Veggie Enchilada Stacks {Low Carb, Vegetarian, Healthy}

This past Wednesday, I talked about my favorite thing to make and eat at home. And that is my sweet potato and black bean enchiladas.  I make several variations on this recipe; I've added meat; sometimes I'll do butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes.  But these.  These are my flavors.  Perfect for any day of the week!

With my Project Lean & Clean I got going on, I thought I'd eliminate the tortilla (soo sad!  I love tortillas!!!) and use the sweet potato as the carb in this dish.

It worked perfectly!  

It's kind of like a scalloped potato effect..except with tex mex flavors!  Yumm-o!

Ok, sorry.  I did not mean to say "Yumm-o."  

Whoops.  Did it again...

Let's move on.

Veggie Enchilada Stacks

serves 4-6

2 sweet potatoes

2 cans of black beans, rinsed & drained

1 10 oz bag of frozen spinach

1 can enchilada sauce

1/4 cup reduced fat or fat free sour cream (plus additional, for topping)

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp garlic powder

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup of reduced fat cheese

pickled jalapenos, cilantro (optional, for topping)

Cook spinach by the directions on the bag.  Mix cooked spinach, black beans, spices, 1/4 cup of fat free sour cream and 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Partially cook your sweet potatoes in the microwave for about 4 minutes, so they are easier to slice.  Slice with a mandolin on a medium setting.  You can also cut these by hand, but I'm not skilled enough to make consistent cuts.

Drizzle a layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a greased 9X13 pan.  Layer slices of sweet potatoes on top of this, overlapping slightly.  Add half of the filling (should be about 2 cups) on top.  Then sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese on top of that and lay down another layer of sweet potato slices and drizzle with enchilada sauce.  Then add the rest of the filling, a final layer of sweet potato slices and more enchilada sauce.  Top with 1/2 cup of cheese and pickled jalapenos & cilantro, if desired.

Bake in 375F degree oven for 40 minutes.

Do this.

WIAW: Clean Eats Mexi-Rice Bowl with Chipotle Lime Chicken

source

Good Morning!

It's already Wednesday!

Of course, yesterday I was saying, "It's only Tuesday??!!"  Now that we've reached mid week, it's all down hill from here.

Anywho, here's my eats from yesterday if you'd like to take a gander...

Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie & PB Toast

Guys, if I could marry a food, it would totally be peanut butter toast.  So delicious!  I'm such a weird girl ;)

Anyways, had some Skippy crunchy PB on whole wheat toast and a fruit smoothie containing the following: 1 frozen banana, large handful of strawberries, handful of blueberries, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 cup almond milk & one sweetener packet (I use off brand Equal).  A great start to the day!

Morning Snack: Nuts & Orange 

I was ready for my 10:30 snack and had this teensy handful of peanuts two times ;)

After that, I was not quite satisfied and I peeled an orange.

Don't you hate it when your orange peel is like 1/4" thick, making your orange smaller than you thought and kind of dry?  Meh.  

Lunch: Tuna Melt, Carrots, Grapes, Chips

After a quick walk with the dogs, I made some open face tuna melts for lunch with tuna, olive oil reduced fat mayo, dijon mustard, a tomato slice and muenster cheese all on a piece of wheat toast.  On the side were baby carrots, red grapes and a few salt & vinegar chips.
I tried to have a mug of coffee, but the dogs were playing right beside me and totally knocked the whole mug out of my hand.  Meh.

I was pretty satisfied by lunch until about 5 p.m. when my peanut butter toast monster started growling.
I knew on the way home that it was imminent.  I even said on the phone that I was "on the way to my peanut butter toast" instead of "on the way home."  True story.

When I got home, I had my toast and then walked my girl.

Bizzy loooooves walks!
After a 20 minute walk, I headed to my boot camp workout.

Dinner: Clean Eats Mexi-Rice Bowl

This dinner was stellar!  Very flavorful chicken with a little kick, brown rice, black beans and veggies.  So good!  Make it, won't you?

Clean Eats Mexi-Rice Bowl with Chipotle Lime Chicken
makes 4 servings

For the chicken:
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp adobo sauce (from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo)
2 limes, zested and juiced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped mushrooms

Add the chicken and mushrooms to a large bowl and season it with the salt, pepper and paprika. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, adobo sauce, lime zest and juice and garlic. Pour it over the chicken and mushrooms and toss to coat.
Cook in a skillet on medium heat until done (8-10 minutes?).

For the rice:
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup black beans (drained & rinsed)
1 cup cooked corn (I cooked an ear of corn in the microwave for 3 minutes, then cut the kernels off)
1 cup cooked broccoli (I steamed mine in the microwave)
1 tbsp cilantro
1 tsp salt

Mix all rice ingredients together with a large spoon.

Serve chicken over rice mixture.  Top with avocado, low-fat sour cream & fresh cilantro.  Yum yum!!

chicken recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is blog

Writing this recipe up makes me look forward to leftovers at lunch!

After dinner, I had a small cone of low fat strawberry frozen yogurt.

Uh oh.  Bizzy spotted it.

Yep.

I don't know what her deal is with ice cream.

Sigh.

Have a lovely week!!

By the way, I only have 2 more days in my 30 Day Self Portrait Challenge on Instagram!  I can't believe I actually finished a photo challenge (well, almost).  Yay!  I might post a little recap here once it's over.