Crock Pot Monday: Stacked Beef Enchiladas

Yesterday I could not make up my mind about what I wanted to try in my crock pot today. I finally settled on this concoction. I saw this on the "Taste of Home" website and thought it looked interesting. My track record so far has, subconsciously, been this....Fine the strangest slow cooker recipe and try it! I had never heard of cooking enchiladas in the crock pot so I decided to try this out! 

Honestly, a few things went wrong with my recipe. But I know exactly what to do next time so it will turn out delish instead of just so-so. The picture above is from the Taste of Home website- my pictures didn't turn out so great (they are below). This was really hard to photograph!

One thing I didn't like about this recipe, right off the bat, was the fact that the meat needed to be cooked before assembling it in the crock pot. Isn't that the purpose of a crock pot, to just throw everything in raw? Using multiple pots means more dishes to wash = boooooo! But I put my pet peeves aside and proceeded. I will list the ingredients and directions, and then give my suggestions.

Ingredients:

- 1 pound of ground beef

- 1 cup of chopped onion

- 1 can of black beans, drained

- 1 can of Mexican corn, drained

- 1 can of rotel

- 1 handful of fresh chopped cilantro

- 2 cups of shredded cheese

- 1 can of enchilada sauce

- 6-8 flour tortillas

- seasoning ( I used garlic powder, pepper, chili powder, Greek, and Tony's)

Directions:

1) Brown meat with onions.

2) Add in the rotel, corn, and black beans. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3) In the crock pot- make layers: beef mixture, tortilla, enchilada sauce, and cheese. 

4) Repeat steps until everything is all stacked up. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours.

My Suggestions:

• Next time I will throw the raw ground meat and everything into the crock pot (except the tortillas, enchilada sauce, and cheese) and cook on low all day. Cooking before cooking is for the birds!!! Then when I get home I will spoon the mixture into tortillas, roll it up, cover it with enchilada sauce and cheese, and bake for 10-15 minutes.
• Next time I will also add bigger slices of onions and bell peppers to the meat, because I can't live without the Cajun trinity!
• If you decide to follow the recipe exactly and make layers in the crock pot... I would make sure to only cook for 5 hours. Mine cooked for about 7 and the edges were burnt.
• Overall the seasonings and combinations were good. I would't change any of that.
• My mom used to call this sort of thing "Wilderness Stew," meaning just add in whatever you have in your fridge/pantry! You can change up the beans, leave out the corn, or really do whatever to make it your own!
• This whole thing sort-of reminded me of a...casserole!! And if you read my blog frequently you know I despise casseroles! All in all...This really would be delish if the meat was rolled into the tortillas at the end.

Here are my pictures... It doesn't look anything like their picture!! 

  Get Cookin'!