Chicken Enchiladas with Rice and 'Calabacitas'

For my first dinner swap, I made Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce (recipe from my "Cover and Bake" cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, my cooking religion). I'm not going to type out the whole recipe, but it really is simple so if you want a copy, I'd be happy to pass it on. Rolling the enchiladas was a breeze; by lightly coating the tortillas with cooking spray and warming them in a 300 degree oven for 4 minutes, they were super easy to work with.

As for the rice, I sauteed some chopped onion (half an onion for the 3 cups of rice) in oil, and when soft, I added the rice, minced garlic (2-3 cloves per cup of rice), salt, and cumin and cooked that a bit together. When the rice starts to get a tiny bit darker, I added chicken broth (2 cups per cup of rice), and tomato sauce (a little more than a cup for the 3 cups of rice I made... it was what I had left after the enchiladas). And simmered for 20-25 minutes. I think I used too much salt, I'm going to blame that on tripling an ingredient that didn't need to be tripled.

And the zucchini was a brand new recipe, which I'm definitely making again! I wasn't sure what kind of veggie to make that went with Mexican food, so I did a little googling for southwestern/Mexican side dishes. That, and a trip to the farmer's market yielded "Calabacitas". I roasted barillo (?) chili peppers under the broiler (the recipe called for poblano or Anaheim peppers, but didn't find them at the market... the guy at one stand told me these peppers were similar). I set the roasted peppers aside to cool, peel, and chop. Meanwhile, I sauteed onion until soft, then added zucchini and yellow squash and a little salt, and covered and cooked until tender, stirring occasionally. In the future, I'll be more uniform with chopping the zucchini and squash... the thinner slices just fell apart. After it's done, I stirred in the chopped roasted peppers. Super easy! Roasting the peppers is optional... the original recipe sauteed the peppers along with the onions, which might be worth trying to save myself a step. I was just feeling adventurous. :) I forgot how much liquid squash lets go when cooked, so I used a slotted spoon when putting it in the containers... and I'm sure it was still pretty soupy for you.

Final note: Thank you so much for including me in the dinner swap! It gave me a reason to be a little more thoughtful about what I'm cooking, and we get two awesome dinners out of it that I don't have to think about at all! I'm looking forward to next time.