Cheesy Chicken Chili

Cheesy Chicken Chili

This meal makes enough for a small country.  Adam and I had two big bowls and I am freezing the rest.  Freezer “take-out” is my kind of take-out. Total hands-on time for this dish was less than 10 minutes.  The hardest part was not slicing my finger on the top of the cans.  I failed at that.  If you fail at that, beware of the lime juice later.  Ouchie.

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

  • 3 whole chicken breasts, frozen or fresh
  • 3 (15 oz) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 (15 oz) cans whole corn, undrained
  • 2 (10 oz) cans Rotel, undrained
  • 2 (1 oz) packets Ranch dressing mix
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese or Neufchâtel
  • 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Garnish:

  • Tortilla Chips
  • Limes
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Lime
  • Hot Sauce (If you’re feeling really saucy)

Instructions:

  1. Place the chicken in the bottom of a large crock pot. Add the beans, corn, Rotel, Ranch dressing mix, onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, cumin. Stir together.
  2. Add the cream cheese on top and put the lid on.
  3. Turn the crockpot to low and cook for 6-8 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through. (Or do it on high, about 4-6 hours.)
  4. Remove the chicken and shred with 2 forks – it may be tender enough to mix all the ingredients and shred the chicken in one motion!
  5. Use a spoon to stir in the shredded chicken and the cream cheese (which should be melted).
  6. Turn off the heat and stir in the chopped cilantro.
  7. Serve with tortilla chips, lime juice, avocado, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese. You can also serve this as a dip with tortilla chips.

*Inspired by Recipes Cookbook

Roasted Salmon and Yogurt Herb Sauce

Salmon with Yogurt Herb Sauce

I told you… I’m going to get mercury poisoning.  But, salmon was on sale and I got a huge piece that I broke up.  One thing Adam will never complain about is back-to-back salmon nights.  If back-to-back steak nights aren’t available.

Which… living in this landing spot townhouse, while we build, we don’t have a grill.  I MISS STEAK.  Warning… I’m going to have a whole week of steak posts as soon as we move into our house.

And yes… I realize I haven’t shared that yet.  We’re building a house!!  Is that not the most grown-up thing you’ve ever heard?  I mean, I had no idea there were so many colors of grout, versions of the color grey, beige, white.  We should be in by October – so until then, I won’t be grilling… since I have no grill.   I pretty much live in third world country.

Salmon and Yogurt Herb Sauce V2

Roasted Salmon with Herbed Yogurt
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Seafood
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Inspired By Martha Stewart
Ingredients
  • ½ cup Greek yogurt (2%)
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill, plus sprigs for serving
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 4 filets of salmon
  • Lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine yogurt, mustard, dill, and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Place salmon, skin side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Spread yogurt mixture on salmon.
  2. Roast until opaque throughout, 15 to 20 minutes (8 minutes for fillets). Sprinkle with dill sprigs and serve warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.
Notes
I roasted some asparagus as I was cooking the salmon (just with olive oil, fresh ground pepper and kosher salt), and some quartered new potatoes (with olive oil, Costco’s no salt seasoning, and kosher salt)

 

Caprese Salmon with Burrata

Caprese Salmon V2

So hopefully summer is in full effect wherever you are.  During the summer months, I often feel like I’m going to give Jeremy Piven a run for his money in the mercury poisoning department.  I just CAN’T STOP with the seafood for dinner on these hot nights.  And when you add the light and bright ingredients of tomato, basil and burrata it’s game over.

This dish is really just a way for me to make another version of my favorite salad, but it’s like a great article of clothing.  If you love it, buy it in every color.  Kind of like I did with Express’s editor pants in college.  Literally… every. single. color.

Capress Salmon

Caprese Salmon with Burrata
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Seafood
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Salmon filets
  • 1 cup of quinoa, cooked
  • ¼ pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 15 leaves of fresh basil
  • 2-4 balls of burrata (depending on the size)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Season salmon with salt and pepper
  2. Place salmon in an oiled jelly roll pan in a cold oven, turn oven to 400 degrees and cook for 20 minutes
  3. Once salmon is done cooking, place on a plate with basil, quinoa, tomato.
  4. Drizzle with oil oil, kosher salt and lots of fresh ground pepper
Notes
I like to grease pan with coconut oil to get a crispy skin on my salmon.

 

Asian Meatballs with Quinoa and Bok Choy

Asian Meatballs

When I was in high school, I LOVED General Tso’s chicken so much.  During one summer of lifeguarding, I ate it almost daily.  I thought since it was chicken, it was healthy.  Well, let’s just say that by the end of the summer that swimsuit was a hell of a lot tighter than it was on Memorial Day.  ”If you can’t tone it, tan it,” was in full effect.  Since then, thank goodness I learned the error of my ways, but that does not make my love for take-out Chinese any less strong.  So, I’m constantly on the search for fake-out take-out that’s not going to put me in a moo-moo by summer’s end.

Asian Meatballs V2

I found these Seasame-Soy meatballs on Cooking Light, and then I twisted them up a bit and added some new sides that were delish.

Sesame-Soy Meatballs
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Asian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Fake-out Take-Out
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup minced green onions
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 6 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1 pound ground sirloin or ground turkey
  • Cooking spray
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Add beef; mix gently to combine. With moist hands, shape beef mixture into 20 (1½-inch) meatballs.
  3. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs to pan; cook 4 minutes, turning to brown meatballs on all sides. Arrange browned meatballs in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining meatballs.
  4. Bake meatballs at 400° for 7 minutes or until done.
Notes
Saute some bok choy in Trader’s Joe’s Soyaki sauce and chili paste until tender crisp (drizzle sauté sauce on meatballs and quinoa). Cook quinoa according to package directions – I recommend using chicken broth instead of water.

 

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

Buffalo Chicken Enchilada

I’m pretty sure if you add “buffalo” to anything, my mouth is going to start watering like a lunatic.  Since I’ve been an incredible slacker when it comes to sharing recipes and life here… so much for resolutions… I thought I’d come back strong with these little bitties.  This dish is ready in 45 mins start to finish and you get to get your hands a little dirty.  Remember, you can adjust the ratios for the sauce according to your love for buffalo sauce. Which, if we’re going to continue to be friends… should be strong.

Buff Chicken 2

 

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-5
 
Ingredients
  • 9 tortillas
  • 1 grocery store roasted chicken, shredded
  • 1 cup red enchilada sauce
  • ⅓ cup buffalo wing sauce
  • 1 cup 2% Mexican blend cheese, shredded
  • 3 oz gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • ½ cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Pour enchilada sauce in a bowl and begin by whisking in ½ cup buffalo wing sauce. Set aside.
  3. Add shredded chicken to a bowl with ½ cup shredded cheese. Pour in about a ½ cup of enchilada/buffalo sauce mixture and mix thoroughly. Stir until mixture comes together.
  4. Pour a drizzle of enchilada/buffalo sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Take each tortilla and fill it with a few heaping tablespoons of the chicken mixture. Roll each up and set it in the baking dish, seam side down. Pour another ½ cup or more of enchilada/buffalo sauce on top of tortillas and add remaining shredded cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
  5. Immediately after taking enchiladas out of the oven, add crumbled gorgonzola on top. Garnish with the green onions and cilantro and serve.

 

Big News and “14 In 14″

Austin-TX

Happy New Year!  I hope your new year is off to a great start.  I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch for so long, but I’ve been working on something big that’s been taking up allllll my time.  Drumroll….

I got a new job and Adam and I are in the process of packing up our lives and moving to Austin, Tx!  I could not be more excited for this new chapter, but I must say leaving my old company, with which I’ve worked for over eight years has been very bittersweet. So… we have a couple more days here in San Diego, surrounded by boxes and I thought I’d take the opportunity to put together my list of 14 in 14… 14 things I want to do in 2014.  I think rather than making one big resolution, I’ll try to accomplish 14 things – some big, some small – but all list worthy.  So…

  1. Start a new job
  2. Move to Austin, TX
  3. Blog at least 3x a week (I mean, c’mon.)
  4. Talk to my mom on the phone every other day
  5. Plan a BIG international travel trip
  6. Get Gidget groomed more regularly (gurl be lookin’ ridic sometimes…)
  7. Go skydiving
  8. Begin the home buying process
  9. Make a new best friend at work
  10. Go FULL Paleo for one month
  11. Go to a food blogger/healthy living conference
  12. Go hiking/Barton Springs-ing with Adam
  13. SECRET (I gotta have a couple of these)
  14. SECRET (for reallllll)

I have a bunch of yummy recipes to share that I’ll post on my road trip out to Austin in a couple days.  Send good thoughts and please share any spots I should look  at stopping on my way out from San Diego to Austin!

Christmas in November?

Holiday Inspiration Guide

So, I’m insane and this weekend I spent the better part of Sunday decorating the house for… (wait for it)… Christmas. Yep.  I just love how festive and cozy the house feels with all the little lights, the tree, the candles… the smells.  I go back to the East Coast for work and family so early in December that I feel like I deserve the extra couple weeks on the front end, since I’m going to miss out at the end of December. Naw’ Mean? Continue reading “Christmas in November?”

Design by Designer Blogs | Powered by Hybrid and WordPress.