Beef Enchiladas with Corn and Black Beans

The strange thing about this recipe is that it’s entirely my own! I didn’t borrow or steal this recipe from anyone, I just threw everything together and made a meal all on my own.

Very strange.

But fun, I think.

I’ve made beef enchiladas a million times, but when I’ve done it, it’s been a primarily ground beef and enchilada sauce mixed up, put inside flour tortillas, and topped with more sauce and a whole bunch of cheese.

It’s very tasty done this way, but the problem is that it’s very boring. I just wasn’t feeling it, but I wanted something similar, so I decided to spice it up a bit with some additions.

Here is what I used: black beans, enchilada sauce, chopped green chilis, cilantro, onion, canned corn, ground beef, Greek yogurt, Mexican-blend cheese, flour tortillas, and a bit of refried beans to serve on the side.

First step, chop up the onion.

Second step: I sautéed a half cup of chopped onion for a few minutes, then added a half cup of rinsed and drained black beans. I figured they needed to cook down a bit so that they’d be tender before I put them in the enchiladas.

Then I added a half cup of corn.

Mixed all around.

Finally, I added the whole little can of chopped green chilis and let everything cook down until tender.

Then I took the mixture out of the skillet and set it aside.

(Nazzers – recognize the bowl? Points for those who do!)

Moving on. Next, I sautéed the beef in the same skillet.

After it was browned, I drained off the grease and then added a can of enchilada sauce.

Once it was heated up, I added most of the bean/ onion/ corn/ chilis mixture back in, though not all of it because it seemed like a lot.

In retrospect, I’m not sure it was necessary to separate everything out only to recombine, but ah well. It worked out.

Last step: a spoonful of Greek yogurt. This was really the change I was most looking forward to. I have recently discovered Greek yogurt and was looking for ways to sneak it into food, making it creamy, without tipping hubby off.

All melted and mixed into the mixture, this is what it looked like.

I laid out a bunch of tortillas in a dish and carefully scooped a bit into each one of them.

When the mixture was doled out, I rolled up the tortillas.

I poured the other can of enchilada sauce on top

And finally, I topped it off with Mexican-blend cheese.

Okay, by this point, my camera’s battery light was blinking at I wasn’t able to use the screen, so I actually had to use a viewfinder. That’s not something I’ve done in years! Ha.

Anyway, I served the enchiladas with some Mexican rice and refried beans on the side, and also topped with a spoonful of Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.

Very tasty. Different. I think I should have included less chilis, since they were a little overwhelming, but otherwise I liked it a lot.

Who am I kidding? I’m just smug that I made my own recipe and that hubby liked it enough to eat the leftovers. Maybe I’m learning a thing or two about cooking.

Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Shallots

Hubby and I celebrated our second anniversary yesterday. He gave me a card with a list of “Things a wife just knows.” Number two on the list is, “Meat is his favorite meal.” Truth.

He also gave me pearl earrings. That has nothing to do with this blog post, but I thought you should know.

I’ve never been a huge fan of pork, but I do like to try to change things up and do something a little different now and then. I know hubby gets bored with chicken, and you can only do so many things with ground beef, so here we are. Anyway, this recipe (another from Gina at skinnytaste.com) looked yummy.

The recipe called for bone-in pork chops, but I didn’t realize that until I got home from purchasing my boneless pork chops, so I just went with it. I started by seasoning with salt and pepper.

Melt some butter…

And put those chops in the butter to sizzle and brown up.

I knew the timing would be off since I was using boneless, but timing meat makes me nervous, so after I flipped them, I used a thermometer to try to approximate doneness. Not sure it worked real well.

Anyway, when the chops are done, toss in a whole bunch of chopped shallots. These are the homegrown ones from my Aunt.

After a couple minutes, add some chicken broth. This will help get all that pork flavor off of the pan and into the sauce!

Then I added some Dijon mustard and dried parsley (because I forgot to pick up fresh).

Mmm, starting to smell yummy!

Finally, I added sliced mushrooms and some salt and pepper.

Just let it cook for a few minutes, until the mushrooms are done. And that’s it! To serve, put a pork chop on a plate and top with some of the mushroom sauce.

I served myself the chop that had the thermometer in it, and I think that was the driest one because all the juices leaked out. My impressions that night were that the pork was okay and the mushroom sauce was delicious.

But I had a leftover chop the next day, and I realized that that one was much better, even though it was nuked! So I guess I did all right. Seriously, though, my favorite part was the mushroom and shallot sauce. Even if you leave out the mushrooms, I still think it’s worth making. The tang from the Dijon mixed with the shallots and chicken broth? Oh yes. Yummy.