Chicken Divan

A big hit!  I thought i'd try something new on the family last night, and even invited the Pops over, because it makes a whole lot.  My husband had 3 servings, and my Dad 2!  My kids gobbled it up and even my toddler cleaned up his tray.  Yay!  I love finding easy dinners like this for my family.

Chicken Divan
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 c. half and half
1/2 cooking sherry or water, (I used water)
2 regular cans cream of chicken soup
1-1 lb package of frozen cut or chopped broccoli-thawed
2 c. cooked rice
2-3 c. cubed cooked chicken
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan, melt butter.  Add flour, and stir until blended in.  About 1 minute to make sure the flour taste is cooked out.  Stir in cream and sherry or water.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir 2 more minutes.  Add soup and stir until smooth.  Remove from heat.  (I cooked my chicken while I did this.)

Place broccoli in an ungreased 13x9 baking dish.  Cover with rice and then half the sauce.  Top with chicken.  Stir shredded cheese into remaining sauce, and pour it over the chicken.

Bake it uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until heated through and bubbly.

A. MA. ZING.  :o)  Hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did.  Happy Thursday!

Love, Erica*

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I'm glad the is still cool enough to get away with doing a soup every now and then.  Soup is my all time favorite.  It's so easy to throw together and the results are almost always DELISH!  We added this one to our favorite soup list.  It had great flavor and was the perfect meal to end the day with. 

Chicken Tortilla Soup
1 medium onion
1 Tbsp Taco seasoning
1-12 oz. beer or 12 oz. chicken broth (I used the broth.  Curious as to what the beer does to it.  If you use it, let me know.)
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans
1 can diced tomatoes with chili peppers
1-8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 can chicken broth
1 can mexican corn
1 lb chicken

(The cans are all standard sized cans.)

Garnish-
Tortilla chips
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream

Put all your ingredients in the crockpot, and stir to combine.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  Pour into bowls and top with crumbled tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream.  Enjoy!

Source-Melissa W.

It's a rainy day here today.  I hope it stays like this all day.  I love dark rainy days!  Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Love, Erica*

Crockpot Balsamic Chicken

I love the crockpot!  Nothing more easy than throwing everything in there and forgetting about it until dinner time.  I love the way it makes your entire house smell yummy too.  I tried this new recipe and it was good.  We gobbled it right up.

Balsamic Chicken

4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

2-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each: dried oregano,basil, and rosemary (Give or take.  I don't like a lot of spices, so I didn't add as much.)
1/2 tsp thyme
ground black pepper and salt to taste

Pour the olive oil on bottom of crock pot.  Place in chicken breasts, salt and pepper each breast.  Top with sliced onions then dried herbs, and garlic.  Pour in vinegar and top with tomatoes.  Cook on high for 4 hours, and serve over your favorite noodles. 

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken

Yum!  This recipe is killer!  My family and I LOVE it.  I try not to make it so much, so they don't get sick of it, but I could seriously eat it all the time. I love that it has everything in it and so easy to throw together.  Nothing like throwing everything into your crockpot and forgetting about it until it's about time to eat.

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
2 cans cheddar cheese soup
8 oz sour cream
1 small can of mushrooms
1 small bag of broccoli
6-8 oz of cooked noodles (I like egg noodles)

Place your chicken in the crockpot and season them. In a seperate bowl mix together soups and mushrooms until well combined.  Pour over chicken.  Cook on low 6 hours or so.  When it's about done add the sour cream and broccoli.  Cook until broccoli is heated through.  Throw in your cooked noodles and stir to combine and then enjoy!

Seriously SO YUMMY!

Adapted from Allrecipes

Have a fun and safe weekend! 

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

Another great recipe in my collection of family favorite crockpot dinners.  We love this chicken.  It's so moist and perfect.  This is my kind of meal, especially this week.  My 3 year old is finally interested in potty training, my baby cut his first tooth, and my 11 year old is crazy busy with school and soccer.  It's been pretty eventful around here.  So the easier the dinner, the better. 

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts (I had the little tenders, so I threw in 12.  I also used frozen, but fresh works great too!)

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

1/4 c. white vinegar

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. garlic powder

In a meduim bowl mix together, bbq sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, and garlic powder.  Stir until combined.  Place your chicken in the crockpot and pour the sauce over the top of it.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Stir maybe once in the middle of cooking time.

Source-Stick a Fork in it 

Hope you all had a fantastic week.  Have a fun and safe weekend.  See you Monday!!

Paprika Chicken

I'm trying to make more chicken dishes and this is a new one that I really enjoyed.  My family enjoyed it too, so that's a double bonus.  You can throw it on top of rice, or noodles.  We went with noodles and it was delish!  Except next time I am gonna double the sauce mix.  We like lots of sauce on our noodles.  So, if you are like me, double it. 

Paprika Chicken

4 large skinless, boneless Chicken Breasts

1/4 c. chopped onion

2 Tbsp butter

1 c. chicken broth

1 tsp paprika

8 oz sour cream

2 Tbsp flour

Soften up your onions in the butter in a large frying pan.  When your onions are translucent add your chicken, broth, and paprika, cover and cook until chicken is cooked through.  Stir together sour cream and flour and add to your chicken mix and stir it in until it's good and thick.  Let it cook until heated through and pour it on top of noodles or rice.  Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!  And are you having trouble commenting?  Blogger has been acting silly lately, and I know that's why we haven't been getting very many comments....right?  :o)  Well, if so, then when it asks you to sign into blogger make sure that the stay signed in box isn't checked.  It worked for me.  I wasn't able to comment on anyones posts, and it was driving me batty!  See you next week! 

Source-Dash of Simple

Lemon Butter Chicken

I wanted to try something different for dinner with chicken, and I found this recipe and it looked easy enough to throw together.  My family loved it, as did I.  It's not the healthiest, but it was oh so good with some garlic parmesan noodles and green beans.  You can also do this in the crock pot too.  I would have tried it that way, but I'm not very ambitious in the morning.  Am I the only one that stays in my jammies until...ok...all day?!  Hurry and vacuum and do the dishes before the husband gets home, so he thinks I actually did something during the day.  Ha!...Hey!  I don't do it every day!!  Being a stay at home mom is hard work!  Try this recipe.  It's easy and tasty.  And you won't be sorry.

Can you see the butter?!  Mmmm...Gotta love it!

Lemon Butter Chicken

1 cube butter

1 package of Good Season Italian Seasoning

2 lbs chicken tenders, or breasts

The juice of 2 lemons

Melt the butter in a big frying pan.  Add your chicken and then sprinkle the seasoning over the top and the juice of the lemons.  Cover and let cook on medium heat until tender.  I took the lid off, and let the juice simmer down so I could get a yummy crispy crust on my chicken.

For the crockpot, put melted butter in the bottom of the crockpot and add chicken.  Sprinkle with seasoning and juice.  Put on lid and cook on high 4-5 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

Enjoy!!

And we had to pick a new winner, because our first one never contacted us.  So...the winner of the Shutterfly photo book is Stephanie Smiley!!  Congrats!!  Make sure to e-mail Monica at cholita41 at yahoo dot com to claim your prize. 

See you tomorrow!

Source-The Queen Bees Hive 

Chicken Enchiladas

I'm doing a lot of my family favorites this week.  I think it's me preparing for having this baby and I probably won't be doing these for awhile, until I get back in the groove of things.  Years ago, when I thought about making chicken enchiladas, I thought they sounded WAY too hard to make.  I think they could be, but these are so EASY!  I got this recipe from my Dear MIL.  She is the best cook.  I always make a pan of flour and a pan of corn.  And make sure to have all the fixings!  YUMMY!

Chicken Enchiladas
4-6 large chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken
2-19 oz. cans of Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce (You can use your favorite, but this one is perfect, I think.)
1 small can of green chilies
3 big spoonfuls of sour cream
cheddar cheese, shredded
Corn or flour tortillas, or both

I like to boil my chicken breasts.  It's faster and they shred so easily afterwards.  I salt and pepper it before putting it into the tortillas.  While chicken is boiling, in a large bowl, mix together cream of chicken, enchilada sauce, green chilies, and sourcream.  Stir until well combined.  Spoon some sauce in the bottom of 13x9 pan, just so it's coated.  Shred chicken and season to taste.  Add some chicken to center of tortilla, and then some cheese, and roll up lining them up nicely in your pan.  When you get them in there good and tight top with remaining sauce, and cover with foil.  Bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes or until good and bubbly.  Remove foil and top with shredded cheese and leave in oven until it's good and melty.  Top with your favorite toppings.

Like I said before, when I make these I usually do 1-13x9 pan of flour and 1-8x8 pan of corn.  There is usually plenty of sauce to do both.  Do them how you want, my family doesn't like them stuffed full of chicken, but if yours do then throw a few more breasts in to cook.  Good stuff!

Simply Done Chicken Legs

I usually hate cooking chicken with the bone in.  It scares me.  I either dry it out or undercook it, but this recipe is a no fail.  Seriously...the easiest EVER!  And they taste amazing.  I could have eaten the whole pan the first time I tried them.  I love chicken legs, and kids do too!  So it's a win win.

Here's what you need-
14 chicken legs (Family pack)
Enough Olive Oil to coat those chicken legs generously
Salt and Pepper
Garlic Powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Put your thawed out chicken legs in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil making sure every leg is coated real good with the stuff.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder mixing the legs around making sure everything is coated with the seasonings.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Make sure to turn them a bit during cooking time so they are crispy on all sides.

I served mine with chicken rice and some fresh steamed asparagus.  Was so tasty and a huge hit in my house.  ENJOY! 

Source

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I used to hate sweet and sour chicken. And I still can't order it.  I guess I tried it once, and it was disgusting and never wanted to try it again.  My husband, on the other hand, LOVES IT!  So, I thought after 6 years of marriage that I would try making it for him.  And I tried it and really really liked it.  We have it quite a bit, because now it's my daughters favorite dish too.  The first time I made it I didn't double the sauce and it was a little dry, so I recommend doubling the sauce.  It's a pretty easy recipe and a little messy.  Jason helps me with the messy part.  Nothing more romantic than your honey helping you in the kitchen.  Anyway...give it a try and let me know how you like it, or if you have a favorite sweet and sour recipe.  I think my next adventure will be chicken chow mein or egg rolls.  :o)

Here's the Ingredients-

3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Salt And Pepper

1 cup Cornstarch

2 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten

¼ cups Canola Oil

FOR THE SAUCE:

¾ cups Sugar

4 Tablespoons Ketchup

½ cups Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

Cut chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg.  Fry in a little oil until browned on all sides but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish.

Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken.

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees F. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced, about 6 to 8 minutes.

 

Also we would like everyone's input on our blog.  How are we doing?  Is there something you want more of?  Less of?  Anything annoy you?  Please let us know.  We would love to hear your opinions.  Thanks!  :o)

Chicken Taco Pasta

We love this recipe!  But it's says taco, so of course we do.  :o)  It has a lot of ingredients, but it's so tasty and very easy to put together.  I got this recipe from my good friend, Krishel.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can of black beans rinsed and drained
1 can corn drained
1 can diced chilie's
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 c. salsa
4 oz. cream cheese
1 packet of hidden valley ranch dressing mix
1 can olives, sliced
6 oz. of cooked penne pasta
shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Cook pasta til done.  While pasta is cooking simmer everything else in a large pan until well combined.  Add pasta when it's done and bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  Add the cheese when it's done or if you like it melted put it on a few minutes before it is done in the oven.  Scrumdiddly!

Chicken Fettucini Alfredo

Being pregnant has it's perks, but it's not so great when what you are craving is out of town.  I live in a small town and that night I was craving Olive Garden's Seafood Fettucini.  I was craving it so bad I was almost in tears.  Am I the only one that has ever felt this way?  It was weird.  I was driving my husband crazy!  He offered to drive me out of town, but I felt guilty to just go for THAT!  So I said no, and searched the web for Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce recipe.  And HEAVENS TO BETSY, I FOUND IT!  :o)  Now, they say it's not the exact because what they get at the restaurant is in a vacuum sealed bag, but I think it tasted pretty darn close and Jason really liked it.  It was pretty easy too. 

 I'm really sorry about the picture.  I'm not that great of a photographer yet.  

It really was delicious...and yes...that is one helping...MY HELPING!  ;o)

Ingredients:

1 pint heavy cream
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese - (to 3/4)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
(I never said this dish was healthy!)

Cooking Directions:
In a saucepan combine butter, heavy cream, and cream cheese. Simmer this until all is melted, and mixed well. Add the Parmesan cheese and Garlic powder. Simmer this for 15 to 20 minutes on low, stirring frequently.  You may wish to season with a little salt and pepper.

I used 3 chicken breasts cubed them up and put them in a pan with some butter and seasoned with some garlic salt with parsley, and pepper.

I cooked up a whole 16 oz. package of fettucini, which I thought was too much so you can eyeball it.  I had enough left over to make me and the kids some fried noodles for lunch the next day.  YUM!

When the sauce was done I threw in the cooked chicken and stirred it in good.  Put my noodles on a plate and topped it with the sauce.  Serve with some garlic bread and some fresh steamed asparagus.

It was an awesome meal and I am so happy to have fixed my craving for awhile.