Beef Enchiladas Recipe

Posted on 11/27/2011 by Christy

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This recipe is quite a bit of work, but it’s well worth it!!! I hope you all give it a try, as I’ve never met anyone who didn’t fall in love with these enchiladas, adults and kids alike!! 🙂

NOTE: You can save time and effort by making a larger batch of the sauce – e.g., doubling the recipe – and freezing the extra for next time!

(Psst….If you enjoy this recipe, be sure to get yourself a copy of our additive-free cookbook & grocery shopping guide, “Eating Additive-Free“! It’s stuffed with 150+ more tasty recipes!! Your satisfaction is guaranteed…or your money back!)

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground beef (we use lean, grass-fed)
1 medium onion, diced (optional)
8 to 12 oz. shredded cheese (we use Pepper Jack)
6 tortillas (we use 1 package of Ezekiel Sprouted Grain tortillas)
Enchilada sauce (recipe below)
Taco seasoning (recipe below)

ENCHILADA SAUCE INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp olive oil
½ cup diced onion
1 tsp freshly minced garlic
1/2 cup water
1 TBSP chili powder
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste
3 (6oz) cans of water

TACO SEASONING INGREDIENTS:
2 tsp chili powder
1½ tsp cumin
1 tsp onion granules
3 ¼ tsp garlic granules
½ tsp sea salt

*Check out our Grocery Shopping Guide for our tips on selecting the most additive-free versions of these ingredients.

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare enchilada sauce: Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, brown beef and diced onion (if using). Drain if needed. Stir taco seasoning ingredients and 3/4 cup water into cooked meat; bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.

Place tortillas on a flat surface (I use a clean countertop) and coat each with a thin layer of sauce.

Divide meat mixture evenly between the tortillas.

Sprinkle on desired amount of shredded cheese and fold to close. (Save about 1/3 of the cheese to sprinkle on top!)

Grease a 9 x 12 baking dish (although I never bother greasing my glass dish!).

Cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of sauce, so the tortillas don’t dry out on the bottom.

Place all folded enchiladas into the pan and cover evenly with remaining sauce, making sure to coat the outer edges.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25 min., until bubbly & warm.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, and return to oven until cheese melts (about 5 minutes).

We enjoy these just like this, but you could top with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

We enjoy these served with homemade baked corn chips.

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“CHOCOLATE CHIP” CHEWY GRANOLA BARS (gluten/dairy-free)

Posted on 11/21/2011 by Christy

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These bars are chewy and delicious, but not too sweet. They can easily be made gluten-free and/or dairy-free to suit your needs.

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups Old Fashioned Oats (we use a gluten-free variety)
1/3 cup coconut oil (or butter)
1 cup raw honey
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups almonds, chopped (we throw them in food processor)
1/2 cup cocoa nibs (optional), available at health food stores

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place oats on an ungreased 11″ x 17″ baking sheet and toast in oven for 10 minutes, stirring every 3-4 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt honey and oil or butter together in a medium saucepan over medium heat, being careful not to burn it. Remove pan from heat; and add vanilla, salt and cinnamon. Stir until dissolved.

Add toasted oats to the saucepan mixture and toss to coat. Add chopped almonds and stir. Add cocoa nibs (optional) and stir to combine.

Line a smaller baking sheet (10″ x 15″ works best) with parchment paper. (Tip: Sprinkle the sheet with a few drops of water, first, to help keep the paper in place.)

Transfer batter to this cookie sheet and gently spread to all edges. Once entire sheet is covered, press batter firmly into pan – I use a Ziplock sandwich bag on my hand for this step, but a sheet of parchment or wax paper should work well, too.

Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. The bars are done when they just begin to turn brown at the edges. Don’t wait too long or they may burn! Bars will be moist and crumbly when removed from oven, but they come together as they cool! It may take a few attempts for you to figure out the best amount of time in your own oven.

Let cool completely (about 90 minutes on a cooling rack; longer if you don’t have a cooling rack). Cut into 24 bars and remove from pan. Enjoy!

We like our bars a little firmer and sweeter, so we store them in the fridge. They also freeze well for later use…and can be eaten frozen, as well!

(For more great recipes and all of the grocery shopping tips you need to ensure that you select the most additive-free versions of every ingredient you need to make over 150 natural recipes, check out my e-book “Eating Additive-Free“!)

Smoky Butternut Squash Soup

Posted on 10/03/2011 by Christy

smoked butternut soup

This is my new absolute FAVORITE soup of all time!!! If you love to make your home smell like a fancy restaurant, then this is the soup for you!

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MAKES ~ 16 cups (or you can cut this recipe in half for 8 cups of soup)

INGREDIENTS:

1 TBSP coconut oil
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
Two 3-pound butternut squash (6 lbs total), peeled and seeded (or use 4lbs of pre-chopped RAW butternut squash if you prefer)
8 medium carrots, peeled & chopped
12 cups Smoked Chicken Broth
2 tsp sea salt, to taste
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

If using whole squash, cut squash into 1-inch chunks, and set aside.

Melt coconut oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes.

Add squash, carrots and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook until veggies are quite tender, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat and carefully use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth (keep in contact with the bottom of the pan, so you avoid splashing soup and burning yourself!).

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Enjoy! This is great leftover, too!

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Smoked Chicken Broth (in crock pot)

Posted on 10/03/2011 by Christy

Smoking meat can be a bit of a pain, and I’m not entirely sure that it’s all that healthy for you, but…it sure makes for some delicious broth!!!

If you don’t have a smoker, you can still make this recipe if you:

A) Are fortunate enough to know of a grocer who sells whole smoked chickens with no artificial ingredients or flavorings.

B) Have a friend or acquaintance who smokes chickens but normally throws the carcass away. (Just don’t ever let them taste your broth or they’ll start keeping their carcasses to make their own, and you’ll be back to square one!)

For more great recipes and all of the grocery shopping tips you need to ensure that you select the most additive-free versions of all ingredients needed to make this recipe (and all of my recipes), check out my book “Eating Additive-Free“!

MAKES ~ 12 cups

INGREDIENTS:

Cooked carcass and skin from 1 whole, smoked chicken (if there are a few meat scraps still dangling from the bones, that’s all the better)
1 large onion (skin on), chopped into large chunks
2 or 3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
1/2 bunch celery, cut into large chunks (I usually use the inner stalks/leaves)
1 head/bulb of garlic (skin on), cut in half so all cloves are cut in half
1 heaping TBSP sea salt
1/2 TBSP whole peppercorns
2 TBSP Bragg brand apple cider vinegar (optional)
about 4 quarts water

DIRECTIONS:

Place all ingredients in a large crock pot. Cook on low 8-12 hours. Strain through a fine mesh strainer. (Make sure your strainer is fine mesh, so no bone slivers slip through!) Discard all bones, skin and veggies. To remove excess fat from the strained broth, allow it to cool completely in the fridge. The fat will settle to the top and harden a bit, so you can scrape/skim it off if you’d like. Use right away, or can/freeze in the portion sizes you most often use!

A NOTE ABOUT SMOKING CHICKENS…

I’ve tried all sorts of recipes, rubs, etc. for smoking chicken. Honestly, I found it to be a pain, so I decided one day to just throw the chickens into the smoker plain – I’m talkin’ absolutely no oil, butter, seasoning or anything. And they tasted just fine to us (especially given the labor savings). So that’s the way we always smoke them now!

We’ve also grown fond of stuffing our smoker to the max – after all, if you’ve gotta clean it, might as well make it worth your time. In our smoker, that means smoking 4 birds at a time.

We eat the meat warm (as quarters) for dinner on the day we smoke them. Then I take all the meat and skin off the carcasses and make 4 batches of broth over the following 48 hours. (Of course, if you don’t have time/desire to make the broth immediately, you can also throw the carcasses/skin in the freezer for later use.) I cut or rip apart all of the meat, and we eat some of it in salads over the next few days. The rest is thrown into the freezer for future use! I just LOVE to cook once, and eat a bunch of times!

I’m not including smoking instructions here because every smoker is different. Ours happens to take about 4 hours to get to the point that the meat is falling off the bones 🙂