Black Bean Chicken Burritos (Crockpot)

This has quickly become a favorite in our family, at least for my husband and myself. The kids pick at it, but they pick at everything. I had better success giving them the beans not wrapped in a tortilla and they enjoyed it then. Even after having had this meal half a dozen times I still crave it.

Over the half dozen times I've made it I've added more beans, deciding we like that part far more than the chicken, though the chicken is a nice enough addition I won't try it without, and cutting the cream cheese in half (I originally used a whole 8oz package). This meal is easily customizeable if you prefer more or less of anything.

Ingredients:

- 2-4 cans of black beans

- 1lb of chicken (optional/variable)

- 4oz cream cheese

-1 jar salsa verde

-Whole wheat tortillas

-Burrito fixings

Directions:

I'll tell you how I do it and you can make changes as you see fit.

Rinse the beans in a colander before adding to the crockpot. I currently use four cans. Add chicken. This can be done raw, but I prefer cooking and shredding beforehand because I find it easier. Cut cream cheese into cubes and add. Add salsa verde. You do not need to use the whole jar. Use as much or as little as you wish. I generally use about half the jar, myself. Cook on low until dinner time. I generally turn it down to warm after about 4 hours.

Wrap in whole wheat tortillas with a little lettuce and some sour cream and gobble them up.

Menu for 10/29/11

I'm trying, once again, to get on the whole homemade meal for dinner every night bandwagon. There's no specific day for each meal. As a pregnant woman, I reserve the right to change my mind about what I would like to eat, so long as it's a homecooked meal. The plan is to prep what I can on Saturday... a day I can take my time and Jeff can keep the kids out of my hair (and I have Sunday to finish up what I don't get done on Saturday). Let's see how it goes. This menu is all about quick and easy.

 - Chili & cornbread (it's a new recipe, and we're adding ground beef to it)
 -  Minestrone w/ toasted bread
 - Chicken stir fry with fruit
 - Lasagna & salad and bread
 - Spaghetti and meatballs with salad & bread
 - Pork chops with roasted asparagus (yum!) and mashed potatoes (from a box)
 - Hashbrowns and corned beef and eggs with fruit
 - Roasted chicken w/ potatoes & carrots & leeks

What are you cooking this week?

White Chicken Chili

I totally stole this recipe as I always do. It was instantly a hit in our family, though a little too hot for our toddlers tender tongues (say that 10x fast). Naturally, I found it hard to get my hands on a few of the ingredients, since I always forgot one every time I went back to the store or they simply didn't have it in stock. So here's the recipe with the substitutions I used, which still turned out fabulous:

Ingredients:

1lb of chicken, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon oil

2 cans Great Northern Beans (I used regular white beans, pinto beans would work as well), 15.5 oz cans
1 can chicken broth (I used 1 1/2 cups chicken broth made from bouillon)
1-2 cans chopped green chilies (I used one small can of salsa verde)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano (didn't have any of this, so didn't use)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red cayenne pepper

1 cup sour cream (8 oz)
1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Combine chicken, onion, garlic, and oil in a large soup pan. Fry until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add beans, broth, green chilies, and all remaining seasonings. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and whipping cream.

Italian Cream Cheese Chicken

Another stolen recipe, this time the original recipe can be found here. As always, there are other tasty looking recipes there, so enjoy browsing!

This one has gotten thumbs up from my family and the others I've shared this with. It tastes yummy over egg noodles, though we've had it over rice too (my husband insisted he would never like anything with egg noodles, but after tasting it with rice he decided egg noodles would be preferable with this dish). It was good over both. My biggest problem is that I normally finish cooking dinner 3 hours before I eat it myself (due to my husband's work schedule) and I have to fight to keep from stealing bites of it before dinner time! It's great, because it's a crockpot meal that if you don't remember to get around to it until after lunchtime, it can still be ready. Or if you remember first thing in the morning and choose to do it then, it sits well for a few hours until it's time to eat.

Ingredients:

2-4 chicken breasts (my family uses 2)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of whatever sounds good to you)
6oz cream cheese, room temp and cubed
1 packet dry Italian seasoning

Preparation:

Lay chicken breasts into the crock pot. Mix cream of mushroom soup and Italian seasonings and put in crock pot with the chicken (as I use only half the chicken, we also use only half the packet of seasonings, but still use the full amounts of cream cheese and soup). Cook on low for 3 hours. Add cubed cream cheese. Cook for another hour. (The first time I made this, I added the cream cheese at the beginning and it still cooked well). Shred chicken. The original directions say to remove the chicken to shred it, but I've found that after several hours in the crock pot it usually falls apart easily with a fork without having to take it out.

Serve over egg noodles (or your pasta of choice) and enjoy!

Spicy Ragout (Ragu) (Amazazing)

So I have been obsessively watching my new favorite Food Network show Chopped. I love that show! Watching it has given me tons of new ideas along with this one which is absolutely deeelicioussss!!! The cooks on the show had to make something with English cucumbers and other random ingredients and Chef Madison (who I hope wins Champions!!) made a ragout which sounded interesting too me and looked awesome. I googled and found a recipe that I modified somewhat to what I had and have made it twice this week (so far). Trust me, its amazing. If you want to add something more you could try pan fried polenta underneath it, but I was stuffed after since its so substantial. (it looks like a lot of slicing, but it took about five min to do all the prep work, really).


Ingredients

2 green onions, sliced (or 1 med. onion)
1 carrot, sliced
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T olive oil
1 potato, diced thinly
1 celery, sliced
1 c mushrooms, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1/4 tsp pepper
hot pepper sauce or flakes to taste
dash of salt
basil
parsley


Directions

Saute green onions, carrot, garlic, and potato and olive oil in a skillet for a few minutes. Add remaining ingredients bring to simmer and cover for 20 min or so until potatoes are tender. Eat and love!

Quick and Easy Chili

This almost shouldn't be considered a recipe, because there's almost no prep work at all, but it's tasty and quick and great served with Jiffy cornbread. It takes only 10-15 minutes to prepare, depending on how long you let it simmer, and that's counting the time it takes to bake the cornbread. It's great for Hamburger Helper type nights when you don't want Hamburger Helper. My girls love it and my husband takes this to work for a filling meal.

Ingredients:

- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 small can of tomato sauce
- 1 packet of chili seasonings (found near gravy mixes)
- 2 cans of pre-cooked beans of choice (I use kidney and pinto)
- 1 can of corn
-1 can of sliced olives

Preparation:

Brown ground beef. Add tomato sauce and seasoning packet. Stir in both cans of beans, corn, and olives (all drained of course). Let simmer over low heat while covered to soften the beans and let the flavor soak in.

As for the cornbread, buy a box and read the instructions there. :-P

Jambalaya

You may notice a new recipe trend involving lots of vegetables and not so much meat...I know its kind of different from the standard a lot of us are used to, but its still super filling and ridiculously delicious. Trust me, I don't eat gross food. At least not more than once. This recipe however, may end up a staple at my house...the coconut gives it the best flavor!


Ingredients

1-2 cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
1 T olive oil
1-2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded coconut
5-6 sliced mushrooms
anything else you feel like adding (yes, this can include meat if you really want it)

Directions

Saute green pepper and celery (and any other crunchy veggies you might add) in olive oil for 2-3 minutes in a medium saucepan. Add the rest of ingredients, bring to a light boil, cover and simmer for approx. 10 min.

Serve over white or brown(!) rice and seriously enjoy. Yum!