Dinner for Real

Last week I asked if anyone would be interested in an ongoing series devoted to real dinners for everyday life. Lots of people said they would be interested. To be honest, I was surprised that there were so many people who share my difficulty in coming up with dinner ideas. I've always felt terribly deficient in the area of meal planning and execution, but maybe it's a more common hardship than I thought!

This series will be dedicated to sharing real recipes for real dinners for real people in real life. Nothing fancy, nothing prize-winning. . . but also nothing that hasn't been taste-tested by real people.

We'll start with one of our favorite kinds of food: Mexican.  I'm not sure that what we call "Mexican" is particularly authentic, but we like it--simple fare that's not too expensive.  Maybe it's more Tex-Mex than Mexican.  Or maybe it's just what we like since it usually involves meat and cheese.  Anyway, here's one of our favorites:  simple enchiladas.

You can cook meat specifically to use in enchiladas, but this also a great way to use up leftover chicken or beef.  We especially like chicken enchiladas, and I simply pull chicken apart with two forks to stuff the enchiladas.  Here's how to make them: 

Simple Enchiladas

First, spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour some canned or bottled enchilada sauce (I use store brand red sauce) into the pan.

In the microwave, warm some tortillas. We prefer flour tortillas, although I think corn tortillas are often preferred for enchiladas. Use whatever you like.

Wet the warm tortillas a bit with the enchilada sauce. That way they won't tear when you roll them.  (See how the tops and bottoms of the tortillas are cut off?  That's because my tortillas were a little too big for my baking pan!)

Place some of the chicken, a bit of the enchilada sauce, and some cheese inside each tortilla.  
Roll up.

Place rolled tortillas, seam side down, into prepared pan.  Pour remainder of enchilada sauce across top of tortillas. Sprinkle with more cheese if you like (I always do).

Bake 30 minutes or more, until everything is hot and melty and yummy.

My kids love these, and I have to admit that I really like them, too. They're not fancy, but they taste really good. We like to have rice and beans with them, and my husband usually likes to have some salad as well.

Now, what do you think? Is this a recipe you think you could use? Do you have a recipe you'd like to contribute? I'd really like this series to be a collaborative effort. Would you like to write a guest post for this series? Or would you prefer that we do a recipe linky party? Please let me know! And may your dinnertime be blessed!