I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Easy Turkey Enchiladas

Viva la awesome. Tonight was a grocery shopping night, so figuring we didn't have time for a big cooked meal, Shannon said "maybe enchiladas". She had a recipe on pinterest for Chicken Enchiladas, but since that involved a lot of custom spices and prep, I said let's just break out the old favorite....Old El Paso's "Easy Beef Enchiladas". But you know me, I always try to give things my dieting twist.


So, let's axe the beef and replace it with ground turkey. I sprung for the 93/7 turkey to add a little fat in. And for cheese, I got some Fat Free Shredded Cheddar. But, since I needed to use up some of my 2% Mexican Shredded from a meal last week, I used that in the enchilada stuffing, and used the fat free cheese on top of them. I also deviated from my normal way to make them. Normally, I wrap them up like burritos and arrange them in the baking dish, smother them in enchilada sauce and bury them in the cheese. Smother and bury are not great dieting words, so instead I rolled them into...well, rollups. Then I drizzled lines of enchilada sauce across and back several times, then sprinkled cheese on top. Those are nicer words. Here is the result tonight...

Easy Turkey Enchiladas

1.25 pounds 93/7 ground turkey
1.75 cups Old El Paso Mild Enchilada Sauce
1 cup of 2% Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
0.5 cup of Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
8 Wrap-Itz 8" Flour Tortillas

1. Brown the ground turkey and drain (if there is any grease, I usually do not need to with ground turkey)
2. Pre-heat over to 375
3. Combine ground turkey, 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce, and 2% cheese in a mixing bowl and mix together well until you have a good combined mixture of all ingredients
4. Spray 9x13 glass baking pan with cooking spray
5. Spoon about 2 heaping spoonfuls (I used eyeball measurements) into each tortilla, roll it up, and place it seam side down in pan
6. Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over rollups
7. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of enchiladas
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes (Until cheese is melted)

Per 1 enchilada:

280 calories
10 grams fat
23 carbs
23 grams protein

Notes:

• I usually eat two enchiladas, so it wasn't totally lean, but this is about 33% of daily fat intake on a normal diet, so for a dinner, that's pretty good.
  


• This recipe can go leaner if you use extra lean ground turkey and/or Fat Free Shredded Cheese for ALL the cheese. You can also probably go a little leaner on tortillas, but I shopped for a pretty low fat tortilla, and I've tried the Old El Paso 97% Fat Free tortillas. They taste too bland for that it's worth.



• This recipe can certainly go heavier on fat if you need. I won't extrapolate on how, I'm sure you can figure out how :)
  


• Suggestion from Shannon...Don't skimp on the Enchilada Sauce. 1 cup poured on top left the ends of the enchiladas kind've dried out. Enchilada sauce is 0 fat, only 20 calories for 1/4 cup. So adding 1 extra cup on top equates to just 10 calories per enchilada. Much more taste, not much added numbers.



• Not sure which method of "rolling" I prefer yet. This way made for a cooler looking pan, more like Don Pablo's style, but the burrito rolling style is much neater and makes for easier serving