This morning I woke up early and immediately got to work in the kitchen because we are celebrating my oldest son's birthday later today. He requested my
White Chicken Enchilada Casserole for dinner. We are having that along with green beans w/ toasted almonds at his request. Since it's going to be another hot day (low 90s), I awoke early to get much of the prep work done while it was still cool outside. I made 20 of my grain free tortillas (by tripling the recipe). I made a HUGE batch of chicken and cheese filling (diced cooked chicken and shredded cheese). I also sauteed 3 diced Poblano peppers and 2 diced jalapeno peppers to add to the chicken cheese enchilada filling. I stuffed and rolled the enchiladas and arranged them in my casserole dishes and covered them and popped them in the fridge. Before I put them in the oven to bake later, I'll quickly whisk together the sauce to pour over them right before baking. If you haven't made this recipe before, you should definitely try it because it's awesome. I'm so excited because this is the first "family celebration" in our new house. They have come for dinner individually since we've been in the house but this is the first all of us together celebration.
For his birthday cake, I decided to make my
MJ's Fourth Generation Chocolate Cake, a special family recipe that I recreated for one of my blog followers last summer. When I made that recipe, it was baked in a jelly roll pan (10" x 15" x 1") and was a thinner cake, similar to a Texas Sheet Cake if you've ever had one of those before. This morning, I doubled the recipe and baked it in a
9" x 13" pan. I had to adjust the baking time and I baked it for 45 minutes (about twice as long as in the jelly roll pan). It's cooling on top of the stove now so I can frost it with Chocolate Ganache Frosting and pecans later. So, before noon today I had made 20 tortillas, stuffed 20 enchiladas and baked a cake! How is that for prepping ahead! I snapped a few photos of my work so far this morning as well as a finished photo from when I made these dishes before. I've linked to the recipes in the paragraphs above (the enchilada casserole link is in the first paragraph and the cake recipe link is in the first sentence of this paragraph). Now, I'm off to clean the house. Enjoy!
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| Stack of 20 grain free tortillas waiting to be stuffed with a bowl of 11 cups diced chicken, 4 cups shredded cheese, 3 sauteed Poblano peppers and 2 jalapeno peppers |
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| Stuffed and ready to be sauced and baked later |
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| Cooling and ready to be "ganached" later |
Hi GGC,
ReplyDeleteYour Enchilada Casserole is one of our All-Time Favorites and is perfect for advanced prepping, too, as you've demonstrated. Thanks for the reminder about the cake. I love your cakes, but haven't made that particular one yet. I've definitely moved it up in the "queue," though!
Our temps have been in the low 70's the past two days ... beautiful! Rain tomorrow and even cooler, but more pleasant again later in the week. Looks like fall weather is making a comeback around here. It will for you, too ... hopefully sooner rather than later. :-)
Hi CyberSis,
DeleteGlad you enjoy the casserole too. About the cake; now that I've done it in the thinner sheet cake version (jelly roll pan) and doubled in the 9x13 pan, I personally prefer the single thinner version since it is such a moist cake. I think it's almost too moist and dense as a thicker cake. I absolutely *love* it as written in the original recipe.
How lucky to have temps in the low 70s. I can hardly wait !!! :-)
Hi GGC,
ReplyDeleteReading your recipe for this beautiful chocolate cake and seeing that you used the Nu Naturals Stevia Simple Syrup reminded me I wanted to ask you if realized that Nu Naturals also has a Stevia Chocolate Syrup. I learned of it from a post by Lisa at Low Carb Yum ( http://lowcarbyum.com/chocolate-avocado-brownies/ ).
I learned of the Simple Syrup from you earlier but had no idea about their chocolate syrup! Of course, it was ordered from Amazon immediately!! It is a nice product. I haven't really figured out the best ratios for using it. Works nicely in coffee!
Just wanted to share this with you in case you didn't know about it as it sure seems like it might be great in your arsenal of LC cooking products!
Thanks and take care,
Alice B.
GGC, I realized after posting my comment yesterday that I mis-spoke a bit. It isn't NuNaturals Stevia Chocolate Syrup, it is NuNaturals Stevia Cocoa Syrup. Still chocolate, of course, but I didn't correctly state its label name.
ReplyDelete(It tastes great stirred into unsweetened almond/coconut milk!! Had a glass yesterday!!)
Thanks,
Alice B.
Hi Alice,
ReplyDeleteYes, I have the NuNaturals Cocoa Syrup. I also have the one that is chocolate mint as well. I have had it for a couple of years now but haven't found a lot of ways to use it. I've used it in coffee, and like you in unsweetened milk. I'm trying to figure out more ways to use it. It's a fine balance between adding sufficient chocolate flavor without adding too much sweet for me. I use the plain version the most...as a matter of fact it's time for me to order more of that soon. :-)