AWKWARD ZOMBIE

hey-o, AZ. I'm really sleepy for some reason, so I might fall face-first into the stove, but welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen.

Makin' enchiladas this week, aw yis. I'm showing you a few options for different flavors that you can mix and match. Enchilada sauce comes in red and green varieties (and different degrees of heat with some brands.) I tend to prefer green sauce with chicken, shredded beef, and white cheese, and red sauce with ground beef, pork, and yellow cheese. Seafood filling with a cream-dilluted red sauce is also pretty good (albeit far more expensive) But it's up to you just what combination you use. The recipe that I'm posting will have photos for both chicken in green sauce, and ground beef in red sauce. If you want, you can use the tortillas that were posted here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11985&p=1088050#p1088050 But I just went ahead and used some storebought tortillas that were sitting in the back of my refrigerator. When you're dousing them in enchilada sauce, it doesn't really matter too much.
Due to making a split batch, the amounts of ingredients that I used are going to be smaller than what is posted.
One downside to this recipe is that I don't know how to make enchilada sauce from scratch (there is a lot of witchcraft and chiles involved), and European markets might not have cans of it just sitting around, should any of you guys want to try this. So sorry for that in advance.

SHOPPING TIPS: This one just about requires meat. When you go to large supermarkets, there will typically be a section of the shelf, tucked away in a corner, where all of the "out of date" meat is. I'm not sure about other countries, but in the U.S., that date doesn't mean when the meat will go bad. It's an indicator of when the dye will look less fresh, and therefore be less marketable. I almost only ever buy meat when it's on a half-off clearance. Just rebag it and put it in the freezer when you get home.
===Canned enchilada sauce can be expensive, so if you like them, watch for them to go on special and hoard them.


ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: $9 USD (but it varies depending on your filling)

ESTIMATED COST PER PIECE: $0.75-0.90 USD (depending on how much you fill them, but you should end up with about 10)



INGREDIENTS:


1 to 1.5 lbs of protein (chicken, beef, pork, etc.)
tortillas
~36 oz of enchilada sauce
1 or 2 yellow onions (depending on how much you like them)
3 cloves of garlic
salt
pepper

OPTIONAL:
shredded cheese for topping
soft white cheese (cream cheese or cottage cheese work best) for filling.




Alright, so chop up your onions and garlic pretty fine,



And then drop them into a skillet on medium to cook to translucence. Put the meat in there too, and if the meat is particularly lean, you may want to add a splash of oil for the onions. (the chicken is photographed here.)



If you're using a large chunk of meat, you'll most likely want to shred it once it's cooked. I just pulled it apart with a fork and a butter knife.



Once your filling is done, get a tortilla ready. I like to spread the middle with a soft cheese, but it's not necessary.



Put your filling in. But make sure you don't overfill them. It should look about like this:



Roll up the tortilla. You don't have to do anything fancy with it. Just roll it up.
But first! pour some of the enchilada sauce into your baking dish:



Then put the rolled-up tortillas in



And put some more sauce on top to cover the tortillas and keep them from drying out. If you want, you can top it off with some shredded cheese.



Cook them at about 400F/205C until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted.




While those are baking, you can make some rice similar to the red rice you see in mexican restaurants (around here, at least) by mixing any leftover red enchilada sauce in with the chicken broth you'll cook the rice in. It's extremely simple.
Plate it up, and enjoy!



(note: This was A LOT of food on one plate. I almost didn't finish it. If you're having a side dish, one enchilada is about all you'll want)

GodDAMN that looks good. So, whats the difference between enchiladas and burritos? Is it the sauce and being baked?

Pretty much. Also, burritos tend to be more like rolled up, Americanized tacos. They'll have beans and lettuce and tomatoes and stuff in there, where as enchiladas are pretty much exclusively the meat and cheese filling with seasonings.

Riku I'm living on my own now and need more budget recipes so I don't starve.

Do you have a ramen preference Riku?

And here is the part where I realize that I've gone over a month with no updates whooooops. Been really busy with schoolwork and forgot.

And I don't really have a preference, no. Whenever I make ramen, I usually just by the cheapest blocks of noodles and add a bunch of vegetables with a scrambled egg or two to it. But rice is cheaper, so I typically just make fried rice.

Do you ever bake Riku? If you ever get the chance to do more of these, I think it'd be cool to see you bake stuff.

Oh, yeah. Actually, I have a few sets of pictures and recipes that I can make up some posts with, but I need to get to a point where I'd have enough time to actually WANT to make these posts. This will probably start up again after school, at the end of June.

PSA: So, Riku informed me a la text that her computer crapped out, so she wont be online for a bit!

realized I can internet with my 3ds or psp, but sweet baby jesus, typing takes forever and a half, so it won't happen mucho.

I made a tritip, even if "made" is a bit of a misnomer considering I marinated it in BBQ sauce, tossed it in the crockpot with said sauce, and put it on Low for 8-9 hours. Tasty though.

I made butter!

When I first cleaned it out of the churning jar and pressed it (the separated buttermilk is in the background):


And then after I let it soften, added salt, and put it on toast. Mmmmm golden deliciousness.

What an elaborate, well thought-out recipe.

Auntie Riku's Butter And Toast

But no really, made butter from scratch woohooo. Aaaand the sad part is that even with cream as expensive as it is, I can make the butter about a dollar cheaper per pound than buying it, and it's not that hard to make it at all (plus, I can form/season it however I want).

Oh man that's so cool!! I am thoroughly impressed. I excitedly await the return of recipes and delicious picture dumps.