Enchiwawas and Deluxe Pumpkin Cheesecake. You're Not Ready for This!

This week has been such a busy week, so we did more fast food than we did home cooked meals. I HATE fast food because I am a vegetarian so for most fast food joints, I am limited to french fries or other unhealthy, greasy sides. Luckily, Burger King has one of the best veggie burgers. I am not talking about the burger with a veggie patty. When I go, I order a Veggie Whopper with Cheese. All it is, is a Whopper without the meat patty. I don't know what they do to it that is different from McDonald's or anywhere else for that matter, but it justs tastes good. I know it sounds completely unappetizing, but I made my fiance (a hard-core meat lover) try it, and he actually got a little scared because he really liked it. My theory on this is that most people eat burgers for the toppings they put on it. When does anyone ever eat a plain meat patty between bread? Hardly ever! So, I would like to challenge you to go to Burger King and try a Veggie Whopper. Again, do not get this confused with a Veggie Burger at BK because there is a difference. I had to find that out the hard way. And for $1.75, you can't beat it!

Every Sunday Alex and I got to his parent's house to watch football. Somehow, it has been an unspoken rule that I bring dessert. I guess since his mom slaves in the kitchen making a Sunday dinner, it is the least I can do to bring dessert. I decided to make Key Lime Pie because it is his mother's favorite and it is so easy to make. The one I linked here is the recipe I always use, but next time I think I am going to have to kick it up a notch.

These are all the ingredients you need for Key Lime Pie.

When I was in the store searching for just plain old lime juice, I stumbled across this!

This was wonderful because I did make a Key Lime Pie where I squeezed probably 50 key limes by hand and it was horrible. The product was not even worth the sum of its' parts.

Another key to making this pie is that you *must* make the graham cracker crust from scratch. It is not hard and it is infinitely better than those yucky store bought crusts. As a matter of fact, I do not know how those pre-made crusts even sell. All you do for graham cracker crust is crush the graham crackers...

I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use my food processor.

Then put them in a bowl with sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Press on the bottom of a pie tin and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees fahrenheit.

For the pie filling, I don't exactly follow the directions to a tee. With this sort of dessert, you really don't have to. I follow the basic measurements, but depending on the taste I fluctuate. There is one ingredient that I have found to be paramount in this pie and that is the lime zest. Me and lime zest have a love-hate relationship when it comes to Key Lime Pie. The first two times I made this pie, I included the lime zest, but I could not get over the way those little pieces get stuck in your mouth and you have to chew them. It's almost unexpected because you swallow a bite and then all of the sudden you're chewing on something and for a second you think you've eaten a bug until you realize it was the zest. The third one I made, I left it out, and the pie tasted more like sweetened condensed milk than lime. For this pie, I zested the lime, and then took the time to finely chop the lime zest. It is a win-win. The lime gets to be in the pie, and I don't have to put up with irritating lime zest in my mouth.

So, mix the sour cream, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and lime zest in a bowl.

I also take a few limes and squeeze their juices in to make it legit.

Pour it in the pie tins and bake 5 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit, just until those tiny pinhole bubbles start to appear. And...

Ain't it a beaut? I garnished it with some whipped cream and a few sprinkles of lime zest.

The next thing I made this week was chili. I know, it is getting old. Believe me I know the feeling because I am the one that has made it so many times. The one thing that I do love is that I put it in a crockpot so it is ready when I get home. I get off of work at 6:30, so a lot of times we aren't eating until 7:30 or 8:00. At any rate, I am officially done with chili for a while because I am tired of cooking huge batches, only to be disappointed with the results. I don't know why, but for some reason this chili keeps coming out bitter. The recipe calls for beer and I took that out completely and it is still better. It was definitely the best one yet, but I am still not crazy about it. The other thing I do differently in this chili is that I don't use the exact beans specified. Instead, I use light and dark red kidney beans, black beans, great northern beans, pinto beans and corn. I put two cans of corn in because I love the sweetness it adds.

I make sweet cornbread muffins to go along with it.

Friday I made my Enchiwawas. This, of course, is a vegetarian version of enchiladas and they are always a hit and so easy to make. I think the most important part to making these so good is the rice. I use Rice-A-Roni Spanish Style.

To prepare this rice, it gives you a couple of different options. You can either use tomato sauce or a jar of salsa. I have done both and the salsa version is by far, the best ever. What makes it even better is the salsa that I use, which is Newman's Own Naturally Chunky Medium Salsa. 

Why is this salsa the best? I will show you!

Note the huge chunks of veggies...

So for Enchiwawas, you will need the above rice prepared, a can of refried beans, two cans Old El Paso Enchilada sauce (the best I have found), cheese and Mission Tortillas. I specify the tortillas because for some reason the Mission brand is the only tortillas that I have found that do not break apart.

Spread the refired beans, then the chili and the the rice. The key here is not to put a huge amount of refried beans on the tortilla. Somehow, they overpower the rice.

Spray a baking dish with Pam and then pour enough enchilada sauce to coat bottom of the pan. Place the enchiladas in, seam side down, and pour remaining enchilada sauce on the top to coat tortillas. Sprinkle cheese, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit until cheese is bubbly. Then pop it in the broiler to brown cheese.

I know I have already shared how I enjoy peanut butter on my pancakes and ketchup on my eggs, but I am afraid you might not be ready for how I like to eat my Enchiwawas, or any Mexican food for that matter.

The sour cream and Frank's hot sauce might not alarm you, but yes, there is a heaping pile of cinnamon applesauce on the side as well. I like to mix all three.

This is a throwback to my childhood when my dad only knew how to cook spaghetti, frozen pizza, hanburger helper and tacos. My sister and I would go to his house every other weekend, so it always seemed like a variety of food. With each dish, he would serve cinnamon applesauce. I guess it was his way of offering some sort of a well-rounded meal. Well, to this day, I eat cinnamon applesauce with spaghetti, frozen pizza, hamburger helper and tacos. I guess it is sort of a conditioned taste because I got Alex to try it and he hated it. However, he does eat the applesauce on the side. Another result of my dad's bachelor cooking was that I can and will only eat cinnamon applesauce. Try it! You might like this combination!

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and while there, I came up with a meal on the fly. I saw some romaine and all of the sudden I started craving a baked potato and a salad. I have also been dying to eat fresh cucumber and ranch so I made that our meal last night. You know, I know this meal is extremely simple, but it was so refreshing. I think I cook pretty heavily most of the time, so this was a wonderful change. The one tip I will offer? Crisp your lettuce. Cut it up, rinse it and set it in a bowl with some paper towels in the bottom. Refridgerate for 15 minutes or so. The difference this makes is amazing and well worth it.

Yeah, I love sour cream.

So the finale for this week was Deluxe Pumpkin Cheesecake. I found this recipe in a Taste of Home book that I got at the supermarket. I was pretty intimidated by this recipe because it was the first real cheesecake I had ever made. That, coupled with the fact that there were a lot of different elements to it, made it scary looking. I even had to buy a springform pan to bake it in. I still don't understand the point to this, because I would think you could just use a pie tin and cut the cheesecake out of that.

So the recipe said to wrap the bottom of the pan in double thickness heavy duty foil.

To make the crust, you crumb gingerbread cookies and pecans. Add melted butter. I also added 1/3 cup sugar because I didn't think the crust was sweet enough. Then, you press it into the bottom of the pan and bake. I was watching Giada on Food Network and she showed a neat trick to pressing the crust down. Wrap a measuring cup in plastic wrap and press.

The next step is to cream the cream cheese, cornstarch and sugar. Add the remaing three packages and cream those together. Then add the eggs and remaining sugar and beat until creamed.

I thought it was pretty.

The next thing you do is remove some of the cheesecake mixture and stir together pumpkin puree, cinnamon and nutmeg. Remove 3/4 of that mixture and pour the remaining mixture in the bottom of the pan. Top with cheesecake mixture and then dollop the previously separated pumpkin mixture over the top. Cut with a knife to swirl.

So purdy.

Then you're supposed to put it in a larger baking dish and fill with one inch of hot water. Bake for an hour and cool for an hour before putting it in the fridge overnight.

Drum roll, please!

Ta-da!!! This cheesecake was AMAZING! It is definately worthy for a spot on the Thanksgiving table.

That is all for this week. I have a busy week ahead of me, but I have some new recipes I am going to try. This coming week will be filled with soups and casseroles which indicates one thing: fall!

Tuna Fish Nachos and More Roasted Veggies!!!

Last week there was nothing to post about because I did not cook hardly at all. But, so far, this week I have cooked some pretty yummy meals that I am excited about. I do want to apologize, though, because I left my camera in Callaway Gardens so most of the pictures are taken by my g1.

This is me and Alex at Callaway, roasting marshmallows.

So this first thing I want to talk about is tuna fish nachos. I know, I know it sounds horrible, but I promise you they are delicious. My mom swears she made it with canned chicken, but I am positive it was made with tuna fish. So, if you do not like tuna fish or are allergic to fish, you can use canned chicken. So, tuna fish nachos are really easy to make. All you need is tortilla chips, shredded cheddar cheese, and the stuff to make tuna fish the way you like it. I put mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper in my tuna fish. If you like relish in your tuna fish, I would not reccommend it for this recipe.

Mix the tuna fish and spread the chips in a single layer on a pan.

Place dollops of tuna fish on each chip. This isn't as time consuming as it sounds. Then sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.

Bake in an oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 to 15 minutes. Enjoy!

The next thing I made was summer squash lasagna. Yellow squash was on sale at Ingles so I found a recipe that uses a lot of squash. The recipe calls for six cups so use six squash. After you slice the squash, boil it until tender.

Then sautee garlic, onions and meat (optional). After that, stir in rice, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, egg whites, oregano, basil, and salt. I made the rice in advance because I did not want to have to worry about it cooking for an hour, in addition to cooking the lasagna.

Layer the "lasagna," top with cheese and bake!

With this dinner I roasted some baby asparagus. In case you haven't already read, roasting vegetables is my new favorite thing. I drizzled olive oil over the asparagus and sprinkled with salt. I roasted it at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 5 or 10 minutes, just until bright green. Alex did not like the asparagus so I kid you not, I ate the whole bunch of it, by myself. It was kind of funny because using a fork went out the window. I loved it so much that I held the asparagus as if it were a bouquet of flowers and ate it.

YUM-O!!!

So, after every holiday I hit Wal-Mart to get all of the holiday goodies for half off. We went the day after Halloween and I got a silicone baking pan that had leaf and pumpkin shapes (still appropriate for fall!). I also got some cake mix that was orange and black and some chocolate frosting. I didn't get the cake mix to use with the silicone pan, but I found a way to make it work.

I don't know why, but my camera started to fog up.

This is how they came out and I got the idea to use a pastry bag and inject chocolate frosting in the middle, like a hostess cake.

My fiance loved these and it is so funny because they took no effort or skill to make.

I made tortilla stew, and I loved this soup. The base was green enchilada sauce and I was afraid that would not work well, but it did. Alex said this is the one dish I have made that he craved meat in. He said it was not fulfilling, but I loved it! It has great flavor and it isn't even spicy. I put tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese in it. I could see how some shredded chicken would really kick this stew up. Because I was so frustrated at this point because I did not have my camera, I snapped a quick photo before I ate.

This picture does this stew no justice. Just one of those things you might have to take a chance with.

Okay, I got my camera back today so all of the pictures will be normal now. Tonight I made veggie stuffed shells. These are so good because it hides carrots in the filling and the potatoes give it such a unique taste. It is not your average manicotti. The recipe calls to dice the potatoes, carrots and onions so I use my food processor to finely chop the veggies. This is important because you don't want huge chunks that take forever to cook and that are disproportionate to the shell. This time I accidentally shredded them instead. I do not know what I was thinking. After that, you boil the veggies until tender in vegetable broth. This gives them wonderful flavor.

Mix the veggies with the ricotta, egg, italian seasoning, parmesan and mozzarella, then stuff the shells. The recipe calls for 24 shells, but I use the whole box and still have filling left over. For the sauce, I am in love with Newman's Own Socarooni sauce. First, I love Newman's Own products because not only are they all natural, but they are so chunky. Second, this Sockarooni sauce has a nice kick to it. It isn't spicy but it does have what can only be described as a zing!

Pour some sauce in the bottom of the pan and place stuffed shells in the pan. Pour remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle the parmesan on top.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.

For a side, I roasted broccoli (my favorite!) and squash left over from the squash lasagna. I cut the squash into chunks, drizzled olive oil, sprinkled with salt and italian seasoning. I love the McCormick Italian Seasoning grinder. It is so yummy and it makes anything taste good.

Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for about ten minutes.

Did I mention I love roasted vegetables??

That was it for this week so far. I had a helacious week with work and leaving my camera in Callaway was somewhat discouraging. I feel very accomplished this week though, because I have made dinner every night and we have not eaten out once (not that we can afford to anyways). For some reason, though, I feel a little under appreciated. I think sometimes people don't realize what it takes to work a full day and come home and stand on your feet and cook a homemade dinner. It's quite exhausting and some days I just want to come home and it magically be done.