Healthy Chicken Enchilada Bites

Happy almost weekend, everyone! I’ve got the perfect addition for your list of lunches or dinners next week. If you’ve already planned your meals out and built a shopping list, scratch out the meal that you were least excited about and replace it with this simple recipe. Seriously.

Yes, it’s Mexican food. Yes, it’s delicious. And YES, they’re surprisingly healthy.

One of my goals for this year is to come up with at least one unique recipe each week. As I mentioned in my post from Monday, I’m on a Mexican kick, so I turned a mad craving for enchiladas into inspiration for a new recipe during meal prep on Sunday. These little guys turned out pretty stinkin’ adorably.

Flavor? Well, they’re enchilada bites. If you expect anything short of awesome from a recipe that has “enchilada” in the name, I might consider you crazy. These. Are. Delicious. After gobbling one down straight after they were finished cooking, I realized something wonderful: you really don’t have to cram a million complex ingredients into one dish to make it taste great. Sometimes, simplicity is key. (TOTALLY true for Sunday meal prep.)

I was hoping that these would become a new go-to for lunches — I usually default to muffin tins and my slow cooker to simplify that whole process — but there was one “area for improvement” that Ryan mentioned in his professional critique as my head taste-tester. His input: “I wish I could figure out how to get them crispy again when I heat up my lunch.” Since these are wrapped in wonton paper, they tend to lose the crisp after being refrigerated and reheated in the microwave. You know how egg rolls, french fries, or anything meant to be crispy with a filling tends to get a little bit soggy if you try to reheat it? That’s what happens with these. Personally, this didn’t bug me AT ALL. We still demolished them when we brought them for lunch this week. I just changed my perspective and told myself I was eating little baby soft taco cups to get over it, but I know the “soggy”-ish texture might throw some people off. So, my recommendation: if you’re big about texture and don’t like soft tacos, make this for dinner and don’t reheat leftovers in the microwave (crisp them back up in the oven!). If you’re not picky about texture (like me) or happen to work somewhere with an oven at your disposal, feel free to try these out for meal prep. I know I’ll be making them again. I LOVED them.

For serving sizes: I packed up 3 along with a little bit of brown rice and ate these for lunch on high-carb days. (WTF is a “high-carb” day, you ask? I’m giving carb cycling a legitimate try for the next couple of weeks. Look for a post on that in the near future!) Ryan took 4 or 5 with some rice. They definitely held me over until my afternoon snack.

Nutritional Overview (per bite):

Calories: 92
Fat: 1.9
Carbs: 7.5
Protein: 8.9

Serves: 24
Cook time: 30min

Ingredients:

• 24 wonton wraps (I found these in the produce section at HEB, refrigerated)
• 2lbs ground chicken
• 1 pkg Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch seasoning (found in the dressing aisle)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes and green chilies
• 3/4 can (~12oz.) red enchilada sauce (I used medium)
• 3/4 cup 2% Mexican shredded cheese
• Optional garnishes: green onions, cilantro, black beans, sour cream, salsa, avocado (not included in nutritional information)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place wonton wrappers in muffin tin cups. Press down until they form to the sides of the tin — make sure the sides are fully covered and that the wrapper doesn’t have any big overlaps
3. Bake for ~6-8 minutes or until the wonton “cups” start to brown
4. While your “cups” are baking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat
5. Place ground chicken in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, combine the Fiesta Ranch packet with the ground chicken until evenly distributed
6. Transfer seasoned meat to skillet and cook until chicken is done and pink color disappears
7. Once meat is cooked, drain all liquid using a colander and place back in the skillet
8. Drain your diced tomatoes and green chilies, then add to the meat
9. Add enchilada sauce on top of the meat mixture and stir until everything is combined
10. Fill wonton “cups” with about 1/4 cup of meat and top with 1-2 tbsp of shredded cheese
11. Pop the filled muffin tins back in the oven for about 10 more minutes
12. Remove and garnish with cilantro, green onions, sour cream, salsa, avocado, or any other delicious Mexican-inspired garnishes and EAT THE HECK out of these things because they are amazing.

The Blog is on Facebook!

After months of debate, I finally made a home for the blog on Facebook. If you haven’t already, like the page! My plan is to post little kitchen tips, product finds, and other small pieces of my cooking adventures to Facebook when they don’t really warrant a full blog post. Plus, if you’re a visual person and want to find recipes based solely on the pictures, I’ll have an album for each meal. Each picture will have a link to its corresponding recipe. Super simple.

I wasn’t so sure about doing this because ultimately, I put all of my efforts to these blog posts — not Facebook. Creating yet ANOTHER place to house all of this stuff seemed like a bad idea. But, I changed my mind. Why? Well, throughout the week, a few of you have been making my recipes and posting pictures of the awesomeness to Facebook/Instagram. KEEP DOING THIS. It makes me smile from ear to ear and I get all giddy about it when I see it. Since I’m not FB friends with the whole world, I miss out on seeing some of this stuff. The solution: tag the Facebook page in your pictures so I can see your masterpieces and get excited about it. You’re all rock stars for making these recipes, and I LOVE seeing how they come out. And, if you’ve got friends who are always looking for a healthy recipe idea, invite them to like the page and spread the word  . :o) Don’t miss out!