04.04.12_Stove-Top Pineapple Enchiladas

My friend McKinsey told me she made dinner for her roommates last week and she had made Chicken and Pineapple enchiladas. I had never really though about pineapple in enchiladas before so I thought it would be a good veggie dish if I just left out the chicken. After deciding to make the enchiladas and buying all the ingredients, I realized that our oven is still not working. While our toaster oven has allowed us to make a quiche and roast asparagus the other night, I do not have a small enough casserole dish to fit. I had to get creative and found a few recipes online for stove-top enchiladas. I ended up combining so many different recipes, using ingredients for some, but techniques form others, that in the end I inadvertently created my own recipe. Here is my newly created recipe!

Stove-Top Pineapple Enchiladas
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:
1 fresh pineapple (or 2 cans)
1/2 a chopped onion
7oz can green chile peppers
1 taco seasoning package
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups (1 lb container) cottage cheese
8 flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
14 oz red enchilada sauce
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and green chile peppers and saute until soft, then add taco seasoning packet. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Prepare pineapple by removing the skin and removing the core. Dice pineapple into small pieces.  If you use canned pineapple, I would recommend running your knife through the cubes to make them smaller.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine pineapple, 2 cups of cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 cups of Monterey Jack cheese, salt and pepper.
4. Stir 1 1/4 cup enchilada sauce and the pepper and onions into the cheese/pineapple mixture.
5. Spray a large skillet (with a lid) or a sauce pan with nonstick cooking spray and begin to assemble your enchiladas. Place one flour tortilla at the bottom of the pan, put a generous amount (about a cup) of the filling onto the tortilla, then repeat until you have 3 layers of filling and topped the stack with a fourth flour tortilla.
6. Pour 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce over the top then cover and cook over low heat for 10-12 minutes (until the enchilada is warm all the way threw). 
7. Repeat the steps 5 and 6 to make a second enchilada or use another pan/pot to cook them at the same time. 
8. Let the enchilada rest for a few minutes before cutting and serving!

If you wanted to get fancy you could separate out the layers by doing cheese on one layer, then the onions and sauce on another level, but I just figured it was all going to get eaten at the same time and decided to mix it all together. The enchiladas may not have been the prettiest things I've ever cooked but definitely the most resourceful and they sure were tasty. I really liked the sweet pineapple with the spicy chiles. I would definitely recommend doing this in a deep sided skillet rather than a pot. I made the second round in a sauce pot to save time, and while it was definitely entertaining to watch me stack up enchiladas in a pot, getting them out was....tricky. But, it's good to know that even without an oven, you can make delicious enchiladas!