Time Traveling Smothered Burritos

E!s mom is the queen of the garage freezer. From jams to produce, all sorts of food spends time in what Julia has dubbed "The Time Machine;" Food enters one month, and magically emerges months later. Since I cooked through all our produce before leaving the country, I left quite a bit of food in our little time machine.

Chicken Enchilada Soup the first time around before our trip

Upon our return, we didn't really have any groceries, so I threw a few jars in the fridge overnight to pull our time travelers out of the wormhole.

Time travelers 

There are dangers to time travel. One of the 2 jars of chicken enchilada soup I froze cracked, making the precious soup inside too dangerous to consume.

There was still plenty of chili, soup and cheese to thaw, wrap in shell and quickly toast for a delicious dinner. I made some brown rice in the background to round out the burrito fillings.

Chicken Ranch Tacos

Confession time. The first gift I ever gave Elizabeth was an onion. I guess we'd cooked together and discovered our mutual appreciation, and it felt like a really safe gift to give when you're not actually quite dating yet.

This is my little brother's favorite dish. Dice up chicken breasts, add taco seasoning and ranch dressing. We added a few onions cut into strips while cooking up the chicken, then made it extra creamy by dumping in plain yogurt while it was cooling down. I use yogurt as a healthier alternative to mayo and sour cream in many recipes, but it doesn't always cook well.

Chicken Enchiladas

Confession: I've never before tried to make my enchiladas pretty before. But for some reason, I decided they need some color before getting their picture taken. First I put on the sour cream and tomatoes, but then decided it needed green too. I would have put diced green onions if I had them. But I didn't. I did have parsley, so I put a little bit of that on it. Taste-wise, not a great idea; presentation-wise, I guess okay? Anyway, still the best enchiladas around.

From July 24, 2012