Enchilada Lasagna

If you even remotely like mexican food, this dish will probably be your all time favorite dish ever! This is a bit of a variation on my regular enchiladas with white sauce, but its a little easier since you don't have to roll each enchilada. It is so yummy! The recipe as is is not very spicy, if you want more spice, add more cayenne pepper to the chicken or add a can of jalapeños to the sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese, divided
• 15 corn tortillas
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup low fat sour cream
• 1 small can diced green chilies

Heat oven to 350, grease or spray a 9x13 inch glass baking dish

For the chicken:
There really is no exact science to this, you can use leftover chicken or just grill up a couple breasts, the trick is to season it with spices. I actually rub mine with my Homemade Taco Seasoning and cook in the microwave on 50% power in the microwave for 15-20 minutes in my deep covered baker. As always, make sure your internal temp is at least 165 degrees. Shred the chicken and mix in a bowl with about 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese.

For the sauce:
Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add in flour and whisk continuously as you continue to cook for 1 minute or so. Add broth and whisk until a smooth sauce develops. Continue to cook on medium high until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Remove from heat, Stir in sour cream and green chilies.

Meanwhile, heat tortillas on the stove just to soften. I use cooking spray, but you can use a small amount of oil. Heat for just a couple minutes per side.

To layer the lasagna, place a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of your baking dish. Line with the tortillas (cutting some in half as needed). Top with chicken mixture then another layer of tortillas, then sauce, and a little more cheese. Repeat again, chicken, tortillas, sauce and cheese. Stick in the oven and cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Turn oven to broil and brown the cheese for a minute.

You can assemble this up to a day ahead of time and stick in the fridge (not freezer). Then cook at 375 for 35 minutes.

I served with Simply Salsa and chips.

Follow the Magical Moms on Facebook and Pinterest for weekly menu ideas, crafts, and Disney Magic.  

Oatmeal Raisinet Cookies

If you want more magical mom stuff, please like us on Facebook here!

I have made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and I have made oatmeal raisin cookies so I thought I would combine the two!  I love soft oatmeal cookies and these were perfect!  I got the recipe from the Quaker Oats package (I left out the salt) and just subbed Raisinets for the raisins.  Best.  Cookies.  EVER!  

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Quick Oats
• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) plus 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 Cups Flour
• 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 Cup Raisinets

Makes About 4 dozen cookies

Preheat oven to 350.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon, mix well.  Pour flour mixture into sugar mixture and mix well.  Add oats and rasinets, mix well.  Place dough onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

Follow the Magical Moms on Facebook and Pinterest for weekly menu ideas, crafts, and Disney Magic.  

Southwest Steak with Chipotle Butter

One of our most popular posts (Herb Butter Steakhouse Steak) has inspired many other recipes that we have tried. The Magical Moms often make healthy recipes, but they are not afraid to experiment with BUTTER or BACON!  I learned the finishing butter on a steak trick while attending a cooking class a few years ago.  I don't do it all the time but when I do I always enjoy it!

Ingredients:

• 4 (6-8 oz each) Steaks
• 1/3 Cup A1 Steak Sauce
• 1 Chipotle in Adobo Sauce (just one pepper not the whole can)
• 1 Tablespoon of Water
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
• 2 tablespoons of butter (softened)
• 1 teaspoon adobo sauce

Serves 4

In a small food processor combine A1 , chipotle pepper, water, minced garlic, and lime juice and process until smooth.  Place steaks in a ziploc bag and pour 2/3 of the marinade over it.  Reserve 1/3 of marinade to brush on steaks while cooking.  Marinade steaks for about 30 minutes.  

Chipotle Butter

Place softened (not melted) butter along with 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce in small food processor and process until well combined.  Place butter in small bowl and place in fridge so it can harden again.

Grill steaks (I cooked them on my grill pan on the stove inside) until they are cooked to desired temp.  I cooked mine to medium.  Then top with a slice of the hard chipotle butter and let it melt into the meat.  

Follow the Magical Moms on Facebook and Pinterest for weekly menu ideas, crafts, and Disney Magic.  

Banana Nutella Muffins

My kids come home from school EXTREMELY hungry, so I try to have a snack ready for them when they get home.  These muffins (or cupcakes as my youngest likes to call them) are perfect sweet treat for them

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Bananas- Mashed
• 1 1/2 Cups Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Cup Applesauce
• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/8 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1/2 teapoon Cinnamon
• About 1/2 Cup Nutella
• 2 Eggs

I made 12 Regular Muffins and 10 Mini Muffins

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl cream together mashed bananas, applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Add that to the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Scoop batter into full size muffin tins until about 1/2 full.

  Then place a SMALL dollop of Nutella on top.  Place another scoop of muffin batter on top of Nutella.

 Bake for 11-12 minutes.

**for mini muffins I just filled them about 2/3 of the way full and placed a small dollop of Nutella on top of batter.  I baked them for 8 minutes.

Follow the Magical Moms on Facebook and Pinterest for weekly menu ideas, crafts, and Disney Magic.  

Chicken Saltimboca

                  If you want more magical mom stuff, please like us on Facebook here!

A few weeks ago I was watching The Chew and they were having a cook off between 3 audience members and one of them made this dish (or very similar).  When it was on I wrote it down but do you think I saved it HA! Nope!  I remember saying to myself "that is so easy, I can just remember that."  So I created this from memory and even if it wasn't the exact same, it was still delicious.  

Ingredients:

• 4 Small Boneless Chicken Breasts
• Black Pepper
• 4 Thin Slices of Provolone
• 4 Slices of Prosciutto
• 4 Sage Leaves
• 3/4 Cup of White Wine
• 1 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 375.  Place piece of provolone on each piece of chicken.  Top cheese with 1 sage leaf and then tightly wrap the whole piece of chicken with a slice of prosciutto and place it in a glass baking dish.

 Next pour the white wine and chicken broth in the bottom of the dish.  Sprinkle with pepper.  Bake for 25 minutes or until prosciutto gets crispy.

I served this Mushroom Risotto and Oven Roasted Asparagus

Follow the Magical Moms on Facebook and Pinterest for weekly menu ideas, crafts, and Disney Magic.  

Weeknight Crispy Chicken Pasta & Strawberry Orange Spinach Salad

I've been debating for a while on what to call this. I got my inspiration from Chicken Parmesan, but needed something that I could cook in a much shorter amount of time.  I almost called it Chicken Parmesan casserole, but figured the name would turn my kids off to it. For this dish I used precooked frozen chicken tenders to make it a quick weeknight meal. The key to making this dish cook so quickly is "pre-cooking" the meat. It's going to sound like a ridiculous process, but trust me it gets done a lot faster this way:)

Ingredients:
10 oz. of uncooked rotini or penne pasta (I use the veggie kind to hide some nutrition)
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove minced garlic
4 frozen chicken tenders (the kind you get precooked in a bag)
1 jar spaghetti or marinar sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded parmesan

Start off by getting your pasta water boiling. Then chop up your onions and heat up the butter in a skillet on medium and cook the onions until they are translucent and some start to turn brown. Meanwhile add your pasta to or of water once it starts to boil.

Now for the chicken...to get the chicken to cook fast, place it on a microwave safe place and cook for 1.5 minutes. These speeds up the cooking time by a lot! Then place in oven at 400 for about 7 minutes to get it crispy. We don't want to wait to cook this in the oven with the whole meal put together because again, it will take too long. Using the microwave and stovetop will allow us to just be able to broil the finished meal for 3 minutes. You're really just using the time it takes to boil the pasta to heat the chicken quickly. Now you can add the garlic to your onions and cook about 3 minutes then turn to low.

About the time is your pasta is done, you're chicken can come out of the oven. Leave the oven on so it stays hot for the finished product. Slice the chicken tenders and add them to the skillet with the onions and garlic.

Turn back up to medium high and cook the chicken for 3-4 minutes to get even crispier. While it looks like a lot, this whole process up to now should only have taken 10-15 minutes.  Reduce the heat on the skillet to medium. Add your sauce to the skillet, again just long enough to heat it thoroughly.

Drain your pasta and mix the sauce and chicken mix to the pasta in a large bowl and toss around to coat the pasta in the sauce. Add about half of the mozzarella and Parmesan to the bowl and stir. Pour into a 2 quart oven safe dish, top with the remaining cheese and stick in the oven. Turn your oven to broil and cook just until the cheese starts to brown.

For the salad, I really can't even call this a recipe. While I do love to make my own salad dressings and such, I'm trying to throw this entire meal together in about 20 minutes, so I'm using  jarred dressing and canned fruit!

Strawberry Orange Spinach Salad (just use the desired amount of each for the number of people eating the salad):
Baby spinach
Mandarin oranges (the canned kind)
Pine nuts
Gorgonzola or mozzarella cheese
Strawberry vinaigrette (could also use a raspberry dressing and change the name to Raspberry Orange Spinach Salad)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and toss just before serving. Enjoy!

Clean Banana Bread

I have been using the same banana bread recipe for several years.  It is a family favorite so I was very hesitant to try anything different.  Every time I make it I think about subbing in different ingredients to try to make it healthier.  I had a couple of very ripe bananas, so today is the day!  I could have started simple and just traded out the oil for applesauce, but instead I decided to really overhaul it!  This recipe has no sugar and no oil and uses whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 (depending on size) Bananas- mashed
• 3/4 Cup Honey
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar Free Apple Sauce

Makes one loaf

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large bowl combine flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.  In a medium bowl beat 2 eggs.  To the eggs add the applesauce and honey.  Stir until combined. Add the mashed bananas and gently stir.   Then pour the batter into a lightly greased loaf pan.  Bake for 55-60 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.  Let bread sit in pan for 10 minutes then flip the pan over to remove the bread and let it cool on a wire rack.