Spicy Beef Enchiladas

I would like to preface this recipe with the fact that this is not necessarily a healthy dinner.  Perhaps you could make a nice side salad or some sort of vegetable invention of your own, but I had a salad for lunch so I thought, what the hell, jalapenos and green chiles will have to suffice.  Nutrition facts aside, these enchiladas were delicious!  And I used up left over ground beef, which is a near miracle in this house.


I made 5 (8") enchiladas and had leftover rice and meat, so you could make a lot more with these amounts.


Ingredients:
* 1 lb ground beef (buy grass fed, always!)
* One package Taco Seasoning
* 1 box Spanish Rice
* 8" Corn Tortillas
* Grated Cheddar Cheese
* Low Fat Cream Cheese
* One can Red Enchilada Sauce
* One small can of diced Green Chiles
* Chopped jalepenos


Now Do This:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and coat a baking dish lightly with cooking spray.


Cook the ground beef in a pan until just browned.  Add in the packet of taco seasoning and about 3/4 cup water, mix well and simmer for about 10 minutes.  You could easily make your own taco seasoning with things like salt, crushed red pepper, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder... pretty much any of the spices you always have on hand that sounds kinda Mexicany.  I like the packaged kinds that don't contain MSG.


While the beef is cooking, make the Spanish Rice according to the package directions.  Again you could make your own using the same spices and whatever rice you like.


Lay out your corn tortillas and put a small amount of cream cheese in a line down the middle.  I just used my fingers and pulled small dabs off a spoon.  Then, also in a line down the middle (as with everything), put a small amount of the beef, rice, as much jalapeno as you like, and grated cheddar cheese.  Roll the tortilla and put seam side down into the baking dish.  Do this with as many tortillas as will fit in your dish, you can really squeeze them in there.


Pour the entire can of sauce over the top to completely cover the tortillas, then add the green chiles as evenly as possible.  Top with a little more cheddar cheese and put in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted and the sauce is starting to bubble.  


After devouring one of these enchiladas I remembered that I wanted to put a little sour cream on top but I was too full to go for seconds.  The sour cream would be really nice because these are pretty spicy.


I'm too impatient for most things, but you could really make this entire meal from scratch, as opposed to packaged ingredients (maybe aside from the tortillas), and I bet it would be amazing.  The only thing that might take longer would be making the enchilada sauce ahead of time.