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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sour Cream Enchiladas

We made Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Enchiladas (with a few modifications to cut out the frying) for one of the weekly dinners with my friend Brooke and boy were they yummy! Ok so my food picture definitely isn't as pretty as PW's but I'm sure it tasted just as good!

Sour Cream Enchiladas

adapted slightly from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

10 soft tortillas

20oz can enchilada sauce

2 1/2 cups sour cream

3 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup sliced green onions

1/2 tsp or so of ground cumin

1/4 tsp or so of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Mix sour cream, 2 cups cheese, green onions, cumin, and cayenne. Heat enchilada sauce in a sauce pan. Lay tortilla on a plate and spoon some enchilada sauce onto it and spread around to coat on both sides... it WILL be messy. This simulates the dunking of fried tortillas that PW does. Spoon 1/10th of sour cream mixture into a tortilla and roll up. Place into 9 x 13 baking dish. Repeat for other tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake for 15-20 minutes. Top with extra green onions.

We have a little extra sour cream and cheese per our ingredient list than PW's because it wasn't going to be enough... probably a difference in using her corn tortillas and frying vs. what we did. We served 'em with brown rice and a little lettuce and tomato on the side.

Hubby was a little timid about this recipe as he is not a big sour cream fan like I am. He was pleasantly surprised that it was more of a creamy/cheesy taste than just tasting like a bunch of sour cream. I think next time it could be good to even throw in some sauteed mushrooms into the filling. Two thumbs up for this one!!

Would also be wonderful to serve one of my favorites, Guacamole alongside this dish! Check out the recipe here.

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Monday, April 11, 2011

Where the green grass grows

"I wanna live where the green grass grows..." -Tim McGraw

We finally made a big decision last fall to have sprinklers put in and sod in the backyard and sides and seed in the front. We were told that the front yard was saveable with seeding so we are still trying to go through some steps with the landscaping company to make that true.

This was our backyard before. Honestly it looked awful... these pictures probably don't even portray it as bad as it was. They are from one of our cookouts.

It was originally seeded when we built the home but it never took well. First of all Fescue grass which is mostly what people use here in Charlotte does not spread AT ALL and the fact that we did not have a sprinkler system didn't help. We did try to reseed but it wasn't very successful.

So we bit the bullet and paid for sprinklers/sod to be done instead of struggling with the yard for years to come. Thankfully our home was built before the new seperate water meter rule for sprinklers was put into effect so we were grandfathered in (phew!).

Here is the backyard now. We are very blessed to have a private backyard.

We even had a garden area sectioned off in the back corner (top right of above pic) which looks much nicer than my garden area last year. I am so excited about a bigger veggie garden!

Pinestraw plant beds were put in for future use surrouning the deck and screen porch which you can't really see since some spare wood is on top of it for now.

We did have all this done in late fall but now that is it spring we can actually go out and enjoy and admire our green grass! All these pics were taken from our deck. You can read about the DIY deck we love here.

Yay for green grass!! Hopefully we can get the front yard looking uniform and think about some shrubs up there and then I can do a before/after of the front. There's always lots to do with homeownership, that's for sure! Have you had any yard/"green grass growing" challenges?

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Organized Linen Closet

I have recently gotten into the spring cleaning mode and decided to tackle a few areas of our house that had gotten a little cluttery (or a lot cluttery if you ask my husband).

1st up is the linen closet upstairs outside the guest room and bath. It's really much worse than the the picture even portrays.

BEFORE

This is the closet where we keep sheets, blankets, tablecloths, a pillow or 2, candles, and some gift items. It's always nice to keep a few gift items like picture frames, plates, etc. on hand since you just never know. Then some cleaning out, folding, organizing and such took place.....

AFTER

All the gift items went perfectly in the little basket. I have to admit that it didn't take very long to do and looks sososo much better. I should have done this ages ago but life tends to get in the way ya know!

In the near future I want to tackle the room we call the "junk room" which has been a catch all room for stuff... mainly some of my crafty things... oops! I hate to even show yall how much organization that one needs.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Healthy Stroganoff

I taught my mom the trick to keeping ground turkey from getting dry and staying more flavorful - using the turkey juices in place of the same amount of water. AND she in turn used that technique to come up with a healthy version of stroganoff. Sounds like a fair trade to me!

Healthy Stroganoff

from: my mom, serves 5-6 with a side item

Ingredients:

1 package of lean ground turkey (1.3lb I believe)

1 bag (12 oz) of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole grain wide noodles

Ground pepper

1 small can of sliced mushrooms or mushroom pieces and stems

1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

Brown the turkey in a large skillet and drain the juices into a glass cup using a spoon or small ladle and set the glass aside. Season turkey generously with pepper. Add the can of soup. Pour the turkey juices into the empty soup can and add water until can is half full or so. Add this to the turkey. Add mushrooms. And more pepper if you think it needs it - I always do. Cover with lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

While that is simmering, cook all noodles according to the package and drain. 5 minutes prior to serving add 1/4 cup or so of sour cream to the turkey mixture. Stir and make sure it is heated through. Put noodles on the plate and spoon turkey mixture over top. I store the leftovers all mixed together and it does just fine.

a little stirring action - we've been experimenting with the new camera

if you think that's a cooler in the background you'd be wrong - it's hubby's lunchbox hahaha!

I like to serve this with fresh pole beans. I boil them in a wide and shallow saucepan with water just covering them for like 5 minutes, drain, drizzle with olive oil and add pepper and garlic powder. Brings me back to my childhood days of pickin' pole beans in the backyard with my dad.

ENJOY a healthier version of stroganoff!! So so good you don't even realize it's healthier because it is so flavorful! Let me know whatcha think.

DELISH!

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sour Cream Enchiladas

Monday, April 11, 2011

Where the green grass grows

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Organized Linen Closet

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Healthy Stroganoff