Meals for Others

I love cooking. I love baking. Making meals for others doesn't cause me to be anxious or makes me lay awake at night. Its simply one huge benefit of being at home, I have the time to do this. I get asked a lot for suggestions on making meals for others. I'm on the care committee at our church and so I'm often cooking extra. I've learned that the more you cook for others the better you get at it. So, I'm going to attempt to share some ideas that have worked well. Two things i've learned the hard way.

1. Do NOT try something new, use only meals that you have made before. You'll thank me...
2. Do NOT get too complicated and too expensive. Otherwise you're family will be stuck eating cheerios for dinner for the next three nights. The kids will love this, your husband probably won't.

A good friend just had a baby girl. I called her and found out she has received pasta but that chicken enchiladas sounded wonderful. Normally I split a dinner, so its enough for them and us. My friends husband however is at the peek of his busy season, so he's not home until late. So this time I won't share it and she can freeze half for another night.

I bought chicken on sale (yaa!) so 4 will be taken for this meal, one will be frozen in a ziplock bag for another night.



Start with 3 cups of chicken broth and half an onion, some dashes of oregano and a sprinkle of pepper. Wait until it bubbles then add 4 chicken breasts. We're going to poach the chicken in the broth. Cover with a lid and let simmer for 10 min. If you forget about and its more like 20 min, thats okay. Cut up one red and one green pepper. Pour half into the simmering broth, keep half for a topping for later.



You need a can of tomato sauce, grate a zucchini, mix it in. I hide veggies in sauces. Feel free to grate carrots as well, you can't tell once its been cooked through. I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon in the sauce. Never done that before but I saw it in a recipe somewhere and it did add a really nice flavour! Let the sauce warm, sprinkle in your favorite tomato sauce additions (chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, whatever smells like it would be good:)



Go check facebook, these two pots can simmer for awhile. Or go and discover that you think a 2 year old got into your contact case as one contact is missing. However you don't know for sure because you were really tired last night and you might have thought you put your contact back but there is a slight chance you dropped it without noticing. Sigh....

When the chicken is cooked, pull it out and let cool. Once the chicken has cooled shred it apart with two forks. Stir in 2 Tbsp of tomato paste and 1/2 cup of the broth liquid.



Grab some whole wheat tortilla's and spoon generous amounts of the chicken mixture on them. Pour about 1/3 of the tomato sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan, just enough to cover the dish. Place the rolled up tortilla's seam down on the sauce.



Like this.



Now you pour the remaining tomato sauce one the tortilla's and smother in cheese. Drew can always tell when the meal isn't for us, I'm far more generous with the fillings and the toppings:) Sprinkle the remaining green and red pepper. Cover in tin foil and voila. You can either bake it at 350 for about 20 min and bring it hot or you can bring as is and get them to do that. I always try to make the food in the morning so I can drop it off in the early afternoon. At the stage we're in, dinner time is not a good time to bring a meal. I tried that once, I think I cried. I mixed a quick spinach salad with this one, added some mushroom, onion and strawberries. I had some zucchini bread as well that I sliced and added.



Normally this would be made into two smaller meals. And I broke my one rule as this is a different variation from the recipe I normally make, as I look back at the chicken filling I wonder if it will be a bit bland, but its a friend who already knows that I'm normally a good cook, so I'm not too worried. If it was for a family I didn't know I would have tried it first. Enjoy!