Eating While Saving : Enchiladas

Tonight's meal began when I discovered some flour tortillas in the fridge.  I decided while I'm getting rid of all these things we have on hand I might as well use them up too, so I decided to make enchiladas.  These are totally unlike the usual enchiladas I make.  In my normal ones I use chicken, green peppers, fresh mushrooms, onions, store-bought enchilada sauce, and loads of Mexican cheese.

For these enchiladas I used:

 

Some of the 25-pound bag of rice we have on hand (and have had for what seems like forever now)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About a fourth of this 3-pound package of ground beef

 

 

 

 

 

Butter for the enchilada sauce recipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomato Sauce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a can of Mexican Style Chili Beans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the remainder of a can of black olives (left over from yesterday's salad)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the flour tortillas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this cheese dip, which is the only cheese I had on hand, except for some provolone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I did was to start the rice boiling following the rice directions (1 cup rice, 2 cups water, 2 T butter). 

Next I started making the the enchilada sauce using this recipe.  The only thing I did differently was that I didn't have any tomato paste on hand, so I used the small can of tomato sauce instead.  Since tomato sauce is thinner than tomato paste I added 3 tablespoons of flour instead of the 2 tablespoons the recipe calls for.

While making the enchilada sauce I started the ground beef frying up in a large skillet.  When the beef was no longer pink I added the entire (undrained) can of chili beans to it.  I also sliced the olives and added them to the beef and bean mixture.  At this point the rice was done, so I threw it in the pan with the beef, olives, and beans and let them cook for a bit while I finished up the enchilada sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I covered the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish with a little bit of the enchilada sauce.  I filled the flour tortillas with the meat/olives/bean/rice mixture, folded them up and put them fold-side down in the dish.  When all the tortillas were filled and in the dish, I covered them with the cheese dip and the remaining enchilada sauce.

 

 

I covered it with tin foil and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

 

 

This was very tasty and tasted extremely authentic.  I would have loved to have made the enchilada sauce spicier, but the kids won't eat anything too hot and hubby isn't big on spicy things, so I settled for covering mine in Texas Pete.  I wish I had made a little bit more enchilada sauce, because it thickened up quite nicely and so there didn't seem to be much of it.  The cheese dip was surprisingly good; I wasn't sure how it would work out.  The only thing that would have made this better would have been if I had that sour cream that I used in the lasagna the other night!  Overall, four thumbs up from my husband, me, Haley and Parker.  And I spent nothing once again!  Simply used what I had on hand!

 

For my first post in this series, go here - Lasagna.

For my second post in this series, go here - Chicken BBQ Pizza, Salad, & Dessert.