Peach Cobbler Wontons

Sometimes you just want a bite of something. It's really hard to control myself when I have an entire cobbler sitting in front of me. Especially if it was my grandma's blackberry cobbler. She made the best. I can still smell it baking in her oven, all bubbly and golden. I don't know how she did it but her cobbler was amazing. I haven't been able to recreate it. I think it's better as a memory.

I really wanted peaches the other day. Someone made peach cobbler in the international lab at my culinary school and I managed to swipe a big ol' plate full. It was pretty tasty. Not really how I think a cobbler should be, however, I'm basing all my cobbler experience on only ever having my grandma's. I wanted to make peach cobbler at home. I knew though, if I did, I would do 1 of 2 things:

1) Eat the entire thing by myself
2) Eat one serving and never touch it again

So, I decided to be a little creative.

Mix together brown sugar and white sugar.

Start melting some butter.

Add some cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (it's always better like that).

Stir in the melted butter

Add some flour. 

I added oatmeal too. You know, for extra health benefits. 

Dice 2 peaches and toss them with a tablespoon of sugar.

Add 1/2 pint of blueberries.

Also here for health reasons. 

Get your crumb topping ready! 

It should be moist but crumbly. 

Fill your muffin tin with wontons

Fill the wontons with the fruit.

About 1/8 cup per wonton.

Sprinkle on the delicious (& good for you - it's the oatmeal) crumb topping.

Bake.

 

They should come out golden and your kitchen should smell like cinnamon and sugar. 

SO GOOD!

Remember my predicament from above? Well I think I handled it pretty well. I ate two and took the rest to work. 

I may have had a third one once I got there... But it has fruit so it has to be healthy right??

I used Ina Garten's crumb topping. It's really easy. The only thing I did differently was add 1/2 cup Quaker Instant Oatmeal. 

For the filling:

2 peaches, diced - skin on

1/2 pint fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon sugar. 

Toss all ingredients together. 

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. 

You can also make this dessert sugar free by omitting the brown sugar and replacing all white sugar with Splenda. 

Cheesy Southwestern Chili Enchiladas

Happy New Year dear followers! Hope your new year is off to a great start and everyone is making good on their resolutions. They are not the easiest things to stick to. I know that first hand. This year I've decided to make mine a little more attainable, if you will. Budgeting has never been my thing, ever. But I've tried and tried and I always say this time I'm going to make it work. Well then comes along the cutest pair of wedges you ever did see... Story of my life. Shoes are one of my weaknesses. 

Food however, is my downfall. So I've decided this is where I need to make necessary cuts. I go to the store, stock up on what I think I need (think being the key word here) and as many people out there experience, half of it goes to waste. Produce mostly. It's costly and if not used within a few days it goes bad. Compost bucket full of dollars. Dollars I don't have to spend on compost. 

What to do? Recycle the ingredients I buy. Why didn't I think of that before? There's a whole time slot on Food Network devoted it stretching your dollars by using the same ingredients in several different recipes. And, now that I'm being more frugal and really paying attention to my food budget I can eat for days on just a few things from the store. 

I was craving my summer veggie casserole so I went and bought all the stuff to make it. I made a small one for dinner and had a lot of vegetables left over so I combined it all in a container and saved it for the next day. I used some for vegetable and cheese quesadillas, a quick and easy lunch or dinner option, and used the rest to make a vegetarian chili.

2 cups diced mixed veggies: squash, zucchini, red/orange peppers, onion

1 can petit diced tomatoes w/ juice

1/2 can black beans

1/2 can red kidney beans

2 cups water

1 packet low sodium chili seasoning

Super easy, and healthy. It was a cold day so it was perfect. But I didn't eat it all. I was craving enchiladas but didn't have everything to make it so I improvised. This is what I came up with. And I have pictures! So you can see just how easy this was. It only took about 5 minutes to throw together and I had another delicious and healthy meal. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. And grease your baking dish.

The first thing I did was make some rice. Any kind you like will do. I had some basmati on hand. Just follow the directions on the package. Then strain off the liquid that's in the chili into a sauté pan. Reduce by half over medium heat. While that's reducing mix the rice into the veggie/bean mixture.

Add some cheese to your tortilla shells.

I used some pepper jack cheese leftover from my veggie casserole but feel free to use whatever you like or have on hand.

Add the rice mixture.

Roll it up! 

Fold in the sides.

Then pull over the end closest to you. 

Then finish rolling it up. 

This is how our sauce should look. 

You're really just evaporating water and chili seasoning but the starch in the beans will also help it to thicken. YUM!

Spoon that over each tortilla roll. 

Sprinkle with a little more cheese.

Bake to perfection. 

About 10-15 minutes. Just until it's bubbly and golden. 

Cheesy Southwestern Chili Enchiladas (because they're made from chili - the soup, not the pepper)

Roughly:

1/2 cup prepared rice

1 cup veggie mix

3 flour tortillas

3/4 cup pepper jack cheese

1/2 cup chili sauce reduction. 

Heat over to 350. Grease baking dish. 

Combine rice and veggies. Add cheese and veggie mix to tortilla shells and roll up. 

Heat wide, shallow sauté pan over medium high heat. Add liquid from chili and reduce by half. Spoon over tortillas and top with extra cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted and golden brown.