Pumpkin Enchiladas by Cooking Healthy for Me

Tonight's guest recipe comes from Ann at Cooking Healthy for Me. Normally, I try to feature a recipe from a fellow foodie blogger from at least a couple of months ago so it doesn't seem like I'm trying to steal another blogger's thunder.
In this case it's only been a week since Ann made her blog post, but I really wanted to feature something of hers, and I couldn't wait to try these pumpkin enchiladas.

One thing I like about Ann is her strength in changing her diet for health concerns. It takes real courage to make that decision and stick with it, and if you check out Ann's blog you'll discover she is winning the battle. I too have had to undertake changes in my diet for health reasons. It's a daily struggle, and some days I do great, other days I make poor decisions. But I can look at where I am today and know that I am also on the winning team.

For the pumpkin enchiladas, I followed Ann's recipe for the most part. I didn't add corn because it doesn't agree with me, and I only added 1 tsp of salt to the sauce. 2 tsp seemed a little excessive to me, but while I understand the need for salt I've learned from past experience that too much salt, especially in Mexican style dishes, becomes overpowering. I didn't want to eat salty pumpkin tonight...hindsight, I don't think it would have been too bad.

 I don't really do the rotisserie chickens at the grocery store, so I sliced a chicken breast roughly into 3 thin pieces and fried them in a little corn oil (well, a lot of corn oil; I used too much as you can see by the puddles that splattered all over my stove). I seasoned this chicken with a little ground cumin.

After it has cooked, let it rest for a few minutes on a plate while making the enchilada sauce.

Sauce ingredients go into the food processor. Remember to check out Ann's blog to get the recipe! Nothing fancy about this stage except I thought it seemed awfully liquidy. I wonder if you can reduce the amount of water by 1/2 cup.

I find it easy to shred chicken by using two forks, even if the chicken is too hot to touch. I used the flat end of one fork on one side of the piece of chicken to hold the chicken place and score the chicken with the grain using the tines of the other fork on the other side. Then, turn the chicken and use the two forks to shred the chicken into small pieces by pulling the two forks away from each other going against the grain.

I mixed some green onions with the shredded chicken, but I didn't season it for fear of using too much salt.

Put about a cup of the sauce at the bottom of the baking dish.

Use 8 corn tortillas, spoon the chicken out onto them and roll 'em up.

Tortillas go seam side down into the baking pan.

I poured the rest of the sauce on and smothered with shredded white cheddar cheese.

...and out of the oven after about 25 minutes. I let it rest for about 5 minutes before cutting into it.

So, what's the verdict? I can't say I didn't like it because I ate four of them...

I have to admit it was a little bland, but I think it's because the base of the sauce was pumpkin rather than tomato. That also cuts the acidity, which my chronic heartburn wasn't complaining about. I think the blandness could be because I omitted about 1 1/2 - 2 tsp of salt in the recipe. I think next time I'd like to use more chili and cumin in the sauce with only 1 tsp of salt, and perhaps more seasonings in the chicken, like cumin and perhaps oregano, also with a small amount of salt.

My corn tortillas kind of disintegrated. Next time I might use corn taco shells and make it lasagna style...This is one of those cool recipes that you can use as a base and modify to your own personal tastes. - no offense to Ann, of course, as she made her own modifications.

Anyway, I would recommend this recipe if you're a fan of enchiladas. It'll be fun to play with, and the pumpkin is interesting especially this time of year. Be sure to go check out the Pumpkin Enchilada Recipe Here, and be sure to check out the rest of Cooking Healthy For Me as well. I guarantee you're going to find something you'll love!