Chicken Burritos in the Crockpot

YUM! I love these easy burritos and so does my whole family. This is a super great meal for when I wake up and realize I didn't thaw the meat the night before, whoops! I am really good at that. We started making these about a year ago, I combined a recipe I found online called Salsa Chicken and a friends Burrito recipe. I haven't tried this with any meat other than chicken, but the chicken is fab. It makes enough to feed our family with leftovers.

3 large chicken breasts
1 packet taco seasoning ( or homemade, whatever you prefer)
1 jar salsa
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can refried beans
Mexican shredded cheese blend
large burrito shells

Put chicken in your crockpot (frozen or thawed) and sprinkle with taco seasoning, pour in salsa and cream of mushroom soup. Let cook on low 6-8 hours .

Remove chicken and shred it with fork. Now here you can go one of two ways, I will tell you the way I usually do it first. I spoon a little of the sauce from the crockpot into the bottom of a casserole dish. Next take your burrito shell and spoon some of the refried beans into it, top with chicken, Mexican cheese, and more of your salsa mixture. Roll up your burrito and place seam down and repeat with remaining burrito's you can make these as full as you like. It will just change the amount you make. Lastly spoon the rest of the salsa mixture over the top of your burritos and sprinkle with cheese.

The other way to do this would be to add the chicken back into your salsa mixture and spoon it into your burritos at the same time. And then top it with your salsa/ chicken mixture. The reason I don't usually do it this way is because I like to pour the salsa mixture alone on top, but you could also just reserve some for later too. Just do whatever floats your boat.

Bake covered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until completely heated through.

Top with sour cream, or more salsa and enjoy!

Happy Eating!

Pork chops

These pork chops were gobbled up by my family. They are simple to make and very yummy. We ate them with Kraft homestyle mac and cheese and corn.

I found the recipe on allrecipes and tweaked it a little for our family

Pork chops:

1 - 1 1/2 C. crushed butter cracker
1/2- 1 tsp garlic powder (depending on taste, I use 1 tsp)
black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
4 pork chops
3 T. butter

Combine crackers, garlic powder, and black pepper in a medium size bowl. Beat eggs in a small bowl. Dip pork chops in egg and then coat with garlic powder mixture. Place pork chops in a baking dish and place pats of butter on and around pork chops.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, covered, turning after 20 minutes. Then cook another 5 minutes on broil, uncovered.

Chicken Nachos

Last Thursday while at Costco they had a sample recipe, we tried it, we liked it and I was debating going with my traditional 7 layer bean dip or going with something new. The something new won!

So our menu for tonight includes Lil' Smokies I posted this recipe for last years Super Bowl, Tyson BBQ wings, and quesadilla anytizers (only because I got a smoking deal), veggie tray, and chicken nachos only it will be more like a dip.

Chicken Nachos:
1 large can chicken
1 can refried beans
1 C. salsa
tortilla chips
mexican cheese, shredded

Preheat skillet, drain chicken and empty into skillet. Add refried beans, and salsa, mix together in skillet stirring constantly, until mixture is warmed through.

Serve with chips and cheese.

I am also serving with chopped roma tomato, sliced olives and green onions since I already had them on hand for my 7 layer dip.

Hope everyone has a fun Appetizer Super Bowl Sunday.

Happy Eating!

Apple Cranberry French Toast

Okay this will be my last meal from $5 dinners for awhile, promise, but oh my goodness this one is a keeper. I would not change a thing. This is a GREAT breakfast for dinner meal. The whole family enjoyed this, I will admit my oldest was not a huge fan, but she doesn't like french toast, which is a whole other story in itself. Our dinner conversation went something like do you like toast? yes. apples? yes. craisins? yes. sugar? yes. butter? yes. eggs? kind of. So why do you not like french toast? I don't know. So yes I am at a loss, but I will continue to feed it to her at least once a month anyways. So now back to the recipe.

AWESOME. You. Must. Try. It. Now.

Apple Cranberry French Toast:

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 French Loaf, cut into 1 inch slices
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Favorite fruit: bananas, cantaloupe, berries or Fruit Salad
6-8 slices bacon

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in melted butter or margarine. Stir in chopped apples and dried cranberries until evenly coated. Pour into prepared pan.

2.Arrange french loaf slices in an even layer over apples.

3.In same bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Pour over bread, making sure every slice is fully soaked. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate over night.

3. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Remove dish from refrigerator while the over is heating. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

4. Prepare your favorite fruit or turkey bacon.

I did try another french toast casserole that rocked but was really sweet for Christmas morning. I will post that recipe sometime in the near future.

Happy Eating!

Bacon Florentine Pasta:

Another recipe I got from $5 Dinners. I tweaked it a little, I honestly did not love it, but I will try it again doing things a little differently. I will post how I made it tonight and what I plan to do differently next time.

Florentine Pasta with Bacon (her recipe was for chicken and bacon I just doubled the bacon):

1 lb. pasta noodles, I used farfalle
8 slices turkey bacon, chopped
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 box frozen spinach
basil, oregano, thyme, I used about 1/2 t. each
1/2 c. sour cream thinned with milk.

1. boil pasta.
2. while pasta is boiling prepare bacon and spinach
3. Drain pasta and combine all other ingredients.

Voila, enjoy.

Now for what I would do next time. I'd either make this with 2 c. diced chicken and 4 slices REAL bacon (we usually eat turkey bacon, but I felt this needed more umph) or just 8 slices of bacon. I would double the tomatoes and lastly forgo the thinned sour cream. I think the sour cream calmed the flavors, I would probably toss it in olive oil instead as she suggests. Next time I make it I will post how I like the changes.

Mexican Mess Up (AKA taco salad)

My husband is not a lover of homemade taco's or taco salads but had no complaints about this salad. I got this recipe from $5 dollar dinners and halved it to the following. It fed my family of 3 1/2 with leftovers for my hubby to take to work and for me for lunch the next day. I grew up eating taco salads pretty much just like this minus the pinto beans and tomato sauce so I thought I'd give it a try. I liked the added tomato sauce.

Taco Salads.

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
taco seasoning
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
shredded lettuce
shredded cheese
tortilla chips
assorted toppings, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, salsa, ranch, etc.

1. Brown your beef and onion and taco seasoning.
2. Add drained pinto beans and tomato sauce and let simmer about 15 minutes.
3. Spoon meat mixture over chips, top with shredded lettuce and cheese and any other toppings you so desire.

Do to our menu switch up...

I did not post our menu and things have been slightly kooky with our menu .

So here is our menu plan for the week

On Tuesday 2/1: we had a super simple stir fry to simple for a recipe. Cooked chicken on the stove and let simmer in sweet and sour sauce. Cooked a bag of frozen stir fry veggies and combines with sauce and chicken and served over brown rice. Simple, easy and yummy too.

Wednesday 2/2: we had Taco Salads recipe in next post.
Thursday 2/3: Bacon Florentine Pasta (recipe to post on Friday, with the changes I will make next time).
Friday 2/4: Apple Cranberry French Toast
Saturday 2/5: out
Sunday 2/6: Super Bowl Sunday! Appetizer night! Lil' Smokies, Tyson wings (great deal with coupons), Tyson Anytizers quessidilla's (again great deal with coupons; I would normally make these), Veggie tray with dip, seven layer bean dip and chips or chicken nachos I haven't decided yet. I also have not decided on a dessert. I have linked to the Lil' Smokies recipe and the others will follow on Saturday.
Monday 2/7: Pork Chops, mac and cheese and veggies (recipe to follow)
Tuesday 2/8: Chicken Burritos
Wednesday 2/9: Marinated pork roast, mashed potatoes and green beans.

Okay. Happy Eating and I'll post all recipes the night before if they are not already linked.