Tuesday Recipe: Pumpkin, Bean and Chicken Enchiladas

Once again, my skepticism with a pumpkin recipe impacting one of my fave genres of food turns to OH MY GOODNESS! THIS WORKS!

Hubby & I love TexMex! We could eat it 3, 4, 5 times a week! So, when somebody wants to mess with it, we're like, "Naw." But, this is #PunkinChunkin month when I like to try a pumpkin or pumpkin pie spice twist on sweet and savory dishes. Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications issued the PUMPKIN edition for America's pumpkin addiction

After reading several articles online about the ancient Hispanic culture and the pumpkin, I figured the two have made a beautiful life, together. Who was I to think my Mexican food and my orange squash don't work in the same recipe?

I used a blend of the cute little Sugar Pie Pumpkin and the Japanese Kabocha Pumpkin to measure enough cooked pumpkin for this recipe. The Kabocha is a brighter, sweeter flavor -in my opinion- compliments the cumin seasoning, fresh cilantro and soft corn tortillas! It just works!

Pumpkin, Bean & Chicken Enchiladas

2-4 tsp Olive Oil (enough to sauté onion and jalapeño)
1 small Onion, chopped
1-2 Jalapeños, seeded & finely chopped
1 3/4 cups Cooked Pumpkin -OR- 1 (15 oz) can 100% Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 1/2 cups Water
1-2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp ground Cumin

1 can Black Beans or Kidney Beans, rinsed & drained & smooshed!
2 Chicken Breasts, cooked & shredded -OR- 2 cans of (12.5 oz) Chicken Breast
1/2 cup shredded Cheese (your preferred)
Cilantro, chopped
6-8 Corn Tortillas, softened in microwave 30 seconds between paper towels) I purchased the "Super Soft" White Corn Tortillas at Walmart and bypassed the microwave.

• Heat oven to 400*. Lightly coat square/rectangle baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
• In medium skillet, heat onion and sauté onions & jalapeños until tender and onions are opaque.
• Stir in pumpkin and water, chili powder, cumin and heat through. If needed, add enough water (up to 1/4 cup) to your desired consistency. 
• 
  
• While this mixture is heating...Turn beans (already rinsed & drained) into a large bowl and slightly smoosh with the back of a fork.
• Add HALF of the pumpkin mixture, all the chicken and cheese and cilantro. Reserve the other HALF of pumpkin mixture to pour over the tortilla rolls, once assembled.
• 
  
• Assemble tortillas: Onto a soft(ened) tortilla, spoon about 1/3 cup bean, pumpkin & chicken mixture; roll up tortillas and place seam sides down in prepped baking dish. Pour the remaining half of pumpkin mixture over all of the assembled tortillas. COVER DISH with lid or foil.
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• Bake, covered, 15 minutes. The lid or foil keeps the tortillas and pumpkin mixture
  
  from drying out.
• Sprinkle with additional cheese, if desired, and Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes more or until heated through.
• Serve with extra cilantro, salsa or limes.

Note: I thinned the left-over filling with a little of the pumpkin mixture and poured into an oven-safe dish coated with non-stick spray. Then, topped with the remaining pumpkin mixture and crunched up tortilla chips on top with extra cheese. Made a great TexMex Lunch Bowl for later!

GO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD! 

I'd love to hear how your enchiladas turned out and what you thought of them or how you changed the recipe to make it your own!

Tuesday Recipe: Crockpot Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Talk about easy! Sometimes, I am skeptical and ditch a recipe before I ever attempt it, because the results seem puffed. The results -taste & texture- were not puffed with this #PunkinChunkin recipe for #31DaysofPumpkin. In fact, they were right on!

Last year was not short on busyness and we found it necessary to fire up the crockpot for food prep and dinners several times each week. At the onset of the holiday season, I found Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications' Pumpkin Recipes mag with this too-good-to-be-true recipe. Yep, I ditched it thinking there was no way the texture could come out as though baked in an oven.

I was wrong.

This bread is every bit easy. Every bit full of flavor. Every bit oven-baked texture. It takes 2 hours on high. 

One note: I was thinking of making this with blueberries, instead, because I haven't seen fresh cranberries in the grocery store, yet. Then, Momma and I mulled the use of dried cranberries, like Craisins. We rehydrated less than the recipe's measurement of dried cranberries with enough hot water to cover the berries and let stand while I worked on the rest of the recipe and prepared the crockpot. When it was time to add the berries, I drained the water, patted them dry-ish with a few paper towels and referred back to recipe. They worked just fine!

Crockpot / Slow Cooker Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread

2 eggs
3/4 cup Pumpkin Purée (100% canned pumpkin)
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (I used olive oil.)

1 2/3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Pumpkin "Pie" Spice (You can totally make your own PS.)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Fresh or Frozen (thawed) Cranberries (or refer to the note, above)
1 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour (to coat part of the cranberries)
1/4-1/2 cup Pecans, chopped

• Coat a 4 qt Slow Cooker with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. I would suggest NOT USING the slow cooker/crockpot plastic bag liners, because of the steam issue.
• In first bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, sugar and oil.
• In second bowl, stir together next four ingredients. 
• Add pumpkin mixture all at once to flour mixture; stir just until dry is combined. Do not over stir.
• Toss 1/2 cup of cranberries with 1 Tbsp flour and fold into batter.
• Spoon batter into prepared crock of your slow cooker (a.k.a. crockpot).
• Top with remainder of cranberries and pecans.
• Cover and cook on high for 2 hours. If possible, lift and half-turn crock insert halfway through cooking. BE CAREFUL WHEN LIFTING LID... do not let steam condensation from lid drip onto bread. Wipe the lid. After the half-turn, cover and continue cooking.
• Bread is done when toothpick comes out clean... 2 hours.
• If possible, remove crock insert from slow cooker and set on wire rack for 10 minutes, uncovered.
• Place a cutting board or plate on top of crock insert and carefully flip crock and plate, together, allowing bread to drop out of crock. THEN, turn bread over onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

NOTE: Do you know why it's necessary to coat part of the cranberries? Whenever you plan to stir-in berries, nuts, or choco chips, you want them to "suspend" in the batter while baking instead of sinking all the way to the bottom and possibly scorching. Just toss the stir-ins in a tablespoon of all-purpose flour and, then, stir into the batter!

GO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD! I would love to hear how your bread turned out! Lemme know, below...

"Sam"