Easy Cheese Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients for cheese enchilada casserole

Today, I want to show how I made an easy cheese enchilada casserole.  Now, I'm not saying this is a healthy meal, but you can see that some of the ingredients are healthier alternatives.  Corn tortillas and extra virgin olive oil are healthier than the flour tortillas and other oils.  The other ingredients are Borden's mild cheddar cheese, which is pre-shredded, and the Wolf Brand Chile with beans.  The last ingredient also has ground meat in it which satisfies my craving for meat.

Softened corn tortillas

In low heat, I poured the extra virgin olive oil in a flat pan.  I placed each corn tortilla, one at a time, just enough to soften them up.

Cheese added to one tortilla

I waited about 20 minutes for the tortillas to cool down, before attempting to place a decent amount of cheese in each one.  There's no right or wrong way of doing this.  You can make each enchilada as skinny or as fat as you would like.

Rolled-cheese-filled taco

I rolled up each "taco" and squeezed it right at the edge of each other.  Notice how I started at one end.  What side would you start with?  (I'm left-handed, and I started on the left.)

Cheese tacos completed

I made fourteen of these little "tacos" or enchiladas fit in this casserole dish.  Like I said before, there is no right or wrong way of making these enchiladas.  You might have cheese coming out of the corn tortillas.  It's okay.  You don't have to be perfect.  The most important thing to remember is to have clean hands before touching your food.

Wolf brand chili with beans on top of the cheese tacos

Once all the little tacos are made, you can dump and spread the canned chili on top.  Just make sure to coat the tortillas until you hardly see them.  Whatever is exposed will turn a bit crunchy.  That's not bad if you want some of it crunchy.  I want to say here that having coated the corn tortillas with the olive oil will keep the enchiladas from sticking to the casserole dish.  That's just a little tip I'm giving because it helped this time around.

Casserole covered with aluminum foil

I preheated the oven at 325 degrees for about 5 minutes.  After completely covering the top of the casserole dish with aluminum foil,  I baked the enchiladas in the oven for about 20 minutes.  It was enough to melt the cheese and make some of the corn tortillas a little crispy.  It gave a nice contrast of textures.

End product--cheese enchilada meal

 

The end product of all the hard work was delicious, easy cheese enchiladas in a one dish casserole.  I added beans and rice.  The beans had been in the freezer from when I had made them previously.  I simply reheated the beans.  I started the rice, while I let the corn tortillas cool.

 

These enchiladas are great as leftovers!  
Simply reheat in the microwave and enjoy even more crispiness.

 

Someday, I will show how easy it is to make beans in another blog entry.  Beans were the first thing I learned to make when I was fourteen years-old, and I'd like to pass that knowledge to my kids.

 

 

Well, I hope you liked my version of cheese enchiladas.

I hope to show how to make my version of Mexican rice, too.  Stay tuned!

 

Thanks for reading this blog entry.  I hope you enjoyed this picture-filled entry.  I wanted to show how to make an easy cheese enchilada casserole.  As always, you can add more or less ingredients.  Perhaps, I will even show a different version of an enchilada casserole, this time with ground beef.  Yum, yum!

 
How about you, my readers?  Have you made enchiladas lately?  Why or why not?  I encourage you to add your own ingredients; you can add bell peppers, diced tomatoes, and onions.

This has been an entry for Saturday Spreads.