Going on the "very picky eater" bit ... If you aren't a fan of vegetables (like broccoli, green beans, etc.) add cheese. Whether it be melted cheese or cheese sauce, it will most likely be a lot better. Not recommended for carrots (go peanut butter.
Cheap enchiladas are easy.. You need:
Tortillas -- flour or corn, whichever you prefer (Make them or buy them ...
)
Enchilada sauce - find a recipe or just buy some. (I do the lazy option.) A lot of recipes are pretty easy. Most of them are just mixing various things in with tomato paste.
Cheese -- Doesn't matter what. I just go for a blend of whatever looks good (need to shred/grate it ...)
Whatever else you might want in or on them -- peppers ... jalapeņos, diced onions, beef, chicken (meats and such pre-cooked, of course), black beans, or anything you want, really.
If you are using corn tortillas you might want to warm them up so they are softer (either microwave them or put a very small amount of olive oil in a skillet, spread it around, and heat each tortilla until it is warm ... Usually I do this when I have a lot of them. But unnecessary for a few of them.)
Find a flat dish that's a couple inches deep (so it can hold the sauce... also it has to be big enough that a tortilla will fit in at least one direction), and place a tortilla in it. Put a bunch of cheese in it and whatever else you are filling it with in the middle of the tortilla. Put a few large spoonfuls of sauce in it, and roll it up (or just fold the sides over and flip it over so that it stays together.) Repeat until you have as many as you want. Spoon some sauce over the tops of them, add some cheese ... Keep doing that until it's as cheesy and saucy as you want (a lot for me.
). Throw on some peppers, diced onions, etc. if you prefer.
Microwave it until all the cheese is melted, or put it in the oven until all the cheese is melted. (I have no idea anything about powers, temperatures, or time ... I just kinda throw it in and take it out when it looks done.
Oven I'd probably say 350-400 F ... Most things tend to be in that range.)
You can serve with black beans, if you like them ... I usually add them (even though I'm not a huge fan) because they seem to go well with it.
Also, all of these ingredients are great for other things, too. All you need:
One cast iron skillet (any, really, I just like mah iron.)
Butter two tortillas on one side each (as lightly or heavily as you want ... Lightly can also mean not at all.)
Put one butter side down on a hot skillet (not too hot or it will burn ...), throw on a bunch of cheese (shredded or sliced .. It's all good), any hot peppers, hot sauce, or anything that will fit on, and place the other tortilla on butter side up. Use a spatula (or if you're awesome, your fingers!) and press it down to get the insides all hot and melted and the tortilla nice and crispy... Flip it over and do the same on the other side. Once the tortillas are sufficiently crispy and the insides are nice and melted, remove from the skillet ... Cut it into slices or just eat it like a big cookie. Butter makes it nice and delicious.
Replace the tortillas with bread and you now have a grilled cheese sandwich.
The tortillas can also be used just to put stuff in ... like a burrito. Don't necessarily need refried beans (though if you do that, I only like them if ground beef is mixed in)... Throw in cheese, some chicken ... anything there is. Put it on the skillet to get it nice and crisp ...
In a different direction... (this one lacks cheese ...
Unless you put cheese sauce on the rice! Hooray!)
Throw in some olive oil to coat the bottom (tip the pan around so that it spreads and coats the pan... you don't need a pool of it. This applies to anything I've previously said that requires olive oil in a pan.) and heat the pan. Add chicken (either cook it like this
then proceed, or if you already have it just toss it in with everything else), any vegetables you like, nuts, and anything delicious. Keep stirring it until everything is nice and cooked. Great over rice (I add soy sauce...)
Basically this is the kind of stuff my mom and I've made for the past few years ... It can be as healthy or unhealthy as you want, and you can be as picky or generous as you want. Open-ended throw-it-all-in-a-pan-and-go-nuts cooking, ftw!
Also I hear this a lot .. "Cast iron cookware leaches small amounts of iron into the food. ..." (from the
wikipedia article on cast iron cookware)
A nice added bonus of more ironz in ur bloods.