Real Food Makeover: Apple Enchiladas

A couple of weeks ago I had a family member send me a favorite recipe of hers.  Her intent was not only to share it with me, but she wanted me to give it a Real Food Makeover.  Apple enchiladas.  A favorite dessert in the family that she felt could be better.  While she did admit that she substituted butter for the margarine that the recipe called for, she wanted something better.  Could it be more nutrient dense?  It is a dessert, after all.

The original recipe she handed me called for apple pie filling, flour tortillas, cinnamon, margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar.  I decided to start with the apple pie filling.  I did some research, but didn't come up with anything that knocked my socks off.  So, I improvised, much like chefs often do!

I grabbed 4 or 5 apples and chopped them up.  Then, I made a sauce that included water,  lemon juice, coconut palm sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot powder, and vanilla.

I cooked the sauce only until the sugar had melted and was nice and thick and bubbly.  I didn't want it to get too hot, I still needed it to be saucy.  I poured it over the apples and tossed to coat.

The next step was to roll the mixture into tortillas.  Instead of going with a tortilla from the store, I went with Spelt Tortillas:

I didn't want to try a sprouted tortilla quite yet because I wasn't sure what their flavor would add to the apple enchiladas.  I felt like these were the best option available to me at the time.  No GMOs, decent oil, and not too many things that I couldn't identify.  I found these at Sprouts, but I am sure Whole Foods has them as well.  Anyway, the next step in the process was to wrap them up!

I used a 7×11 inch glass baking dish since these tortillas weren't full sized.  I placed them seam side down and got 6 into the dish.

Next, instead of melting margarine and sugars together, I melted butter, honey, and water in a small sauce pan then drizzled it over the apple enchiladas.  All that was left was to dust them with some cinnamon!

I place them into a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  They came out browned and bubbly and smelled amazing!

My taste testers, the 3 kids, were the first to try them and they gave them 6 thumbs up.  That is a success in my book!  The original recipe recommended topping them with whipped cream, but I didn't feel like making any and I thought that would be too much sweetness.  So, I put sour cream on mine and they were delicious!

Okay, enough chatting!  Here is the recipe!

Do you have a favorite recipe that deserves a real food makeover?  Send it to us and we will do the testing for you!

This post shared at these awesome blog carnivals:  Real Food Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Whole Foods Wednesday, Party Wave Wednesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Simple Meals Friday, Old Fashioned Friday, Small Footprint Friday, Make Your Own Monday, More the Merrier Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Tuned In Tuesdays