Beef Enchiladas

Many moons ago Barbara - You remember her, right?  Author of the yummy fajita soup? - also gave me her recipe for enchiladas.  We make a good bit of Mexican food around here, but somehow I never got around to making this recipe.  I'll be honest.  When I have to cook dinner in a hurry it's almost always something Mexican, like black bean and tomato quesidillas, chicken fajitas, or tacos.   When I'm in a hurry I don't always think about trying something new, and because it's my "fallback" I don't usually cook Mexican on other nights.

And so, this recipe sat collecting dust in one of my many piles on my kitchen counter.  As I was cleaning and trying to go through my junk important papers over Christmas I came across this recipe again.  I decided to try it on my family one night with chicken.  The recipe she gave me ends up with a lot of enchilada sauce and though I really liked it the Peanut Gallery came back with a "good, but too tomato-y" review.  So, I thought of some changes I could make, and determined I would try again in a few weeks.

This week was our big night.  The Honey was working late on Tuesday and I got busy in the afternoon with some things and by the time I looked at the clock I realized it was after 5:00.  The only meat I had that wasn't frozen was a big pack of ground beef in my fridge that I had just bought the week before and hadn't frozen yet, and I hadn't done my grocery shopping yet for this week.  However, I did have some leftover tortillas that I could use...   And so beef enchiladas it was!

I'm going to go ahead and post both the recipe I used this past week as well as Barbara's original recipe.  I really like how she used beans in her filling.  However, I chose not to use them this week since Horse Lover hates them and The Honey wasn't going to be home in time for dinner anyway.  Besides, I only needed to make 5 enchiladas.  I wasn't opening a whole can of beans for that.  So although you won't see any beans in my pictures, I'm going to go ahead and post the recipe as I would make it if I were making a full batch for dinner.


Beef Enchiladas

Enchilada Sauce
1/2 c. tomato sauce or pureed diced tomatoes
1/2 c. salsa
1/4 c. taco seasoning (about 1 packet)

Filling
3/4 lb. ground beef, cooked, rinsed and drained
1 can fat-free refried beans
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt/pepper to taste

You will also need...
Shredded cheese, pepper jack or Mexican blend
10 taco-size tortillas

Mix together your tomato sauce, salsa, and taco seasoning.  Set aside.
(Remember, I made a half-batch so you'll need to use a bigger bowl to mix this than pictured.)

Place cooked beef and refried beans (just pretend they are there, okay?) in a large pan.  Heat through and add onion powder, garlic powder, and salt/pepper to taste.

Okay, now it's time to assemble these babies.  Go ahead and prep your enchilada pans.  If making a full batch you'll probably need 2 rectangular casserole dishes as wide as the tortillas.  Coat with cooking spray and spoon a light covering of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Then, put a portion of your meat mixture on a tortilla and top with cheese.

Place your rolled enchiladas into your prepared pans. 

Top with remaining enchilada sauce.

Now sprinkle some more cheese.  As you can see, I have both pepper jack and co-jack lovers in my house so I did a mix in my pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until heated through.

Make ahead tip:

Cover the pan(s) with aluminum foil and stick in the fridge.  To reheat, bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

And for those who want to try it, here's the original sauce recipe!

Barbara's variation:

Mix one small can of tomato paste with 1/4 c. taco seasoning.  Add enough water to get it the consistency of a thicker sauce.  This will make a lot of sauce, probably more than you need.  Barbara likes to serve it with dinner for those that want more sauce.