 of a cow we went in on?  I tried to use most of that too, but then I got all beefed out.  Luckily, we can save what we didn't consume in Mike's parent's deep freezer and when they drive down at some point they can bring us our beef and our raspberry jam.  I also happened upon a new recipe this week that I tried out/made up that was good enough to share.

 

  I bought a living social deal for a 2-for-1 box of organic produce and they sent me some tomatillos.  I have never cooked with tomatillos before so I was a little intimidated, but it turned out to be easy.  I also had about a dozen roasted peppers in my freezer as well as some more from the produce box and I thought I should make some green enchiladas.

 

 

  These definitely aren't the most mouth watering things to look at, but I was working with what I have on hand.  I have no more kitchen, hence the paper plates, plastic utensils, and disposable tin bakers.

  I used this recipe as a guide, but made a lot of substitutions to use what I had on hand.  They turned out great!

 

My substitutions if you take a go at it:
-For the tomatillo sauce, I didn't have cilantro and I didn't use jalapenos (for the kids' sake).  Instead I added in 5 roasted peppers.  I also didn't char them, I just roasted everything in a pan with olive oil and threw it into the food processor with the lime juice.
-For the filling, I used about 6 shredded chicken thighs that I roasted in the spices and herbs listed.  I also added in 1.5-2 cups of corn, 1/2 cup julienned carrots, and 4-5 roasted gypsy peppers sliced to have some veggies!  I didn't have any of the cheeses listed and I only have cheddar cheese that I didn't want to overpower the enchiladas with.  So, I decided to mix in about 1/3 cup of light cream cheese with the shredded roasted chicken and juices and it was delicious!
-I only had flour tortillas on hand, but I am sure corn would have been much better.

I love enchiladas and these were very yummy!  If you try this let me know what you think!