Veggie Enchiladas!

One of the benefits of living in a rural, agriculture-based area is all the fresh produce that is grown around us.  We often come home and find grocery bags full of extra veggies from someone's garden left on our doorstep.  It's pretty charming.  The down-side is that there is only so much zucchini and squash one can eat before you start to hate it.  Matt and I encountered this first in Dallas when we were part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - we got a box of produce from a local farm every week - you can read more about CSAs here).  We got tons of squash!  And we hate to waste food so we ended up trying it the few ways we knew how:  sauteed, fried and in a casserole (you can tell we are Southerners).  Long story short, we ended up hating squash.  It's only been recently that we have been able (or forced, however you want to look at it) back into eating squash, as it has been arriving steadily on our doorstep. 

Enter Annie's Eats, a food blog I started following about a year ago.  I have found lots of great, easy recipes on her website and have yet to be disappointed with anything I've tried.  I even made garlic yeast rolls following her recipe!  When her recipe for Veggie Enchiladas came up on my Google Reader last week, I figured that putting zucchini in an enchilada was as good a use for it as any other, so we decided to give it a shot. 

I started the prep work right after Isaac went down for a nap, but he awoke in the middle of the cooking process.  Matt was at work, so after I fed Isaac, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him.  He isn't a particularly needy baby, but he doesn't like not being in the same room with someone (and I don't like that either).  So, I strapped him into his awesome jogging stroller and basically did my best audition for "Next Food Network Star."  I am sure I looked like a crazy person, but he was entertained and cooed at me the whole time. 




"Mom, I don't think you have what it takes to be on Food Network"

 They turned out wonderfully.  It was fairly easy to make, and I added an extra squash to the recipe (I'm serious about using these things up).  Most importantly, they are fresh and delicious without having too "squashy" of a flavor.  I think you could probably substitute or add different vegetables (like sweet potatoes!), and she states that the sauce recipe would make extra, but I used all the sauce when I made them. 

Another plus is that they actually taste like enchiladas.  Living in Dallas really spoiled us on Tex-Mex, and we have found that we consistently make better Tex-Mex at home than in any restaurant we can find here. 

Overall, it was a hit with Matt and with me, and will be a part of our summer recipe rotation.