Made in Michigan

I am fortunate to have a locally owned chain grocery store close to my house (within 1/2 mile) called Meijers. This chain was started in Grand Rapids, MI and has expanded to many surrounding states. While they carry national brands, they also carry an organic Meijers brand that I use often, as well as having a bulk section. The store will place produce that is locally grown at the store front, when they have it. This is most often blueberries, peaches, strawberries and the like, when in season.

Meijers contributes a great deal to local communities in various ways. The score board at our high school was donated by the store. The hospice my mother was in prior to her death receives many contributions from the store and had a kitchen with all utensils for family members use during the long hours, as well as providing juice, pudding cups and other snacks that Meijers paid for. Meijers had done similar things in various communities through out Michigan and I would assume other states where they have stores. We also have Meijers Garden in Grand Rapids that is absolutely wonderful and if any of you ever visit Michigan I would suggest making this a stop.

Since I was shopping the same store as I usually shop I decided to change what I purchase. I love enchiladas and can easily make a vegetarian batch and a batch for my husband and son that contains meat. But instead of purchasing canned sauce or re fried beans I decided to make everything from scratch. Additionally, instead of buying cheese that is already grated, I bought a huge block of cheese that I will grate with my food processor. I also found some things that were made in Michigan, like the pasty's in the above photo.

After spending five hours in the kitchen, I think the enchiladas turned out great. But the process took way to long. I did come up with a few things I will try in the future. For instance the roasted tomato sauce (photo top right) would be much better if I purchased the tomatoes in the summer from a farmers market and made a large batch for use all year. I think the sauce turned out good enough that with a few tweaks could be used in a number other recipes. I used a new southwest recipe(photo top left) that I put in both batches of enchiladas, that I will continue to use as it reduced the amount of cheese I previously used. As for the re fried beans, they were much better than canned and did not take long after soaking the beans, but we don't eat that many re fried beans and I had way to much left over.

If anyone wants a copy of the recipes let me know and I will email them to you.