wouldn't you know it...

the minute i start a foodie blog, i go and get a stomach virus. i'll spare you the details of my next days, because, the details are meant for another type of blog.

i will say, tonight we got back to cooking. And this round was simple.perfect.enchiladas from the Pioneer Woman.

I must say. They are simple. They are delicious. The secret is simple. Green Chilies. You could really skip everything else..the frying of the tortillas, the cooking of the sauce for 40 minutes. Just add the chilies to your meat and it improves your enchiladas 100 times over.

But, her way is good, too.

So, what we did.

No ground beef. We don't dig red meat. Subbed chicken breasts, which I boiled for 10 minutes so I could shred them easier, then sauteed with onions and chilies. No cilantro...only because I was too lazy to go to the store. No green onions or olives either. Same reason. We have been unsuccessful in finding corn tortillas ANYWHERE, so we use flour and prepare them the same way.

They are a huge hit with my daughter, and my son loves them with no sauce. Silly boy gets a separate pan.

And after all the preparation...all i got was this lousy picture.

How this how thing started...

Let me fill you in on how this whole thing started.

It is rather simple, really. I had children. I got stuck in a food rut.

I grew up with a single mother and a my sister. Dinners were less then inspiring. Don't get me wrong. This is by no fault of my mother's. I don't blame her. After I had children, I understood. You lose the inspiration to cook for two (in my case three) children who inevitably want macaroni and cheese or pizza, despite your best efforts to "expand their horizons."

So, we ate the same thing EVERY.SINGLE.WEEK. And nearly all of it consisted of prepared foods out the wazoo. Taco kits, macaroni and cheese, crappy canned pasta sauce. But the kids were eating without a fight, so we let it go.

Only, when I got pregnant with my third child, the boredom set in....so deeply that I couldn't bring myself to eat yet another crappy taco from the "kit."

Around this time, friends started linking to this mysterious Pioneer Woman. At first, I was weary. I felt a trend coming on. And just as I did when Harry Potter was released...I resisted. With every fiber of my being. I refused to click the links. I didn't want to know anything about it.

Until, I did. I broke down. What can I say, curiosity killed the cat. And thankfully so. No, no. We didn't eat him, people. Keep up here. This isn't rocket science. There was no cat.

So, where was I? Oh, yes. I broke down and looked at her site after a dear friend posted a picture of her "drip beef" on Facebook. This was a PW recipe and just looking at the picture, I was intrigued.

Anyhow, I won't bore with you the first two weeks of eating PW recipes every single night. I won't tell you how many sticks of butter I used in those first two weeks. Okay, I will. Ten. Ten sticks of butter in two weeks.

Gross. But not. Don't ask.

I will share some pictures with you though...after this final thought.

Why am I doing this? That was the whole point of this post, right?

Well, one. I like to take pictures and I like to blog. And if that wasn't enough. Well, I can't create fresh and fun new meals...not without a recipe. But, I can cook one mean dish as long as someone else created it.

So, I'll use this blog to share new recipes I've found and cooked. I'll share the ups and downs. The good and the bad. I'll supply links to where I found them and tell you whether you should bother making them for your kids.

I'll tell you substitutions (if any) and actual portion sizes.

This will be fun. I promise. Stay tuned.

And there never was a picture of these cookies after this...they were eaten far too fast