Recipe - Beef Enchiladas with Sweet Potato Chips

Now that we're into January it's probably time to stop grazing on the leftovers of that implausibly large turkey and the remnants of the multiple tins of Quality Streets you've gorged on for the last fortnight. Just me? This is a delightfully simple recipe to make a full meal to serve four people, or two quite greedy people.

Sweet Potato Chips

4 sweet potatoes
2 tsp paprika
3 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp olive oil]
Sea salt to season

Peel and chop your sweet potatoes and boil them until they begin to soften. While your potatoes are on the hob mix together the paprika, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper and brown sugar.

Once the potatoes have softened to your liking drain and place in a bowl, drizzle on the olive oil then mix and season with sea salt. Add two tablespoons of the spice you prepared and mix well ensuring an even covering and then set to one side.

Beef Enchiladas

750g minced beef
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 onion, chopped
3 tbsp tomato puree
400g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 red chilli, chopped
4 soft tortillas
60g grated Cheddar

First preheat your oven to 180 then fry your minced beef in the pan without oil, once it starts to brown add in your chopped onion. Once the beef and onions have fully browned add the garlic and fry for a further minute or so.

Now add half of your chilli (this can be left out entirely if you're not into spicy food), also add the tomatoes, puree, oregano and cumin. Bring this to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes or so, until it starts to thicken slightly.

Once ready, spoon quarter of the mince mixture into the centre of each tortilla.

Fold the tortillas and place them in a baking dish. Sprinkle the grated Cheddar and the remaining half of your chilli evenly over the top of the tortillas.

 

 

In true Blue Peter style, remember the sweet potato chips you prepared earlier? Well, pop them on a baking tray and place both the chips and enchiladas in the oven for between 10 and 15 minutes. Serve with rice or a side salad and enjoy.

 

That's a Wrap!

At the beginning of last year I joined the 250 in 2011 challenge. My task; to watch 250 movies I had not previously seen before the end of the year. On December 22nd 2011 at roughly 10pm I completed my challenge. I'm not entirely sure I can say I'm proud to have completed it, but I'm not exactly ashamed either. It's a geeky achievement that I've only really been able to achieve with flexibility of my work, a fitting farewell to the reality of a career in music before I move onwards and upwards in 2012. 

The Bad

The hardest part of the challenge wasn't the sheer volume of films as I expected, but rather the amount of absolute crap I've had to wade through. Really, I've seen some terrible movies this year in an attempt to finish what I'd started. The worst film from my list of 250 has to be Gentlemen Broncos. It was so bad I believe I should be given some kind of award for making it through to the end of the film. 

Notice I said worst film from my list, though? There's one film I started this year that was so bad I couldn't even make it to the halfway point. Sucker Punch is quite possibly the worst film I've ever even tried to watch, and I own a copy of Freddy got Fingered. It couldn't be more obvious that Sucker Punch, a film set in the imagination of a teenage girl, actually comes from the imagination of of a 40 something male. If this is the direction Zack Snyder's movies are headed, we can expect the upcoming Man of Steel to contain scenes where Superman uses his X-Ray vision a little too much while rescuing a school bus.

Director Uwe Boll also gets a special mention in the absolute shit section. Everything this man touches seems to be dreadful. Why would anybody finance a project to which this man is attached? He seems intent on ruining video game franchises too! If he ever teams up with Zack Snyder it could bring about the end of days.

The Good

The Kings Speech is my highest rated film of 2011, but I think my favourite has to be Chaplin. I realise I'm now raving about this film an entire decade too late, but I urge anyone who hasn't yet seen it to hunt down a copy and just enjoy. This is perhaps Robert Downey Jr's performance of a lifetime and that alone makes it worth watching. 

Although not on the list, being film number 255, I really enjoyed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. In my humble opinion, I've found this series of films to actually improve with each sequel. Another post-challenge film I hugely enjoyed was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which aside from a really pretentious and somewhat wanky Bondesque title sequence, was one of the best movies I've seen full stop, let alone this year.

The Cinema

Over the course of my challenge I've seen a few films in 3D, and whilst some of them are really pretty, I have to say I'm not really that fussed about it all. Is having stuff pop out of the screen really the future? I'm not convinced. That and I don't like having to put 3D glasses on over my normal specs. 

I have made good use of Orange Wednesdays and my Odeon points card has especially proved its worth. It's not cheap going to the cinema, and I don't really mind paying to see a decent film on the big screen, but bugger me the food's expensive! I'd like to see lower prices and healthy options in cinemas or at least be given the opportunity to take in my own snacks.

Home Viewing

Undoubtedly my preferred viewing method has to be from the comfort of my own home. Much of my challenge has been completed with the movie on the TV while I write lesson plans, tidy up, cook dinner or just stare blankly at the screen from under my duvet. 

My Lovefilm subscription has been invaluable this year, and I'd say a large majority of the films on my list came from the online service via Playstation 3 and in the last few months the iPad. The films available for online viewing can be a little hit and miss at times, but as with most areas of the service I've noticed big improvements over the past 12 months.

For ten pounds a month you get two DVD or BluRay discs at a time and unlimited viewing of the online service online, on PS3, X-Box or iPad. The discs are always sent out quickly and any queries or problems seem to be dealt with swiftly. I was a little dubious about subscribing to such a service initially, but I'm seriously impressed by Lovefilm and would thoroughly recommend them.

In Summary

I must admit, there have been a few moments where I've stopped and thought 'Fuuuuuuck, I'm wasting my life watching crap movies'. This is especially true when you consider that with the movies I've watched since I finished the challenge and all the films I'd already seen that I ended up watching again over the last year, I actually watched closer to 350 films in 2011. I suppose the upside of this is, I'd make a pretty good teammate in a pub quiz with a movie round. I definitely have no plans to do another challenge such as this one, and I'm very much looking forward to only watching decent films in 2012 and having more time to just sit and read.

I started this film challenge for two reasons really, the first of which was to give me something to write about on my blog and just get me writing more in general, which I've done and as you know now write for the Digital Fix where I talk about TV. The second, and most important was to give me something to focus on whilst I quit smoking. Here we are a whole year later and I'm still cigarette free and blooming proud. That's got be worth wasting a few days watching films. 

Now, if only I could find something to help with this bloody movie addiction...