Recipe Monday

Mondays are always the day when 5:00 hits and I realize I completely forgot to plan dinner. That's when I used to turn to one of my trusty Trader Joe's frozen concoctions. Alas, those days are no more! But I do have a few stand-by recipes that are super delicious and very easy to throw together for those "forgot to defrost some chicken" days. I thought I'd share one with you guys as a public service to moms everywhere! I call it my Clean Out the Pantry Chicken Enchilada Casserole:

• 2 big cans chicken breast (like the Kirkland brand from Costco)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 big can green enchilada sauce (or two of the smaller standard size cans)
• 1/2 can of refried black beans (I use the other half can in a delicious chipotle turkey chili recipe from my Trader Joe's cookbook)
• about 1 cup sour cream
• Tapatio or other chili sauce to your desired level of kick (I just shake a little in for flavor if Claire will be eating it)
• about 2 cups frozen corn
• shredded cheese
• corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all wet ingredients together in a bowl. In a 9 x 13 casserole dish alternate layers of corn tortillas, chicken mixture, and cheese (about 3-4 layers) Bake for 30 minutes.

Easy Peasy! No defrosting. No pre-cooking. Just mix and go. It's great for when that half packet of tortillas has been in the fridge for a while and they're getting stale. And I've found that kids generally love this. And, if you're an over-achiever you can use fresh chicken and shred it yourself (but I never do that because this is always my rescue meal when I'm unprepared for dinner!) I just keep the basic canned ingredients stocked and I'm always good to go.