Salsa Chicken - an easy and healthy dinner

**I was all prepared this past weekend to type up a yummy cookie recipe (I even told a faithful blog reader <@Lindsey> that I was ready to go), but time has just gotten away from me and I have to prepare for some important meetings coming up.  So as not to leave you without anything tasty, I always have a couple of posts waiting in case this happens.  :-)  I hope you enjoy this!  Hopefully next week I will be back with a tasty cookie recipe and some pretty pictures from trips, showers, and other fun stuff that I've been doing lately.  Here's hoping!**

You remember how I told you that my mom doesn't really cook?  Well this is one of the few things she does make, and I love it!  I don't know where she found it, but man is it easy.  Plus, pretty much everyone I have ever given the recipe to has loved it!

Here's what you do: you take ~2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1 "jug" of your favorite salsa, and your crock pot and combine together to make the easiest dinner ever.

Put a layer of salsa on the bottom, then place all the chicken breasts next to each other for the next layer, then cover with the rest of the jar of salsa.

Easy as pie salsa chicken!  Set the crock pot on low for about 6-7 hours and leave to cook.  Once it's cooked, take two large forks and shred the chicken.  Now you have salsa chicken! 











I prefer Pace Picante Sauce but I accidentally bought the chunky kind this last time.  It was actually pretty good.  I really think any kind of salsa would be fine.

 
Once you have your salsa chicken, you can really do a lot with it.  I have served it over pasta,

 

rice, in tacos, on a salad, and I'm sure there are many other things you could do with it.  Since it makes lots of food, I usually freeze some.  I go ahead and put the salsa chicken over cooked pasta in a tupperware container and stick it in the freezer.  That will keep for several months and it's easy to thaw (in the fridge) and microwave.  Done and done!  I hope you like it!

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Chips - A yummy AND healthy side

Because the craziness of last week has spilled into this week, I'm going to post a "back-up" post that I had waiting for a week like this.  I just feel like I can't catch up and am about as tired as I can ever remember being.  Plus the Hubby has a cold :(  Sorry to postpone the second Valentine's post.  I promise it will be up within the next week. 
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I'm not really sure when or where I stumbled across this "recipe".  I use the term recipe loosely because these are easy to tweak and there is not a whole lot to them.  I think they may have been a weight watchers recipe.  I know it's not a "baked item", but these are definitely something you should add to your rotation!

All you need is a large baking pan, aluminum foil (optional), one medium sweet potato per person, non-stick spray, a sea salt grinder, and a food processor or mandoline slicer.

Preheat your oven to 400 or 425 degrees (for us it depends on what we are cooking with it, but if there is nothing in the oven do 425).  First you are going to peel the skin off the sweet potatoes.  Now that you have the whole sweet potato with no skin, cut the length of it in half so you have two pieces of sweet potato each with one pointy end and one end that is the shape of a circle.  Take the end that was cut and place that end into the food processor or mandoline.  Sometimes I find that it is too wide to fit into the processor, if that is the case, you can cut the width in half and you will have half circles for chips (trust me, they taste just as good!).

Now slice all of the sweet potatoes up and you should have a whole bunch of slices.  If you have the option of more than one slice width, the thinner the better.  We only have one slicer for our food processor, so we stick with that and it works just fine.  But if I had my wish, our slices would be slightly thinner.

Now time to prep your pan.  If you are using more than two potatoes, you may need more than one pan.  Take your largest jellyroll or baking pan and line with aluminum foil with the non-stick side up (if you have it - if not then don't worry about it).  Next, take your non-stick spray and completely coat the surface of the pan or foil.

Now you are going to place the slices in rows on the pan.  They can be touching but do not layer them on top of each other. 

Get that non-stick spray again and completely coat the top of the slices.  You're almost ready to put them in the oven!  One last thing, get your salt grinder and put as much or as little on them as you want.  I like salt but the Hubby doesn't like it as much so I do one side with a little more and the other side with a little less.  We haven't ever switched them up, but I bet you could "flavor" them with whatever you wanted.  Some chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon might be good.

They are ready to bake!  This part is mostly subjective.  We like them really baked where some of them are a little crunchy and browned, but they are good sorta mushy too.  I know that sounds gross but you have to trust me, they are so good!  The Hubby didn't trust me the first time and then he ate one and he was hooked!  Put them in the preheated oven and leave them for about 15 minutes.  Start checking on them at about the 10 minute mark.  Once they seem to be pretty shriveled/shrunk and the thin ones are starting to brown on the edges, take them out and turn them over.  I have gotten to where I use my hands now but when I first made them I used tongs.  They are delicate so be careful not to "squeeze" them too much... you don't want to squeeze the puddin out of them!  hehe.  This may take a couple of minutes but once you turn them they are going to be ready pretty quickly.   Put them back in the oven after you have flipped them, and leave them in for about 5-10 more minutes.  Keep your eye on them because this part can go quickly.  Remove when they are at your desired crispy-ness.  As Hubby says, the longer the better... but you don't want to burn them!

So delicious and healthy!  What a great combo!  Be sure to eat these pretty quickly after you remove them from the oven because they cool really quickly.  P.S. These are so good that a friend of ours who "would never eat a sweet potato", cleaned his plate.  When he asked us what they were, he couldn't believe it!  Come to think of it, these are probably a great way to get picky kids to eat something with some vitamins and nutrients.

Sweet Potato Chips

Non-stick spray
Aluminum foil
1 medium sweet potato per person
Sea salt in a grinder
And a food processor or mandoline slicer for slicing


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Peel the sweet potatoes.  Cut them in half length-wise (and then width-wise if needed to fit into processor).  Slice all the sweet potatoes into thin slices.  Line a large baking sheet or jellyroll pan with aluminum foil (if you have it) and then coat the pan with non-stick spray.  Now line the sweet potato slices in rows, touching but not on top of one another.  Then spray the slices to coat with non-stick spray.  Top with seasoning of your choice... I use sea salt from a grinder.  Bake for about 15 minutes then remove pan to turn slices.  Replace in oven for another 5-10 minutes or until browned on edges.  Eat em up!


Enjoy!

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery

There are two people in Hubby's and my life that were the key to starting this little baking/cooking phenomenon.  Hub's cousin (we will call him Cuz) and Cuz's wife S.  Cuz and S got married a little over two years ago but have been together long before Hubby and I met.  Every holiday season Cuz and S would bring some culinary sensation to our celebrations, whether it be a baked good like delish pumpkin bread or something they cooked like smoked salmon (smoked salmon that was literally so good you thought your head would explode from the amazingness).  I always thought to myself, hum, wouldn't it be nice if I could do something like that... you know, be able to offer some sort of deliciousness to our celebrations. 

Now there is something you have to know before moving forward... I come from a mostly no cooking household.  As in, my mom baked once a year... and it was from a box (as the audience gasps with horror).  And she cooked the same 7 or so meals on rotation and 90% of each meal was either from a can, pre-made, or frozen.  My dad also didn't do much cooking.  He could do one meal, and that was breakfast.  When I was around 9 years old my sister had pneumonia and had to be hospitalized.  My mom stayed with my sister in the hospital while I stayed at home with my dad, and we would visit the hospital once a day for the four days she was there.  I have never become so tired of breakfast food in my life.  We had breakfast for breakfast, breakfast for lunch, and breakfast for dinner every single day... or at least that's how I remember it.  Scrambled eggs or an omelet, orange juice, toast, bananas, cereal on repeat!  So we know for sure this hobby of mine did NOT come from my parents.  Sorry mom and dad. 

Back to the story, about two years ago I attended a work event that featured cookbook author, Anne Byrn.  Because I worked at the event I received two of her cookbooks, Cake Mix Doctor Returns and What Can I Bring.  This was just the fire under my bum I needed to start trying some recipes!  So for Christmas 2009, I decided to make the Cake Mix Doctor Returns Apple Cider Bundt Cake with a lemon and apple cider glaze.  At the time I didn't really own any baking supplies, so I went to the store and bought myself a nice Anolon bundt pan, some mixing bowls, and rummaged through my cabinets to find a hand mixer (that, of course, had never been used) that my mom bought me when I moved into my first apartment after college.  I also realized I didn't have a stand or a carrier of any sort so I bought a disposable pizza pan at the grocery store and decided I would tote it to Christmas on the pizza pan wrapped in cling wrap.  I had to go to Hubby's apartment (we were engaged at the time) to bake the cake because my crapo basement apartment didn't even have an oven!  Making the cake was surprisingly simple and quite relaxing... the only hard part was greasing and flouring the pan (I obviously had not found out about the genius of Bakers Joy yet!).  So I brought the cake to Hub's family Christmas and everyone LOVED it!  So much so that Cuz now requests it!

Proof - Apple Cider Bundt Cake, Christmas 2009

So after this first baking experience (sure, I had baked things before but all those things were straight from a box with no extra ingredients or it was break and bake cookies... nothing fancy) I decided to add some more baking things to our wedding registry.  Flash forward to late June/early July 2010, we were married in early June and we got several of our baking things off of our registry.   I have now baked a few things here and there for birthdays or special occasions like Hubby graduating from grad school.  But I still would not say, by any means, that I am a regular baker or that it is a common hobby of mine, it was still more of an aspiration.  We had decided not to add a stand mixer to the registry because Hubs and I both felt like there were many other things we needed more and we didn't want anyone to feel pressured to spend that much on a wedding gift.  Although I will say, I wanted one SO BAD!  So one Sunday Cuz called Hubs and left a voicemail saying they had made a meal from the Julia Childs cookbook, Beef Bourguignon to be exact, and they wanted us to come over for dinner.  We didn't get the voicemail until much later in the day but decided to call back anyways.  They said to come on over, so we did... and thank God for that! 

We get to their house and, as always, have a great time talking and drinking and eating a Delicious meal.  Looking back this one meal single handedly changed the course of cooking and baking in our home.

The first key part is that Cuz had cooked the meal, not S.  When Hubs found out about that, it seemed to pique his interest.  He started asking Cuz all kinds of questions about cookbooks and different genres of food.  Up until that point, Hubs had not really ever cooked much.  He was the grill master and that was about it.  I found it slightly odd that he was interested in Cuz's cooking.  However, I know Hubby and if he gets interested in something he commits.  Plus he is one of those people who is good at everything he does... typical, haha!

As for me, I had noticed a large box in the corner of the dining room but didn't think much of it.  At the end of the meal both Cuz and S said they had something for me us.  They grabbed the large box and set it right in front of us.  Hubby looked at me and said, "Go ahead and open it."  So I set it on the floor and started to open it.  I got through the tape and some foam peanuts and low and behold the holy grail of wedding registries lie within the box... A KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER!!!!  Cue angels singing.  I about fell over I was so excited.  The crazy thing is, I thought I hadn't told anyone how much I wanted one of these.  I figured in a few years when we were more established, Hubs and I could buy one for ourselves.  But then I remembered, at the shower in Hubby's hometown, someone asked me if I registered for one.  I said no, but that I wanted one so bad and we just couldn't justify registering for it when we needed so many other things like dishes and flatware and drink ware.  S happened to be sitting very close to me during this conversation and tucked that little bit of info away.  After I opened it, she told me that she and Cuz had been keeping their eye on one for a while waiting for it to go on sale, and when they saw it for a good price they grabbed it up!  I was so incredibly flattered that I didn't know what to say.  It was not only a very generous gift, but so thoughtful of them. 

 

Me after bringing home the holy grail of wedding registries

But this story gets even better.  When we got home that night, Hubs said he wanted to go buy the Julia Childs cookbook and try some of the recipes.  I was SO surprised by this, but readily encouraged it... I mean duh, husband cooking, yes please!  So a few days later he and I made our way to the local Barnes and Noble and bought volume 1 (I think) of the set.  I think he was afraid that cooking wasn't a masculine thing, but once he saw Cuz, who is masculine and definitely a guys guy, Hubs finally felt like it was OK if he wanted to try cooking. 

Ever since that night the Hubs has been cooking up a storm (and boy is his cooking good) and I have been baking like nobodies business!

Honorable mention in the progression of my baking and Hubs cooking:  Definitely Hubby's mom, my MIL.  She is very encouraging of me and anytime I have a question I call her.  She has been cooking and baking for most of her life.  Actually I think the Hubs must have gotten his cooking skills from her.
It also doesn't hurt that many of my friends like cooking and/or baking too.  

So that is the road I took to becoming a baker.  Who changed the course of your life hobbies for the better?