squash

Chop, Chop

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Sweet and Spicy Black Bean Enchaladas

The Filling

1 small chopped yellow squash

A few leaves of kale, chopped fine in the food processor

~2 cups home-cooked black beans and finely chopped cilantro

1 1/2 large sweet potatoes. I diced and steamed and then pureed half.

Salt, cumin, smoked paprika, and ground chipotle to taste.

While I made the filling the sauce was simmering away on the stove.

The Sauce

  • 2 big cans tomato puree
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 dried Ancho peppers
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 T cocoa
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp ground chipotle
  • salt to taste
  1. Bring 1 can of tomato puree to a boil.  De-seed and de-stem the peppers and add them to the tomatoes.  Turn off the heat and put a lid on it.  The peppers will rehydrate in the hot tomato.
  2. Make filling ↑
  3. Once peppers are soft, puree with tomatoes in food processor until smooth.  Add spices, garlic cloves, and flour.
  4. Return pepper/tomato mixture to sauce pan and whisk in water and the second can of tomato puree over medium heat.
  5. If the sauce is too thick, whisk in more water.

Let sauce cool while you begin preparing the Avocado-Cilantro Cream

  • Strain 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

Now things get messy.

The best part of enchiladas in when the corn tortillas really soak up the sauce and become sauce-logged (like water-logged) so I tried a new technique to ensure every aspect of each tortilla was drenched in sauce.  It was a labor of love but worth it.

Have your stack of tortillas, the sauce, the pan, and the filling all within reach because soon your hands are going to be too messy to move anything around.

Dip a tortilla into the sauce.  Using your (extra clean) hands, make sure the tortilla is drenched in sauce.  With a spoon or your hands fill the tortilla with about 1/4 cup of filling, roll and set seam side down into your baking pan.  Repeat until done, in my case three pans worth.

I purposefully left out how many tortillas to use because it will vary depending on how much filling you use for each.  This recipe makes A LOT though but you’ll want leftovers after all your hard work!

Cover pan(s) with foil and bake at 375* for 35 minutes.

Make cream by pureeing 1/2 an avocado, a good handful of washed cilantro leaves, a pinch of salt, and juice from half of a lemon in a food processor.  Once mixture is smooth, add the other half of the avocado and the strained yogurt. Puree until just mixed.

Check the oven.

Remove foil and add grated cheese (I used an extra sharp cheddar), return to oven and broil until cheese is golden and bubbly.

Watch closely at this point, broilers work fast!

And finally…

EAT!

[photo credit KERF]

This is definitely a recipe for when you are looking forward to some time in the kitchen, lots of prep and lots of steps!  You could always prep the filling ahead of time.

Luckily, these enchiladas are even better on the second day (or third) and freeze well, so your time is well-rewarded.

The food was great but the company was even better (and don’t get me started on the wine!), it was a lovely, low-key Friday night spent with friends around the dining table.

Cabbage Soup Diet

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Did you workout today? Good for you!  That’s awesome, especially in these dark days filled with holiday anticipation (and maybe stress!)!

It took me a loooonnngg time to get geared up for my 5 mile run today.  It was cold out there!  Until today I had never run outside in under 30 degrees Fahrenheit.   Today it was 26*.  Thus the “gearing up” was both mental and physical.  It was a double glove kinda day…

And as I ran I sang like nobody was listening (no, really, I did)!  Oh wait, nobody was listening because it was just me and the mailman on the streets.  Today was perhaps the first day in three months of running in Charlottesville where I didn’t see another single runner.  I must say, it made me a little proud.  I’ve never been exactly “hardcore”, more of a fair weather sports girl if you will.  I was a whitewater raft guide for a few years after high school but I definitely preferred to work on sunny days with perfect water levels:).

I know I’ve said this already, but it’s coming as a surprise to myself so I keep repeating it; I don’t mind running in the cold.  Even 26 degrees was manageable since the sun was shining.  I don’t, however, like running in the wind.  At times the wind literally choked me.  Yuck.

After a slow first 30 minutes I finished off with 17 minutes of sprints.  My pattern was 90 seconds run, 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds walk.  Lately my fitness philosophy has been “work out harder, not longer” and sprints fit in with this perfectly.

Sprinting bursts burn a ton of calories, increase your overall speed, speed up your metabolism, increase production of human growth hormone, and make you feel tough and strong.    Sometimes I jog instead of walk for recovery after a sprint but walking is really better.  When I recover at a jog pace I don’t reach that true anaerobic full-out sprint.  If you are doing a real “sprint” you should want to walk afterward (or stop all together, although I wouldn’t recommend it).

“The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” – Marvin Phillips

The sprints definitely added some “umph” to my run!

Lunch was quick and simple.  I picked this big boy up at the farmers market on Saturday and have been eating off it since then!

It must have weighed 5 pounds!  (I was tempted to take it upstairs to my bathroom scale but I resisted…)

So I made sauerkraut.  And soup.  Lots of Cabbage and Butternut Soup.

This soup is super simple, shredded cabbage, diced butternut squash, onions, salt, and cayenne pepper and full of vitamins and minerals.  Both cabbage and butternut are high in calcium, manganese, magnesium, potassium, B6, and C.

We have a fun and random outing tonight.  Yesterday Tate got a call about one of the offices we have for listed on Craigslist for rent.  He mentioned the name of the caller to me and I said, “oh, I know her, we were childhood friends!”  Small world, small town!  So we are going to meet her for a drink tonight, catch up and see if maybe she wants to rent from us.

Can’t wait to read about how your workouts went!

P.S Oh yeah! And I did about 10 minutes of power Pilates, my favorite 7 exercises without rest between exercises.