Shredded Chicken Tacos and Spanish Rice...don't mind if I do!!

Scott and I invited Brynnlee and Zak over Sunday night for dinner, games and dessert. It was fun, as always, with these two! I wanted to make something new, but didn't want to use the oven (it's so dang hot out there!) So, I tried a new recipe, two actually! Cute Brynn tried a new dessert recipe as well, and all 3 turned out delicious!!

I found the Shredded Chicken Taco recipe in my favorite cookbook,
"365 Days of Slow-Cooking".

I used two different recipes in one for the chicken tacos. They turned out really good!! (pg. 66 and pg. 70)

 I placed 2 chicken breasts into the crockpot with 1 T chili powder, 3 garlic gloves, minced, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 T oil, 1 8-oz can of tomato sauce, 1 tsp. brown sugar, 1/2 onion chopped for 2 hours on high. I also added lime juice form a large lime, salt and pepper. I shredded the breasts with forks until it was completely shredded. I then turned my crock pot onto low. (total cook time was 3 hours on high and then a short amount of time on low while I was preparing the salsa.)

I heated some corn tortillas and added the meat with cheese and fresh salsa I whipped up. Delicious!

 I have a couple of different Spanish Rice recipes but I wanted to try something new, and I'm glad I did. I liked this one better than the other two!

2 C. rice, 3/4 C. oil, 1/2 C. tomato sauce ( I used 1 can of RoTel Mexican Tomatoes instead and it brought more heat...Perfect!), 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 onion chopped, 1 tsp. garlic powder (I chopped up 2 cloves instead, I always like fresh!), 3 C. water , 1 bouillon cube, and a dash of cumin. 

Heat oil in the pan and add rice until golden brown. In a small bowl, add water and bouillon cube and place in microwave for 2 minutes. When done, add water mixture to rice. Also add tomato sauce, salt, garlic, onion and cumin. Cover. Simmer 45 minutes-1 hour.

We also put the rice into the tacos and that was yummy too!! 

Easter 2013

On Easter morning, we ate Ebelskivers with homemade strawberry syrup and looked for our hidden baskets. The little kids took about 10 minutes to find theirs. The middle kids took a little longer, with a few hints and poor Will took over an hour! We, I mean, the Easter Bunny sure hid them well this year!!

That is one of our family traditions, is to have the Easter Bunny hide the actual basket for the kids to find.

I took Will's and Jackson's out of their baskets and put all their treats in a bag. It was much easier to hide that way! Jackson's basket was inside the piano.

The baskets were filled with candy, money and more candy!

Church starts at 1pm, so before we left, I made a batch of delicious Easter sugar cookies. The kids loved helping me cut them out and decorate them. Oh yeah, and eat them!
Scott had to leave shortly after to got to work but the boys and I were joined for dinner by the Boyce cousins. It was a real treat to have them spend the evening with us.

The meal was slightly different than I normally make. I wanted to try a bunch of new recipes this year. Thanks Pinterest!
I made crock pot ham with pineapple and brown sugar, twice baked potatoes, pastel colored deviled eggs (I placed the white part of the egg [after it was hard boiled and de-shelled] in a cup with food coloring. They turned out great! Pink, yellow, green and blue eggs!), Bunny rolls (they really looked like rats, but they tasted delicious!), Asian pasta salad with spinach, jello salad and our new favorite drink, limeade with Canada Dry.

 After we ate dinner, we hid a bunch of eggs all over the yard for the boys to find. I was telling Brynnlee, Kelsey and Aleigh that I use to come to Easter dinner when they were my kids age. Now, they're coming to my house. So cool.

I had a wonderful Easter filled with family, food, fun and of course the spirit.

Vail Salad

This is an easy, yummy and healthy salad; The Vail Salad. My good friend, Jenn Vail, made it for me a few years ago and didn't have a name for it. Well, in our home we call it the Vail Salad and everyone loves it and eats it all up!

1 bag baby spinach
1 head of lettuce
(I usually make half this for my family, but if we have guests I make the entire recipe as is!)
3/4 lb grated Swiss cheese (I don't always have this so sometimes use graded mozzarella instead)
1 C. Cottage Cheese
1/2 lb bacon, chopped

Dressing
1/2 T poppy seed
3/4 C. white vinegar
1/2 C. oil
3/4 C. sugar (I usually use only 1/2 C.)
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. dry mustard

Put dressing ingredients into a jar and shake well. Toss onto salad and eat immediately. We usually will dress each individual salad so it doesn't wilt. Enjoy!

Creamy Artichoke Chicken with a twist

Last night I made a new recipe from this cook book!

 

Actually, it was two different recipes I morphed together. It was delicious! All my boys ate every bite of it. I wish I'd made more!

 

If you have this FABULOUS book I got the recipe's from page 85 and 87.

 

 

In the crock pot I added:

 

1 can of cream of chicken soup

I can of chicken broth

1/2 C of milk

3 chicken bouillon cubes

1/2 oinion diced up

1 clove of garlic diced up

salt

pepper

and mixed it all together.

 

I then Added 3 chicken breasts ( I should of added more!)

and a 14oz drained bottle of artichoke hearts. I sprinkled a generous amount of Parmesan cheese on top.

 

I cooked on high for 6 hours.

My kitchen smelled divine!

 

I cooked white rice and then placed some chicken, artichoke and sauce on top. YUM! And easy!

Homemade Chili

It turned real cold all of a sudden and I felt in the mood for Chili, Wendy's chili. I found this recipe here and it turned out great!! I was planning on left overs to either freeze or have for lunch tomorrow. No such luck. The boys licked the pan clean!



Chili {Wendy's Style} Ingredients:

• 4.5 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
• 2 large yellow (sweet) onions, chopped
• 7 large green bell peppers, chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic (I use jarred)
• 2 cans Ranch Style Beans, NOT drained (15 ounce cans)
• 2 cans dark red kidney beans, drained (15 ounce cans)
• 2 cans Original Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chili (10 ounce cans)
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes (15 ounce cans)
• 4 cans plain tomato sauce (15 ounce cans)
• 2 packages McCormick Mild Chili Seasoning (1.25 ounce packages)

Chili {Wendy's Style} Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot.*
2. Simmer for at least three hours (I let mine cook all day long).
3. Enjoy!

Fish Tacos and Cupcakes

Tonight I checked my pins on Pinterest and found some yummy new recipes. Here are the two I made tonight that were a huge hit, and are all gone.

 

For dinner I made Fish Tacos, thanks Shawni for this recipe! Super simple and very delicious!!

 

 

 

For dessert I made these yummy Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Cookie Dough “Frosting”

 

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:
• 1 (18.25 oz.) box Devil’s Food (or other chocolate variety) cake mix
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 4 eggs
For the Peanut Butter Cookie Dough "Frosting":
• 12 Tbsp. (1.5 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Method

To Make Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Beat cake mix, buttermilk and oil with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Add eggs one at a time, until the batter is well-mixed. Increase speed to high and beat until thick for about 2 minutes.

Pour or scoop the batter into the paper liners until they are 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, top with the frosting recipe (listed below).

To Make Peanut Butter Cookie Dough "Frosting":

Use an electric mixer to beat butter and sugars together until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in peanut butter, vanilla and milk. Stir in flour and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Add in extra milk to thin, if needed. Stir in chocolate chips.

THANKS Tomkat for this recipe!

Cooking away...

The other day I had some free time, so I reorganized my recipes on Pinterest and printed a few ones to try. They ALL turned out so, so yummy! I wanted to share with you the ones that are Thompson approved!

 Right after I had the baby, a friend came by with dinner and this dessert. It was so good. A few days later I searched on Pinterest to find it, and I did. GO here for the Oreo ice cream cake.

These pretzels were super good. I made them, left for 45 minutes and when I came back they were all gone! Go here for the recipe. I also made jalapeno cheese dip for the pretzels. Go here for that.

This on was super easy and I picked everything out of my garden to use! It was fresh and yummy. Go here for the recipe. Thanks Martha!

 My favorite bakery here in Holladay is So Cupcake. My favorite cupcake there is carrot, I know weird! I didn't want to spend $3.00 for a cupcake, so I just made them on my own. The boys were a little leary at first, but gobbled them all down! Go here for the recipe. Next time I think I'll add some nuts!

These didn't turn out as pretty as their picture, but were good! I think I filled them with too much veggies. Scott thinks I should try and fry them besides baking them...Hmmm, not sure. Go here for veggy egg rolls.

I plan on making these avocado egg rolls tomorrow night, I'm sure they'll be delicious! My mouth waters just looking at them! Go here.

I am also making this tonight! Chicken Cordon Bleu rolls!

Can't wait!!

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing...from Cafe Rio

 

 

I've been wanting to make the Cafe Rio dressing for sometime now, and yesterday I finally did! Like I said before,I have a ton of tomatillos in my garden, so it was a perfect time. I doubled the below recipe and made 2 huge bottles of it. YUM! Easy and delicious! Enjoy!

 

 

 

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

Here is what you need:

1 packet of buttermilk ranch dressing

1 Cup mayo

1 Cup buttermilk (the smallest carton is perfect)

1 bunch of cilantro

2 tomatillos husked

1 jalapeno (take the rib and seeds out)

Garlic powder (just a few shakes)

juice from 1 lime

First Put the mayo, dressing mix, buttermilk, and garlic in a blender and mix until blended all together

Then you will cut up all the greens tomatillos, jalapeno, cilantro and juice the lime.

Then you will add all the green ingredients and blend until mixed all together and creamy. Next you will let it chill in the fridge for at least 30 min

Tomatillo Salsa

 I have a ton of tomatillos in my garden, but here is the funny part. I only planted 2 tomatillos plants but I have 6 growing! The 2 IN my garden and the other 4 OUTSIDE of my garden in my pathway to the compost! I guess what happened was in the spring when we tilled the garden there were seeds in there. On the outside of the garden 2 tomato plants and 4 tomatillo plants started growing. Now, they're larger than the ones IN my garden! Crazy!

Thanks Simply Recipes for this easy and yummy recipe!

Pizza Sauce

Homemade pizza and sauce! This is an easy-cheesy recipe and it was really yummy!

Here is the sauce recipe:
4-6 medium tomatoes (out of my garden, of course!)
1 clove of garlic
5-8 basil leafs (from the garden too!)


Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out all the juice into the trash/sink/compost. Put the halves into the blender. Add the clove of garlic and basil leafs. Mix on high until pureed. Done. That's it. Simple. Yummy. Nutritious. Delicious.

Bruschetta!!

 This is what we ate last night for dinner, homemade bruschetta. Yep, that's it. A plate of brushetta and my boys downed it! So, I thought I'd share this yummy recipe with you all!

 4 large firm tomatoes diced up
1/4-1/2 C. oil
6-7 leaves of fresh basil
1-2 cloves of garlic diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese OR thinly sliced soft mozzarella cheese
mix all together, spoon to taste.
May need a dash or more salt.
If too hot form garlic add another tomato.
The Parmesan cheese absorbs a lot of the oil so you may need to add a T. or 2 more.

 When dicing up basil crumple in a small ball and then dice. Makes it chop faster and easier.

 This is what is looks like with the Parmesan cheese. (I always have Parmesan cheese, but I do prefer the soft mozzarella ball sliced.) If you make it with the mozzarella, add all ingredients but the cheese. After you toast the bread, lay a thinly sliced piece of cheese on top and then a spoonful of the tomato mixture.

 I buy the sourdough baguette bread and slice it up or buy it like the above picture. Don't get the french baguette it's too soft. I cook the bread in the oven on 350  for 15-20 minutes. You want a slight crunch. Too crunchy hurts the roof of your mouth!

 See!! We all ate it up and loved every bite!

Neighbor Gifts

 Another great idea from Pinterest!! We made Chocolate covered spoon for hot chocolate. We hand dipped 80 spoons in chocolate or white chocolate and then they boys helped to add on crushed candy cane, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and red and green sprinkles. After they all dried we put them in small baggies and tied with curling ribbon. We walked around the neighborhood and handed them out as the boys sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  We also drove to other friends and family homes to hand theirs out.

We also made carmel and chocolate dipped pretzels. But, we never handed these out. We ate them all instead! They were SUPER good!!

Different Turkey Recipe...YUMMMMM!!!!

 I always make my turkey different each year. I like to try new things and they always turn out great and look good. Can you make a bad turkey? This year I combined 2 different recipes into one! I had fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage and marjoram) and chopped them up. Added salt and pepper and melted butter. I brushed that all over the bird and under the skin. I placed bacon stripes on the top of the bird as well. We basted the bird every 3o minutes for 3.5 hours. We basted her with apple juice, and then next time would be a brown sugar and maple syrup mixture, then back to the apple juice.

The turkey came out delicious!! Very earthy with all the herbs yet savory with the bacon.
Of course we had homemade rolls with homemade jams and jelly's, Margene's homemade stuffing, twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy....My mouth is watering...

Aaronic Priesthood

 On Will's Birthday night he received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a very special evening and we had many wonderful friends and family in attendance!

The brethren that stood in were Scott, Harley, the Bishop, Ben, Chris, Dave, Jordan and Jackson. THANK you all for being great examples to Will and sharing with us this special event. Also to other family and friends who were in attendance. (Mom, Bill, Bubbles, Angie, Kelsey, Colten, Tricia, Nicole and the 10 Deacons in Will's class!!)

Will wanted fresh strawberry cupcakes. I made a test run earlier in the week and they came out great! They really were terrific cupcakes! Happy birthday Will! I am so proud of you for being worthy and having a desire for the priesthood!! 

Strawberry Cupcakes

2 3/4 C flour

1/2 C cake flour

1 T baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 C. Butter (room temp)

2 1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 large eggs and 1 egg white

1 C milk

2 C finely chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 350*. Sift together both flours, baking powder and salt.

Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. until fluffy. Add whole eggs and white one at a time. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk. Fold in chopped strawberries. Cook 25-30 minutes. Let completely cool.

For the frosting I made a cream cheese frosting but I added finely chopped strawberries to that too. Will didn't want fluffy frosting, so I made it a little different. They turned out great!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

The boys all wore green clothes to school and we spray painted their hair green as well. I wanted to make the boys something a little extra special for St. Patrick's Day, so I decided to make these YUMMY rainbow cupcakes. (As soon as they cool, I'll frost them with a dollop of white frosting and lay them on a pile of those gold chocolate coins!!)

 The little guys helped me make them and they were so excited as I kept filling the cupcake tins with different colors, slowing making a rainbow.

I pulled one of the tops off to peek inside and look how beautiful, and yummy, they turned out!!

Thank you Fabulessly Frugal for this cute and easy idea!!