I don’t know about you but this has been one hectic week! It all started when I came home from work over Memorial weekend and wasn’t greeted with my usual hello from my four legged baby, Thor the attack cat. As a matter of fact, he didn’t greet me at all and I found him looking sickly sleeping on my bathroom floor. Since it was memorial weekend, my vet was closed and I had to wait until Tuesday to take him to the vet. The entire weekend, Thor turned his nose up at wet cat food, tuna, crab, and everything but organic milk and pumpkin puree. And he didn’t really have much of an appetite for that.
On Tuesday, I took Thor to my vet and at that time, he didn’t have any idea what was going on with him other than he thought Thor was giving up the fight due to his body temperature being lower than normal. They kept him until they were able to obtain a urine sample, and found out what was going on with my baby.
Thor was diagnosed then as a diabetic and he was in a state of what they call Diabetic ketoacidosis, aka DKA. A life threatening state for diabetics, both human and animals, when they have too much sugar in their bodies because either their bodies cannot produce enough insulin or cannot produce insulin at all.
Since I never knew Thor was a diabetic kitty, he must have developed it sometime over the course of this last year. His body could not utilize sugars (glucose) which is found in carbohydrates and many dry cat foods. Therefore, Thor’s body was breaking down fats, which when fats are broken down, turn into acids called ketones. These ketones start building up in the blood and urine and become poisonous to the body in high levels. Thor was in a severe state of DKA and was indeed having a medical emergency.
I didn’t think Thor was going to make it through the night but the vet called and told me he was showing improvement. I was happy that my little four-legged baby was a fighter!! After a round of normal saline fluids to replace the fluids he’d lost and doses of insulin to help regulate his blood sugar, Thor was released to come back home after only two days. My vet later told me that he didn’t think Thor was going to make it but is glad that I chose to try to save him other than euthanizing him that day.
Thor is truly a little miracle of a cat and one heck of a fighter!! Today Thor is home, alive and eating and drinking normally, playing, and doing what cats do best, getting into stuff and doing yoga with me. His favorite pose is Savasana.
I am truly thankful that Thor didn’t give up the fight since he is my little four-legged indoor baby. I will have some pictures soon as Thor is still a little scrawny looking and camera shy.
So to honor Thor’s wishes (being newly diagnosed as a diabetic kitty), I’m making a healthy, delicious meal that doesn’t have any sugar added! Sorry no sweet treats today {sad face}.
Instead, I’ll be sharing a recipe for Avocado Lime Chicken Enchiladas. Yep, that’s right, if I can’t have my sweets, I’m going to my next favorite….Mexican food!
These ain’t your normal enchiladas with the red sauce, no maa’m. You actually make your own sauce to pour over the enchiladas and it is delicious! A mild spicy and tangy sauce that bakes into the enchiladas (mild spicy ~ not too hot and not blah, just the right amount of flavoring…mild spicy {yes, that is a word in Sweet and Spicy Monkey’s kitchen…smile}).
I found the recipe over at Six Sisters' Stuff and I’ve adapted it to my own liking. I’m not really a fan of cilantro, well make that a lot of cilantro…ok, anything over 1 Tablespoons of cilantro added into a meal is way too much for me unless its salsa! I know, weird, right? Since I love Mexican food so much.
Now I love the smell of fresh cilantro but I don’t really care for adding a lot of it to my Mexican dishes. The recipe called for ½ cup cilantro so instead of that much cilantro, I added green chilies. After all, what’s a Mexican dish without chilies? And the green chilies add some of that mild spicy tangy flavoring to the sauce.
I’m sure you’ll love my tweaks that I made to this recipe, so let’s get to making these because I’m getting hungry!
Avocado Lime Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients for Enchilada Sauce
1 Tablespoon butter, softened
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup chicken broth (can also use vegetable)
2 teaspoons cumin
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 – 7 ounce can green chilies, diced or chopped
1 cup mild or medium salsa verde
½ cup plain Greek yogurt
Ingredients for making Enchiladas
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
3 avocados, seeded and diced
8 whole wheat tortillas, medium size
1 lime, sliced into wedges
Directions
Preheat oven 375F degrees. Spray a 9” x 13” pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
In a medium skillet, add butter and melt over high heat. Once butter is melted, add garlic and sauté for about 1 minute.
After 1 minute, stir in flour and cook for another 2 minutes. Gradually add in chicken broth, cumin, salt and pepper, and continue cooking until mixture simmers.
Once mixture starts simmering, remove from heat and turn off burner.
Stir in yogurt, salsa verde, and green chilies* until mixture is creamy and smooth as it can get with the chilies.
Pour approximately ½ cup of sauce into your prepared pan, spreading evenly around bottom of pan until bottom has a light coating of sauce. Set aside.
Now it’s time to make the enchiladas!
Grab the tortillas and lay out on a flat surface. Add some chicken, shredded cheese, and avocado to the center of the tortilla, from one side to the other. Keeping in mind you’re going to have to roll these up so you don’t want to put too much on there.
Roll up your tortilla and place it with the seam side down into prepared pan. Repeat filling tortilla and placing inside pan until pan is full.
Pour remaining sauce over your rolled up enchiladas and squeeze lime wedge over the top to your taste (I used about 2 lime wedges for this but I also love the taste of limes!).
Top with 1 cup of cheese sprinkled over enchiladas.
Place in oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling or cheese is lightly browned. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.
Can top with diced avocados, sour cream (or plain yogurt), or salsa.
Homemade tortilla chips and guacamole make a great side dish for these enchiladas. Enjoy!
*Helpful Hints*
- I used 8 medium sized tortillas and it filled the pan. If you have more tortillas and filling, just prepare another small pan and repeat steps.
- Depending on your oven, check at 15 minutes and keep a close eye on these as you don’t want the cheese to burn.
- *Do Not drain the green chilies*
- All measurements are US
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