Chicken recipe

Slow Cooker 'Crack' Chicken
Ingredients
2 lbs boneless chicken breasts
2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese (I got a little crazy and added a package of BACON Cream Cheese. AND Philly happens to make Jalapeno Cream Cheese too, which would make this a little spicy, which would be fantastic!
If you do use a flavored (savory) cream cheese, use only one flavored with one plain, otherwise it’s just too much. Trust me on this)
2 (1 oz) packets dry Ranch seasoning
8 oz bacon, cooked crisply and crumbled Instructions
In a slow cooker combine place chicken, cream cheese, and Ranch seasoning.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours, until chicken shreds easily.
Once chicken shreds stir with a large fork or spoon, so the chicken shreds and all the ingredients combine.
Add in crumbled bacon and stir to incorporate.
Serve warm.

Fried chicken

Over the last year, we've gone down to Springfield to Kicks several times. They used to have an all you eat buffet with some really tasty fried chicken. Fortunately, for my weight loss, they have done away with the buffet and went to a pizza place with a salad bar. We went down over the weekend and my mom and the kids had pizza and cheese sticks and I had salad bar. But going down there really made me want fried chicken. So I got on Hungry Girl and found her Faux Fried Chicken recipe because all of her stuff is sensible points (and she includes point values on the recipes) and I made this tonight for dinner.

I don't use garlic salt so I subbed garlic powder and salt and it could have used a little more salt but really? Super good and only 4 points per serving (6oz raw chicken). I will be making this again.

Cooking and eating

I've been feeling the need to cook recently. I've been hungry a lot more often and wanting warm, heavy fatty comfort foods. I, of course, blame the weather for my desire to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I hate cooking as a rule so this is the only explanation for it.

Tonight, I made a faux Outback potato soup and it was DELISH! It took quite a bit longer to make than I anticipated (apparently, potatoes take a long time to boil and onions also take a while, who knew) but it made an ENORMOUS pot, which would probably freeze ok. I gave some of it away and I plan to give more away tomorrow because there is no way we can eat it all. Like I said, really good but not really on plan. It had around 8 billion points, if I did my math correctly! It started with 2 sticks of butter and went on to heavy cream, filled with 5 pounds of potatoes (it called for 6-8, depending on size but I like lots of potato) and topped with cheese, it was a calorie extravaganza! After eating 2 bowls of it, I should be stuffed but I really want a milkshake. Or hot apple cider, either would be fine Too bad (or not, depending on how you look at it), I don't have the stuff to make either in the house and I'm not going back out in the crummy weather to get it.

Dinner Delish!!

I'm forever looking for new things to cook. I eat basically like a toddler with little variety. This causes RF no small amount of stress because he does not eat like a toddler and doesn't like over half of the things I cook. Truth be told, I don't like half of what I cook either because I have about 16 meals that I cycle through every 2 weeks. This means the same stuff over and over and I SICK TO DEATH of it all.

In my many hours on Facebook, I ran across an ad for Bust a Meal. I thought, what the heck, I might as well take a look to see if anything appeals even a little bit. When you go to the site, it offers you an option to sign up for the site or sign in using your facebook ID. I chose to use my FB ID because the last thing I need is another site to log into.

Once I signed in, it had me fill out a survey about my food preferences, including how often we eat various meats, allergies and things you just don't like. After filling out the survey, it generates a list of meals. I went through the list of meals and ranked them all either "yum" or "yuck" (there is no "meh" option for that might be ok but look a little dicey). In addition, you can quick list things that really look good so you can find them easily. I quick listed several items that looked tasty. Once all that is done, it emails 3 meals a week to try. Once you elect to try them, it emails you the shopping list and recipes. All of that can be found on the site, if you don't the emails, but I found it easier to have it in my email. With the shopping list, you can go through, on the site, and check off things that you already have so it doesn't send you things that you don't need.

Tonight I tried my first meal from them and it was super fab! It took longer than I like to cook (1 hour 10 minutes including prep and baking) but the end product was WELL worth it.

A few things to note, I don't eat chiles so I left those out completely. Also, 15 minutes to cook the chicken is a total joke. Try closer to 30 minutes. Of course, our chicken breasts are about 2 feet thick. I ended up cutting them up to help them cook faster. In the future I will cut the first so it doesn't take so long (this would be a really good dish for left over grilled chicken as it gets warmer). Because of the extended cooking time and the fact that I didn't add the chiles, I had to add some extra chicken broth (about a cup and a half all told and I wouldn't do more than that because it would have been soupy) and still had NO cooking liquid left over. Instead, I cooked the onions, and then the mixture, in the same pan as the chicken to the get the flavor. And because I believe there is no such thing as "enough" cheese, I used more than the recommended ammount of cheddar.

The only other thing I would do would be to possibly pre-fry the tortillas because the edges got crispy from baking but the middle was a little mushy. If they were a little crispy to start, that would make something great even better. I ate 3 pieces of it and am nearly sick from so much food but I'm seriously considering having another one. It is just that good!

In case you can't tell, this isn't Weight Watchers or other diet friendly. It could be better by using lower fat items but I'm not into that :)


Mexican Chicken Casserole
Active: 30 min Cook: 30 min Marinate/Stand: 10 min Total: 1h10m Serves: 8
Serve this casserole when friends are coming over or prep it before a busy week to cover two weeknight meals.
Click Here if you're going to cook this, so we can track it for you. That way, we won't suggest it again too soon.

Ingredients
1 cup chicken broth
2 (4.5-ounce) cans chopped green chiles, divided
1 3/4 pounds skinned, boned chicken breasts
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese
1 (10-ounce) can enchilada sauce
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1 ounce tortilla chips, crushed (about 6 chips)


Preparation
Prepare Ingredients
Preheat oven to 350°.
Chop 1 onion to yield 1 cup.
Crush about 6 tortilla chips to yield about 1 oz.
Combine and Cook
Combine 1 cup broth and 1 can chiles in a large skillet; bring to a boil.
Add chicken; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until chicken is done, turning chicken once.
Remove chicken from cooking liquid, reserving cooking liquid; cool chicken.
Shred meat with two forks, and set aside.


Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add 1 can of chiles and onion; sauté 3 minutes or until soft.
Add reserved cooking liquid, 1 cup milk, 1 cup Monterey Jack, 1/4 cup cream cheese, and enchilada sauce; stir well.
Stir in shredded chicken; cook 2 minutes; remove from heat.
Place 4 tortillas in the bottom of a 2-quart casserole coated with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
Spoon 2 cups chicken mixture over tortillas.
Repeat layers twice, ending with chicken mixture.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and chips.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
.

Best Lasagna?

Pioneer woman's lasagna

I made this today. It is ok, but I would hardly classify it as the best lasagna ever (I'm quite fond of the 9 layer lazagna at the Macaroni Grill). You use sausage, hamburger, dried basil, sliced mozzerella, Kraft Parmesian cheese, etc. Basically, I picked it because of the availablity of the items. There was no fresh grated buffalo cheese or sunlight grown organic basil or anything else "wierd" I made it. It wasn't hard, but it was time consuming. You have to brown the beef and the sausage and then mix it with tomatoes and spices and then let simmer for 45 minutes. Then you mix all the inside stuff and layer it all together. I specifically bought the no boil noodles, which I'm quite happy with. Then you bake it for 30 minutes until everything is all bubbly and golden. I took it out just in time to go get C from school so I didn't get to try it while it was hot. Might make a difference, might not.

A couple of things I will change for the future. I will use MORE MORE MORE cheese. I've already called my mom and asked her to pick up some more cheese on her way home from work because one pound is NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH. I'm having her bring another half pound and next time I might kick it up to 2. There is no such thing as too much cheese so I figure I can't go wrong with that. Also, I think it has too much of something else. Either basil or parsley, I'm not sure which. I'm going to experiment with different amounts going foward. Finally, it tastes slightly sweet. Probably from the tomatoes. I think I will add a little extra salt to counter act the sweetness or I'll not buy the no salt added tomato paste.

Domestic and stuff

To address a comment to a previous post: Yes, but when I make the cookies at home, I can control what goes in them. Whole wheat flour? Organic butter? Sure, if I wanted to (I don't so don't worry LOL)

Here is the recipe for the cookies I make most often
3/4 cup of butter softened (I used margarine)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs (I used egg replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups of flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 - 2 cups of cranberries (I really don't measure, I just throw them in until it looks like there are lots in each cookie) You can also use any dried fruit that you like. Archer Farms (Target) has a berry mixture that is cherries, cranberries and blueberries and that was really good. We've also done cherry oatmeal cookies, which I thought was too sweet. If I did those again, I would probably reduce the amount of sugar used.

1. In a large bowl beat butter on high speed 30 sec.
Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, and
cinnamon. Beat until combined, scraping bowl
occasionally. Beat in as much of the flour as you can.
Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in the rolled oats.
Stir in one cup ( I used about 1 1/4 cups)
cranberries.

2. Roll into balls and place on ungreased cookie
sheets. Bake in preheated 375 oven for 8-12 minutes or
until edges are golden. Cool on cookie sheet for 1
minute then transfer to wire rack. Enjoy!

I'm currently hunting for unsweetened dried cranberries that aren't too expensive. I found a place online that sells cases of them for $75, which is way too much to spend for berries. I also found a recipe to dry my own (in my almost never used food dehydrator) but they are out of season right now so I will have to wait until fall to try that. They apparently keep for years in the freezer so if it works, I'm going to be making pounds and pounds of dried cranberries.

I've been cooking crazy the last couple of days. Yesterday, I made chili for the first time and it was tasty! Evan and I had it left over for lunch today. Then today, I made lasagna (which comes out of the oven in like 2 minutes) and homemade mac and cheese (with the mac leftover from last nights chili mac). Real italians will have a cow when I post the recipe but it was stuff that is easy to keep on hand and let's face it, not everyone can be Mario Batali!

I'm thinking about making biscuits and gravy sometime over the weekend. I don't know when because I don't know how so I need my mom to help me. I thought about tomorrow morning before Evan goes to work but that means yet another trip to the grocery store today to get stuff and I'm just not feeling that. I also want to make ham and beans. I haven't had it homemade since my dad left the guard (he hates it so my mom would make it for the rest of us on his guard weekends, probably when I was in junior high). There was a place in town (it is Chief's now but it used to be Tommy something or other) that used to have all you could eat ham and beans on like Tuesdays and my mom and I used to go there for lunch sometimes, but that has been at least 5 years, probably longer.

I'm not sure what is prompting this surge in cooking. Probably that it is cold and I'm tired of tacos and french toast and the other stuff that I make inside. I'm ready for spring when I can cook on the grill all the time.