Chicken & Cheese Enchilada

Fall is here and so is the damp chilly weather and this is the best time to make food to warm you up. What I love about this recipe is that it is high in fiber and low in fat, but you would never know it when you taste it. So trick those fat cells into singing. May your fat cells sing.

Chicken & Cheese Enchilada

• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 med. sweet onion, diced
• 2-3 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped garlic, from jar
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 3 (10 oz.) cans Campbell's 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
• 1 (4 oz.) can chopped mild green chiles
• 1 (16 oz.) container fat free sour cream
• 2 (12.5 oz.) cans of chicken breast packed in water or 3 cups cooked chopped chicken
• 6 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 (8 oz.) bag grated reduced fat Sargento's Mexican style cheese
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large 12 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat add olive oil. Then sauté onion, jalapenos, garlic and cilantro for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile mix together soup, green chiles, and sour cream, mix well. Add to above mixture and cover and heat over med/low heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Open and drain canned chicken if using this and crumble with fingers to break up large chunks. 

Add 3 cups of the  soup mixture to chicken and add the cheese as well. Reserving the rest of the soup mixture for the next step. Spread out tortillas on counter and evenly divide chicken mixture between the tortillas, about 2/3 cups each plus a little more.

Spray a 10 x 13 inch pyrex dish with cooking spray and roll up tortillas and place into baking dish. Spread the remaining soup mixture on top of enchiladas and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Creamed Corn Muffins

I love corn muffins, but I do not like a dry corn muffin. These babies are nice and moist. I love to serve them with my Gumbo, or with Chili. These are so tasty that you will find many ways to serve them. So let's get out the muffin tin and make these oh so easy to make muffins. Enjoy!

Creamed Corn Muffins

• 1 ¼ cups flour, all purpose sifted
• 1 cup yellow corn meal
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• ¼ cup canola oil*
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 (14 ¾ oz.) can of creamed corn

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir in the oil, milk and eggs, incorporating until just wet then stir in the creamed corn until just mixed.

Pour the batter into 12 greased muffin cups, filling to the brim. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes or until puffed and a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in a pan for 10 minutes before turning out. Makes 12 muffins. I always serve these with my Gumbo or Chili recipes.

* My friend Joe shared a cooking tip with me. He accidentally left out the oil and found out that they were still scrumptious without it. I don't know about you but I'm always trying to find a way to cut back on fat, but not on the flavor. Thanks for the tip Joe!

Sweet Variation: Use 1 (8oz) can drained crushed pineapple instead of creamed corn

Dan Pelz, the former owner of The Inn at Buckeystown, was kind enough to let me use his recipe.  Thank You Dan!

Baked Figs Stuffed With Cheese

There is something special about the sweet taste of a fresh fig. You can not compare these to dried figs or Fig Newtons. Also they are hard to find because they need to ripen on the tree. I love them so much that it prompted me to grow my own fig tree. This tree is only 2 years old but I am getting about 6-8 ripe figs per day off of it. I read that by the time my tree is 3 years old that I will get 3 bushels of figs. It is the easiest tree to grow and fall is the perfect time to plant one of these treasures.

Baked Figs Stuffed with Cheese

• 12 fresh figs
• Gorgonzola crumbled cheese about 1/2 cup
• Pam olive oil spray
• kitchen scissors

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile using scissors cut off fig stems then cut halfway through fig twice in a X pattern. Gently open up fig and place on a pyrex glass baking dish. Gently place about 1/2 to 1 tsp of cheese into X opening of fig. Spray figs with Pam olive oil spray and bake for about 10 minutes. Serve immediately. Enjoy!