Chicken Parm Skillet

Since having two babies to take care of, I’m loving meals that are good tasting, fresh ingredients, easy to cook and clean up. Once I saw this chicken parm skillet meal I knew I had to make it.  I have to admit at first I was super intimated to cook on my  cast iron skillet, but we are becoming better friends.  The key is to cook low and slow on it. You could use any skillet for this meal, you don’t need to have a cast iron skillet. This recipe made a ton, so we had leftovers for a few days and it was just as good!

Ingredients:

1 28 ounce can of tomatoes, either peeled or diced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

6 garlic cloves, mashed

1/4 teaspoon of oregano

1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

12 ounce of pasta, your choice

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 chicken breast, cooked and cut into small pieces

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Using a food processor, grind the tomatoes until they are ground.
3. Heat your skillet pan for a few minutes, then add the oil, garlic, oregano, red paper flakes and a few shakes of the salt shaker. Cook until fragrant, about one minute. Stir in the tomatoes , water, 1 cup of the broth and the pasta. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until pasta is soft.
4. Stir in 3/4 cup of the parmesan, a shake of the pepper, and the chicken. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of broth.  Transfer to a baking dish, or if using a cast iron skillet, you can put this right into the oven, sprinkle with the remaining cheeses, bake 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly!

Adapted from See Aimee Cook

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Chicken Chimichangas

Chicken Chimichangas are one of my favorite’s that I order from our local Mexican restaurant. They are so flavorful and I love the mixture of cheese and chicken. I came across a recipe, which I heavily adapted to fit my food allergy, and also the recipe I found was more a crock pot meal, I made it into non crock pot meal. It was a much lighter version of what you would get in a traditional mexican restaurant. It was pretty good!

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breast

4 ounces green chilies

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

4 tortilla shells

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese

8 ounces salsa verde

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Bring a medium saucepan to a boil, place in chicken breast and boil for about 10 minutes. Once done and cooked through, shred the chicken.
3. Add the cumin, onion powder, garlic, and the chiles to the shredded chicken. Mix well.
4. Add the cheese, mixing well again.
5. Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray.
6. Fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture, roll the tortilla up, tucking in the ends, and place seam side down, repeat for next three tortillas. Spray the tops and sides of the filled tortillas with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. In a small saucepan, combine the salsa verde and sour cream.  Mix well and cook over medium heat until warmed.
8. Serve the chimichanges with the salsa verde mixture over top.

Enjoy!

Adapted from The Cookaholic Wife

Read Full Post »

BBQ Chicken Pizza

We love to make our own pizza’ for football Sundays at our house! We usually do the typical pepperoni and cheese.  This time we were driving home from visiting my parents and Chris asked what we wanted to do for dinner.  He mentioned pizza. I said let’s do something different with the pizza, at first he was “like what” and I suggested a BBQ Chicken pizza at first I could tell he wasn’t a fan, but then he thought for a split second about and we ended up having a discussion over what BBQ sauce we would use.  See, my husband is super picky about his BBQ sauce, he will only use one Vidalia Onion that comes from this tiny little farm stand in South Jersey. Me, on the other hand, I don’t care for store brand,  I like speciality ones but am much more open to different types. So we decided to do half and half, half of his and half of mine.

To be completely honest with you, this was the best pizza we ever made. It wasn’t greasy at all, the crust was perfect! I would do this again and again and again! Speaking of the crust, you can use any pizza dough recipe that you may already like or buy a pre-made one. Personally we use Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix for our dough/crust. It’s super easy to make and takes about 5 minutes to rise.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough of your choice

4 to 5 chicken tenderloins cooked and BBQ’d, we used our grill pan to get some texture

BBQ sauce of your choice and the amount depends on flavor you are looking for

1 16 ounce block of mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded

Directions:

1. Prepare pizza dough according to directions. Sprinkle some olive oil over the dough. Paint some BBQ sauce over the edges of the dough which will be your crust.
2. Add cheese to dough and then top with BBQ chicken.  Squeeze extra BBQ sauce over top of the pizza, as much flavor as you would like it to have. We found a few swirls was enough.
3. Bake in the oven according to your pizza dough directions and the amount of time it also tells you do cook it for. Let it cool for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven. Slice!

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Crock Pot Thursday-Salsa Chicken Bowls

Yesterday was rainy, cold and just not a nice day, so spending extra time cuddling with Kiley on the couch, was nice as this meal was able to simmer all day in the crock pot. If you remember almost 2 years ago, I made this Salsa Chicken, you could easily follow this same recipe, or use the one I just made last night. Both are full of flavor and have just enough kick for me. Chris added some hot sauce we picked up in St. Lucia to his, but I really don’t think the dish needs any more flavor! I’ll apologize for the picture, I had to take with my I-phone because my SD card was missing, but now it’s found, I left in my computer! Duh, pregnancy brain =)

Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken Breast  Tenderloins

1 can of salsa verde

1 cup of salsa

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1/2 cup of water

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 cup of  cooked brown rice

Shredded lettuce

Chopped tomatoes

Sour Cream

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Directions:

1. In a crock pot, add chicken, salsa verde, salsa, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, 1/2 cup of water and salt & pepper. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. After chicken is done cooking, use a fork to shred it, place back in crock pot and keep it on warm.
2. Before serving, chop lettuce and tomatoes.  Place rice on the bottom of the bowl, add chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream to bowls.

Enjoy!

Adapted from the wonderful Joelen at What’s Cooking Chicago 

Read Full Post »

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Mmmm, pumpkin, one of the best things about fall. This is another great recipe, that’s pretty easy to make.  I threw it together right before starting dinner last night and it turned out awesome.  The husband must have approved because he had a piece last night and a piece for breakfast! It’s that good!

Ingredients:

1 cup of pumpkin

1 cup of sugar, plus 2 tablespoons of sugar, divided

1/2 cup of brown sugar packed firmly

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

4 egg whites

Splash of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves and salt

1/2 cup of milk

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 8 ounces package of cream cheese, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread loaf pan. Combine pumpkin, 1 cup of sugar, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk and oil in a bowl till well combined. Then add flour, spices, salt, stir till combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, remaining sugar and last egg white until combined.
3. Pour half of the pumpkin batter into the loaf pan, then top with cream cheese mixture, then top with remaining pumpkin mixture. Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Let bread cool in loaf pan and then remove.
4. Store in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Crock Pot Thursday-Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Think about a baked potato, with cheddar cheese, and bacon all melted in together and scooping out a big bite of that potato.  Now think of ALL of that together in a soup on a rainy cold day. Amazing! This was a great recipe, I will be making it again.  This recipe was so easy to throw together before heading out for our class at The Little Gym, so it would be easy for anyone who is working or not even working. Not many ingredients either which makes it easier also.

Ingredients:

1 20 ounce bag of frozen, shredded hash browns

3 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 onion, chopped

A few sprinkles around the crock pot of pepper

8 ounces of cream cheese

3 strips of bacon, cooked

Shredded cheddar cheese, for topping, so as much as you like

Directions:

1. Combine everything in crock pot, except for cream cheese. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2. About an hour and a half before you are ready to serve, cut cream cheese into small blocks and place in crock pot and cook until melted. You will have to stir this quite often so it melts. I actually turned my crock pot up to high for this process.
3. Serve soup in bowls and garnish with bacon and cheddar cheese.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Erin’s Eats.

Read Full Post »

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

My husband is from Buffalo, born, raised and bred, so when I see anything “Buffalo” in any recipe title, I usually make it no matter what it is. When I think of enchiladas though, I never thought about using a buffalo wing sauce instead of the traditional chicken mixture/sauce. I was super interested to try this and when I told my husband what I was making for dinner he automatically said “Yum.” See, it doesn’t matter what it is, but if has Buffalo in the recipe he is all about it with no further questions. Typically he ask a few questions, like what is in the recipe, how do you make it, etc.

Let me tell you, this recipe didn’t disappoint at all.  It was amazing! So juicy, flavorful, just yummy!

Ingredients:

4 tortillas

3 chicken thighs, skinned and de-boned

1 cup red enchilada sauce

1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot

1/2 cup Mexican blended cheese

3 ounces gorgonzola cheese

Directions:

1. Boil chicken thighs for about 10 minutes, till they are cooked through. Drain water, place in food processor and just pulsate for a second or two, so you have shredded pieces and not mush.
2. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.  Pre-heat oven to 375.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together hot sauce an enchilada sauce.  Add the shredded chicken and 1/2 cup of cheese in another bowl, mix until it’s incorporated well. Pour in about 1/2 cup of the sauce mixture.
4. Pour a small amount of the sauce mixture into the bottom of the baking dish. Take each tortilla fill it up with a few tablespoons of the chicken mixture, roll it up in the baking dish, making sure seam side is down. Once you have all the tortillas filled, drizzle the rest of the sauce mixture on top of them and sprinkle some of the leftover cheese on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. As soon as you take them out of the oven, add the crumbled gorgonzola cheese to the top and serve

Enjoy!

Adapated from Prevention RD.

Read Full Post »

Smothered Chicken Thighs

Recently(ok so really like 3 months ago) I saw this post on Nutmeg Nanny’s Blog.  My mouth started to water, because smothered chicken is SO delicious, but so bad for you! So when I saw that she had lightened up the recipe, I knew I had to make it. This is SO delicious.  I don’t need that 1,000 calorie smothered chicken dish anymore.

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper – sliced
8 oz mushrooms – sliced
1 large onion – cut in half and sliced
1 clove garlic – minced
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper – to taste
1/2 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat half of olive oil in a skillet and add peppers, mushrooms and onions. Saute until soft and then add garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir together and set aside.
3. Heat remaining olive oil and add chicken thighs, cook for about twenty minutes, cooked all the way through.
4. In a 8×8 pan and chicken, and top with veggie mix, top with chicken, place cheese on top of chicken and bake until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese

One word for this meal..YUM!! If I could make the text bigger I would!! So delish, so full of flavor. Who would have thought of buffalo chicken in mac and cheese, that’s homemade.  I found numerous recipes for this dish and created my own trying to be a bit healthier with what I chose to make it with. This is the orignal recipe that I based my version on. so here you go my friends. Make this TONIGHT. You won’t regret, plus you have leftovers for days!

Ingredients:

4 slices of low sodium bacon

4 chicken thighs

1/2 cup of beer, of your choice

1 pound dry whole wheat elbow macaroni

1/2 cup(1 stick) of butter plus 2 tablespoons

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 cup

1 1/2 cups of whole milk and 1 1/2 cups of regular milk, plus 2 tablespoons

3/4 teaspoon of sea salt

3/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper

3 cups grated Skim Shredded mozzarella Cheese

3 cups grated Skim White Cheddar Cheese

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 egg

A few tablespoons of olive oil

2/3 cup of Frank’s Red Hot, more or less depending on how flavorful you want the dish

1 cup panko bread crumbs

Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat bottom and sides of a 13 by 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Arrange bacon on cookie sheet with foil and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Chop up when cooled down.
3. Put the chicken and beer in a bowl and marinate the chicken for about 20 minutes, or until you are ready to dice it.
4. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add macaroni and cook to al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain the water and put back into pot until needed.
5. Melt 1/2 cup of butter in large pan over medium heat and add garlic, cook till golden.  Add 1/3 cup of flour and again cook till golden.  Add 3 cups of milk, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, make sure you stir! Add 2 cups of cheddar cheese and 2 cups of mozzarella(keep extra cheese for top layer)  stir until cheese is melted about 1 to 2 minutes.
6. Add the cheese sauce, blue cheese crumbles and bacon to the macaroni until combined, pour into baking dish and smooth surface.
7. Dice the chicken into small cubes.
8. Put the remaining 1/3 cup of flour  in a medium bowl. In another bowl, add 2 tablespoons of milk and egg, whisk till mixed. Drain beer from chicken and dip into flour to coat, then into egg mixture then back to the flour.
9. Add olive to large skillet over medium high heat. Fry chicken until golden brown and good through, about 5 minutes per side. If needed cook in batches. Add chicken and hot sauce to a bowl and toss till coated. Top the macaroni with chicken, sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Sprinkle with panko crumbs. Spray top layer with cooking spray. Bake for about 25 to 20 min.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Gooey Enchiladas

I saw this recipe in Parenting Magazine and put into my files, I’m glad I found it, because it’s just a different spin on enchiladas!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of garlic

1 can (14.5) ounces of diced tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon of coriander

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of oregano

Pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 pound ground turkey

1 can (15 ounces) of black beans, rinsed and drained

6 tortillas

1 1/4 cups of reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in pan. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer, but don’t allow garlic to brown. Add the tomatoes, coriander, cumin, oregano, and pepper; cook for a few minutes longer. The  sauce will be a bit chunky. Stir in cilantro.
2. Cook beef; drain fat and stir in beans. Warm the tortillas in the oven for about 5 minutes to make them easier to roll; remove. Spread 1/2 cup of cheese among tortillas. Fold over tortilla sides, place seam side down in the baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce on top and bake, uncovered for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle on remaining cheese and bake another 5 minutes more or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »