Date Night Dinners - Taquitos, No Wait, Enchiladas!

11/14/2014 tringel 0 Comments

This week's dinner was so great. And when I say so great, I mean Brenden said, and I quote, "I love these." He said that about a no meat, 100% vegetarian dish. Yep this meal was great. It was fantastic and we are already planning to make it again ASAP.



After a small debate we finally landed on making these butternut squash enchiladas for dinner. Or taquitos as Brenden likes to refer to them, just because "the word is more fun to say." But trust me,  these guys are definitely enchiladas, and damn good ones at that.

I pretty much love all enchiladas; it is usually one of my go to foods when going out to a Mexican restaurant. But, for some reason, making them has alway intimidated me. Maybe that is because I grew up eating dinner at my swim coaches house 3 to 4 nights a week. She has Mexican strong roots, and making tamales is their family speciality. Every time they were planning a weekend of tamale making, I given the low down of the process of making the dish, and it sound exhausting to me. I guess from then on, I just related all Mexican food prep to the long process of tamale making…just as Brenden relates all Mexican wrapped food as being called taquitos. We are great people, I know, but we do it with love.

Anyway, I could not have been more wrong. This recipe was super simple, and as I have said about 10 times already, super delicious. The hardest part of the entire process was peeling and cubing the butternut squash. I highly recommend that you but the precut kind. I know I will be living it up and spending that extra dollar next time. The less expensive price was so not worth it. Or maybe I will just make Brenden do the cubing...

Once the butternut squash was cubed, it was smooth sailing. Brenden chopped up the rest of the veggies as I began adding everything to the skillet. It smelled so good as the ingredients cooked up and Brenden and I were ready to eat the filling mixture before the shells and sauce were even on. But we resisted, and we rolled up our enchiladas, smothered them with sauce and cheese and popped them in the oven.


We were more then excited when we pulled the pan of baked enchiladas out of the oven. We pulled the foil off and our mouths started to water as we saw the melted cheese, gooey atop the enchiladas and the mixture of flavors hit our noses. There was no waiting for these to cool. We scooped them right up and on to our plates.


While we both agreed the enchiladas smelled and looked delicious, I was still worried about Brenden's response when he actually took his first bite of this meatless dish. There were a few minutes of silence as he took a few more bites. Then he lead with, "I love these;" I knew we had a winner. And couldn't agree more. I was also a bit skeptical about the dish - I mean butternut squash with spicy enchilada sauce and seasonings doesn't sound like the most go to combination - but they ended up balancing each other out perfectly. I could eat these for days. And as easy the enchiladas were to make, sans cutting the butternut squash, I am sure we will be making them rather frequently. They are a perfect dish, but especially as the weather turns cold, this warm flavorful dish is just what I need to beat the winter time blues.

Butternut Squash Enchiladas
Recipe adapted from skinnytaste.com, Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
• 2.5 cups buttenut squash, peeled and diced into .5 inch cubes
• 1-10 oz can tomatoes with green chilies
• 1-15.5 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin1/2 tsp chili powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup water
• 1-10 oz can red enchilada sauce
• 6 medium (8 inch) whole wheat tortillas
• 1 cup Mexican cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with cooking spray.
2. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeño and cook 2-3 minutes or until onions begin to become translucent and garlic is fragrent.
3. Add cubed butternut squash, tomatoes, black beans, water, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover the skillet and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 25-30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Pour 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 inch glass baking dish.
7. Once the squash mixture is cooked and tender, lay out the tortillas and place a generous scoop (about 1/3-1/2 cup) of the filling into each tortilla.
8. Roll each tortilla with the filling inside, and place on the enchilada sauce in the baking dish, seam side down.
9. Do this with all six tortillas, or until the filling has run out and the pan is filled.
10. Top the tortillas with the remaining enchilada sauce.
11. Sprinkle cheese on top of the sauce and tortillas.
12. Cover the filled baking dish with aluminum and bake until the cheese is melted, about 10-12 minutes.
13. Remove from the oven and serve.