Verde Chicken

This recipe is a part of a meal prepping post (original recipe from this website). If you're interested in meal prepping, you can find the grocery list and the full set of recipes using the link above.

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (I used chicken breast)
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Juice from 1 large lime (or 1-2 Tbsp)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (or 1 Tbsp jarred minced garlic)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro (measured prior to chopping), chopped finely
• 12 oz. green tomatillo salsa

Instructions:

• Place chicken thighs/breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker.
• Add all other ingredients on top.
• Cook on high for 4 hours (or medium for 6, low for 8).
• Break apart chicken and serve however you'd like (in tortillas, over rice, with tortilla chips).

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls

This recipe is a part of a meal prepping post (original recipe from this website). If you're interested in meal prepping, you can find the grocery list and the full set of recipes using the link above.

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless and also the skinless chicken breast
5 diced tomatoes
4 tablespoons of chili powder
2 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 cups of brown rice
1 can of black beans (drain and rinse)
1 cup of frozen corn
2 cups of chicken stock or chicken broth (add day of)

Instructions:

First, combine the chicken breast with the tomatoes, salt, cumin, and the chili powder into a gallon ziplock bag and freeze (make sure that the chicken is covered by the spices).

When ready to cook, remove from the freezer and add the frozen ingredients to crock pot with 1/2 cup of chicken stock (add additional stock if you want to). Cover with a lid and cook for three hours.

Remove the lid and add the brown rice, black beans, frozen corn, and the remainder of the chicken broth. Continue cooking for an hour. Check the rice periodically, stir it once or twice to make sure all of the rice cooked. Cook until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is gone.

Shred the chicken (or cut into chunks if you'd rather), and stir everything together. Add salt and the black pepper as needed, and serve with your favorite burrito toppings!

-->

Cilantro-Lime Fish Tacos

These fish tacos are a part of a meal prepping post (original recipe from this website). If you're interested in meal prepping, you can find the grocery list and the full set of recipes using the link above.

Ingredients:

• 6 fish fillets, frozen (Cod and Salmon are my favorite, originally I used Tilapia)
• 1 lg. can Rotel, drained
• 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 1/2 Tbsp dried cilantro or 1/4 c fresh chopped cilantro
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• salt to taste
• Soft taco shells

Instructions:

• Place frozen fillets in the bottom of the Crock Pot.
• Cook on low for 4 hours. 
• Flake the fish with a fork and mix well with the other ingredients. 
• Spoon into soft taco shells.

Chicken Fajitas

This recipe is from my meal prepping a few weeks ago (originally from this website). In a pinch, this would be a recipe I would do again. It was tasty. However, I just don't like peppers when they've been frozen or overcooked (which can easily happen in a crockpot. While the peppers were fine, I'd rather make fajitas the traditional way.

Yields: Four servings

Ingredients
1 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 small yellow onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Materials (if made as freezer meal)
1 gallon-sized plastic freezer bag

Prep
1. Label your freezer bag with the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, and “use-by” date.
2. Add all ingredients.
3. Remove as much air from the bag as possible, seal, and lay flat in your freezer for up to three months.

Cook
1. The night before cooking, move the frozen bag to your refrigerator to thaw.
2. The morning of cooking, pour contents of freezer bag into your crockpot and cook on “low” setting for 6 hours or until chicken is tender.
3. Shred chicken and serve with cooked onions and peppers.

Serve on tortillas with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

[Taco] Stuffed Bell Peppers

The other night my friend came over and we made dinner... she had ingredients in her head, but not exact measurements - but how can you mess up stuffed peppers? So, we went for it. This is our recipe, whether it was correct or not, it was rather tasty...

Serves: 4 (or 2 with leftovers)
[disclaimer :: could easily be made for one by reducing the recipe]

Ingredients:
 
2 cans of corn (drained)
1 block of cream cheese
1/2 jar of salsa

2 bags of instant spanish rice
1 can of black beans

4 green bell peppers, tops off and gutted


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the peppers upright in a pan. Mix together the first set of ingredients in another pan. Place both in the oven, stirring the mixture occasionally as cream cheese softens. (I think we stirred 3-4 times)

Cook the rice. Drain the beans. Mix the two together.

When everything is finished cooking (about 20 - 30 minutes -- let's be honest, I was more interested in our conversation than the cook time... but you can gauge it by the corn mixture - it should be warm,  easily stirred, and completely mixed), stuff your peppers. Or, you can do it in more of a deconstructed way (which we did because they're easier to eat this way).

If you want to actually stuff the peppers, I believe she said to put the corn mixture in first, then the rice mixture.

We topped with a little bit of shredded cheese.

This was delicious! I am not always a fan of green bell peppers... but this was really good. It would also be very tasty with a red pepper (and probably the other colors as well -- if I try it, I'll let you know). Great flavor, filling recipe.
















*Sometimes this happens when you try to get picture with a good angle... oops!



**Update**

I have made this recipe again, and decided to meal prep with some of it. I ended up with 9 smaller, but filling servings. I decided to freeze three of the servings, and will roast some more peppers when I thaw them.

I also mixed all of the corn and rice mixture before adding them to the peppers.

For the meal prepping, I added the peppers, first, then put the mixture on top.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

It's summertime, and I'm finally getting back on here. AND, I have the perfect summertime recipe to share with you. I used recipes from here and here combined with some thoughts and advice from a friend to get this one together. It's a fantastic summer treat!

Ingredients:
1 (11oz) can white shoepeg corn, drained & rinsed
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 (10 oz) can Rotel tomatoes (juice drained)
2 ripe avocados, diced
1/3-2/3 c. red onion, chopped
1/4 c. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp. salt
3T - 2/3 c. cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. cumin (optional)
a few dashes of tabasco (optional)
1 diced jalapeno (optional)
Diced tomato (optional)

Instructions:
Rinse and combine the beans, corn, and Rotel. Chop red onion and cilantro and add to mixture. Add all other ingredients except for the avocado, until almost ready to serve. Just before serving, cut and mix in avocado (to keep it from browning prematurely).

Refrigerate and serve cold.

Taco Seasoning

After a near melt down a few days ago (I can't eat anything!! Why am I even doing this!?), I finally decided on trying to make a taco salad for dinner. However, to make a taco salad, I had to make my own taco seasoning, which was actually a quick and *better tasting* alternative. I found my recipe from this cute blog: happily "un" processed. Honestly, I liked this seasoning better than the taco seasoning in the packets I've been using for years. Probably partially because I hadn't tasted anything so close to "normal" in a few days, and I was floundering. BUT, it also has a little more kick than packaged taco seasoning, but the same general taste.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp course sea salt
1 tsp black pepper

To make this, just put all of the ingredients together, mix well, and store it in an airtight container. I can also tell you that you would need to use 3-4 Tablespoons if you're trying to replace an entire packet. The first time I made it, I doubled the recipe, because I knew I wanted to use it for more than one thing. I had about half left over, so I would guess that the recipe as-is probably makes one pouch worth of seasoning.

Easy Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas

The other day, I made the yummy Easy Chicken Tacos. Today, using the chicken taco meat, I made....

Chicken and Cheese Quesadillas!

Simply and Oh-So-Tasty!

1) Shred some cheese.
2) In a skillet, spread shredded cheese and chicken (wasn't warm, it had been in the refrigerator) on one tortilla.
3) Top with another tortilla,  and turn the burner on (med-hi).
4) Flip the quesadilla once. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn, but does get warm and crispy.
5) Remove from the skillet, cut (I used a pizza cutter), and serve!

Those steps made it sound more complicated than it is. For the chicken part of the recipe, just click on the link at the top of the post.

Easy Chicken Tacos

The first time I ever had these chicken tacos was about a year ago (last Thanksgiving, actually), whcn my cousin made them for me. I loved them and decided that I just had to make them... it only took me a year!

This recipe was found on Pinterest (from this blog), but when I told one of my friends what I was making, she told me that she'd been making it for years and that it was wonderful! I was very excited to try it.

Here are the basics:

*6 chicken breasts
*1 packet taco seasoning
*1 jar of salsa
*Crock Pot

Seriously, that's it!

Put all together in the crock pot (I mixed the salsa and taco seasoning, but I'm not sure that you need to), and cook on high for 4-6hrs or on low for 6-8hrs.

My friend even told me that you can put the chicken in there frozen... which I did and it still worked! Here's a little photo tour of what I did:

All 3 ingredients - wowza!

Probably not the most appetizing picture, but I wanted to show that they were, in fact, very frozen when I started.

 

This is actually the next day after it was refrigerated. It looks mostly the same anyway. I'd also shredded some parts already by then.

No extra toppings, just chicken and tortilla.

I have to tell you that I've been ordering chicken tacos from Mexican restaurants for several years now, and I love them. I did not imagine that I'd be able to make them at home. These are very similar in taste, juicy, and downright fabulous.

My lovely friend also gave me some other ideas of how to use the chicken... which will be blogged very soon...