Green Enchiladas with Cashew Poblano Crema

My little niece is 2 weeks old.  She's at Primary Children's Hospital with a team of careful doctors and some very devoted parents, but the odds are not in her favor.  Her liver is failing and her 3-year-old brother doesn't really understand everything that is happening.  Sometimes I let myself get sad, but then I have to pull myself together to take care of my own 3 kids.  It's a hard time, but there have been so many kind people.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Plato. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." 

On Tuesday was my sister-in-law's birthday.  A woman came to visit her.  My SIL didn't know who she was.  The woman said she was sent by a group of people who know of her situation, her baby, and her 3-year-old at home.  She said she's not part of the group and there's no way for them to be discovered.  She gave my SIL a build-a-bear gift card for the 3-year-old and $500 check card to "help."  My brother and his family don't live in Utah, so who knows who these very kind people are.  

This is just one small thing.

Another is the group called "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."  This group is made up of photographers who volunteer their time and photos (free people) for others who are losing their children.  They will come in and take pictures of the sweet babies and their parents as a forever treasure.  As everything is unhooked, life-support turned off, they can come and capture that sweet moment with your little love.  (Or they can come before if you want.)  I found Heather Pickett through this site.  She's been a nurse in the NICU, she knows all this first-hand.  And as a photographer and mother herself, what a gift she's willing to give.

This is just a shout out to all those mourning and sad.  We are all fighting a hard battle and the kindness we share with each other is the only way we'll all be able to make it through.  That...and time.  

And now to a new recipe.  In my searching, I've come across the method of soaking nuts quite often.  I finally decided to try a recipe that included this process.  It was really good and you'd never get there were nuts in it at all!  Not lying.  Also, there is no cheese in these enchiladas.  We're going fresh people.

You cook the filled tortillas and then top it with the nut crema to serve. 

I also followed the recipe instructions to make my own green salsa.  Roasting the tomatillos and peppers made them sweet and so much better than a store-bought green salsa, which I have never loved.  This mixture is roasted tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, garlic, cilantro, and salt to taste.  

After soaking the cashews, they were mixed with a roasted poblano pepper, garlic, onion, lemon juice, water, and salt to taste.  It was a little bit spicy, but not too bad for the kids.  It was impressively good and I am sold on using nuts in sauces because of this dish.

The assembly goes first with dipping my whole wheat tortillas in the green salsa, filling them with a mushroom, spinach, onion, & garlic mixture, and placing them in a baking pan.  On top and bottom of the enchiladas is more of the green salsa.

After cooking, spread the crema mixture, some salsa, and cilantro on top.  Serve warm.

After eating these, I would like to experiment with different fillings.  This was good, but it's very versatile!  A bean, corn, tomato, pepper filling would be fun to try.  **Note that there is NO cheese, so the stringy enchiladas are not what you're going to find here.  Enjoy your fresh veggies!

And here is Love & Lemons amazing photo, for which I did not have the lighting or the time to take (excuses excuses, I know).  And find the recipe HERE.

Image via Love & Lemons