Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Oh my, these were so good.  Thank you Our Best Bites for having such great recipes.

Ingredients:

1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions
2 C shredded cooked chicken
1 C grated pepperjack cheese

small corn tortillas (and actually, flour ones are really good as well)
kosher salt
cooking spray

Directions:

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it’s soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges and roll up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

I mixed ranch dressing with a little salsa verde, lime juice and cilantro to dip these in, but if you keep the dipping sauce out of it I think these are actually pretty healthy since they're baked instead of fried!

Cream Cheese Chicken

This was quite tasty.  Derek really liked it, enough to eat it with the pasta!

Ingredients:

1 can cream-of-something soup (I used chicken)
frozen chicken (enough to feed 4)
2 T Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp celery seed (I had celery salt, so I just omitted the salt the recipe called for)
1 T onion powder
1 T sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 cloves minced garlic
8 oz cream cheese (to add later)

Put everything except the cream cheese in the crockpot.  Cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred.  Shred the chicken with two large forks and mix in the cream cheese.  Switch the crockpot to high and cook for another 30 minutes or until fully melted.  Serve over pasta or rice.

Chicken Koorma

Oh my, this was yummy!  Although most people don't like the way curry flavored dishes make their house smell, I do.  And my house has smelled like curry all day!  The flavors are kind of strong, but if you like Indian-type food, this is a great dish.  I only used 2 average-sized chicken breasts and it made quite a bit.  It would easily serve 4 people.  I also didn't have a cinnamon stick so I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon in it and it tasted great to me.  Recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken cut into chunks (mine was frozen, so I cut it up about an hour before serving)
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (I'm not a huge onion fan, so I used about half a small one and it was fine for me)
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes and juice (I only had diced tomatoes w/ chipotle so I put about half the can in.  Derek doesn't really like cooked tomatoes anyway, so it was a good compromise.)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 cinnamon stick (or a sprinkling of cinnamon)
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (to add later)
white or brown rice for serving

Use a 4-quart slow cooker.  Put the chicken in the bottom of the pot.  Add potato and onion.  Pour in the tomatoes and add garlic and all spices.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4.  Discard the cinnamon stick and stir in the sour cream or yogurt.  Serve over rice.

This would also be really good with naan or pita bread.

Korean Ribs

This was my crockpot recipe for Thursday.  They turned out really good!  They were flavorful, tender and juicy. If you want any heat to it, and I think I'll try this next time, try dicing one of the jalapeños and mixing it in with everything.  It's up to you if you want to keep the seeds in or take them out (keeping them in would make it quite spicy).  The recipe is from A Year of Slow Cooking.

Ingredients:

package of beef or pork ribs (I used pork)
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
5-10 whole jalapeño peppers (I used 6 and next time I'll probably up it to 8)
1/2 cup water

Put the ribs (frozen or thawed) in the crockpot.  Add the soy sauce, brown sugar and water on top and put the WHOLE jalapeños on top of everything.  Cook on low for 8 hours (you may need an extra hour if you start with frozen ribs).

Pineapple Salsa Chicken

I'm babysitting a cute baby girl every Monday and Thursday this semester, so I've decided that those will be my crockpot days.  I found a bunch of new recipes here that I'll be trying.  Today's recipe, however, is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (formerly known as My Kitchen Cafe).  I love this site.  Her food always looks so yummy.

Anyways, this was very good.  I only had pineapple chunks, so I used that instead of the crushed pineapple.  I think it would have tasted more pineapple-y if I used crushed, but if you're looking for just a hint of pineapple flavor, go with the chunks.  Or rings cut into chunks.

Ingredients (directly quoted from the website):

6 fresh or frozen chicken breasts
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can white beans, like Great Northern, rinsed and drained
2 cups mild or medium salsa

Tortillas or tortilla chips and garnishes, like sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.

Place the chicken in the crock pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Using tongs, remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred into bite-size pieces. Mix the chicken back in with the rest of the ingredients. The mixture will be fairly soupy – I like to drain off some of the excess liquid before serving, especially if we are eating it in tortillas, so it doesn’t make everything soggy. Serve with tortilla chips and garnishes, like tomatoes, cheese, avocado, sour cream, etc.

*Freezable Option: I freeze the leftovers in freezer-safe ziploc bags and either place the frozen portion in my crockpot for a few hours the day I want to serve it or thaw the night before in the refrigerator and reheat on low in a saucepan.

Cajun Spiced Pork Chops

I needed a new un-breaded pork chop recipe when I discovered I was out of bread crumbs tonight.  I found this on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp rubbed dried sage leaves
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 1/2 tsp oil
4 pork chops

Mix paprika, cumin, pepper, cayenne pepper, sage and garlic salt on a plate.  Liberally coat each pork chop with the spice mixture.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Place pork chops in the skillet, reducing heat to medium.  Cook until the pork is no longer pink in the center, 8-10 minutes.  An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees F.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin, but I'm slowly working my way up to it.  So far I like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and this bread.  I guess as long as it has chocolate, I'm happy!  I got the recipe from our Relief Society November calendar, so I'm not sure who's it is.

Ingredients:

Mix together:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup canola oil
3 T vanilla

Add:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix well.

Grease 2 loaf pans and dust with flour.  Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 for 60-65 minutes (mine was done in about 55).  Check to see if they're done by poking a toothpick down the center.  If it comes out clean, it's done!