Quck & Easy Nacho Cheese

Have you been wondering where the heck have I been?  Perhaps not, but I'll tell you anyway.


Back in February I went to South Carolina for a month with my kids.  We stayed with family, I worked full time, and I cooked very little.

Strike one for the blog.

Right before we left, I also discovered that I was pregnant.  For me, this generally results in an aversion to cooking for a few months.

Strike two for the blog.

So before I strike out completely I thought it was time to get back into the swing of things and start blogging again.  Hopefully the eight of you that actually used to keep up with it haven't given up on me completely!

This little recipe is one that was hatched one night while trying to come up with something to do with leftovers that my kids would eat.  Desperation is often the motivation for innovation.  Didn't someone say that once?  If not, they should have.  Regardless, I browsed a few online recipes for Nacho Cheese and wasn't happy with any of them.  They all called for things that I didn't have or my kids wouldn't eat.  Like jalapeno's for instance.  So we scrapped those ideas and just made up our own.

Nacho Cheese

1 Tbsp real butter
1 heaping Tbsp flour
1/3 to 1/2 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese
2-3 Tbsp salsa

Start by melting your butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Sprinkle in flour and mix till absorbed into the melted butter.

Add the milk a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well.

If you add the milk too quickly (like I did here), you'll end up with clumps.  No worries, just break up as many as you can with your spoon and move on. 

Now it's time to stir in the cheese.  I used a 4-cheese Mexican blend for this batch, but you can use whatever you think you'd prefer. If you like your nacho cheese a little spicy, try some pepper jack!

Once the cheese is just about melted, go ahead and stir in the salsa.

Continue cooking and stirring until cheese sauce is completely melted together.

You can serve this any number of ways.  You can use it as a dip like any other nacho cheese, or you can make fajita nachos like we did.  Just heat up over your leftover fajita filling (click here for my recipe), put it on top of corn chips and drizzle the whole thing with nacho cheese.  It's a fabulous way to take care of those leftovers.

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.

Apples & Caramel

This "recipe" is one that I learned in college.  Back then I was still Nutritionally Ignorant, and thought that when something was "fat free" it was better for me.  Therefore I would make this stuff all the time with fat free sweetened condensed milk and think I could eat all I wanted.  Now that I know better, I don't make it very often but it is oh-so-good when I do!

So what's the recipe?  Since there's only one ingredient, I guess there isn't one.  But here's how you do it...

Take a can of sweetened condensed milk (your favorite brand or type) and peel off the label.

Place it into a pan with enough water to cover it (or almost cover it).  Bring the water to a boil, and let it boil for about three hours.

Since you'll be boiling this for a while, there's two important things you must do:

1.  Add hot water from time to time.  The water levels will go down over time when you're boiling water, so you'll want to be sure and keep the water levels high enough to keep the can mostly immersed.

2.  Move the can around periodically.  You don't want the milk to burn on one side, and if the can is only mostly immersed, you'll need to make sure it rolls around to cook evenly.

After 3 hours, remove from heat.  Allow the can to cool before opening so you don't burn yourself.  And from experience I can tell you that if you open that can hot, there is some serious pressure built up inside.  Trust me and be patient.  Let the can cool.  When it's cool enough to touch, take off the top.

 Spoon caramel into a small dish and store in fridge.

Or, cut up some apples and enjoy yourself!