Monday Menu (9/13/10)

We had a magnificent meal for dinner!  Bill, our master at Mexican food, made enchiladas.  I made two kinds of desserts:  Surprise Brownie Bites and Brownie Pizza.

For the enchilada filling, I prepared some shredded chicken and shredded beef.  For the beef, I knew it needed longer to cook to become tender.  I bought a big hunk of beef (some sort of chuck roast or something - I don't remember) and I cut it into good size hunks (about 3 inches).  I put some garlicky oil in a pan, when it got hot, I added the meat, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, let it brown on all sides, then turned the heat down and put a lid on it to simmer.  After about 40 minutes of simmering, I put it in a glass dish, covered it with foil, and put in a 350 degree F oven.  Then I prepared the chicken breasts (boneless, skinless).  I used the same pan I used for the beef so it had the same juices, then sprinkled with salt and pepper.  I put the lid on the pan and let the chicken just cook thoroughly.  After the chicken was cooked, I put some water in the pan (about a cup total), put the lid back on, then let it simmer on low.

When I checked on the beef, I had to add about a 1/2 cup of water to keep it from drying out.

While I cooked some Four Cheese Rice-a-Roni Bill helped me shred the meats.  Rebekah and Justin grated the cheese.

To prepare the enchiladas, I heated up a few inches of oil in a small frying pan.  I dipped a corn tortilla in the warmed oil then placed on a plate.  Bill took the tortillas and dipped them into enchilada sauce, then put cheese and shredded meat in the tortilla, rolled them up, and placed then in a baking pan that had enchilada sauce on the bottom.  When all the enchiladas filled up the pan, Bill sprinkled on more cheese and drizzled on more enchilada sauce.  We baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Then it looks like this:

 

 Mmmmm, cheesy goodness!!

For dessert I actually made two:  Brownie Pizza and Surprise Brownie Bites

The brownie pizza is quite easy.  Make some brownie batter, spread some on a greased 12-inch pizza dish.  Bake until done (I don't remember how long it took).  After it was completely cooled, mix about a quarter cup of peanut butter (we used creamy, but I am sure crunchy would have been good) with about 1 1/2 cup milk chocolate frosting.  Then I spread it on the brownie and sprinkled with Reese's Pieces and then took a potato peeler and shaved some white chocolate over the top.  It was very scrumptious!

 Just get out the pizza cutter and slice like so:

For the second dessert, I used the rest of the brownie batter from the pizza and scooped about 2-3 teaspoons of batter into generously sprayed mini muffin tins.  After baking them for about 8-10 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out almost clean), I removed them from the oven and immediately pressed a white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the center of each brownie bite. I put them in the fridge to cool.  After completely cooled them, I popped them out of the muffin tins and frosted them with milk chocolate frosting.  (Although later I tried some without frosting and thought it was VERY good.  I also tried some with caramel frosting and Bill liked those. )  After frosting the brownie bites, I placed a quartered peanut butter cup on top. 

Here is the bites with one cut in half so you can see the cross-section.

Overall, this Monday Menu was very successful.  :)