Sunday, August 26, 2012

Low Carb Enchiladas Verdes - Lazy Leftovers Strike Back

Hatch Green Chile Fest continues to reign supreme in kitchen stadium!

Low Carb Green Enchiladas with Pork or
Enchiladas Verdes de Puerco - gluten free (if you can have
dairy), Paleo and diabetic friendly. And the best part?
They are Girlish Figure Approved (GFA!)
A moment on the lips,
forever off your hips!
I figured for once you might appreciate if I finish an idea thread with all the associated recipes before running off on another tangent! I hope by now you aren’t bored with the whole Green Chili Festival thing! We have so many recipes to explore! The next two posts will be recipes that build upon using an element or elements of things already made. Let’s call them Lazy Leftovers. Or Sloppy Seconds – your pick!

One of the things I love about planned abundance – that’s a nice way to say, “That Susie, she cooks like she’s cooking for 10 people instead of 2 adults, 5 sock monkeys, a little toy dog, a stuffed giraffe, and the little dog’s stuffed sock monkey baby. Hey wait! That is almost 10 isn’t it? But none of the menagerie eat much…

So one of the things I love about cooking in batches is that it allows me to morph dishes into really fantastic complex, multi-step dishes at a moment’s notice and with little effort. I look like a culinary wizard, but really I’m just Lazy Susie, taking shortcuts and scoring points in the kitchen.
Tex-Mex Pulled Pork makes almost 3lbs of cooked meat!
It freezes great and is a Lazy Leftovers Rockstar!
Tex-Mex is a cuisine especially suited for this style of cooking, unless you’re a purist who cannot deal with rewarming, or freezing elements (which I am not). Tex-Mex bases taste great the first time around as stand-alone dishes and elements and freeze great too!

So although the Enchiladas Verdes involve 3 recipes, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to throw them in the oven and by the time they finish baking, you’ve whipped together a salad and are ready for the major league.




Moist and succulent pulled pork makes Lazy Leftovers
a snap!
Enchiladas Verdes de Puerco (or Pork Green Enchiladas) are the resultant Lazy Leftovers Lovechild of these three Tex-Mex bases and you can find the recipes by clicking on the links. Oh and the best part about it? They are sock monkey approved!

It all starts with roasted pulled pork shoulder. The pork nestles with a bit of Monterey jack cheese and gets wrapped, snug as a bug in a rug, in low carb tortillas. Tomatillo Sauce  wraps everything together in a warm hug and you guessed it, MORE Monterey jack cheese is the finishing flourish!








I am not kidding you, nor tooting a Fluffy Chix Cook horn, although I’ve been known to do that.

Ahem, see? I was tagged in this photo… *sigh* It's hard to be a celebrity in a digital world. All the world is a photo shoot! Anonymity be damned.

But hey, on an up note, I think I can see my collarbone in this photo! Don't you think so? And I can sure see that I've lost 90+ pounds now. Can you believe you lose weight eating this kind of food? Low carb totally rocks it.

Oh and I forgot to mention, my nuclear stress test shows zero cardiac anomalies. No blockages. No enlargement (in fact my once enlarged left ventricle is now back to normal size and my ejection fraction is up from 60% to 73%). I just wish "low carb diets" weren't so "unhealthy". *hehe* (Um, but I will admit it shows I'm extraordinarily out of shape and need to get serious about cardiac conditioning. Apparently cooking and writing is not an approved aerobic activity!)


Low Carb Enchiladas Verdes with Mexican Side Salad of
greens, radish, red onion, avocado, cilantro and lime.
These Enchiladas Verdes are as good as any you would pay $12-$15 for in a fancy Mexican restaurant. In fact, I think I saw Mama Ninfa wipe a tear from the corner of her eye, she was so proud of me.

And they cost less than $1.50 to make when you buy on sale! Depending on how elaborate your salad is, you could eat for less than $2.00 per person. FOR DINNER! You can’t even buy a frozen entrée for that price.

The bonus about this enchilada entrée is it’s fewer than 10g Net Carbs and the flour tortillas are totally grain free. Oh, and it’s PACKED with vitamins and minerals like Vitamins C and A and great folate! You can indulge your Tex-Mex habit while remaining low carb street legal and as you and I both know, that’s half the battle!

Enchiladas Verdes de Puerco are sock monkey approved too!
I will continue to maintain till my dying breath, if you put lipstick on a pig, most will dance with her at the party. Well, it might take red solo cups and beer goggles for that to happen, but let’s not split hairs here.

Ok, ok. I will rephrase for ya and speak in non-Texan! What I’m saying is, if you disguise your Lazy Leftovers well enough, they will look brand-spankin’ new, bright and shiny, and purty as a picture. They will become the belle of the ball and all the boys will wanna dance! I can assure you, no one in their right mind would turn their nose up at these Enchiladas Verdes because they are Lazy Leftovers. Let’s keep that our little secret though, ok?

Oh and the boys send you a big “Olé!”

Enchiladas Verdes

Serving Size: 4 (2 enchiladas per person)  Yield: 8 enchiladas with sauce and cheese
    
Preparation Time: 15 Minutes
Baking Time: 30 Minutes
Start to Finish Time: 45 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy if you’ve made have all the “base” recipes made and waiting for you!

This is such a delicious and filling entree, no one would ever guess it's diet friendly or low carb! Guiltless pleasures and Tex-Mex heaven on a plate.


Ingredients
8 tortillas  low carb flour tortillas
8 ounces  Tex-Mex pulled pork shoulder
6 ounces  Monterey jack cheese -- shredded
1 ½ cups  Tex-Mex tomatillo sauce










Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly warm tortillas in the microwave to soften and make them flexible.


Lay out a tortilla and place 1 ounce of pulled pork down the front edge of the tortilla. Add 1/2 ounce of shredded cheese (about 1-2 tablespoons). Roll loosely and place seam-side down in a pyrex or glass baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. You should end up with 8 tortillas. Don't over crowd them!


Spread enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. Cover and bake enchiladas for 30 minutes or until they are heated through. During the last 10 minutes of baking, add remaining cheese to the top of the tortillas and return to oven. Cook until cheese melts and starts to brown.


Or, if you are really lazy like me, simply add the cheese, pop a lid or tent with non-stick aluminum foil on those bad boys and get 'em in the oven. No poncin' around all fancy-like!


Serve enchiladas, 2 per person, with a couple of slices of avocado and a dollop of sour cream. Sprinkle fresh chopped cilantro and add a wedge of lime to the plate. Garnish is not included in the recipe totals.

Per Serving: 528 Calories; 39g Fat; 35g Protein; 8.25g Carbohydrate; 2.25g Dietary Fiber; 126mg Cholesterol; 787mg Sodium; 6g Net Carbs
Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 4 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 5 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.



SUSIE T’s NOTES:
The beauty of this Tex-Mex classic is how quickly it comes together when you have all the elements of the dish pre-made and in your refrigerator or freezer. Lazy Leftovers rock! Simply defrost the tomatillo sauce and pulled pork! (Take ‘em out and put them in the fridge on the way out the door before work!) Make a comforting and quick week night meal in minutes.

Lazy Leftovers make you look like a champ!

It's hard to beat the price of this meal, too. For less than $1.50 per person, you get a filling, one dish meal. Add a side salad and you'll eat like royalty for under $2.50. Olé!

One word about the side salad...please include radishes, red onion, avocado and cilantro in it? You can add anything else you choose! We like to add tomato and cucumber too for a fresh palate cleanser. Top it with a bit of queso fresco or feta and a light toss with House Vinaigrette and you're ready to roll!

Full Recipe - 8 Enchiladas - $5.90
Per 2 Enchilada Single Serving - $1.48

6 comments:

  1. Great. Thanks a lot, Suz! Now I know what I'll have to give up for Lent next year...
    (Yes, some of us 'heathens' do that, too.)

    :)

    P.S. I thought I would die laughing when I saw the kids in their O.O.S. regalia! (Kinda reminded me of that other outfit - well, except yours are well bathed, literate, and civil in their demeanor. Oh, and not standing in their own waste...)

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    1. Oh Elwin, just don't make the mistake of making our "boys" mad! I'm not gonna go into details here but you know, just in observation...that stuff does truly fly and it has lift! And when it hits the fan? Well, let's just say you'd wish you were somewhere else!

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    2. Oh, now - they look too sweet to be up to any real tom foolery...

      :^)

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    3. Mama always called us Street Angels and House Devils. LOL. The coconut didn't fall too far from the tree! ;) And um, I might mention it's a bit of a cracked nut at that! :D

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  2. Not only does "the lazy Susan" method save PERSONAL energy, but it saves UTILITY energy too--we are a family of two, and I also cook enough meat for a week all in one day. I'm also a "lazy Susan" when it comes to keeping cooked meat on hand for impromptu meals.

    When you see how much time and electricity/gas it saves, as well as time trapped in the kitchen, how could you NOT do it?

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    1. You, Wenchy! Are a schmarty mcschmartipants! :D

      LOVE the Lazy Susan term for the LL!!! :D It really does work great!! Although, I have to confess I don't do it all in one day cuz I just don't have enough stamina. But a lot of weeks it turns out that I make 1 or 2 meals of meat and then we eat a couple of meals on it (different meals, same meat base) and freeze the rest. So I just cook 1 big batch of that meat or sauce or soup base or veg whatever, you know?

      I WISH I could cook it all in one day though. :( But as it stands, now, that once you build up your stock of bases in the freezer, you can really almost maintain it by every time you cook a meal, even if it's only 2-3 nights a week that you would cook, if you cooked a recipe yielding 4 or 6 servings, you would still be "feeding Deep Space 9 (the freezer) at the same time you're feeding your face.

      So glad you are seeing a significant savings on utility bills!!! MUAH! Thanks for the awesome tip girl!!

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