Tex Mex Comfort Food, Enchiladas

This is a super easy dish to prepare ahead of time. I like to make my own sauce since I can control the sodium in it and it's easy. This was prepared with Venison that our neighbor gave us. You may use any ground meat you like or simply beans to make a vegetarian version. I like to make the sauce first so it can cool and I can adjust the seasonings before using it. So, that's how I will write the recipe. I also like to use corn tortillas since they add more flavor than flour, but since it's food it's all about personal taste/preference. Just to let you know, my husband could eat these just about every night.

Ingredients: ( makes a 9 x 14 casserole dish)

Sauce:

2 8oz cans of no salt added tomato sauce

3 T tomato paste

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 med. onion, chopped fine

8 oz. water

2 T chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1 t ground coriander

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 T sugar

3 dashes of hot sauce

olive oil

Corn Tortillas (I used 10)

4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

1 serrano or jalapeno pepper, chopped fine (optional)

1 lb. ground venison or other lean ground meat

1 sm. can chopped green chilies

1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

1 sm. lime

Pickled jalapenos (optional)

Chopped avocado with lime juice (optional)

Begin by gathering all of your ingredients for the sauce. Heat about 1 T olive oil in a sauce pan over med heat. Add the onion and saute until soft, then add the garlic and continue to saute for another minute. Add the tomato paste and stir everything, allow it to darken a little. Now add the water and stir. Add the tomato sauce and the spices, bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir again, cover and remove from the heat. Remember you may adjust the amount of spice by omitting some cayenne or hot sauce or bump it up by adding more.

Place a saute pan over medium heat and add the meat. Break it up into chunks. As this cooks add the chopped serrano or jalapeno if using. Once the meat is cooked through add the can of chopped green chilies and 1/2 c of the enchilada sauce. Stir the meat and turn down the heat to a simmer. Continue to cook and stir to allow the sauce to flavor the meat. After about 20 minutes add the cilantro and lime juice. Turn off the heat.

Prepare the baking dish with spray.Ladle a little sauce into the bottom of the dish. Fill the corn tortillas with the meat mixture, roll and place seam side down in the baking dish. Some may need to sit sideways to fit. Now ladle the rest of the sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. Place pickled jalapenos on top of the cheese and cover everything with foil.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes (50 if you have refrigerated these). Remove foil and turn oven to broil, put dish back in and broil for 5 minutes. (no need to move the rack up, just leave it there)

After plating you may top with some chopped avocado with lime. (With the spices and the sodium in the tortillas and the cheese, I don't add salt.)

Enjoy!