(10) Make-Ahead Veggie Enchiladas (& dessert!)

I have only recently begun to embrace the power of the freezer for make-ahead food, and now that I’ve gotten started, I’m wondering what took  me so long to get on the bandwagon. Obviously I like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but, like everyone else, my weekdays are often crammed full, and between work, errands, volunteering, and whatever-else I am up to, I don’t always have the time I’d like to have to make the kind of dinner I want to make. Cue my new friend, the freezer.  I know this is not a revolutionary idea for most people, but for me, it kind of is. I was used to seeing the freezer as a place for storing my ice cream and Eggos,but now, my freezer is stocked with: several containers of roasted garlic tomato sauce, a big batch of tortellini soup, black bean burgers, fresh pizza dough and pizza sauce, and the recipes you’re about to see. I haven’t even eaten these enchiladas yet, but I’m sure I’ll be pulling one of these trays out of the freezer on Friday night, which beats spending $20 ordering pizza any day.

Ingredients

• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 10 oz frozen corn kernels
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 cups shredded cheddar or monterrey jack cheese
• 6 inch tortillas

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 14 oz can vegetable broth
• 3/4 cup water
• salt & pepper

For the filling:

• In a large bowl, mix together corn, black beans, spinach and 2 cups of cheese
• Fill tortillas with about 1/3 cup of the filling mixture. Roll tightly and place in 2 prepared 8×8 pans.
• Once all tortillas are filled, top with remaining cheese

For the sauce:

• Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the cumin, flour and tomato paste
• Whisk in the vegetable broth and water, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce to a simmer and let thicken, 5-8  minutes.

Freezing/Cooking Instructions

• Once sauce cools, pour it into a 2-3 containers and freeze separately from the enchiladas
• Wrap the trays of enchiladas in plastic wrap, and then cover with foil. Don’t forget to label.
• When ready to cook, take the enchilada sauce out of the freezer. Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge, or defrost in the microwave the day of cooking
• Enchiladas can go straight from the freezer into the oven. Top with the defrosted sauce. Bake at 450 for 15-2o minutes.

My notes:

• The original instructions say this makes about 16 enchiladas, and suggests that you fit them in two 8×8 trays. I’m not sure what type of enchilada voodoo skills Martha Stewart has, but I was only able to fit 5 enchiladas in an 8×9 pyrex dish, and I only have two of them, so I just froze the rest of the filling separately and plan to make tacos out of it some night. You might be wiser to plan ahead and have three pans ready.

Recipe via Martha Stewart

But wait! There’s more!

The day I made these enchiladas, I went on a crazed food-freezing binge, and decided to try this awesome idea for freezing cookie dough. (For the record, I made these Reese’s cup cookies & a batch of bittersweet chocolate chip & pecan cookies)

Here’s the gist: (1) you make a batch of your favorite cookie dough,  (2) you scoop in into balls and freeze the balls in a cake pan/tray so that they freeze individually, (3) you transfer the cookie dough balls to a big freezer bag & label it with the baking time. YOU CAN NOW HAVE  A FRESHLY BAKED COOKIE AT ANY TIME. I cannot over state how excited I am about this. The instructions I read say that you can just pop out however many cookies you want at any given time, throw them in the oven, and enjoy. Just add another minute or two to the baking time.