Southwestern Crock Pot Chicken

Can you tell I'm in a food-phase? I'll get to posting crafts soon enough... someday :)

I've heard of black beans and corn with chicken, but I always wondered what kind of sauce could go with it. So I looked up chicken, corn, and black beans on Google - and this delicious recipe came up (at food.com). This recipe had me at crock pot. I'm just saying - anything involving a crock pot ALWAYS comes out tender, full of flavor, and just yummie, yummie, yum, yum, YUM!!!

Here's whatcha need:

(Sorry that the salsa and cream cheese is not pictured! They were fashionably late.)

4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I have used the frozen tenderloins from Costco & they come out great - just use way more than 4-5 of those tenderloins... they're kinda on the small side)

1 (15oz) can of black beans

1 (15oz) jar of salsa

1 (15 1/2oz) can of corn (I use frozen corn & just kinda eyeball-measured it)

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese (I tested out the Philadelphia Cooking Creme w/garlic flavor - just because it was on sale at the Grocery Outlet.... and I also love anything garlic. It came out great!)

Clean your chicken (my momma always taught me to clean off my chicken - meaning get all that slimy nasty stuff & fat that you can off of the chicken. I don't know if it really makes any difference, but in my world - it does!), then put it into your crock pot. 

Drain and rinse your black beans & dump them into your crock pot. Then add your frozen corn (drained if you're using canned corn) and salsa.

Put your crock pot on high for 4-5 hours (or until the chicken is cooked throughly)

Let the sweet aroma of cooked food fill your house.......

When the chicken was done, I took half of the chicken out, bagged it, and threw it in the freezer. You can either leave your chicken breasts whole, you can cut them into chunks, or shred your chicken at this time. Then, add your cream cheese and let it melt for 30 min.

Stir and Serve over rice, in tortillas, or even over pasta. 

  

 GENERAL M's VERSION:

MY VERSION:

Call me boring, but I didn't need all that flair to have a good meal. Besides, my mouth couldn't fit over his ginormica taco... He eventually reached for a fork for some assistance :D

This was so good... you can thank me later for finding this sweet recipe!

Nummy - Nummy Salad -The Top Ramen Concoction

This is another pot luck favorite. The original recipe is called "Fugi Salad". Why it's named Fugi Salad is beyond my knowledge. What's fugi anyhow?! I personally call it the Top Ramen Concoction... that has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

This is my modified version. Let's get down to business! You will need:

2 bags of pre-chopped cabbage (or if you want to put yourself through more work - you could also get a head of cabbage and chop it yourself.... but - uh yah, I'm not doing that. I'm being simple people! Work with me on this!)

2 packages of crushed ramen noodles

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of sugar

8 chopped green onions

1/3 cup of vinegar (white, rice, or apple cider vinegar works fine. We favor Braggs, so we use Braggs apple cider vinegar)

 2 teaspoons of salt (we used Braggs Liquid Aminos -  a natural soy/salt alternative....)

(Optional: 3/4 cups of blanched slivered almonds)

So, all you do is grab the 2 bags of cabbage, the crushed ramen noodles, the green onions, and the almonds (if you decided to get some. I'm frugal, so I usually leave the almonds out - unless I'm making this for my man. Think what you want about me, but no one will know that they're called for in the recipe. It'll be our little secret!). Mix all of that in a huge bowl (if you are preparing this ahead of time - wait until you're ready to serve, then add the crushed ramen noodles to prevent them from getting soggy & squishy). 

 In another bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, vinegar, pepper, and salt. 

Pour the sauce over the cabbage and toss. It may not look like a lot of sauce, but the cabbage will soak it up - so don't worry. 

Your finished!!

You can serve this right away, or put it in the refrigerator to chill. I personally can't resist this stuff, so I try not to make this too far ahead of time because then I'll start munching, and next thing you know - I have nothing to take to the pot luck! If you can't tell.... I like to eat. If you didn't know that... you know now :)

The Best Dessert EVER!!!

So I tasted this piece of heaven at some event - somewhere, and I decided to make this for our Financial Peace University class (by the way - you should take the Dave Ramsey class if you haven't already. It's amazing!). We get together on Friday's and the host makes the main dish. Everyone else brings some side dish. Our responsibility was dessert this week. Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm around other people - I just want them to be amazed by my super-awesome tasting dishes :) Thank you pinterest for the many ideas you have provided me. Unfortunately, I didn't find this on pinterest.. I found it here

So anyway, after tasting this dessert I decided to hunt down the recipe. Here's what you need:

1 (10oz or 16oz) pkg of frozen strawberries, 8oz. of Cool Whip, Pretzels, Butter, Sugar, 1 (8oz.) pkg of cream cheese - softened, and 1 large pkg of strawberry Jello

For the Crust:

2 cups of crushed pretzels (not too fine)

3/4 cups of melted butter

3 Tbsp. sugar

Mix the above ingredients together and form the pretzel mixture into a 9 x 13 inch pan, packing tightly. I did crush up about 1/2 cup more because I wanted a bit of a thicker crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Let it cool (I threw mine into my freezer for a little while - worked like a charm)

For the topping:

1 cup of sugar

1 (8oz) pkg of cream cheese - softened

1 large pkg of strawberry Jello

1 (10oz or 16oz) pkg of frozen strawberries

Beat the sugar and cream cheese until it's blended and smooth. 

Now, since I don't have a Kitchen Aid Mixer, I used my hand-held mixer (ghetto - I know... I like to call it resourceful - HA!). 

Stir in Cool Whip

Spread this delicicous goodness over that pretzel crust you just made (which should be cooled by now - if you stuck it in the freezer)

And don't let ANY of that fluffy mixture go to waste....

Grab yourself a pretzel and eat that stuff... or you can channel that inner child and lick the spatula before your children ask if they can. I'll spare you that picture of me :)

Go ahead and put this back into the freezer until you get the strawberry mixture done.

Next, dissolve the Jello in 2 cups of boiling water. Stir in the frozen (not thawed) strawberries until it's mixed in. Let it set for 10 minutes. My strawberries were whole - so I decided to cut them in half. Of course it was after I had thrown them in the hot Jello - so that proved to be interesting... 

When your 10 minutes is up, go ahead and stir the mixture to break it up a bit. Then, pull out your pan with the pretzel crust and whipped topping, and pour the Jello/strawberry mixture over the entire thing. Spread it around - all the way to the edges. 

Refrigerate this baby until it's set. Then try not to gobble the whole thing up before it reaches it's destination. That's the hardest part!! 

When you take your first bite - feel free to roll you eyes, moan, drool, gasp, growl, silently mouth the words "Oh My Gosh" to whoever is looking at you, tilt your head back - close your eyes - and thank God for allowing your taste buds to work properly, or do whatever comes naturally. Don't worry about being embarrassed by your actions... I'm sure you won't be the only one!!

Lazy woman's enchiladas

Call me lazy. I like to think of it as taking the shortest route to get where you want to go, but that's just me. My hubby (General M) is in love with Mexican food (and sports). So imagine my happiness when I found out how to make enchiladas an easy way. I used to cook the chicken & hand shred it (which by all means cost less, and may be healthier than this concoction... however how healthy is enchiladas anyway?). Now I just buy the canned chicken from Costco. I'm sure you can get canned chicken at your local grocery store, but please note that it may be smaller that this can that I am using. Check your ounces on the can! Here's whatcha need:

13 x 9 glass casserole dish

12.5 oz of canned chicken (or get that roasted chicken from the deli @ your grocery store and shred it)

1 package of enchilada sauce (which called for the can of tomato paste I didn't picture - of course)

Corn tortillias

Shredded Cheese

NOTE: The enchilada sauce I purchased called for 1 can of tomato paste, but I've seen other enchilada sauce call for 1 can of tomato sauce. Please check your packages for proper preparation. I usually shred cheese from the ginormous block of cheese we have in the fridge, but it's the end of the month, we are out of cheese, and I'm waiting until pay day to even step foot in the abyss of Costco for my monthly trip there. 

 So you need to drain the chicken, put it into a bowl and shred it with a fork:

Make your enchilada sauce (according to the directions on the package), then put a thin layer on the bottom of your casserole dish:

Put your shredded cheese in a bowl and line up your items like so (the enchilada sauce is on the stove to the right, and that teal thing is a plastic flexible cutting board.. I just needed a surface to contain the mess):

Take a tortilla and dip it into the enchilada sauce:

Lay your tortilla down:

Add chicken (don't stuff it too much, or you'll run out of chicken early - and you still need to add the cheese):

Add cheese

And roll:

Place your enchilada seam side down so the top is smooth, and so that your enchilada doesn't come undone:

Dip, stuff, and repeat until your platter is full. There were 2 more enchiladas that I did full of cheese at the top, but they didn't make it into the picture:

Pour the reaming sauce over the top of your enchiladas: 

Add cheese to the top:

Throw into the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or so... at least until the cheese is melted & the insides are hot. In the meantime, chop your onions, throw a pot of corn on the stove, and make your salad with dressing, and VOLIA! You've got dinner:

Can I just say that even though this is lazy woman's enchiladas.... taking these pictures, downloading them onto my computer, and adding them into my blog was me NOT being lazy! So this batch of enchiladas I made were technically NOT lazy woman's enchiladas... I'm just sayin :)

Do you really want to make it even more easier? After you do your layer of sauce on the bottom, add a layer of torillias to the bottom, add a layer of chicken. add a layer of cheese, then a repeat. Pour the sauce over the top, and call it enchilada lasagna! BOO YAH!

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Uh... Where Do I Start?!

Happy Valentine's Day

(or Happy Singles Awareness Day)

Whatever floats your boat... I wish I could post what I did for my boys valentine's, but I need to figure out how to blur our their faces. I'm just not ready to exploit them on the internet yet lol!

Okay... So here's a sneak peek at a few things I WANT to post a tutorial on (or just brag about). Some of these I'm sure you can figure out yourself - however, if you can not & would like to see a tutorial on it THEN ASK! Yep, I'm going to make you comment on this blog darn it! :)

Jewelry Holder

made from an empty picture frame, canvas bag, and hemp string

Bracelet Holder

from old soda bottles

Diaper and Diaper Wipe Clutch

The diaper wipes are accessible from both sides 

when the clutch is closed... HOW COOL IS THAT?!)

Going from a dirrrrrrrrrty microwave

(Mmm Hmm! Don't act like you've never had a dirty microwave!)

To a ridiculously clean microwave in 10 minutes WITHOUT SCRUBBING!!!

Find out how to do this: here

GORGEOUS FLOWERS!

Results from rag rolls overnight pulled back into a classy updo:

Sun-dried tomatoes - YUM!

Making a Caesar costume (Christmas Play) out of a pillow case and felt

Putting those annoying credit card offers to use

and make a wallet key holder

I also made some wallets out of a Rice Krispies box, but never to a final picture (go figure!), as well as 5 Minute Artesian Bread.... ooooh I can smell it now... 

Where are the stories you ask? When I get over my ever-so-fun sickness, I'll be more inclined to follow up with that too. I have way too much I want to say on here, but my skinny fingers can't keep up with my mind :) I need one of those programs where I can just talk & it will type out stuff for me (which would also eliminate spelling errors lol!). I'm just afraid if I had one of those programs I would get carried away talking, get off track, and forget where I began. Or I would end up rambling on about how my mom & I found the coolest place to treasure dig while she was visiting, how we found a Wii balance board & game on Craigslist for $25, how we spent 8 hours in JCPenny's on black friday and I managed to walk out with only 2 pillows that cost a total of $0.25 each (THAT was hard!!).... or how my husband (General M) ended up getting the tip of his middle finger cut off while running around the house with my boys when I was getting ready to leave the house! Or when we lost power because of an insane snow storm that got so cold the following night that ice froze on the tree branches which was causing them to fall (creating a lot of damage & a huge mess - thankfully not around our house)! Yah... I could get carried away talking about all that... just not today :) I'm out for now!