Crockpot Meals: Salsa Chicken and Chicken Curry

I wanted to share a few new favorite recipes with you guys. I have now fixed this 1st dish twice and both times it has been so yummy. The second one I have fixed many times and we LOVE it! The best part about them is that they are so easy to prepare and they cook in the crock pot! (*I buy the slow cooker bags for my crockpot and there is SO much less of a mess to clean up afterwards!)

Salsa Chicken

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup (I used the cream of chicken)

1 cup salsa (I bought the "homemade" store brand)

1 package taco seasoning

1 cup sour cream

cilantro, for serving (optional) (I also added a little shredded cheddar-jack, black beans and scallion on top)

Rice

Put chicken, soup, and salsa in slow cooker. Sprinkle taco seasoning over everything. Cook on low for 6 hours. If shredding the chicken, pull the breasts out and shred; return back to slow cooker. Stir in sour cream and heat just until everything is combined. I served mine over brown rice and then we put some black beans on top!

Slow Simmered Curried Chicken

1.5 cups chopped onions

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup medium salsa (I bought the "homemade" store brand)

2 tsp grated ginger

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp red pepper flakes

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp curry powder

¾ tsp salt

Hot cooked rice

Place onions and bell pepper in slow cooker. Top with chicken. Combine salsa, ginger, garlic powder and pepper flakes in small bowl; spoon over chicken. Cover; cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours or until chicken is tender. Combine cilantro, sugar, curry powder and salt in small bowl; stir into slow cooker. Cover; cook on HIGH 15 minutes or until hot. Serve with rice.

I hope you and your families enjoy these recipes as much as we do!

Marshmallow Popcorn

I made a batch of marshmallow popcorn tonight, a recipe I found courtesy of Pinterest and OH. MY. WORD. If you love marshmallows as much as I do, you will love this recipe. It makes ALOT too! Here is the recipe:

Marshmallow popcorn

3 bags popcorn (pop and take out extra kernels)

2 sticks of butter

16 oz bag of marshmallows

1 cup brown sugar

Microwave butter, marshmallows, and brown sugar for 2 1/2 min. Take out and stir really well, making sure you mix around the brown sugar and butter. Microwave again for 1 min. Repeat until thin sauce. When done pour over popcorn and mix with a spatula. I poured mine onto some parchment paper on the countertop and flattened into a single row. This stuff is sticky and so a spatula works best for flattening it out. Next break up into chunks or bite size pieces, whichever you prefer!

This stuff is so good and is in NO WAY healthy! This will be a good go to recipe for parties and quick treats for gifts! Hope you all have had a fabulous Monday!

Dinner Tonight

I am trying a new recipe tonight that yes, I found on Pinterest! I love that Pinterest gives me new recipes and great new projects to try. Since Pudge has been out of town and got in late last night, we are having a low key night at home together. I am making for BBQ Chicken Pizza from this website for dinner tonight and it looks so yummy. I hand shredded all the cheese for the pizza too, since you cannot buy plain Monterey Jack cheese already shredded. Check it out and give it a try!

Way Behind

So folks, yes it has been 2 months since I have blogged. I am a MAJOR slacker. I will not even try to recap the holidays or new year, but just to say that they were fabulous and it was so great to be with family! Jeff and I had a lot of great time together and were able to relax over the holidays. We also celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on the 30th of December! I am so grateful for God's grace in my life to give me such a Godly man to lead me. He truly is one of a kind and I am thankful that he leads me to the things of God, as well as pursues the things of God himself.

As most of you know, my sister was married in November and she is now living across the street from me. What a blessing it has been to have her so close! We decided to have a birthday party for my mom last night, as her birthday is coming up this week! We divided up the cooking for the party and it was a success! It was so awesome to be able to share in the cooking responsibilities and also fun that we didn't have to go far! We had a yummy chicken recipe that my aunt recommended. You can find it here. My sister made some FABULOUS mashed potatoes. That girl knows how to do some taters! We also had The Lady's Green beans. Yes, the Lady, aka Paula Deen. This was not my first time making these and it will not be my last. They are the BEST green beans you have ever put in your mouth! The KEY to the recipe is frying the bacon and sautéing the onions in the bacon grease! Sounds really healthy, right? So here is the recipe:

Lady's Green Beans

8 slices bacon (I actually use bacon bits)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/2 c. vinegar

2 (16 oz.) cans French style green beans (I've also used kitchen sliced)

Fry bacon, reserving drippings. In drippings, saute onions and add sugar and vinegar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Drain beans and mix with liquid mixture. Place in 2 quart casserole. Crumble bacon and sprinkle on top of casserole. Cover and bake at 275 for 1.5 hours.

Just wanted to share a recipe with you all today and hopefully this will be the beginning of my entrance back into the blogging world!

Change, Recipe, and Fun

I know my life lately has all been about CHANGE. I am becoming adapted in my new job with Four Corners Ministries, starting a new year in BSF with new responsibilities, and desiring to follow all that Christ has for me, which means dying to myself and desiring change for my life to be more like Him. While change is a good thing, it is also are hard thing! Change is not "normal" for humans, as we are creatures of habit and it is often painful and hard. One thing I am learning is that all of the changes in my life are making me depend on God more. I certainly do not do it perfectly, as I still try many times in my own power to do things. But God is gently reminding me that when I depend and trust in Him for wisdom, power, and strength in all of my new roles and changes, He will give me what I need. I am thankful for the changes in my life and am welcoming them, as I hope they will themselves CHANGE me to be more like HIM!

Now, I wanted to share a quick recipe......

I got this recipe about a week and a half ago and I have now made them twice! You must try them, they are addicting!

Rolo Cookies

1 pkg. Rolo's

1 box Devils Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 c. oil

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Lastly, this is what I am getting ready for this weekend and I couldn't be more excited or happy to be honoring my sister! I am excited to get to spend time with family this weekend honoring my sister's life and celebrating her upcoming marriage!

Hope you all have a great week!

Cooking with "My Main Squeeze" Round 2

So last night we decided that tonight would be round 2 for Cooking with "My Main Squeeze." When we were discussing what we would like to cook, Pudge suggested a "vegetarian" meal. WHAT?!?!? Prior to our marriage, the only vegetable my husband ate was "little green peas," aka English peas. As the years have gone by and the size of his waistline has gone down, he has grown from LIKING "little green peas" to just about LOVING any vegetable! This makes me SOO happy! I am a vegetable girl! But, the boy still loves him some meat and taters! Anyways, after I picked my jaw up off the floor after the vegetarian night comment, I got to looking through recipes to find the perfect recipes for us. We decided to forgo the dessert for tonight in an effort to watch our waistline.

So here was the menu for the evening:

Summer Fruit Salad

Fresh Corn Salad

Summer Chopped Salad with Garbanzo Beans

(You can print all the recipes here!)

This meal required LOTS of chopping!

Chopping away on those tomatoes!

I see you!

The salads had a vinegarette on them, so yummy!

There he is, "my main squeeze!"

I couldn't find any basil in the grocery store, so I called my sweet friends Chris and Julie. They have a beautiful garden and they were so kind to give us some basil, as well as some bell peppers, cucumbers, mint, and chocolate mint! Mmmm it all smells so yummy! Thanks Chris and Julie!

I love this girl! She was my first discipleship leader in high school and she and Chris did our marriage counseling! Julie you encourage me so much in my walk with Christ and I am so grateful that the Lord put you in my life!

Pudge cutting up a pineapple!

Cutting up that fresh basil!

Summer Chopped Salad with Garbanzo Beans

Fresh Corn Salad

Summer Fruit Salad

Plates full and oh so colorful.....

All gone!

So round 2 was excellent and I'm so glad Pudge made the choice to do a "vegetarian" night. Our favorite salad was the corn salad! Until next month.....

Pound Cake

I hope everyone is having a great week! I know school ends this week for alot of people and one of those includes my favorite teacher and sister, Mrs. Blackman.....soon to be Mrs. Kittrell! I cannot wait to spend LOTS of time this summer together and help her plan her wedding! I want to leave you with a yummy recipe today for a pound cake. I've made LOTS of different kinds of pound cakes, but this one wins hands down everytime. It can me served plain, with fruit on top, with ice cream, with cool whip, with HOMEMADE whip cream (yummy), or with all of the above! Hope you enjoy!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

3 sticks butter

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

3 cups Swan’s down cake flour

1 cup of sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat 1 minute after each egg. Add 1/3 of flour then ½ of sour cream. Beat well. Add 1/3 flour and beat. Add ½ sour cream and 1/3 of flour. Add vanilla and beat well. Bake 300 degrees for 2 hours.

Print this recipe here.

Feta Chicken

I hope everyone is enjoying this GREAT spring weather, I know I am! I wanted to share one of mine and Pudge's favorite dinner recipes with yall. So here goes.

Feta Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 pounds)

Lemon juice

Salt and Pepper

Crumbled feta cheese

Red pepper, diced

Squeeze enough lemon juice in the bottom of a 9x13 to fill it. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper to your liking and arrange the breasts in your 9x13 dish. Sprinkle each breasts with feta cheese with as much as you like (this is the good part, the more the better!). Drizzle more lemon juice on top of the chicken. Bake on 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. Once out of the oven, top with diced red pepper on each breast.

Printable Feta Chicken Recipe

We are having this for dinner tonight and I can't wait!

What A Porker

So, tonight I tried a new pork recipe and it was so yummy I had to share it with all 6 of you who read my blog! I have a tried and true pork tenderloin recipe that I make often, but the one I did tonight was so different from the norm and was so good. So here goes:

Quick Pork Medallions with Mustard Cream Sauce

2 (1pound) pork tenderloins (trimmed and cut into 1 inch slices)

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of pepper

1/4 cup butter, divided

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1/2 cup white cooking wine

1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage (I bought this on the spice row, it was McCormick)

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon coarse-grained mustard (I used horseradish mustard)

1. Cut up your 2 pork tenderloins into 1/4 inch thick slices. Sprinkle evenly on both sides with salt and pepper (I didn't measure the salt and pepper out, I just seasoned them to my liking).

2. In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter (I used Smart Balance) over medium-high heat. Add pork, in batches if necessary, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until browned (I cooked mine until most of the redness was gone from the middle). Remove from skillet, and keep warm (put in microwave).

3. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in skillet. Add shallot, and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Slowly add wine and sage, and cook, stirring to loosen browned bits from bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon, until wine is reduced by half. Add cream, and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes or until sauce is thickened. Stir in mustard. Next, add the pork back into the sauce and then serve immediately. Scoop up as much of the sauce onto your plate as you can, this stuff is good!!!!

Pudge and I both agree this entree would go extremely well with homemade mashed taters, but since we are coming off of a weekend with lots of food, we decided to forgo the taters. We will have to try that another night! Instead we had sauteed broccolini. This was our first time trying broccolini and I have to say we will be buying it again very soon! To us, it tasted like a mix between asparagus and broccoli. I cooked it just like I do broccoli - olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on low-medium heat. Sorry there are no pictures to go along with the post, we were hungry! I hope everyone is off to the start of a great week and new year! Enjoy!