Friend Michelle Peters-Jones of The Tiffin Box shared The Kitchn’s recipes this morning via Facebook for 17 Budget-Friendly Meals That Don’t Involve Pasta. I was immediately drawn to Slow Cooker Enchiladas.

Before I embarked on my Enchilada Fiesta, I was concerned as I sometimes get about Truth and Knowledge. “What is the difference between an enchilada and a burrito?” I asked Google. Or, ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre una enchilada y un burrito? if we really want to get in the spirit of things.

I learned burritos are made with flour tortillas, and enchiladas with corn tortillas.

So what did I make? It is safe to say I made a baked dish vaguely flavoured with ingredients that can be found in or near Mexico.

Did Mexican grandmothers use slow cookers? Did they use the microwave to heat the tortillas for easy folding? Did they used a jar of President’s Choice salsa? Bags of pre-shredded cheese? I think not.

Here’s what I did (I opted to use the oven instead of the slow cooker because I learned via the Kitchn the results in the slow cooker can be mushy – I’m not opposed to mushy, it ends up mushed anyway, really, but as it happens I didn’t allow enough time to give it the 4 hours it would need on high):

I cooked up onion and green pepper in some olive oil. I added a can of rinsed black beans. To this, I added cumin, chile powder, and hot paprika. I set this aside. Had a nap. Went swimming.

When I got home, I took out a glass casserole dish, put a thin layer of salsa on the bottom. Then I took a flour tortilla, heated it up in the microwave for 10 seconds (for easy folding said the comments at the Kitchn’s site), put about a third of a cup of the bean mixture in the middle of the tortilla, added a sprinkle of cheese, rolled and tucked it, then placed it in the casserole. I did this until I ran out of bean mixture. I wondered why I had two tortillas left over, then realized I forgot to add a cup of frozen corn to the mix, which would have bulked it enough to make an even 10 flour tortillas filled with bean things. The corn is going to be served as a condiment. There will be corn! I bought it especially for this dish you see. I even said to myself, “Don’t forget the corn!”. So I promptly forgot the corn. I do that from time to time and wonder if I shouldn’t be subscribing to Luminosity to help strengthen my brain cells.

Once the casserole was snuggly packed with flour tortillas filled with bean stuff, I poured the rest of the large jar of salsa over top, then emptied the entire bag of pre-shredded cheese over top.

I put it in the oven at 350F where it will remain until it is hot through and the cheese is bubbly.

How’s that? It is as easy as it sounds. It is budget friendly. It’s in the oven right now and smells awesome.

The thing is….

Michael is not too fond of hot (as in spicy heat) food. Um. Well, we’ll just have to see how it goes tonight in that respect. I added a very hot paprika to the bean mix. I did shout ¡Ay, caramba!  when I gave it a taste. The salsa is also labeled HOT, and to top it off the bag of pre-shredded cheese has spicy jack cheese. I do have cooling sour cream to serve on the side, which should help the more sensitive taste buds in the room.

(Michael just proof read this for me and argued that he does not in fact mind spicy heat, but it depends on the amount and strength and what it’s in etc. We’ll see. I might be eating a lot of left overs this week at work for lunch).