Enchilada Pasta Recipe - With home made sauce!

Sean and I are trying to get back into meal planning for the week, and while it hasn't been a very good start We've managed 2 meals for 3 days. Since there's only the two of us we always have left overs anyways so if we don't do them for lunch we already have another dinner that week, even if its just as a side. Since pinterest has come into my life, meal planning has been a bit easier. This week, our new recipe is Enchilada Pasta. I went to eight grocery stores and NONE of them had Enchilada sauce. (Shame on them) Turns out its pretty easy to  make and can be adjusted to your taste for spice. So I've added that recipe in here in case you can't find sauce either, or just want to try your hand at it. I only made a half order, since that's all the pasta recipe called for.

The recipe says it served 4, but we didn't even eat 1/4 of it for the two of us. Plenty of left overs! I would say 6-8 depending on appetites.

Enchilada Pasta
(Adapted from here)

1 pound extra wide egg noodles (or whatever you have!)
1 1/4 cups enchilada sauce (Recipe below)
1 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1/4 cup 0% Fat Greek yogurt
1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles - drained
1 pound lean ground beef
4 ounces light cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon chipolte chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

I made this in my braiser to go from Stove to Oven, but you can switch is out into a baking dish at the end!

Boil up your water and cook your pasta according to the package. Drain and set aside till needed.

In a large bowl, combine enchilada sauce (below, if making), corn, beans, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, Greek yogurt and green chiles; set aside.

Heat braiser to medium heat, add ground beef and cook until browned, about 5-8 minutes, breaking it up as it cooks to ensure even browning.

Cut cream cheese into cubes to evenly disperse and easier melting.
Stir in cream cheese, chili powder and cumin until cream cheese has melted.

Stir in pasta and enchilada mixture until well combined; season with salt and pepper as needed. Stir together and cover on the medium heat for 5 or so minutes to bring everything to temperature and combine the flavours.

Top the pasta with the sliced Avocado and the remaining two cheeses. Bake in the oven, un-covered until nice and bubbly, about 15 minutes, with a high broiler for 1 minute at the end.

Let sit for 5 minutes (we used this time to make some margaritas) and slice it up and serve.

Red Enchilada Sauce - Hot! 
(Adapted from Emeril)

Ok, this isn't the hottest sauce I've ever had or anything but its pretty warm. Really flavourful and the smell fills your house while its cooking. This is the half recipe with the ingredients I used. If you only have one type of chili powder that's totally ok, If you have 4 kinds, use them all! Adjust it here for spice, I like the warmth and "smokiness" of the chipolte chili powder. I had garlic tomato paste and thought why not add another layer of flavour in there? Also, a few of the other recipes I checked had garlic powder in them anyways.

This will make 1.5 Cups of Sauce depending how long you boil it out for, the extra mixed with greek yogurt for a drizzle would be pretty (I promise).

Ingredients

1.5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon flour
1 TBSP chili powder
1 TBSP Chipolte Chile Powder
1 cup chicken stock
5.5 ounces garlic tomato paste (plain is fine)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch salt to taste

Directions:

In a small saucepan heat oil, add flour, smoothing and stirring with a wooden spoon, will look sort of like a rue - on the runny side. Cook for 1 minute.

Add chili powders and cook for 30 seconds - will look more like a rue now, a tight one.

Add stock, tomato paste, oregano, and cumin. Stir to combine.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Put the lid on now so you don't have red sauce all over your stove! It bubbles and shoots up.

The sauce will thicken and smooth out. Add salt and stir in.