guest post! danica p.

Hi all!  This is Danica from Danica’s Daily.  I am honored to do a guest post for one of my most favorite people in the world ~ Janetha!  I decided to create a recipe for her that uses several of her FAVORITE things.  I know she LOVES Mexican, Chicken, Salsa (especially TJ’s salsa’s), Mushrooms (aka fungus!) and Laughing Cow Cheese.  She is also a BIG fan of quick meals that use fast ingredients.  Oh ya and since we both are doing the Body For Life Challenge, I designed this recipe to be BFL friendly – woohoo!  My inspiration for this recipe came from my FAVORITE magazine Cooking Light.  You can check out the original recipe on MyRecipes.com by clicking HERE.

CREAMY CHICKEN, SPINACH & MUSHROOM ENCHILADAS

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cooked chicken, I used 4 Trader Joe’s Chipotle Chicken Skewers
2 teaspoons olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 tsp)1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach (about 6 cups)
1/4 teaspoon salt & freshly ground black pepper
4 Laughing Cow Lite Garlic & Herb Cheese Wedges
1 jar Trader Joe’s Pineapple Salsa or your favorite salsa
8 (6-inch) Low-Carb La Tortilla Tortillas or corn tortillas if you prefer
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) finely shredded Pepper Jack cheese (the real deal works best here)

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS:
4 Tbsp 0% or 2% Greek Yogurt (to be used as sour cream
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp Cilantro, roughly chopped

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat broiler.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and mushrooms; sauté 5 minutes. Add spinach and salt; cook for 1 minute or until spinach wilts, stirring frequently. Drain; return mushroom mixture to pan. Add Laughing Cow Wedges; cook 2 minutes or until cheese melts, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and stir in your chopped chicken. 

Heat 1 cup salsa in a saucepan over low heat. Dredge both sides of each tortilla in warm salsa using tongs, and stack the tortillas on a plate.   Spray a 9×13 dish with nonstick cooking spray.  Spoon 1 heaping scoop of the creamy chicken mushroom mixture into center of each tortilla; fold in half, and arrange in the 9×13 dish, overlapping slightly. Top with remaining salsa, and sprinkle with cheese. Broil enchiladas for 3-4 minutes or until the cheese melts. Top with avocado, greek yogurt, tomatoes and garnish with cilantro, if desired.

* Make it VEGETARIAN by using Morning Star Grillers or Following the original recipe and omitting any chicken.  I almost think some Spicy Potatoes would be a fantastic replace for the chicken too.

** Make it VEGAN by omitting the chicken and using VEGAN Cream Cheese & Cheddar Cheese.  You could add Black Beans for the chicken to boost protein and use Blue Corn Tortillas as they have more protein than corn.

Makes 4 HUGE servings – 2 enchiladas each. (Divide the NI by 2 if you want it the nutritionals per enchilada)

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION, EXCLUDING TOPPINGS:

Calories 341.2, Total Fat 8.6 g, Saturated Fat 1.4 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g, Monounsaturated Fat 3.7 g, Cholesterol 65.0 mg, Sodium 1,515.5 mg, Potassium 813.3 mg, Total Carbohydrate 32.4 g, Dietary Fiber 16.6 g, Sugars 6.9 g, Protein 39.0 g

A little bit about the ingredients in this recipe.

For the CHICKEN, you can do any one of these.

* Use leftover cooked chicken you have in the fridge.

* Use a rotisserie chicken

* Marinate and grill some chicken breast ~ Some of my favorite ways are Spicy Chicken and Lime Chicken.

* Use your favorite Pre-Marinated Chicken Breast!  I opted for Trader Joe’s Marinated Chipotle Chicken Skewers.  These are awesome because they come pre-threaded – you simply spray them with nonstick cooking spray and grilled frozen.  So Easy!

The only thing to note about pre-marinated things is that the sodium can be high.  If this is an issue for you, simply make your own chicken like noted above.

I used the Pineapple Salsa on the left, but, you could also GO GREEN and use the Salsa Verde on the right.

I LOVE using Laughing Cow Lite over Cream Cheese because you save on calories and fat. Plus it’s fun to open up the little triangle wedges.

I always use finely shredded cheese because it spreads further and it makes it seem like you get more cheese.

And now for the step by step picture show!

Start out by sautéing your olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, chili powder and cumin for 5 minutes.

They will cook down quite a bit and turn brown and juicy.

Add your entire bag of spinach with sea salt.

Watch it shrink/wilt into nothing.  Be sure to DRAIN the water from the pan or your enchiladas will get soggy.  Return it to the pan and add your laughing cow wedges.

After your cheese melts, remove it from the heat, stir in your chicken & freshly ground pepper.

Dip each tortilla in your heated salsa and layer them on a plate.

Scoop your filling into your tortilla and fold in half.

Repeat the process layering your next tortilla slightly on top of the first one so that all the tortillas slightly overlap.

Top with your remaining salsa.

Top with your pepper jack cheese!

Broil for 3-4 minutes or until your cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Scoop 2 fully loaded enchiladas onto a plate.

Add your toppings and DIG IN!

Thanks everyone for checking out my Creamy Chicken, Spinach & Mushroom Enchiladas ~ Hope you all enjoyed the recipe as much as I did!  It’s loaded with flavor – smokey, slightly sweet and slightly spicy but 100% good for you!  For healthy recipes like this one, be sure to stop by my blog Danica’s Daily ~ leave a comment if you’ve tried one of my recipes or find something else to try tonight.

A special Thanks to Janetha too for being who she is and letting me post.  I am sure she is living it up on vacation and I cannot wait to read about it!

Q’s:

1.  What is your FAVORITE thing to have when eating Mexican Food?  Mine is chips and salsa.  I could probably make a meal of that alone!

2.  In the spirit of being on vacation ~ What is one fun thing you have planned this week or weekend?  We just got back from a week in South Lake Tahoe but I think we will may head to the movies this weekend – fun!

Have a fantastic day!

Danica