Corn and Cheese Enchiladas

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Tonight we are going to get into the spirit of the event by having some Mexican-inspired food. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (i.e. pre-kids), Cinco de Mayo was a big deal. I would go out with my girlfriends and we would dance all night and drink margaritas until our lips were chapped from all the salt-rimmed glasses. Alas, things are much more civil now...which is actually fine by me. I would much rather spend the evening quietly with my husband and kiddos, anyway!!! However, we can still celebrate--gringo-style--by making a healthy, vegetarian version of enchiladas.

This is another dish I found on the myrecipes.com website. The only variation that I am making is that I am substituting frozen corn for fresh, but otherwise following the recipe. I think I will serve this festive dish with some vegetarian pinto beans and, of course, a green salad.

Doesn't that sound exciting???? I am telling you...we are gonna party 'til the break of 7:00 pm tonight!!!

Corn and Cheese Enchiladas
From: myrecipes.com; All You magazine, July 2008

Ingredients:
8 6-inch corn tortillas
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups fresh (from 2 medium ears) OR frozen and thawed corn kernels
1/2 cup whole milk
Salt to taste
2 cups grated pepper Jack
1 10-oz. can enchilada sauce
fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Stack tortillas, wrap in foil and bake until softened, 8 to 10 minutes.

While tortillas are baking, oil a 7-by-11-inch glass baking dish. Warm 1 Tbsp. oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallions and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in corn and milk and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt.

Remove tortillas from foil. Set aside 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of corn mixture in center of a tortilla. Sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon of cheese. Roll up tortilla and set in dish, seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, overlapping them slightly. Pour enchilada sauce over tortillas and sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup cheese. Bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Nutritional Information:
Yield: 4 Servings
Calories:457
Fat:25g (sat 13g)
Protein:20g
Carbohydrate:41g
Fiber:5g
Cholesterol:64mg
Sodium:323mg





The Result:
These were soooo good! We had some friends over for dinner, and we all liked them a lot. My only critique is that I have the worst luck with corn tortillas! They always break apart and become a total mess. I even heated them up this time, according to the directions, and they were still a a total mess. So, the taste of this dish turned out the same; but it was more like a casserole rather than actual rolled enchiladas. Really, no difference...other than it totally annoys me! The corn tortilla thing is not this recipes fault, and is just my issue with corn tortillas in general. I love the way they taste, so I will just have to keep trying and figure out a way to get them to work for me.

We had some pinto beans and a green salad to round out our meal. One more note...I ended up making 12 enchiladas and using 2 cans of sauce, since we had 6 people eating (4 adults and 2 kids). The portions ended up being perfect, and this is another keeper recipe.