Chicken enchiladas with corn salsa

We are normally not the biggest fans of Mexican food but these delicious enchiladas are definitely an exception. They are very easy, and require about 30 mins prep time, and 35 mins cooking time. This meal involves turning your average chicken wraps, into an interesting, cheesy dish and the salsa that accompanies it, just makes it! 

Dicing the onions

We had this for dinner and the family was very thankful, especially the boys who love a good cheesy and meaty dinner. Although it isn't visually appealing, that is often the case with delicious meals like this. For those who love a bit of spice, feel free to add more jalapenos (we don't like spicy food, so didn't put much!), but any more than 1/2 cup would be pushing it! 

Chopping the chicken

Chicken enchiladas with corn salsa

Serves 4

Ingredients 

1 large red onion (300g) chopped finely 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/8 cup (45g) drained bottled 

 jalapeno chillies, chopped coarsely 

400g can tomatoes

1 cup (350ml) chicken stock

500g chicken breast fillets, sliced thinly 

6 large tortillas 

2 cups (250g) coarsely grated cheddar cheese 

1/2 cup sour cream

corn salsa  

1 small red capsicum (aprox 150g), chopped finely 

310g can corn kernels, drained 

1 tablespoons lime juice

1 cup loosely packed, coarsely chopped coriander

Method

1. Reserve a quater of the onion for the corn salsa. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Heat oil in a large frying pan and cook remaining onion with garlic, stirring, until onion softens. Add tomato paste, chilli, undrained crushed tomatoes, stock and chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and cover to keep warm.

3. Soften tortillas in oven or microwave according to manufactuer's instructions. Dip tortillas, one at a time, in tomato mixture in pan; place on board. Place on the edge of the tortillas, the divided chicken and half of the cheese among the tortillas, rolling to enclose filling. Place enchiladas, seam-side down, in a large oiled oven proof dish.

4. Pour remaining mixture over enchiladas; top with sour cream and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for about 25 mins or until tortillas are crusty. 

5. Divide enchiladas amoung serving plates; serve with corn salsa.

6. Corn salsa: Place reserved onion in small bowl with capsicum, corn, lime juice and coriander. Toss to combine and enjoy your meal!

Cooking the onion and garlic

Dipping tortilla in sauce

Rolling up the enchilada 

Placed tightly next to one another

We hope you enjoy this, sorry for the lack of good pictures- we were in a bit of a rush. 

Lemon Slice

On your average Tuesday morning, why not make some lemon slice? With a lemon tree in the back yard, it seemed like a good idea to put them to good use! We were at our friend Bec's house so she helped us out and provided the lemons ;). They are perfectly tangy and great for morning or afternoon tea. 

It was painfully sad having to leave for gym without the slice as it wasn't ready, Bec dropped them over at midnight so we could get our hands on the bars of heaven. We brought them to gym with us and got many envious stares so of course we gave some friends a try. We weren't alone in how much much we loved them and craved more! Lucky for us, we didn't bring it all so there was still plenty at home!! 

We went straight off a recipe from BestRecipes.com.au, as we aren't that familiar with lemon slice but we made changes along the way and we were obviously very impressed.

Marie Biscuits went perfectly as they do in pretty much anything, but make sure not too crush them too finely as the chunks were what I found the best bits. If you want extra tanginess, feel free to add more lemon rind to the base than the recipe says but we felt the icing helped to enhance the lemon flavour. 

Correct size of buscuits

Lemon Slice

Ingredients

1 packet Marie Biscuits

125g butter, melted

¾ cup coconut 

½ tin condensed milk

1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind

Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1 tbsp butter

3-4 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Combine crushed biscuits, coconut and lemon rind and mix.

2. Combine butter and condensed milk and add to dry mixture. Stir well.

3. Press into a lined pan and place into the fridge to cool.

4. Icing: Combine ingredients and stir well. If mixture is too dry/solid, add more lemon juice or butter, and if mixture is too runny, add more icing sugar.

5. Once completely cool, ice slice and place in the fridge until completely solid before cutting.

6. Enjoy!

                                      

Combining condensed milk with butter

Combining wet and dry ingredients

Juicing the lemon

Icing ready to go

So we hope you enjoy this slice as much as we all did and we would like to thank Bec for her amazing lemons and her kitchen!

Keep cooking, twins in the kitchen :)

Apricot and walnut slice

If you are a lover of apricots or walnuts, then you will love this apricot and walnut slice! If you don’t like walnuts, you can always leave them out and the slice will taste just as good. Emily and I went to our friend’s house to make these yummy goodies and they are very simple to make.

To make the base of this slice, you will need to use your hands to mix the butter with the flour thoroughly so that it combines properly. You also have to make sure you press the base into the pan well so that it doesn’t crumble once cooked.

For this recipe you will need walnuts, dried apricots, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla and baking powder and luckily none of these are very expensive or hard to get.

Apricot and walnut slice

Makes: 20

Cooking time: 55 mins

The base

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

¼ cup white sugar

90gms softened butter

The top

Ingredients:

2/3 cup dried apricots

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs well beaten

½ cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp vanilla essence

Method (base):

1. Preheat oven to 160⁰C and line 20x15cm tray

2. With your hands, mix butter, sugar and flour until crumbly

3. Press into tray firmly using hands or spatula

4. Bake for 25 minutes

Method (top):

1. Rinse apricots, cover with water and simmer for 10 mins with lid on. 2. Drain and cool. Chop into small pieces.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together

4. Gradually beat brown sugar into eggs and add to flour mixture.

5. Add vanilla, walnuts, apricots and mix.

6. Spread over baked base and cook for 30 mins at 160⁰C

7. Cut into bars and if desired, dust with icing sugar

Sifting the flour

Adding the sugar to the eggs

Adding the apricots to the mixture

Pouring the top over the cooked base

 And that’s all there is to it so give it a try!

Keep Cooking, Twins in the Kitchen 

Banana Bread (with Greek yogurt and coconut oil)

This banana bread is super yummy and is also very healthy which is why it is our favourite banana bread that we have ever made! This recipe makes a moist and flavoursome banana bread and it is also really easy to make. There is quite a lot of cinnamon in this recipe which makes the bread quite flavoursome, but if you are not a fan of cinnamon you can always reduce the amount.

Chobani yogurt

One of the main reasons why this recipe is different from other recipes is because it uses Greek yogurt (we used Chobani but you can use whatever type you have) and instead of using butter, it uses coconut oil which makes it healthier J In order to make the banana bread as good as it can be, try to use ripe bananas because they have more developed flavours and are easier to mash.

Mash the banana using a fork or other kitchen tool

When making this recipe, using banana Chobani yogurt would work best, however Emily and I only had mango flavoured Chobani yogurt and the bread still tasted great.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup  brown sugar
2 tbsp. coconut oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 medium bananas, mashed
1 (170 gm) container Chobani banana flavoured Greek yogurt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 170⁰C and line a 20cm loaf pan with baking paper.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar until just combined.

3.  In a separate bowl, mix together the coconut oil, egg, egg white, mashed bananas, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract.

4.  Slowly incorporate wet mixture into the flour mixture. Lightly stir just until combined. It is ok if your batter is lumpy.

5.  Pour mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. 

6.  Cool for about 20 minutes and serve warm!

Separating the egg

Adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients

Pouring batter into lined pan

Once you have completed all of these steps you can enjoy your very own yummy banana bread!!

Keep Cooking, Twins in the Kitchen

Fruity honey rock cakes

Today was the day of the AFL (football) grand final so we decided to make something yummy, so we honey and apricot rock cakes it was. These little fruit and spice cakes are typically perfect for a tea break but for us, they are perfect for an all the time break! 

We found the idea of this recipe in the Women's Weekly Cook book but changed it around a bit to match our tastes. As we are lovers of fruit, so therefore dried fruit, so dried apricot and sultanas were a significant component of these little cakes.

Chopping up the fruit

They were actually more like scones than cakes because they are not particularly sweet but abundance of fruit helps to create a great balance. Also, a great serving suggestion is jam and cream, which is known to be great for scones, so this will assist in flavour development for those who have a particularly sweet tooth :) And if you're one of those people who just need it to be even more sweet (we think it is good as it and we have a BIG sweet tooth), you can add extra sugar and honey than the recipe suggests. 

When mixing in the butter with the dry ingredients, use your fingers to make sure every bit of flour is covered in some butter.

Rubbing in the butter

These little cakes are a perfect snack and quite healthy too so that's always a bonus! Maddy and I can't stop going to the fridge and sneaking them into our pockets!!! 

Honey fruity rock cakes

Ingredients

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour

¼ cup caster sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

90g butter, chopped*

¾ cup chopped dried apricots 

½ sultanas 

1 egg

2 tbsp honey

1/3 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowel and rub in butter. Add apricots and sultanas. Combine egg and honey in a small bowel and stir into mixture with milk. 

3. Place large tablespoonfuls of the mixture in rough heaps onto trays. Bake, uncovered for about 15 minutes. 

4. Allow to cool on trays before eating (we failed at this) and enjoy!

The ingredients in a bowl

Mixing the ingredients together

Tablespoon size scoops of batter

The rock cakes ready to be cooked

*Instead of using butter, coconut oil will also work work well and you can use what ever dried fruit you want. 

We hope you enjoyed these little treats! Keep cooking, twins in the kitchen.