Jan 9---Leftovers on a lazy wintry Sunday

Winter is here...again. Apparantly it never left, but rather it took a siesta. We've been having milder weather here until this morning when we awoke to a dusting on the rooftops of snow. Of course my beautiful children declared it was time to make a snowman (even though there was all of 2 cm of the white stuff).

On that note, I'm going to take cues from Father Winter and eat on the bounty from last night's dinner.

I used beef from Sat night's dinner for half of the meal and chicken for the other half. I basically made the following...also known as my distorted representation of Mexican food.  A few things to note about my cooking. #1 Casserole generally equals some sort of addition of "cream-of" soup.  #2 I'm a lazy cook and want food done quickly as to reduce the crazy-level in my house---so I will do as little as I can as quickly as I can, but of course I expect an awesome product.  I know there is a flaw in my reasoning somewhere.  #3 I also try to use as few ingredients as possible---less to measure, less to prepare, less to buy?!??!;) 

Mexi-Casserole
3/4 bag fresh Spinach
5 cloves garlic (microwave for 30 sec with skin on, remove from microwave, remove skin, and slice in half)
1 1/2 lb chicken
4 tortillas
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 c cheese
cream sauce
1/2 can cream of chicken soup
4 oz brick of cream cheese
1 tsp powdered garlic
1 can milk (i.e. use the cream of chicken soup can....twice)

1.  heat olive oil and garlic in a med-hi skillet
2.  add chicken and brown
3.  when chicken is done, add spinach.  cover skillet with lid and let spinach soften (it's like 1 min)
4.  shred in food processor (or chop with knife )
5.  for sauce stir all until creamy on med-hi heat
6. put two tortillas on the bottom of a 9x11 casserole dish, add 1/2 of chicken/spinach mixture sprinkle cheese, add two more tortillas, more chicken/spinach mixture, more cheese, cover with sauce generously.

For the beef version I actually used a chopped jalapeno, sauteed it, added the beef (it was about 1 1/2 c med-rare/med), warmed the beef in the skillet, added a recipe of the cheese sauce, and about 1 cup rice.  I proceeded to make two layers of casserole.

Ta da.

Wondermom