Thrifty Thursday: Leftover Tomatoes turns into Enchilada Casserole

I had some tomatoes that my mom left when she was visiting that were from their garden.  I wasn't sure what to do with them (since we don't eat tomatoes) so I decided that I would clean and cut them.  I was sad that I didn't think about it the night before when I was making my salsa sloppy joes when I remembered what I was making for dinner that night! 

I was making enchiladas so I thought that it was fate that I use them to make enchilada sauce instead of taking some out of the freezer from my homemade recipe.  I put them in the blender.

The final product was really soupy and watery. 

I added some of the homemade enchilada sauce that I already had in the fridge but there wasn't much left.  I also added the little bit of tomato paste from the fridge which was leftover from the salsa sloppy joes.  I blended the mixture and it started looking like enchilada sauce but it still smelled like tomatoes.

I pulled all of the spices out that I use in my enchilada sauce recipe.  I added the seasoning and mixed it again.

It smelled just like the enchilada sauce so I was pretty excited that I turned some leftovers in the fridge into what I needed.  I spread some of the sauce in my 7 x 11 casserole dish.

I took some of my homemade tortillas and microwaved them to get them a little more flexible.  If you need to microwave tortilla, wet a paper towel and wrap the tortillas in the wet paper towel and microwave for up to 30 seconds.

I added the tortillas to the pan.  It is easier to have them all in there so that you don't make too much of a mess.

I added the seasoned taco meat from the freezer.  It is always a great idea to make double batches of taco meat so that you can have them in the freezer to pull out to make a new meal like enchiladas later. 

I added shredded cheese to the top of the meat.

Then you fold over the sides so that the meat and cheese stay inside the shell.  Roll the shell so the seam is on the bottom.  The enchilada sauce helps make sure that the shell rolls better and stay moist.

I spread the enchilada sauce on the top to cover edge to edge the tortillas.  If you don't get the edges, they will get crunchy and often burned.  I like to make sure that there isn't too much showing but a little crispy edge is tasty.

Then, I put the rest of the cheese on top of the enchiladas.

I put this casserole in the fridge so that it would be ready to go when dinner time came around, I could leave it out to warm up on the counter for a little bit and then pop it in the oven.  It is always super helpful to have things ready because dinner time always seems to be the busiest time of day.  It came out super melted and hot.

We really enjoyed the yummy homemade tortillas with the homemade enchilada sauce with our leftover tomatoes.  It made a great meal from things that we had already cooked and I didn't have to cook anything in order to do the preparation.

I hope that you try some homemade recipes for corn tortillas, enchilada sauce and freeze some taco meat with your family favorite seasoning so that you can make these tasty enchiladas.  Click on the name of the recipe to link to the original recipe for all of the recipes mentioned in this post!!  I hope that you try a few out and make a great meal for your family while using the items that you have in your fridge and freezer.