We are nearing the home stretch of the Hunger Challenge, and the end will certainly be a relief. But at the same time, this challenge has been oddly satisfying. When you have to make do with what you have, and find ways to make the most of your little bits and pieces, it really gets your creative juices flowing. (Or mine, at least.) Nevertheless, just about everyone I know who’s doing this will be glad to see Day 7 come and go.
Even though one of our kids had some leftover beef stew for an after-school snack yesterday (!), we still had plenty left over to stretch into another meal for tonight. I diced the vegetables and shredded the beef, grated some cheese, and then used the liquid from the stew as the “sauce” to make not-very-Mexican enchiladas.
Here’s how I put it together: Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 8×11 baking pan. Fill a tortilla with about 1/4 cup meat/vegetable mix and a tablespoon of grated cheese. Roll the tortilla around the filling and place it in the pan. Repeat until all of the beef filling is used up. Sprinkle the tortillas with more grated cheese, and with any remaining sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until bubbly.
Note of irony: Today is the Slow Food USA $5 Challenge, a campaign that is urging people to cook a “slow food” meal for less than $5 per person. To that I say – Less than $5 per person?!?! I’ve been doing that all week! If you added the pro-rated cost of the meat, tortillas, vegetables, and cheese, this enchilada meal would cost about $1.49 per person (taking into account the fact that I used half the meat on another meal already). I think the roast chicken, chicken tacos, matzoh ball soup, and beef stew would all fall into that category. Let’s hear it for slow (inexpensive!) food!
