~slow cooker chicken tortilla soup~

I get mailers from my local grocery store(Smith's)

that have recipes along with coupons.

 I've been looking for

a good tortilla soup recipe for awhile now

and I think I finally found THE ONE

when I got one of their mailers a couple weeks ago.    

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 onion, chopped

4 frozen chicken breasts

1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes

2 (4 oz) cans chopped mild green chili peppers

1 can (15 oz) mild red enchilada sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth

1 tsp each.....CUMIN, CHILI POWDER, SALT

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 bay leaf

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen corn

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Place the chopped onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer the frozen chicken breasts on top. Add the diced tomatoes and their juice, green chiles, enchilada sauce, garlic, chicken broth, spices and bay leaf. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Remove bay leaf. Remove chicken to a plate and shred with two forks. Return to slow cooker. Stir in corn. Continue to heat until corn is hot. Add a handful of chopped cilantro. Top with anything you like....we did avocado slices, shredded cheese and sour cream.

Serves 6-8.

IT'S JUST ABOUT AS EASY AS IT GETS

AND IT IS DELICIOUS!  

         

~the best hummus~

 My friend, Lisa, makes THE BEST hummus ever!

I crave it for weeks after I eat it.

I finally got the recipe from her.

You gotta try this.

Ingredients

1 can garbanzo beans-drained and rinsed

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup tahini

1 clove garlic

cumin to taste

salt to taste

pinch of cayenne 

juice of 1 lemon

Throw it all in the blender or food processor

and blend until it looks like this:

You can put it on anything but 

I like it best as a dip for veggies.

 Try it!

~the bounty of the Earth & a quickie recipe for vegies~

 I envy those who live in areas with a climate that allows

year round gardening. The process of gardening has

been something that I've learned to appreciate and

enjoy only in the past couple years. (Another, sign that

I'm growing up getting old?) Look at some of this

home grown goodness......

 This was my first beet crop ever.

They turned out so good!

Next year I will plant them a little earlier in the year

and a tad bit deeper in the ground.

 I wish I could say I grew this beauty.

My husband's aunt gave us a bucket of veggies

from her garden and this was in it. 

Our onions didn't fare so well this year.

They turned out to be rather small and sad :(

I think we need to plant them deeper next year.

 Alright, here comes the recipe for

the easiest and BEST side dish you can serve

with dinner. You can make a little or a lot depending 

on how many you have to feed. Also-you can put 
whatever veggies you prefer in it, but these seem
to be my go-to veggies because I usually have all
of them here on hand.

 Broiled Veggie Medley:

*Cut up in fairly big pieces and put in a baking pan:

-red potatoes

-any kind of pepper you want (in this I have anaheim & green belle)

-zucchini

-onions

-beets

*Drizzle olive oil over it and stir or shake veggies so

that they are all coated with the oil. Season with your 

favorite seasoning or spice. I used a combination of

garlic and italian seasonings.  

*Broil in oven, uncovered, on the bottom rack for

about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese

 the last couple minutes and let it melt. 

THAT'S IT! EASY AS THAT.......

SERVE AND ENJOY! 

This pan of veggies is all HOMEGROWN!

I make this a lot but this pan was the best yet.

.....and we weren't the only ones enjoying our veggies: 

 I think snails are GROSS.

They love my lettuce.

I found this little creature in my lettuce harvest

while I was washing and cutting it. It was tiny tiny.

I just picked the final harvest of my lettuce.

I haven't had to buy lettuce from the store AT ALL this 

summer thanks to my garden. 

This little fellow kept me company on the deck 

a couple nights ago:

 I love katydid's. They are one of the funkiest looking bugs.

I had to run grab my camera and snap these pics so

I could show my little guy the next morning.

 My flowers right now:

 The sunflowers grow wild and HUGE in our flower gardens.

I adore them.

My husband hates them and wants to immediately

pull them out when he sees them starting to come up.

I like the wildflower, natural look in a garden and my

husband prefers the pristine, manicured look.

Since he does 99.9% of the outside work, he wins......

however, he keeps the sunflowers because he knows

how much I enjoy them. I need to take a picture of 

them outside and share with you so you can see 

how big they are this year. This picture

below is one of them in my house right now.

Can you see my hand behind it as a reference to

it's size? ABSOLUTE BEAUTY.

I hope your weekend is full of fun.

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer.

School will be starting soon and with it, the easy,

free days of summer will end.

~the best pound cake you'll ever have~

You want to know one of my favorite words?

Brunch.

I love it.

It's such a happy word.

Say it out loud.

Brunch.

 

My girlfriends and I take turns each month

hosting a brunch. It's something I look

forward to each month. A perfect excuse

to get out and do nothing but eat, drink and

be merry with some of my favorite gal pals.

We can talk and talk and talk and talk.

Let's just say we can put

"Hot Topics" on The View to shame! 

Lynsie had brunch at her house this month

and made the MOST delicious pound cake.

I have to share the recipe.

Trust me.....you will thank me later.

Recipe for Pound Cake

1 Cup butter

1/2 cup shortening 

3 Cups Sugar

-Cream the butter, shortening and sugar together.

Add

5 eggs (1 at a time)

3 Cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 Cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth.

Grease and flour bundt pan and pour

your batter into it. Bake at 300 degrees for 

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

Top with strawberries and whipped cream

or NOTHING AT ALL!

Your mouth with thank you.

Your thighs and butt will NOT!

~buffalo bleu chicken sandwiches...soooo good~

I have a board on Pinterest for food.

Pinterest is a great place to go for

food ideas. It's challenging to think of different stuff

every week to cook for the family. 

I made an attempt at a dish I saw on Pinterest.

It was AMAZING!

I didn't follow it exactly but used the basic idea.

 It's SUPER easy.

Here's what you'll need:

-crock pot

- 3 pounds boneless chicken breasts-frozen

-hot wing sauce

-ranch dressing packet

Put your frozen chicken in the crock pot on low.

Pour the entire bottle of wing sauce over the chicken.

The recipe I saw suggested Franks hot sauce...I used

another type of hot wing sauce we had on hand.

I don't think it matters what kind of hot sauce you

use.....as long as you like the flavor of it. 

Pour the packet of ranch mix into the crock pot

with your chicken and hot sauce.

Put the lid on and let cook on low for a few hours

until the chicken is done. 

I stirred it a couple times while it was cooking to

mix up the ranch mix. 

Once your chicken is cooked, remove the chicken

and shred with a couple forks. I hold the chicken 

with one fork and shred it with another fork.

This worked really well.

Once you have your chicken shredded,

put it all pack into the crock pot with 

the hot sauce mixture. Let it sit 

in there on low for another hour.

Serve it up on your favorite type of rolls

and top with bleu cheese (if you like it).

I'm warning you....

IT IS DELICIOUS!

Or-if you prefer less carbs you can 

top a salad with it, 

which is EXACTLY what I did the

next day with left overs. 

 Try it this week in your dinner menu.

You're gonna love it. 

If you are afraid of spicy....

try it with barbecue sauce instead.

~chicken and stuffing one pot meal~

Hello readers.

Have you given up on any new posts from me?

I've had so much to do around the house and

with the family that my blogs have taken a 

backseat to everything else. 

-Out of town for 5 days two weeks ago.

-Washer broke (which means the house went to hell).

-Valentine's Day (which was a total bust).

-Shopping for a new washer/dryer and installing them.

-Husband out of town last weekend for 3 days.

-Kids with colds.

-Mom got the cold.

Uggghhhh.

See-I wasn't kidding. 

It wouldn't be a lie if I said in the past 3 weeks

I have only cooked dinner 3 times. 

My poor family.

They've been forced to eat lots of quick, processed

foods and stuff from Wendy's dollar menu. 

Unfortunately, things won't be getting back to "normal"

in our household until next week. 

It's my turn to get-away for 3 days!

TO SAY I'M EXCITED IS A BIT OF 

AN UNDERSTATEMENT.

Anyway.....

last night I managed to throw something together 

for my family. This is one of my go-to meals when

I don't have a ton of time. It's one of my favorite

COMFORT FOOD meals. With this blasted cold

virus hitting all of us, we really needed some

comfort food last night. 

I call it my chicken stuffing one pot meal.

 It's always a hit.....this is what you'll need:

 Chicken breasts.

Shredded cheese.

Cream of chicken soup.

Stuffing mix.

I know, I know-it's pretty much all processed food.

Obviously we all know that fresh is better but

hey.....some days if we don't do QUICK MEALS-

we don't have time for anything at all. 

This is also one of my go-to meals when I 

need to take a meal to another family.

First off, go ahead and cook up your chicken breasts

or breast tenders (I had both) in a little bit of olive oil.

Go ahead and season it however you prefer.

Next you want to prepare your stuffing as

indicated on the box. I cooked mine in the 

microwave while my chicken was cooking

and then transferred it into my casserole dish.

(in this case-my pan also goes in the oven so I 

took the chicken out and then put the stuffing 

right into the pan with the drippings.)

Now go ahead and put your cooked chicken breasts 

on top of the stuffing.

Now spoon the cream of chicken soup over the top of

this and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake this in the oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Serve it with steamed veggies or a fresh lettuce salad.

This is truly a 30 minute meal!

The only bad thing about it for me is.....

I ALWAYS END UP EATING TOO MUCH OF IT.

It's that good!

In fact, I'm going to go warm up the left-overs 

right now...comfort food is the best.

 

 

~quiche in a green pepper~

I'm going to share with you one of my favorite recipes.

Mini quiche cooked in a green pepper.

It's easy and (depending on what you put in it) good for you.

I'm going to tell you right out of the starting gate

that it's not necessarily the prettiest thing you'll

cook but it's one of the tastiest. 

Here's what you'll need:

 Your base ingredients are 

-eggs (1.5 per pepper)

-heavy cream (approx.-1/8th cup per pepper)

-cheese (NECESSITY as far as I'm concerned)

At this point....you can add whatever you prefer-

My go to items: salt n pepper, garlic, onions, mushrooms, meat.

 

 First you'll want to cut the top off your peppers and 

clean them out. They should look like this when you're done:

Next you will chop up any veggies you want to saute

and throw them in a pan with a splash of olive oil.

While those are cooking go ahead and get your egg

mixture ready. Mix your eggs in a bowl with the cream.

Now you are going to add your other ingredients....

the "fillers" so to speak :)

On this day I used ham because it's what I had on hand.

I usually do bacon or sausage.

If you do bacon or sausage you need to cook it BEFORE

you add it into your egg mixture.

Now you want to go ahead and fill your peppers with 

the egg mixture. I use my muffin tin to hold the 

peppers while they cook. Just set the bottom of your 

pepper into one of the spaces as far down as it will go.

I've always been able to make this work regardless

of the shape of the pepper. I then place the muffin

tin on a cookie sheet.

 I use my 1/2 cup measuring cup to pour it into the pepper.

Fill them about 3/4 full (the eggs will rise while cooking).

Cook in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.

This may vary a bit depending on how fast or slow

your oven cooks. I check mine after an hour and then 

usually cook for 6-10 more minutes. 

Check them by placing a knife thru the center of the egg

mixture and go straight down to the bottom of the pepper.

If the pepper feels cooked and the knife comes

out clean, it's done. 

If you are a mega cheese lover you can sprinkle some

cheese over them and put back in the oven for a couple

minutes to melt the cheese.

 Or don't add cheese.

See-I wasn't lying when I said it wasn't very pretty.

 Let cool for a couple minutes before you take them

off the pan and serve them. To eat it we just 

cut the pepper right in half.

Give it a shot.

Trust me....it really is good.

Even if it doesn't look like it.

Can someone back me up here?

~baked chicken chimi's~

Since the final episode of Project Runway isn't 

online yet this morning let's talk about a favorite topic of mine....

FOOD!

Don't you find one of the trickiest parts of dinner

is trying to come up with something different?

Most women I talk to feel like they make the same

things over and over. I do it too.

The fall season is like my cooking New Year.

The colder weather always brings with it a desire to

cook more and to cook different things.

It's like an awakening for my kitchen since I 

HATE cooking in the summer when it is hot.

A couple years ago I got this recipe from a friend 

for baked chicken chimichangas.

DEEE-LISH-US!

I dug the recipe out of it's hiding place after finding

that my friend had forgotten/lost the original recipe herself. 

Since she needs the recipe again too, I thought I 

would just share it on here so everyone

can partake in the goodness of this dish.

 This is most of the ingredients you will need for the actual chimis....

pretend there is shredded cheese in this picture.

-tortillas

(these are the BEST kind you can buy in the store)

-olive oil

-shredded chicken (I used 3 breasts)

-cream cheese

-taco seasoning

 -cilantro (optional)

-onions (optional)

-shredded cheese

First off you want to shred your chicken.

Now combine the cream cheese with the chicken....

use whatever it takes to make the consistency you want.

I used about 6 oz.

Add your taco seasoning (a packet) and 

remaining ingredients that you want in the 

chicken filling mixture.

Next you're going to put a hefty spoonful onto 

your tortilla and roll it up with the ends tucked in.

After you get it rolled place it on a baking sheet

and brush some olive oil on it.
This makes about 6 chimis.

Place them in oven after they are all rolled and oiled down.

350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Now here's the REALLY good part.....the sauce!

I didn't take a picture of the ingredients but here's the list:

-1 can cream of chicken soup (10.5 oz)

-1 can green chilis (4 oz)

-1 jalapeno seeded and chopped

-1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice (about half a lime)

-cilantro (optional)

Put all the above ingredients in your food processor or blender

and liquefy. Transfer to a saucepan and heat up while your

chimis are baking in the oven.

It should resemble something like this.

Take your chimis out of the oven once they are slightly golden

and a little crustified. If you cook them too long they

puff up and explode. 

Garnish the chimi with some of this sauce and

whatever else you like.......

 Serve with Spanish rice and you've got yourself a 

delicious chimichanga platter without all the deep fried greasiness.

My 4 year old will even eat this!

I was thinking last night as I was cooking this....

you know you're getting old when instead of swapping

bar stories and cocktail recipes you are sharing

dinner recipes and reality T.V. schedules. 

Whatever recipes and stories you are sharing.....

ENJOY!

Linking up with Positively Splendid.