Budget friendly Freezer Meals: Chicken Enchiladas

So hello again, I've had a bit of a blog holiday - wouldn't say it was relaxing!  Running a household with a husband and 4 kids can kind of do that to you now and then!! I have a list of things to get through today, but I decided I would write a post since I have not done so in a while, and I was getting a little sad over it ;( !! I have to say that getting organised and doing freezer meals has made my life a little easier at that busy time of the evening. Its great to know that the dinner is already done - or at least most of it is sorted out.  I have to admit that I'm not as super organised as I was earlier in the year (see previous post) but I do what I can when I can. Sometimes I find that I can make a 2 or 3 meals in an afternoon or while I am making the dinner for that night and those dinners will be either for the following days or when I need them. I recommend consuming your meals within the month or following month of making them to keep a good rotation going.

In my previous post I mention Turkey Enchiladas, but I didn't have the pictures up as my internet was playing up. These are a really great meal that most kids like and best of all, you could hide a lot of goodness in them!! I happened to purchase two turkey legs at an amazing discount so that became my meat. However, you can do this with BBQ chicken, chicken breast poached or slow cooked, or can slow cook a whole chicken. If you slow cook your own chicken you will have some amazing stock to use for something else.

To the meat add a half cup of  light sour cream, a tin of cream of chicken or celery soup, and about a 1/4 cup of ranch dressing. The dressing is optional and you can add less or more or omit the sour cream for the ranch. You then mix this all up with a spoon until its well combined. Its at this stage that you can also add grated carrot, zucchini, diced capsicum, kidney beans or lentils, diced mushroom etc.

You then put the mixture on a piece of burrito bread and roll it up and fold the sides in and lay it in your tray.

If you are using this for a freezer meal, you would put the lid on your foil tray and freeze. Allow to defrost and pour salsa over the top to cover all the enchiladas - I like to be generous with my salsa. Sprinkle grated cheese over the salsa and cook in 180C oven for about 15-20mins, until the cheese is melted and browned a little.  Serve on its own or with a green salad, or rice.

If you want to use chicken I would suggest the following amounts:

BBQ Chicken - the whole thing
Breasts - at least 500g if you shred it well, otherwise up 800g would get you a decent amount of chicken
Roasting chicken  - the whole thing

You can also use lower grade chicken drumsticks and slow cook them for the meat - this is cost effect but I would highly recommend you trim some of the skin and this can be time consuming. Alternatively most chicken shops will sell drumstick fillets that have had the skin and bones removed for you and is slightly cheaper than breast chicken but slightly dearer than the drumsticks, I recommend slow cooking this meat as its much nicer.

I use "Mission" brand burrito bread because I think they are good quality and you tend to get a decent amount for the price you pay. I have also used Home Brand burrito bread from Woolworths, because again you get a decent amount for the price you pay which is usually around 12-15 pieces - much better than the other brands. Burrito bread has a good shelf life. However, if this doesn't suit you to use burrito bread, you can always use Lebanese bread or make your own burritos.