Spice up your bounty of farm fresh vegetables by whipping up a batch of savory Easy Tex-Mex Enchiladas, one for dinner tonight, another to freeze for dinner later and lunches on the go. We used sausage in this recipe, but roasted chicken or our delectable, mouth watering Shredded Beef would work well. Round the meal out with Quick Refried Beans From Scratch, and rice with leftover salsa on it and you have a delicious meal that freezes beautifully.

This is an easy recipe but there are a few steps to it! Be creative and use what you have on hand with this super flexible recipe. Choose your meat, salsa, veggies, and corn or flour tortillas - they all work equally well in this fast recipe. Don't be afraid to experiment, or be held hostage to the perfectionist procrastinator - TRY IT!

Create a delicious salsa with produce from your garden or Farmer's Market in the Vita-Mix

Salsa Recipe  

2-3 big tomatoes (rich, meaty heirloom tomatoes make great salsa)

2-5 Roma tomatoes

1 jalapeno pepper (remove the seeds and white veins - to adjust hot Scoville factor!)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro 

1 lime or lemon, quarter and squeeze the fresh juice OR 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon or lime juice

2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled

1 Tbs cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Plop all into the Vita-Mix and start blending on LOW speed. "Walk it up" by slowly turning up the speed to medium. Blend in short bursts for a thick, chunky salsa or let it go for 30 seconds on high to make a more blended salsa. Now comes the critical moment - TASTE the salsa and wait a second or two for the hot peppers to reach across your tongue. Does it taste the way you like? Is it too spicy (that is okay in this recipe - it will quickly diminish in heat as other ingredients are added). Does it need more salt, cumin or an additional squeeze of lemon or lime? The whole point is to be flexible and make what YOU LIKE!! Make the recipe your servant and experiment with adding little amounts of flavors or spicy jalapenos to get it where it tastes good to you.

Reserve 2 cups of salsa for enchilada topping. Leave the rest in the Vita-Mix for the sausage-veggie mix.

Enchilada Recipe and Assembly 

1 lb ground sausage (can be turkey, lamb, beef or pork) OR 1 lb Shredded Beef  OR1 lb chicken 

2-4 cups thinly sliced fresh vegetables from the garden - we used zucchini & yellow squash and corn shaved off an ear from the garden

2 cups of fresh spinach (optional) 

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cloves minced garlic

12-15 corn tortillas (or as many as you can make to fit your pans!)

10 flour tortillas (go for whole wheat for added fiber and nutrition)

Farm-Fresh Salsa  or 3 cups jarred salsa

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

If you are being brave and using sausage, brown in a skillet over medium high heat until meat crumbles easily and is no longer pink. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels (to get a little fat out). 

In the drippings, sauté fresh onion, adding minced garlic over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until onion is tender. Quickly add the chopped vegetables and sauté for another 2 minutes. The vegetables can be crisp tender and will finish cooking during the baking time. 

Stir in sausage (or shredded beef or chicken). Pour in all but 2 cups of the salsa, stir to mix. This looks rather like hamburger helper at this point - don't worry, it looks GREAT in the enchiladas!

Tip - Soften corn tortillas in the microwave to make them easier to work with. We put a dozen in a microsteamer and cook on high for 1-2 minutes, depending on the microwave. You want the tortillas to be pliable and easily bend and form into shape. If you use cold tortillas, they will crack (as seen in the photos). Either way, they taste yummy. Don't expect perfection; just be glad you are cooking your family a meal with maximum nutrition full of fresh veggies! Flour tortillas can be used fresh from the package.

Assembly fun! Lay a tortilla in the palm of your hand. Throw a few spinach leaves on top (if using) and then top with about 1/3 cup of the sausage-veggie mixture, and a pinch of cheese. It is easy to stuff these too full, so watch how much you put in, and you will quickly get the hang of it. Fold to enclose, and lay seam side down in the 13x9 stone (you can use a greased baking dish). Keep assembling tortillas, both corn and or flour, until you fill the pan. I got two pans out of this recipe, and had enough of the sausage veggie mixture to make a Bean/Rice/Sausage Veggie salsa meal for hubby, plus assemble two lunches! More on that below.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until tortillas are crisp.

While enchiladas are baking, stir together remaining salsa and 1/2 cup of chicken broth over medium-high heat. I used the same pan I had cooked the sausage and veggies in. When thoroughly heated, set aside, until the enchiladas have cooked. Pull them out and top with half of the salsa/broth mixture for each pan. Top with remaining cheese (covering a multitude of untidy broken tortillas like I did!) and back about 5 minutes more until cheese is melted. Let stand about 5 minutes and garnish, if desired, with cilantro, olives and jalapenos.

Serve with beans and rice, and a big salad! 

Tex-Mex Lunch Options 

Superfast Tex-Mex Lunch ~~or~~ Bean, Rice and Sausage Veggie Lunch

Put a little over 1/2 cup of rice in the bottom of a microwave & freezer safe dish.  Top with 1/2 to 1 cup of refried beans, pinto beans or black beans. Put remaining sausage-veggie mix on top. Add a dollop of salsa and a pinch of cheese, top with jalapeno slices and freeze for a future lunch!

 Tex-Mex Enchiladas with Beans and Rice Lunch

In a freezer and microwave safe dish, put 1/2 cup rice topped with 1/8 cup of salsa, 1/2 cup beans topped with cheese in one half. Put two enchiladas in the other half. Label, freeze and be thrilled you have a healthy, homemade lunch!