Should have checked enchiladas in recipe builder...

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fastfoodietofitcutie
fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 522 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I love enchiladas but don't make them often and haven't made them since I started tracking food. I found a recipe for green chili enchiladas and I bought all the ingredients. I knew it was going to be high in calories, carbs, fat, etc.. but just figured I would make it work in my day. After putting it all in recipe builder it turns out that 2 enchiladas are almost 1000 calories, 62 grams of fat and over 3200 mg of sodium. I don't even remember the carbs but it was high. I didn't think it was going to be that high!

My options are to make them and fit them in my day. Granted I will barely be able to eat anything all day to make this dinner work. I could have 1 enchilada instead of 2 but then I'll probably be starving. I could forget the whole thing and not make them but I have no idea what I would do with all the ingredients. Not sure what to do here. I'm wondering if I can take a chicken breast and somehow bake it with cheese, chilies and enchilada sauce. Just using a few tablespoons of ingredients and forget the tortillas.

Lesson learned, think before buying ingredients and check recipe builder!
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Replies

  • HStheBusyBee
    HStheBusyBee Posts: 1,366 Member
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    Or create a deficit and enjoy! :)
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Turn it into a stew. There are several ways to make green chile chicken stew, but one way is chopped cooked chicken in green chile sauce (enchilada sauce and chiles thinned with some chicken or vegetable broth). You can add some corn and then put a little shredded cheese on top. You could also slice the tortillas (corn I hope) into strips and bake until crisp, then add just a few pieces on top for some crunch.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    This site has some really good lighter recipes......

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/02/chicken-enchiladas.html

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/06/chicken-and-white-bean-enchiladas-with.html
  • AigreDoux
    AigreDoux Posts: 594 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Try decreasing the amount of cheese (probably by about half). Using a lower calorie tortilla (often marketed as low carb) could also help. It's not the chicken or the green chiles that are giving you 1000 calories.

    Sometimes I will play with a recipe in the recipe builder to get it to fit into my goals.

    Or make the full recipe and eat one enchilada with a humongous salad.
  • ClosetBayesian
    ClosetBayesian Posts: 836 Member
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    AigreDoux wrote: »
    Try decreasing the amount of cheese (probably by about half). Using a lower calorie tortilla (often marketed as low carb) could also help. It's not the chicken or the green chiles that are giving you 1000 calories.

    Sometimes I will play with a recipe in the recipe builder to get it to fit into my goals.

    Or make the full recipe and eat one enchilada with a humongous salad.

    These are good ideas. You could also post the recipe, and some of us might be able to give you suggestions.

    You could also have one, and do a veggie salsa on top of salad for a side instead of the other enchilada, and/or a side of refried beans.
  • fastfoodietofitcutie
    fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 522 Member
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    I wonder if I could throw the chicken, chilies and enchilada sauce in a crock pot then shred the chicken for tacos and just add a little cheese. I'm just not sure of how much sauce to put in.
  • AigreDoux
    AigreDoux Posts: 594 Member
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    fastfoodietofitcutie wrote: »
    I wonder if I could throw the chicken, chilies and enchilada sauce in a crock pot then shred the chicken for tacos and just add a little cheese. I'm just not sure of how much sauce to put in.

    Less than you think, generally, though it depends on your pot. The crock pot retains the water in foods (chicken) more so than other dryer cooking methods (baking). It will make messy tacos if it comes out watery :)
  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
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    Also, check the ingredients that the recipe builder brings up - I know they are very wrong whenever I try to enter garlic - they tell me a garlic clove has over a thousand calories!!
  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
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    I have no idea how you managed so many calories a serving. My enchiladas rarely break 350-400 a serving. I make them with homemade red enchilada sauce (very easy to make!), corn tortillas, black beans and/or brown rice, shredded pork loin or chicken breast, and some shredded cheese. Cheese only goes on top.

    Corn tortillas are pretty low cal, 50 a tortilla in most cases, so I think too many of your calories are probably in cheese.
  • fastfoodietofitcutie
    fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 522 Member
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    These also have cream cheese. I should have known better!
  • AigreDoux
    AigreDoux Posts: 594 Member
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    Actually that chicken and white bean enchilada recipe from skinny taste that PP posted looks really good, and only 230 calories per enchilada. I'd save the cream cheese for something else and make that one with your chiles and chicken :)
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    fastfoodietofitcutie wrote: »
    These also have cream cheese. I should have known better!

    Yeah - I'll never make a main dish with a brick of cream cheese (again) for as long as I live. Not worth it to me.
  • Cindy01Louisiana
    Cindy01Louisiana Posts: 302 Member
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    HStheBusyBee wrote: »
    Or create a deficit and enjoy! :)

    Absolutely this!!!!! I did exactly this yesterday so that I could eat a couple bites of wonderfully delicious lemon meringue cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. I will intentionally burn some more calories today so I can repeat the treat tonight!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    AigreDoux wrote: »
    Try decreasing the amount of cheese (probably by about half). Using a lower calorie tortilla (often marketed as low carb) could also help. It's not the chicken or the green chiles that are giving you 1000 calories.

    Sometimes I will play with a recipe in the recipe builder to get it to fit into my goals.

    Or make the full recipe and eat one enchilada with a humongous salad.

    This is the kind of thing I do. Or have one and eat it with something filling -- for me that would be a big serving of vegetables.
  • liftsalltheweights
    liftsalltheweights Posts: 73 Member
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    You could either:

    1) Make half the recipe
    2) Decrease the portions so there's more enchiladas which would decrease the calories in each serving.
  • ElviraMarieCerri
    ElviraMarieCerri Posts: 31 Member
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    Check the ingredients on recipe builder. Sometimes the same item varies wildly from one listing to another. Watch that the quantity of each item is correct, as well as the unit of measure. For example, one listing for garlic shows the unit as a clove, but the calorie count for it must be for a whole bulb. Imagine my surprise when a clove of garlic showed up as, like, 453 calories! And if it is really that many calories, and you really MUST have it, just eat, record, and enjoy, and trim the calories in the days following. One day does not make or break an eating plan.
  • melissa6771
    melissa6771 Posts: 894 Member
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    Please post the recipe, ingredients at least. I am also curious how on earth they could be that high. And... I recheck everything in the recipe builder, it has gotten some things very wrong.
  • Adc7225
    Adc7225 Posts: 1,318 Member
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    Basically I agree with all of the above. This is really a great opportunity, you can play with the recipe and ingredients. This will help you in the long run with managing your diet. I actually recently made some chicken enchiladas using the recipe from skinnytaste.com with some edits and they were great and a few calories lower than the stated calories. I cut my tortillas in half and I don't think I noticed any difference. When I am craving something I will either make it with edits or deconstruct it for the same taste with fewer calories.
  • fastfoodietofitcutie
    fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 522 Member
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    Here are the ingredients

    8 flour tortillas
    8 oz. cream cheese
    2 small cans diced green chiles
    2 cups cooked, cubed or shredded chicken
    28 oz can green enchilada sauce
    2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • melissa6771
    melissa6771 Posts: 894 Member
    edited March 2016
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    fastfoodietofitcutie wrote: »
    Here are the ingredients

    8 flour tortillas
    8 oz. cream cheese
    2 small cans diced green chiles
    2 cups cooked, cubed or shredded chicken
    28 oz can green enchilada sauce
    2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

    Cooking is my hobby. This is the stuff I live for! Let me know what you think of these ideas. I'm sure we could come up with more.

    I would first trade the flour tortillas for low carb tortillas. They are great, lower in calories, high in fiber. Mission makes a good one. Also, make sure you are using taco size tortillas, not burrito size, there is a big difference in size and calories.

    Next, I would use 6 ounces of light cream cheese. Maybe 4 oz of light cream cheese and 4 oz of greek yogurt. Or, swap out the cream cheese for refried beans. Maybe mix 4 oz light cream cheese with 4 oz. refried beans. (This would probably be very good!)

    I would also use 2% cheddar, better if you shred it yourself from a block and only use as much as it looks like you need. Maybe 1.5 cups instead of 2.

    The chicken is obviously fine. Enchilada sauce I'm not sure on calories. I make my own but it's red.

    You could also add some homemade pico de gallo to the filling. I always do that. Maybe some black beans? So yummy! I doubt you could eat two. I've made these a lot and they are very filling, especially if you add beans.

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