I needed to make dinner the other day, sort of on the quick. We had soccer training that night, and everyone in the house has been a bit under the weather this week, so dinner had to be quick and simple. The only problem was that I hadn't thought about dinner until about 2pm. I went to the fridge and saw the ground turkey I bought two days earlier. (The turkey that was antibiotic, animal by product free was only 50 cents more per pound, so that was the ticket for me.)
This was a very economical dinner too, I think the entire dish cost about $ 7.00... that would make it about $1.25 per serving! I browned the turkey and mixed in some green chiles, diced onion, and some home canned hot sauce I made last summer. It really wasn't that hot, so it made perfect enchilada sauce. I also threw in a couple spoons of homemade salsa. I already had prepared some rice, a delicious mix of brown, red, and long grain rices. Yum. Delicious all by itself, but paired with some black beans and some shredded Mexican cheese and it was perfect to place in the bottom of the baking dish. Top with the rest of the hot (I mean enchilada) sauce, and it's ready for the oven.
This is what they looked like, at first, but I had only used about 1/2 of the turkey because I added a bit of the rice and beans to the mix, so it went much farther than I thought it would. I could've baked them just like this, and it would've been just fine, but...
I added some of the turkey filling to the top of the enchilada's, just because it looked pretty.
This is what they looked like after about 25 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees F. It was so, so good...really a culinary feat for an Irish girl, to make an awesome enchilada recipe...with no recipe! (The joke around this house, from my hubby, is that the Irish boil everything! And this was baked!) I added some green beans, also so good, on the side, because my Mom always taught me to serve green veggies with light colored main dishes, and yellow or green with beef dishes because it looked more attractive. My husband shudders at this thought, but my Mom had it right though. It's a great way to get enough veggies in every meal. Much better than serving cornbread since the enchiladas are made with flour tortillas.Everyone ate everything, my husband two or three times, (although he still couldn't bring himself to admit his Irish wife made something not boiled...without a recipe or cookbook, and it actually tasted good!) All of this and they made it to soccer training on time too!
