Healthy Home Revolution: Slimmed-down Beef Enchiladas

You know that we love, love, love our Mexican and Tex-Mex food. I am always looking for ways to lighten it up without my husband feeling like he's missing out on anything. These were a HUGE hit! He said they were even better the next day (and he's not a leftover fan either). And I even put shredded zucchini (which my husband despises) and he never knew! I know, I'm evil - but my intentions are good. I want to sneak more vegetables into our diets in many ways. Shredded zucchini and carrots are great veggies to hide in almost any dish.

So back to these wickedly good enchiladas...this is a must try recipe for all you enchilada lovers out there. This version saves you fat and calories plus adds more veggies without you knowing. I served mine with a side of steamed broccoli and I also made rice and beans for the kids. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Happy Cooking!
Sarah

Slimmed-down Beef Enchiladas
original recipe based on the following http://www.recipe-diaries.com/2011/10/26/skinny-beef-enchiladas/

1 lb of lean ground beef (90% lean or higher)
1 small onion, diced
1 cup of shredded zucchini (I have a bunch pre-shredded and frozen in 1 cup portions for muffins, soups, and recipes just like this one)
1 - 8 oz can of tomato sauce
2 T of taco seasoning (either the recipe from these baked tacos http://deliciouslydomesticdining.blogspot.com/2013/02/baked-tacos.html or one without the additives such as Trader Joe's)
1 jar of enchilada sauce (I prefer Trader Joe's or the Frontera brand - not processed, no hydrogenated oils, preservatives, etc)
8-10 corn tortillas
1/2 cup of reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar

Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and brown the beef. Be sure it is cooked evenly, all the way through, and you break it up as it cooks leaving no big pieces.

Drain the beef on a paper-towel lined plate to absorb any access grease. Set aside.

In the same frying pan, cook the zucchini and onions over medium heat until soft. You can see a lot of water in my picture because my zucchini was frozen, but the water will absorb as it cooks. No worries!

Once it is cooked it looks like this:

Add the tomato sauce and taco seasoning along with the drained ground beef and stir until well combined.

Allow the mixture to cook for 5-10 minutes, adding some water if it becomes too dry. You want it to have the consistency of taco filling.

And now to building the enchiladas...take a corn tortilla and add 1/2 cup of filling.

Roll up the tortilla and place in a greased baking dish (I sprayed mine with coconut oil). As you can see, my tortillas kept breaking. It didn't make one difference in the end product (as you will see in the pictures below). So no sweat if the tortillas fall apart on you. Keep rolling the enchiladas until you are all out of filling or room in your pan. (I used a 8x10 inch pan, all my filling, and got 8 enchiladas from this recipe).