Enchilada Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 1 small sweet red pepper, chopped
• 1 package (8 ounces) fat-free cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 can (10 ounces) enchilada sauce
• 6 whole wheat flour tortillas (8 inches)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend
• Salsa and sour cream, optional

Directions

• In a large skillet, cook the turkey, onion and peppers over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in cream cheese and chili powder.
• Pour enchilada sauce in a shallow bowl. Dip tortillas in sauce to coat. Place two tortillas in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray; spread with half of the turkey mixture. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining tortillas and cheese.
• Cover and freeze for up to 3 months or bake, uncovered, at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired.
• To use frozen lasagna: Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake as directed. Yield: 8 servings.

Nutritional Facts1 piece (calculated without salsa and sour cream) equals 282 calories, 11 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 57 mg cholesterol, 697 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 22 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 2 lean meat, 1-1/2 starch, 1 fat.

Recipe found here:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Enchilada-Lasagna-3

This is the recipe I am planning on making for the March 16 get together!

Chicken Taco Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer (or broth)
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
1-3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional garnish after cooking)
sour cream (optional garnish after cooking)
crushed tortilla chips (optional garnish after cooking)
Combine all ingredients into a Ziploc bag. Freeze. Thaw and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken in crock pot once cooking is done. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired. Served approx. 5-6 people.

Recipe from Loving My Nest

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did! But be warned, it's pretty spicy (we eat ours with brown rice).

Cheers,
Patience

Italian Chicken Soup

Hi all, here's the Italian Chicken Soup recipe. Unless a lot of people request the stirfry I think I'll bring this in March.

1 t olive oil
2 sweet Italian sausage links with skin removed
1T dried minced onion
1/8 t garlic powder (heaping)
1/4 c dried barley
1/2 c dried green lentils
1/4 c dried garbanzo beans
1/2 breast chicken
1T dried parsley
1 1/2 chicken buillion cubes
1/2 (12 oz) bag of frozen spinach

Freeze

To prepare defrost. Add 3 1/2 c water. Cook 6-8 hrs. Add 1/2 c salsa.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

for our february share i made spinach lasagna rolls. i got this recipe from skinnytaste.com. you can click on the site link or look below for their posting. i increased the number of rolls from 9 to 12 for the freezer meals (maybe because i'm eating for two right now so i wanted more food...yea, i'm going to go with that). so that meant increasing the other ingredients a little also.

i did learn that while this is a simple recipe for doing a few meals at a time.....i DO NOT recommend making more than a few recipes in one setting. cooking the noodles is very time consuming for doing that. limit it to 2-4 recipes in one setting. your back and feet will thank you later. :) also, we did not make sure that all the noodles were dry before slapping the filling on them and rolling them up. i think we stopped doing this after the first couple recipes when the back and feet were starting to voice their unhappiness with us.

i will be honest that you all are guinea pigs with this recipe so i hope it worked out well!!

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Spinach Lasagna Rolls
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1 roll • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6 ww pts
Calories: 224.9 • Fat: 5.1 g • Fiber: 3.4 g • Protein: 13.0 g • Carbs: 31.5

Ingredients:

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese (I like Polly-o)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz tomato sauce
• 9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Rollcarefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos with Mexican Rice & Black Beans

TAQUITOS

1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions
2 C shredded cooked chicken (I used canned.)
1 C grated pepperjack cheese small corn tortillas (I used cheddar.)
kosher salt
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it’s soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

Makes 12-16

Freezer Instructions: Prepare the taquitos through rolling them out and placing them on the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze until solid, then transfer to a large freezer bag. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 425 and place the taquitos on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

MEXICAN RICE

1 1/2 cups uncooked long grain white rice (I used brown)

1 14 1/2 ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes, undrained and cut up finely
1 14 ounce can chicken broth1/2 cup water1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

In a large saucepan, stir together rice, undrained tomatoes, broth, water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in mixed veggies. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving. If desired, garnish with lime wedges.

BLACK BEANS

1/2 large onion diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
2 cans black beans (feel free to substitute w kidney or pink)
2 packets of Goya Sazon seasoning (with Arichote, the one in the orange box)
Cilantro
Cumin

Saute onions, add diced tomatoes, cook until 1/2 liquid is gone. Add drained beans and cook until somewhat thick. Add Goya seasoning, cilantro and cumin to taste. If desired, mash 1/2 the beans to get desired consistency.

Two recipes I'm thinking about for March

Option 1) Peanut Chicken Stirfry
A) Bag of frozen stirfried chicken
B) Bag of frozen veggies
C) Bag of frozen stirfry sauce
C) You would stirfry the veggies, defrost the chicken and sauce and add them, and heat until the sauce bubbles and thickens. This will probably take about 10-15 minutes MAX. Then serve over rice or noodles.

This is a family favorite recipe and is really delicious, only question is it too much work?

Option 2) Italian Chicken Soup
This is a soup with sausage, chicken, chickpeas, lentils, barley, spinach and topped off with a bit of salsa (I know that's so italian...). It has a really great rating but I haven't tried it yet, I'll be sampling for deliciousness this week.

Preparation, thaw add water and put into crockpot for 8 hours or so. At the end you can add 1 c salsa for a bit of tomatoey goodness.

The soup was a hit at my house and I really liked it, I think I'm leaning toward this recipe, I might cut it in half though, it makes a truly enormous crock pot of soup.

Let me know what you ladies think :).

Black Bean Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef (or ground turkey works too!)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package mild taco seasoning mix
1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn
1 1/2 c rinsed drained red beans (about 1 can)
1 (14 oz) cans stewed tomatoes
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilis


Directions:
Brown meat and onion, drain. Let meat cool for a minute, then dump into a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag.
Dump the remaining ingredients into the bag, mix together, and zip bag closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 1-2 hours or LOW for 2-3 1/2 hours.
Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

This is the same recipe as Crystal's, but I went ahead and made a couple of changes. I put in less tomatoes and a different type of bean. Hope you like it :).