Easy Ranch Chicken

I was so happy to find this recipe because it was so simple and easy that I felt there was no way I could screw it up. It only called for 4 ingredients! So I put slices of my half onion on the bottom of the crock, then the chicken on top, and finally poured my packet of Ranch dressing over it. Then I poured water over and underneath the chicken to keep it moist. I put the lid on and left the house. When I came back 5 hours later, it looked and smelled fabulous. 

Only a few ingredients! So easy to make!

I served it with some left over rice and made a quick salad and paired that with a glad of Chardonnay and had myself a tasty lil dinner. My only criticism of this recipe is that although I loved the flavor of the chicken, it wasn't really "Ranchy" meaning, it didn't taste like ranch seasoning had been put on it, it just seemed like well seasoned chicken. And I was looking forward to a more Ranchy flavor. 

But that aside, it was still really tasty and the overall rating for this dish is: GOOD!

Chicken, long grain white rice and salad. Good dinner, I'd say!

All the ingredients in the crock!

3 Cheese Tortellini w/ Sausage Marinara Sauce

 I was VERY excited about trying this recipe because I got to use my new toy!!! My Food Chopper!! Haha I never thought I'd understand why men love their power tools but ever since I got my electric mixer and my food chopper I TOTALLY understand where dudes are coming from hahaha.

Anyways, This recipe was extremely cheap, extremely easy and extremely delicious. This photo to the right shows all of the ingredients that I need. I think the most expensive thing was the tortellini.
This was very simple, just putting the diced tomatoes, pasta sauce and seasonings in to the crock and mixing them. I cooked it in there with the browned turkey sausage+onion combo. I think it was in the crock for 5 hours on low. Then I added the tortellini and cooked it on high for 45 minutes. When I plated it, I sprinkled parmasean cheese on top and it looked, smelled and tasted ridiculously good. This was another one of those times where I actually laughed out loud because I couldn't believe that I had made something so good! haha

Healthier choices are important! 

 I cried like a baby a I cut the onion into one inch chunks but once I got them in the food chopper it was great!! Now I can't believe that I ever lived without one. So the rating for the food and the utensils used to make it is a good one. Overall this recipe was DELISH!!!

Mexican Beef and Beans

I was feeling very under the weather today and didn't want to have to cook anything at all. But, since it's Monday AND there's no school, I wanted to take advantage of my time and make more food so that I'd have all my lunches for the week. I kept searching and searching for recipes but every recipe I found kept calling for 1 or 2 ingredients that I didn't have and didn't have a substitute for. But eventually I came across this recipe and even though it called for something I didn't have, I was just like "eehhh screw it. I'm using black beans."

What you need:

6 corn (or flour) tortillas, in pieces

1 can (15 ounces) Ranch style beans or pinto beans--I used black beans bc it's all I had!

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can Rotel tomatoes (with juice)--Screw name brands, I used Winn Dixie brand tomoatoes with diced green chilies

1 lb. ground beef or turkey, browned with chili powder and garlic powder to taste, then drained

8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed or shredded

Add all ingredients to crock pot in the order given above. Cook on LOW for 3-4 hours. Serve with salad.

I'm going to serve mine over tortilla chips and salad, kind of like a snazzy way to top taco salad I guess. This could also be a dip, I think, because it's got a lot of meat in it but it's still kind of a weird consistency  It smelled...interesting while it was cooking lol. Kinda like farts(hey, just bein' honest).

It tasted really good and made a TON OF FOOD. I had it many different ways: as a dip for chips, as the topping for taco salad, as the filling for soft tacos... it was yummy any way I served it.
Rating for this dish: DELISH!

Sunday Dinner: BBQ Chicken

I'm very much enjoying my weekend right now; mainly because I keep thinking about how I don't have to go to work tomorrow!!! Thanks Pres. Washington and Pres. Lincoln!! 

$6.50 for these drumsticks!

After church today, I decided I wanted to make me a "good ol' fashioned Southern Sunday Dinner". But since I live alone I didn't wanna make TOO much, so I am making a sort of abbreviated Southern Sunday Dinner, I guess: BBQ chicken. And I'm not fryin' or grillin' it, I'm doin' it in the ol' crock. I got what I thought was a good deal on 10 drumsticks(they only cost $6.50) and figured I'd finally try this recipe. The busy crock potting mom over at Slow Cooker Adventures made this recipe with thighs but I prefer drumsticks so that's what I used.

This was also my 1st chance to try out my Butt Rub that I bought ages ago! And I got to use Stubbs Spicy BBQ Sauce and any reason to use that stuff make me all happy and excited haha.

THE GOOD STUFF!!

This meal's cookin in the crock pot as I type this(and it smells absolutely yummy) so I'll finish typing this when it's finished and give it an overall rating. I'm serving the chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and either a side salad or some corn, I can't decide yet.

5-7 chicken drumsticks
 1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce--I used STUBBS bc it's DA BOMB!
your preferred meat rub--I used Butt Rub

Pre heat oven to 400. Rub your chicken well with the rub on both sides. Put chicken in the oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway through to really seal your rub into the meat on both sides.

Just rubbed my chicken down.

put your chicken in the crock. Pour sauce all over each piece of meat(I ended up using almost all of my bottle of Stubbs).

Cook on LOW for 5-7 hours, depending on your size of meat.

This turned out very very well. The meat was moist and fell off the bone! The taste was just ok, not as strong as I prefer but I also think I put too much sauce in. Too much sauce let to too much liquid and so it got kinda watery I think. But overall it was good and I had it with mashed potatoes and salad.

OVERALL RATING FOR THIS DISH: GOOD!

Cheesy Spinach+Rice "Casserole"

So as I was perusing the interwebs, I decided i wanted to do a totally new, random recipe. So of course, I went to Supercook.com to find what I was looking for. And I found something super quick, super easy and super TASTY!! This recipe feels like redemption after my ridiculously terrible gluten free cookies.
The recipe for this "casserole" is aboutu as simple as it gets!

I made this a couple weeks ago so the recipe isn't exactly in my brain righ tnow but this is it, give or take a few ounces :)

1 package of frozen spinach cooked and drained
1 or 1-1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup 5 minute rice, uncooked(i used uncooked long grain rice--bad idea! cook it!)

Mix ingredients in casserole dish, back at 350 until cheese is melted and bubbly! 

Overall rating for this dish: DELISH!!! :)

Step 1:

my freshly cooked spinach went in the pan first.

 Step 2:

Forgot to take a pic of the rice before I put the cheddar on top! Ooop!!

 Step 3:

Mix it all up and pop it in the oven.

 Finished product:

It' colorful AND scrumptious! Super easy to make too!

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Sooo.... I learned something yesterday: I am VERY thankful that the good Lord didn't make me with a gluten allergy. Yikes! I dunno if these cookies were supposed to turn out so badly, but they were totally NOT what I was used to or expecting hahaha! But it' weird because the flavor was yummy, but the texture made me feel dead inside.

Granted, I didn't measure every single thing exactly, but it was pretty darn close. Close enough that I can say that I followed the recipe. Was it exactly the amount of peanut butter I needed? No, but it was pretty close. So I don't think these cookies woulda been good in ANY circumstance.

They're so bad, in fact, that I refuse to even spend more time writing about them.

Rating for this dish: TERRIBLE!!

Super Bowl Poll!

Ok, the big day has arrived and I'm so excited to announce that the dish I'm making for the Big Day is (drum roll please.....)

CHILI CHEESE DIP!

Now I know you may be thinking, "Wait...I thought I clearly saw that Skyline Chili Dip won the Super Bowl Poll?" And you'd be correct in that thought, but there was an unfortunate sequence of events that took place over that last week and as a result of those events, I was not able to buy ingredients for Skyline Dip. My apologies to all 3 of you who voted for it.

The unfortunate event? I was in a car accident. So I gotta pay the deductible and after insurance covers up to $20 a day for my rental I gotta pay the remaining balance for that, too. So I really really had to be tight this week and didn't go to the grocery store. I'm just using what I already have and trying to stretch it out. The only item in the poll that I had all ingredients for was the Chili Cheese Dip, so that's what I ended up doing. And, let's be fair, Skyline Dip's old news...been there, made that like 15 times. I wanna make something NEW & EXCITING! Skyline Dip' the bomb-diggity, nobody will refute that, but I couldn't go shopping so again, one last time, my apologies. Maybe next year.

So here's the info for the dip:

1 15 oz can of chili (w/ or w/o beans, it's up to you. I chose w/ beans)

1 lb of Velveeta, cut into cubes

3 simple ingredients

*optional* I lb of ground beef, cooked and drained

This is where the recipe comes from! Great gift from my uncle!

Pop the chili and the cheese in the crock pot and cook for 2-3 hours on LOW, stirring every 30 min. I chose to use beef so after the 1st 30 minutes, I lifted the lid to stir and at the same time mixed in the meat. It's been in there just over an hour now and the cheese is probably like 85% melted and last time I lifted the lid to stir it smelled yummy!! Serve with corn chips, tortilla chips, whatever! I'm using tortilla chips.

This at 1 hour in. Smelled GREAT.

I'll of course rate it once it's finished. I'm taking it to a Super Bowl party. I'm kinda nervous, but it's a pretty simple recipe so it'll probably be fine. Oh, and if you're wondering who I'm cheering for tonight, the colors of the chili cheese dip above should be a good hint. ;)

After 2 hours, it was perfectly mixed and tasted DELISH!!

My New Normal

This project has changed me in ways I wasn't expecting. For starters, it's made me more thoughtful. Yes, yes, I know, you're probably wondering "how in the heck could this over-analytic woman possibly think any more than she already does?!" But doing all this cooking and creating and trial + error has really helped me to be LESS analytic/critical in my thought process and MORE open, creative and meaningful. If that make any sense.

That Egg+Cheese sammy was GOOD!

It's also made me more proactive. For example, the other day I woke up for work and was starvin' like Marvin. Now, Old Monica would have just stopped at a fast food joint or the Walgreens next to my school and grabbed something. But New Monica didn't even try that crap. Wanna know what New MOnica did? She went into the kitchen and made herself a homemade breakfast sandwich. Yeah, you read that correctly. I made, at 7am, a scrambled egg and cheese sandwich on toasted and buttered bread. That may not seem like much to most, but that is like a HUGE milestone for me!!

I'm not a morning person. I don't like having to make anything in the morning unless it's a bowl of cereal or a container of yogurt. So for me to take time out of my hectic morning to make breakfast instead of spending money on one, really made me happy. And proud. And confident that the more I do this lil cooking project, the more things I'll learn about myself and the more I'll change--for the better.

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!!!

I made a tasty lil chicken dish my my Crock Pot over the weekend but somehow forgot to take photos. But I'll be pposting a review anyways bc it was tasty and I'd like to share!

Anywho... So this Sunday is it: the BIG DAY. The day when Americans all watch the same game and simultaneously tweet/instagram pictures of shenanigans and their favorite commercials(and let's be honest, most of us care more about the commercials than the actual game).

And this is my 1st Superbowl Sunday where I'm going to make something. I wanted to have a party but that didn't really work out but I was invited to a friend's house and so this will be my opportunity to strut my culinary stuff in front of others. I probably should be nervous but I'm kinda excited. I wanna see if I can make something that other football fans will enjoy.

I've made a poll for all of my readers to vote on(yes, all 6 of you) and pick the dish that I'm going to make for Super Sunday. So far only two people have voted and I'm one of them. The other one is my brother.

Spicy Asian Chicken Pasta

Hey, kiddos. Back after a nice long week of trying out new recipes while also being sure not to burn down my lil' apartment. So what did I make? Well, in this installment, I'll tell you about the bootleg teryaki chicken pasta i tried to make...

So, I'm absolutely in loooove with Kraft's Asian Toasted Sesame Anything dressing. I will seriously put it on just about anything. But I especially love it on chicken and long grain rice. But, since this whole project is all about trying new things, I decided to make my own version of Asian noodles(or something) using broccoli, chicken and thin spaghetti--oh, and my Asian Sesame dressing, duh.

So I made the pasta in a big ol' pot and meanwhile, let the sesame dressing, a tablespoon of Sriracha, some soy sauce and little chicken strips have a party on the stove. Well, umm....It looked and smelled delicious but all the brown everywhere made it EXTREMELY hard for my already bad eyes to determine if the chicken was cooked. Sooooo long story short, I over cooked the chicken(but didn't know it at the time). So, I drain the pasta and pour my Asian Sesame Toasted chicken concoction over it and mix it well. Or at least try to. I didn't make enough sauce(I only had like maybe 1/3 cup in the bottle left) and it never occurred to my newbie cooking mind to only cook HALF a pound of pasta instead of the whole friggin box! So, of course this occurs to me as I'm trying to mix the sauce with the pasta and half of it isn't getting coated and all of the chicken and broccoli has fallen to the bottom of the pot.

Anywho, since making this I've decided that my scoring scale for my creations will be as such(in order from best to worst rating):

DELISH!

GOOD!

OK.

TERRIBLE!

I feel like it's a big jump from OK to TERRIBLE, but I don't forsee myself making anything that's truly mediocre...I just see surprising succeses or epic fails, so I figured keeping the scoring system to 4 simple grades instead of like 9 was for the best.

Anywho, even though there was wayyyy too much pasta in the pot and the chicken was so overcooked I wasn't sure I could eat it, the actual flavor of the sauce was really really good and I'll (maybe) try this again and correct my mistakes.

OVERALL SCORE FOR THIS DISH: OK.

Did you say "Country-Fried Steak"? I thought you said "Country-Fried DISASTER"!

I wasn't even sure if I was gonna post about this seriously lame fail of a recipe. But, i gotta have 100% transparency on here so that means you'll see the good, the bad and the TERRIBLE. This one goes down in the history books as just horrific.

Where to begin? Should I start with the smoke detector going off and making the dog and I run in circles like crazy zombies? Or maybe the perfectly good steaks that I burned so bad that the meat began to morph shapes and kinda looked like a cup made out of meat? Hmmm...

I'll start at the beginning I guess. Had 5 skillet steaks, wanted to do something new with them and there was a recipe for "country fried steak" on the packaging. I had all of the ingredients in my pantry and fridge so I was like "Yeeeehaw!!! Let's do this country thang!"

So it started off easy enough. Dipped each steak in the egg, then put it in the bread crumbs. It was just like doing fried chicken, which I used to make in my little deep fryer back when I thought having a deep fryer was a healthy life choice. Anyways, so I get 'em all dipped and battered and my skillet's got hot oil in it.

I drop the 1st two steaks in and let them cook for a couple minutes as per my directions. Well, apparently my heat was too high so I burned one side and kinda under cooked the other. And I had too much oil in the skillet. So the next two, i turned the head down a smidgen and put less oil in. Well this was just as bad because they weren't really cooking at all and they were just dry and crumbly since there wasn't hardly and friggin oil in the skillet. So I rectify the situation, only to burn the shizz outta these steaks too!. They actually curled up and looked like upside down bowls made of meat. I was alone in my apartment and still felt utterly embarrassed!

So I had one steak left and I tried one more time to get this thing right. Well it actually got nice and brown on the 1st side and I turned it and I managed not to burn that side either! "YES!!! VICTORY IS MIN--" I was cut off my the blaring of my smoke detector. I swung around in fright and found that, while I'd been entranced in my steak-ruining process, my entire apartment was gray and hazy with smoke!!! So I freaked out and started running in circles. Yes, just running in circles, waving a dish cloth around in the air. Like a lunatic. At this point the dog is also running in circles, barking like a rabid maniac. I finally get some common sense and open the patio door, turn on the ceiling fan and wave my cloth in front of the detector to get it to shut up.

Then I turned back around to see that all my steaks were sitting in little puddles of what looked like blood. "Oh yeah....I forgot that I should make sure they're cooked through...."

The recipe called for cooking some diced tomatoes in the skillet and topping each steak with some and sprinkling Parmesan on top so I did that. 5 minutes later I sit down to a plate of country friend nightmare meat, garden veggie rice and garlic bread. I cut into my steak and see the most uneven cooked piece of meat I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. In places it was well done; others, medium; in most places, medium-rare. I ate it anyway(hell, i bought the meat I wasn't gonna waste it!). It was terrible. Just terrible. And 25 minutes later I ran to the bathroom. I'll spare you the details.

Needless to say, I won't ever try to country fry ANYTHING for a long, long, LONG time.
OVERALL RATING FOR THIS RECIPE: TERRIBLE!

Baked Ziti

Finally! my 1st crock pot recipe! I've been looking forward to this and am excited. I got this recipe from a GREAT blog that's dedicated to all things crock pot. Check it out, it's fabulous.

So, if you click the link you'll see the recipe there and I did exactly what the recipe called for except, I used diced tomatoes and I think the ounces for my pasta sauce may have been a little different(<10 oz difference).
I have notice that cooking and baking has become a GREAT stress release for me and so when I came home from work today in an absolutely horrid, wretched, poopy mood, all I wanted to do was distract myself with a recipe. And I'd been wanting to make this one for a couple weeks so I just decided to do it.

Got all the goodies layered in there

I lined my crock pot with a crock pot liner so there will be easy clean up. I also did this recipe on HI so it only has to be in the pot for 2 hours. As I type this it's been in there for an hour and 7 minutes. This was so incredibly easy to make, I will undoubtedly add this to my list of "mommy training" recipes. Yes, you read that right. I have a list of activities, recipes, songs, crafts, etc. that I've picked up over the years from being a nanny, a pre school teacher, a camp counselor/youth minister, a teacher and a volunteer. And they're all things I want/hope to do with my kids someday (Lord willing). And this recipe is totally something that I think would be so quick and easy to do.

Cooked this baby on HI for 2 hrs

Anywho, enough about me and my nonexistant, unborn kids, this recipe smelled great when I was mixing all the ingredients and in a little bit I'll be able to taste it and take some pics of the final product. See you in an hour or so...
Ok so I checked it at exactly 2 hrs and it was pretty darn awesome in the middle but the pasta on the edges was NOT cooked all the way! :( But the cheese was all melted and delicious and the taste was very good. I put the lid back on and have it cookin on low for 30 minutes to see if that'll help.

Finished product!

OVERALL RATING FOR THIS RECIPE: GOOD!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars

Ok, this recipe is a prime example of my impatience and the insanity of the fat girl who lives inside of me. I saw this recipe a week ago(yes, in the same cookbook my mommy gave me in college) and saw that it had chocolate chip cookies and cream cheese and only 5 ingredients and I was like "uh, I want those now. No, scratch that, I want them yesterday."

So I made this plan to make them for Super Bowl Sunday because I'm hoping to be able to host my 1st ever Super Bowl party which I will of course blog about if it comes to pass. Anywho, I was like yeah yeah, Super Bowl Shluper Blowl, I want those suckers NOW!(in the deep, husky voice of the fat chick inside me) so I bought the ingredients when I went shopping and told myself "I'm just being prepared and prudent and making sure I have all my ingredients like a good little girl so I'm not running around on Super Sunday."

Now, we're all adults here. We can all smell bull from a mile away and we all know that deep down I bought that stuff so I could make these suckers ASAP! And I made them today right after I made the quiche because they baked at the same temperature so I didn't have to turn the oven on multiple times or change the temp I just made the quiche and bout halfway through its baking I prepped and made the bars and when the quiche was done I took it out and slipped the 8x8 baking pan in(a brand new purex pan that I just bought, love it) and got them both done in one sitting.

1 tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar (I use Truvia Baking Sweetener for reduced calories!)
1 egg

Cut cookie dough in half. For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 9 in. square baking pan OR a 7x11 in. pan.(I used my square 8x8)
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust. Crumble remaining dough over top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 mintues or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. cool on a wire rack or in pan until no longer warm to the touch(I kinda screwed up and didn't have a wire rack so just let them cool in the pan and then cut them to remove them and they were crumbly!! So if you don't have a rack, let em cool til they're easy to touch and take out and put them on a plate or foil or ANYTHING that's cool bc sitting in that hot pan kinda jacks with their firmness). regrigerate leftovers.

Fresh outta the oven and cooling!! They smelled divine.

 The first piece I cut right before I ate it. True story: it was soo good I started laughing. Just uncontrollable laughing! I couldn't believe I made something that actually tasted good! Hahaha the dog was like "uhhh what the....?"

 And here's a side view so you can see how it's layered with cookie-cream-cookie. Sorry for poor photo quality, took all pics on my phone.

OVERALL RATING FOR RECIPE: DELISH!

Crab Quiche

Ok, so I wanted to start my cooking adventure with a dish I love. I've never made quiche ever in my life but I've eaten plenty and my mouth and my tummy will tell you that I love me some quiche. Doesn't matter if its for breakfast, lunch or dinner, I love it. So I found this recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me years ago (junior year of college I think) and there was this easy, quick recipe for crab quiche and it only had 5 ingredients! I was sold.
So I made it today with my own lil spin on it 'cause I'm creative and innovative like that(or I couldn't find shredded swiss cheese at Winn Dixie.... I mean whatever. You say missing an ingredient, I say culinary prowess). It turned out GORGEOUS. It was cooked all the way through, smelled pretty good. When I cut it into slices enough of it collected on the knife and so naturally I tasted it and YEEAAAAAHH BABY! It was good. That pepper jack cheese gave it a *kick* of flavor and I'm glad I subbed the swiss because I'm not even a swiss fan anyway. It' smelly and holey, who wants that?
Pictures and recipe  are below. Enjoy.

3 eggs, beaten
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
1 (6 oz) can crabmeat, rinsed
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese (I used shredded pepper jack bc I like a lil' kick!)
1 pie shell

In a bowl, combine eggs and sour cream. Blend in crabmeat and cheese; add a little garlic salt and pepper.
pour into a 9 inch(or whatever you have lol) pie shell
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. (I baked it for 40 just to be sure it was done)

 Sorry no pics of it sliced! I'm having it for breakfast tomorrow morning so I cut it and then popped it in the fridge! So excited. Gonna have it with fruit and a hot cup of green tea. mmmm! **update: using a graham crust was lazy and stupid and kinda ruined it. Use a dough crust!**

OVERALL RATING FOR RECIPE: GOOD.