chicken enchiladas

its been way busy here! weve been moving into our new house, ive started my new job (I love it!) its great only working 3 days a week;) and celebrating our 1 year (yay!).

So its always a little nerve racking when your husband signs you up to make dinner for his family, but this recipe was perfect! It was way easy and WAY good- my bro-in-law said it was the best mexican food hes had since hes been home! thanks Grant! (even tho hes only been home for 2 weeks;)

1st i marinated the chicken in the crock for about 4 hours- i put chicken broth, brown sugar, fresh chives, and lots of pepper.

Ingredients
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream (i also added green chili sauce)
1 tablespoon margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream; set aside.
Melt margarine in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and chili powder, and saute until tender. Stir in the chicken, chile peppers, and 2 tablespoons of the soup mixture. Cook and stir until heated through.
Spread 1/2 cup of the soup mixture in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, and place, seam-side-down, in the baking dish. Spoon remaining soup mixture on top, and sprinkle with cheese.
Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

morning glory

So my father-in-law is actually a very talented cook! I will be taking more lessons from him in the future! He gave me my first 'lesson' the other day...he sent my husband and I home with some fabulous home made cereal. I don't know about you, but i spend so much time in the cereal isle at the store bc nothing looks good! I always end up getting something super plain bc I never buy anything with a ton of sugar in it- and i always end up not liking it. (point of that story is that i'm super picky with cereal) Anyway-so this cereal he sent us home with was so good- that instead of eating frozen yogurt and watching sports center with Gene (our evening tradition:) , he ate frozen yogurt alone and i ate that cereal! So he taught me how to make it, and to be honest, I prob will never buy store cereal again. These ingredients will save you tons compared to buying boxed cereal. All of these ingredients can be purchased at Sprouts- so its completely organic and low sugar, and really good for you. Its especially wonderful for us runners as a post run energy booster. Thanks pop pop!

Homemade Cereal

4 cups Oats

1 cup Wheat bran

1/2 cup of dried coconut

1/2 cup of raisins

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup pepitas seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of sliced almonds

1/2 cup of Agrave syrup- purchased at sprouts (or honey)

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 tbsp vanilla

*of course you can add or remove, or add more of any one of these:) mix all together and bake at 375 for 10 mins. let cool for 5-10 mins and thats it!

improvising...

ok so i've only been posting recipes that me and my family love, so how about mixing it up a bit! So my husband and I just purchased our 1st home;) yay! so we have been trying to be very frugal lately- paying for closing costs and down payment adds up!...(until we get our fabulous incentive check;) and this is hard for me because i love cooking and making good food but were trying to just eat what we have. So i've been trying to be creative with vegetarian dishes (gag me, seriously how do people live like this!!) My husband has been a good sport too. We miss our chicken, but we can handle this! ha. So last night I made some noodle contraption with egg noodles, rice, chicken broth, corn and what ever else i could throw in there. It was ok. it would've been SO much better with some meat it but we can eat a few humble meals once and a while! And, going along with the 'humble' theme, I made rice pudding haha (no offense if you disagree!!!;). That was the only thing worth posting!!

Creamy Rice Pudding

3/4 cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

(I sprinkled cinnamon on top)

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

whole wheat cookies

I only use whole wheat when I bake. Its so much better for you. And after trying this recipe i will never go back!! These turned out so good, and they are so simple. i think it was the balance of the sweet taste and the wheat. They only lasted 2 days at our house!

Whole wheat-chocolate chip cookies

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup of softened butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 egg

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

(i added about a tablespoon of honey)

1 bag of chocolate chips (recipe says semi-sweet, but i use milk chocolate:)

in large bowl stir sugars, butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. stir in flour, baking soda, and salt (dough will be stiff) stir in choc chips

on ungreased cookie sheet, rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart, bake at 375 for 8-10 mins.

YUM!

crockpot creation

so yesterday i had a ton of thawed chicken and no clue what to do! so i cut up the chicken and threw all of it in the crock, along with a can cream of chicken soup, green chillis, green enchilada sauce (i've never gone back to red after trying green:) and random spices like garlic and onion powder and whatever. it was on high for about 3 hours i was inspired by those yummy salads at costa vida- so after it was done i put it on salad and topped it with cheese, tomatoes, and avocado. it was way better than i expected, and its always a good sign when your husband gets 2nds:)

home made french fries

can i just start by saying that i had no idea how incredibly easy this is to make!! and they are soooo good- i am never buying frozen fries again. Theres never enough for my husband- he always wants more! passed the toddler test, easy. I made them the other night with BBQ chicken sandwhiches. any excuse i can think of to make them works for me though!

Baked French Fries

Ingredients
1 large baking potato (one was enough for me, my husband and my little sis in law:)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
I added a clove of minced garlic
and pepper/garlic salt


Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Cut potato into wedges. Mix olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and onion powder together. Coat potatoes with oil/spice mixture and place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 45 minutes in preheated oven.

side note...

I cut the potatoes into sticks like normal fries and then baked them for 15 minutes, turned them over, and baked for another 15 minutes (the whole time at 425 since they're thinner than wedges. don't place them on foil either;) i put all the ingedients in a baggy and let it sit for almost an hour before i baked them.

soup!

Stuffed Spud Soup
1 bunch green onions, sliced and sautee'd in
4 T. Butter
Add:
2# Frozen (cubed) Hash Browns, thawed
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
2 c. Milk
2 c. 1/2 and 1/2
1 T of Chicken Boullion

Cover and cook till potatoes are heated through 20-30 min. Then add:
1-2 c. of Cheese, grated and stirred in.

Serve with Bacon (crumbled), addt'l. green onions, more cheese and sour cream to top it. You can cook it with bacon already added if you're taking it somewhere or let people add it themselves. Of course, you can also add more milk or onions to your taste.
PS I also added some salt, pepper, and garlic salt for fun...

this recipe was given to me by a dear old friend and its so good! it even passed the toddler test:) I took it to a family Christmas party, and well, I didn't have any to bring home! thats always a good sign.

I also like that these ingredients are stuff you probably have on hand anyway.