Crock Pot Fajitas

You guys.  You guys!  Did you know that you can make fajitas in your crockpot?

I'm serious here.  This is life changing for me.  David and I love fajitas, but I always kind of dread cooking them because of ALL THE DISHES.

Thanks to pinterest, we had fajitas and the only prep dish was the crock pot.  AND I cut up all the ingredients the night before so all I had to do was turn it on.

A-MAZ-ZING.

Slow Cooker Fajitas

3-4 chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
2-3 large bell peppers (any color), cut into strips
1 large onion, thinly sliced,
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
Juice from 2-3 limes
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt (more if broth is unsalted)
Tortillas, cheese, salsa, guacamole, etc.

Directions
1. Put chicken in crockpot.  In mixing bowl, combine peppers, onion, garlic and oil.  Place on top of chicken.
2. Stir together broth, lime juice, spices, and pour on top.  Cover and cook 4-6 hours on LOW or 2-3 hours on HIGH.
3. Eat!

In other news, the stink bug has started moving things around.  Check out what I found when I looked for a cutting board.

Yep, puzzle piece.

Spicy Chicken Spinach Bake

On Monday, I made a meal that David and I have loved for a few years.  I haven't made it for a while (I know at least since before Mac was born).  This is fast, healthy (I think the original recipe came from Weight Watchers), and so so good.

Try it!  We love it so much that I didn't manage to take a picture before it was all gone.  Seriously--the 13X9 pan was gone by Tuesday (minus a lunch portion that's packaged for work).

Spicy Chicken Spinach Bake

8 oz uncooked penne

2 tsp butter

½ cup chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 ½ cups milk

6 oz fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1 ¼ cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast

1 ½ cups salsa (I call it good with 1 small jar)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

While pasta cooks, melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic; sauté 4 minutes or until tender.  Add flour to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Cook 11 minutes or until thick.   

Add spinach, stirring until spinach wilts.  Remove from heat; add ¼ cup cheese, salt, and pepper.

Stir in chicken, salsa, and ¾ cup cheese.  Carefully fold in pasta.  Spoon mixture in 13X9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle evenly with remaining ¼ cup cheese.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until bubbly.

Yield: 8 servings, 1 cup each.

I like to use mushrooms in addition or in place of the spinach.  Add mushrooms  about 3 minutes after you add the milk.

Baby Pancakes

 I mentioned yesterday that Mac is a good eater.  One of his MOST FAVORITE things in the world are the baby pancakes I make for him.  I love them because they're easy, freeze well, and aren't messy at all to take with us--unlike bananas or yogurt.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Momtastic.


 1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cups uncooked baby barley cereal
1/2 cups uncooked baby oatmeal cereal
1 cup breast milk or formula (yep, breast milk--so many uses!)
 1/2 cup mashed banana (or fruit of your choice)
1 Tbsp melted margarine or butter
3 egg yolks
Apple juice
Cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla to taste

Mix ingredients together and add enough juice to make a pancake like consistency.

Cook in pan as you would a "regular" pancake.
 

They're soft for baby gums and pull apart easily when out and about.  Plus, I can throw whatever fruit I have on hand in--I'm thinking the next batch might feature blueberries, since they're typically a hit!

I made bread!

Again!

Can I just tell you that I love baking bread?  It feels like such an accomplishment...not because it's hard, but because a lot of people are afraid to try it.  Basically, I feel like a badass in comparison to other people.  Not a stand alone badass, but at least it's something.

Anyway... while David was watching basketball, I found a new favorite blog.  I love this girl!  She's cheap!  She bakes bread!  She's just like me... except she's got 4 kids and she home schools them.  Totally not like me.

But still.  You can read how she made this AWESOME French bread here  but I'm going to share the recipe on this post because it makes me feel special.

Btw, I totally just copied and pasted hers, so it's really not that special.  Pictures are mine, though!

Easy French Bread
makes 1 loaf

2 1/2-2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pkg(2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water(120 degrees F)

In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine 2 cups flour with the salt, sugar, and yeast. Add water and beat for 3 minutes.  Beat in enough additional flour to make a soft but kneadable dough.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with tea towel, and let rise 45 minutes(an hour if your house is cold).

Punch dough down and roll into a long rectangular shape. Starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll style.

Place seam-side down on a greased baking sheet, cover with a wet tea towel, and let rise 30-45 minutes, or until doubled(it’ll depend on the warmth of your house).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk one egg white with one tablespoon of water until slightly foamy. Using a pastry brush, gently brush beaten egg white onto loaves. Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 diagonal slashes on top of the loaf.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until nicely browned. Cool on a wire rack.

YUM!

Buffalo Chicken Chili!

After I made this meal, David gave me a big ol' smooch-a-roo on the lips and proclaimed it his favorite meal of all time.  He then did the dishes without prompting and made the bed.

You better believe this is going into our regular meal rotation.  I hate doing dishes!

Plus, it's super-dooper easy.

(When I took a picture of this, David informed me that it's weird to photograph my food.
Not weird!  How else will it go on the blog??)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

1 lb chicken breasts

2 stalks diced celery

1 large red pepper, diced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 Tbs ground cumin

1/2 Tbs paprika

1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce

15 oz can tomato sauce

15 oz can diced tomatoes

15 oz can black beans

15 oz can chili beans in sauce

Add ingredients to slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours (or until chicken is no longer raw).

Shred chicken with 2 forks.

Top with sour cream or, if you're David, a whole lot of Tabasco sauce.

Darcie's Speedy Focaccia

On Friday, David and I had some friends over for dinner.  I was a cooking fool (and David was a cleaning fool in my wake), making baked shrimp with tomatoes and feta, focaccia bread, and mocha chocolate cake with mocha cream cheese frosting.

Man alive, that food was good.  And I didn't take any pictures.  Boo!

However, due to the rave reviews on the bread, I promised to share the recipe.  I am also sharing because I like to post blogs feel special.  

Thank you for making me feel special.

Alright, moving on.....

Darcie's Speedy Focaccia!

1.5 cups warm water

3 tablespoons olive oil (plus more for drizzling)

1.25 teaspoons salt

3.5 cups flour

1 tablespoon instant yeast

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped (I use dried...just a little less...)

0.5 teaspoon garlic salt or kosher salt

Lightly grease 9X13 pan and drizzle with small amount of olive oil.  Combine all ingredients except the rosemary and garlic/kosher salt.  Beat at high speed for 1 minute.  Scoop into pan, smoosh down, cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour at room temperature. Poke dough all over with finger and drizzle lightly with olive oil.   Sprinkle with rosemary and garlic/kosher salt.

Bake at 375 for 35049, until golden brown.  Remove, let stand 5 minutes and then turn onto cooling rack.

For the dinner party, I multiplied everything by 1.5 and used the same size pan.  This gave some height to the bread.

Yum yum yum!  I love carbs!

Cheeseburger Soup

I've been on a healthy eating kick lately, and have been trying really hard to make that food still yummy.

Somewhere online, I found a recipe for Cheeseburger Soup. I forget where, but calculated that a cup (roughly) has 135 calories and 6.5 g of fat.



Hot dang, let's make this soup!



Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup carrots--chopped/shredded
1 cup sweet onion--chopped
1 cup broccoli--roughly chopped
4 cups potatoes--cubed
1 T parsley flakes
1 T dried basil (for some reason, I used dill. I tasted just as good)
3 chicken broth
1 lb 2% Velveeta--cubed
1/4 c light sour cream (I used fat free yogurt...because it was in the fridge)

In a large pot, boil potatoes, broth, parsley, and basil until potatoes are cooked through.
While the potatoes boil, cook beef, carrots, onion & broccoli in skillet. Sean beef as desired. Drain when cooked.
Add meat and veggies to pot. Set heat at medium and add Velveeta. Allow to melt.
Remove from heat and add sour cream.
Yum!

I think bad pictures of me are more fun than the attractive pictures.

Therefore, I present a photo of me that's THISCLOSE to being frame-worthy.

Except for me. I ruined it. Man.... Kelly and Laura look darling too.

Oh well.

Yeah, I appear to have ruined all of the pictures in that series. Oh well.

All these are taken at Jive and Wail. The middle school had a happy hour where we got all you can eat appetizers and all you can drink beer for a couple hours.

So let's just say this girl had fun :)

That picture looks far worse than it should...I think I was just trying to show the pictures I had already taken and accidentally hit the flash.

Right?

Right.

The rest of my weekend was good. I decided to make some Pie Pops from bakerella.com over the weekend. That woman is a goddess and I, apparently, do not have the skills to make that work. Seriously...click on this http://www.bakerella.com/easy-as-pie/ and look at how great hers look.

Now here is my journey.

Step one: made grandma's never fail pie crust.

It didn't fail!

Step 2: Used a wine glass to cut out circles (because I have no circle cutter thing).

Step three: lay out all pretty and poke sticks on.

Step four: Put some filling in and pinch shut.

Here is where the breakdown happened... filly mooshed out of the little pies and was hard to wipe up. She talked about how she wanted more filling so I figured that was a price I needed to pay.

Step five (not pictured because...I forgot): bake

Step six: Eat! Except where the fruit stuff burnt a little, I think these taste great. They look...um, very not expert. But, heck. I am not an expert. This is not going to be a business.

Man, I wish someone would pay me to do a half-assed job of cooking. Heaven!

I also made MIL Debra's beer bread recipe. OMG. That is good stuff.

During the cooking, I dropped the corner of a pan on the top of my foot and was hurting too much to go on a run. Ugh ugh ugh. So I ate some of these AND didn't go on a run.

Saturday night, Jess and I went and saw A Chorus Line at the Ivory Theater... it was a great show and far cheaper than The Fox.

Sunday, the Roo Bear and I went on a run and then David and I went to church. I made soup for Soup Monday at work (White Turkey Chili) and for David's Law Fraternity to serve to the shelter (Broccoli Cheese). We've decided that I am probably more helpful to the club than actual members, but I don't mind. We got to serve the meal to the ladies last night, and that's some thing that's always fun.

This week: short work week! I am so excited!!