Mexi Pockets

I went to costco a couple weeks ago, and bought a package of crescent rolls. It came with 4 packs of em... Well, there are 3 of us that eat real food, and really... only Big and I eat any significant amount as of late. So I was thinking i needed to figure out what the heck to make to use these puppies up. And then it came to me.... Make little hot pocket type things! So we did :) I just did my filling for quesadillas, plop some in the middle, wrapped and baked. They were DELISH. and both my boys ate an ENTIRE "pocket"! I say success if i can get Middle to eat it!  Bon A petite!

What you need:

1 can chicken

1/2 can black beans

1/2 can corn

1/2 jar salsa- i use the 15 ouncers so you'll need roughly 8 ounces

1/2 can ro-tel- i used the lime juice and cilantro, and think it made a HUGE difference!

1/2 package of taco seasoning

2 packages of crescent rolls

What to do:

Put your chicken in about half its juices into a large skillet. add taco seasoning. Heat until chicken is warmed through, and well seasoned. Add salsa, and all canned ingredients. Mix

Roll out your crescents into 8 rectangles- they come in triangles, so do 2 triangles per rectangle- 

spoon some mix into the center, 

sprinkle with cheese, 

fold edges over. 

Bake at 375 until golden brown. i think it was about 12-15 minutes. serve with sour cream and spanish rice.

Turkey Loaf

Okay, so about a year ago, we moved to California. Actually... we moved to the middle of nowhere, IN California. We have no choices for where we buy meat. Its either you take what you can get from the commissary, or you drive 30 minutes south to the whole foods. We just didn't think it was worth it to make the drive very often and as a result, cut out essentially ALL red meat from our diet. Not hard for me since i've never been a huge cow eater...anyways, my boys have always loved my meatloaf and meatballs, but without red meat i had to find a different meat... So, we tried it with ground turkey. DELISH. I actually LOVE this, and thats huge because... well the thought of just eating a bunch of ground of meat has always grossed me out... this is the same way i make meatballs, i just make em into balls and cook em instead of the loaf pan... and you can absolutely use hamburger if you'd prefer, but the turkey is leaner, and in my opinion, tastier!

What you need:

1.5 ground turkey
1 can tomato sauce
italian seasoning- i think i use roughly 5 TBSP... i guess, sorry!
1 roll ritz crackers- smashed
2 pieces bread
2 eggs
bread crumbs-this isn't essential, but i always have em so i add em every time, just about 1/3 of a cup
shredded cheese

What to do:

Put your turkey into a bowl

Add your eggs

I usually add sauce next, but my middle was helping me this time and he started adding other things.... SO, tear your bread up into little pieces and add to the meat.

And now your bread crumbs.

crackers

tomato sauce

MIX!

now add your italian seasoning and mix some more

Then a couple good handfuls of cheese and one last mix!

spread into your loaf pan

Sprinkle with cheese

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Please ignore my overly fancy plate :) i have a baby attached, so i fed the boys first:)

White Sauce Pasta Bake

Well, having a third baby and a deployed hubby makes it a bit hard to cook, much less blog about it! I did manage to make up a new recipe tonight that was SUPER easy, and pretty darn tasty. Please bear with me as I adjust to being a single mama to three boys under 5, I promise some day I'll keep up with this thing.... :)


What you need:

1 can chicken
1/3 box of noodles- i use elbow, but whatever you want works
1 16 oz jar white pasta sauce- i used Alfredo, because its what i had
2 tsp garlic
1 TBSP italian seasoning
1/2 C milk
1 roll ritz crackers


What to do:

Boil your noodles. In the mean time, heat chicken- with about half the liquid- seasoning it with 1/2 TBSP italian seasoning and 1 tsp garlic.

Mix seasoned chicken and white sauce in bowl.

Add noodles and mix.

Add 1/2 C milk and mix.

In ziplock bag, dump ritz crackers, 1/2 TBSP italian seasoning and 1 tsp garlic. Smash crackers until in crumbs.

Put pasta mix into small casserole dish. 

Top with Ritz mix.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

and ENJOY!

Slow Cooker Sgetti with Chicken!

So a friend of mine told me she was making this one day, and being pregnant, I HAD to have it.  I'll post the recipe how she gave it to me, and then at the bottom I'll put the organic tweeks for my fellow greeners :) It was absolutely DELISH, and my boys LOVED it. I served mine up with a caesar salad and some homemade garlic bread sticks. MMMMMM good thing there are leftovers!

*no pictures, its so easy, that I really couldn't figure out when to take em! Next time i make it and dish it i'll take a picture of the plated version tho.

What you need:
1 Jar your favorite sgetti sauce- without meat
1 pkg McCormicks slow cooker Italian and Herb Chicken
1 lb chicken
1 pkg sgetti noodles- or whatever kinda noodles you want, we did whole wheat penne since thats Eli's preference

What to do:

Put your sgetti sauce and your seasoning packet into the crock pot. Stir. Add chicken. Cover and let simmer until chicken is cooked through. I did chicken strips, and they cook faster, mine were done in about 3.5-4 hours i think, if you do chicken boobs it will take longer tho, about 5 hours is my best guess (per my girlfriends advise). Cook your noodles as directed on package. Drain, Rinse, Plate. Then add your sauce and chicken, sprinkle with parm cheese and DEVOUR. and you will devour it. it is THAT good.

ORGANIC subs
~I buy an organic sgetti sauce, but if you'd like you can make your own.
~Instead of doing the seasoning packet, you can just add your own spices, basil, parsely, oregano, italian seasoning, whatever you like. Add about 5-7 TBSP TOTAL and call it good.

Chicken Quesadilla and Easy Spanish Rice

What you need:
For the quesadillas~
1 can chicken, UNdrained
1/2 can black beans, drained
1/2 can corn, drained
1/4 jar salsa
taco seasoning- i make my own, but if you buy, use just half a package
soft taco shells
grated cheese
sour cream- for garnish
For the Rice~
1 Cup white rice
2 Cups chicken broth
3/4 jar salsa
3 cloves garlic, minced

What to do:
Quesadillas~

Empty your chicken into large skillet

Add taco seasoning cook through until warm and well seasoned

Add black beans

 corn 

and salsa

Mix, Heat all of it until warm. remove from heat.

Butter one side of 2 taco shells, place one butter side down in large pan. 

Fill with chicken mixture

sprinkle with cheese

place other taco shell on top, butter side up.

 Cook on side one about 5 minutes, or until browned, flip and cook an additional 5 minutes until brown. 

Plate, cut and garnish with sour cream.

For the Rice~
add chicken broth and garlic to medium size sauce pan. add rice and salsa. Mix and bring to boil. Once its at a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cook about 20 minutes or until your water is absorbed, and your rice is cooked through.
I garnished with cheese and sour cream. DELISH!

Pork Chop Bliss

So, I think I have made chops about 4 times my entire life. I've never been able to get them to stay juicy. I've tried a few different recipes, and just never had any success. Well, I decided to try again, simply because I am sick of chicken all the time. I googled up to see what sounded good for chops, and found one i thought was worthy of trying, and then tweeked it. This is what we came up with... Not many pics this time, it was THAT easy that I didn't take step by step pics....

What you need:
for the chops:
1/4 C lemon juice
2 TBSP veggie oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp pepper
4 boneless pork chops
for the sauce:
1 C half and half
1/4 C butter
1 1/4 C parmesan cheese
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 TBSP lemon juice

What to do:

In a gallon size ziplock bag, combine lemon juice, veggie oil, garlic, salt, italian seasoning, and pepper. Then add your pork chops. Zip the bag closed and marinate a MINIMUM of 2 hours. You can marinate as long as over night if you want to. I did mine for 3 hours. Every half hour i'd go to the fridge, flip them and kind of massage them to get the marinade good and worked in.

Once your done marinating, you can either do them on the grill over medium high heat, or broil them. I broiled them because my grill extraordinaire is out to sea. I did them on the third row rack, and did about 10 minutes on side one, flipped em and then did about 8 minutes on side two. Mine were still slightly pink in the middle, but the juice ran clear, so i knew they were done. AND OH SO JUICY!!

While they cook, make your sauce. Add your half and half, and butter to a small sauce pan, melt butter. Add garlic, and lemon juice and whisk. add your cheese and whisk again. Mine always ends up a little lumpy, because of the amount of cheese thats in it, but its delicious anyways. I use this on noodles too. Its kind of my go to white sauce. Pour some over your pork and enjoy!

Southwest Chicken

With Jamie being gone, I tend to cook less complex dishes for me and the boys. This is one that I have made several times and am impressed with every time. I forgot about it till my mama sent me a cook book that she made with "Montgomery's Southwest Chicken" in it. So happy she did. It was a BIG hit tonight!

What you need:

4 chicken breasts- i use tenders, they cook in about half the time
1 C salsa
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pkg cream cheese, cut into squares.

What to do: Are you ready for this? Its pretty complicated.....

Thaw chicken.

Dump black beans into the crock pot.

Dump corn in

Add your cup of salsa

Add your taco seasoning

Now add in your cream cheese squares

Mix it up

Add your chicken

I gently cover my chicken with the sauce, and cover.

Cook on low for 4 hours ( if your using breasts, the tenders cook in about 2, I let mine go for about 3.5 today)

Serve it up! We like our served over white rice, and topped with cheese and sour cream.