Chicken Tacos

I got this recipe from America's Test Kitchen, we tried it last night and it was delicious and pretty easy to make...

To warm the tortillas, wrap them in foil and heat in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes. Top the tacos with shredded lettuce, grated cheese, diced avocado, tomato, and sour cream.

Ingredients

3	tablespoons unsalted butter
4	garlic cloves , minced
2	teaspoons minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2	cup orange juice
1	tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4	cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
4	boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1	teaspoon yellow mustard
	Salt and pepper
12	(6-inch) flour tortillas

Instructions

1. POACH CHICKEN Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and chipotle and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in orange juice, Worcestershire, and ½ cup cilantro and bring to boil. Add chicken and simmer, covered, over medium-low heat until meat registers 160 degrees, 10 to 15 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through cooking. Transfer to plate and tent with foil.

2. SHRED AND SAUCE Increase heat to medium-high and cook until liquid is reduced to ¼ cup, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in mustard. Using 2 forks, shred chicken into bite-sized pieces and return to skillet. Add remaining cilantro to skillet and toss until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with tortillas.

two new dinners

Hawaiian haystacks

we had these last sunday for dinner. it was easy and a nice change to the sunday usuals.

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

3 c. milk

1 can Cream of Mushroom w/ Roasted Garlic soup

1 c. mushrooms, sliced

6 c. chicken breast, diced cooked

sticky rice cooked

Melt butter, add flour, and salt.  Add milk and cook until thickened stirring constantly.  Add mushroom soup, mushrooms, and chicken.  Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.  Serve over sticky rice and top with toppings. 

suggested toppings:

grated cheese               Pineapple, Tomatoes, coconut

chopped celery            slivered almonds, green onions

chow main noodles     water chestnuts, and soy sauce

we thought it was delicious. we got this recipe from the "the domestic art" cookbook. if you are looking for an awesome cookbook this is the one to get! all the recipes so far have been delicious!

white chicken chili!

I love this soup! yum, my favorite part is the hominy, every time I make this I wonder why I don't make it more often! delicious!

2 chicken breaths

2 cans great northern beans

2 cans chicken broth

1 lg can hominy

1/2 can green chile's

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 oregeno

1/4 tsp cayanne pepper

1 clove garlic minced

Drain and rinse beans and hominy. put all ingredients in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. just before serving shred chicken breasts and mix into soup. top with sour cream, pepper jack or cheddar cheese (this is optional because it's really good plain)

**my sidenotes** james thought that maybe we could have put in 1/2 tsp cumin instead of a whole tsp. he said it was hot, so you can choose, i don't think it would take away from the flavor.  also i added a whole can of green chile's. 

Breakfast Frittata

this recipe is great if you are needing to feed a lot of people. And luckily a lot of people ended up loving it when we made it...

8-10 cups hash browns frozen (or 2lb frozen bag from grocer)
8-10 eggs, scrambled (we used 9, but who's counting)
1 carton small mushrooms sliced
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 pound ham
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups or more cheddar cheese grated

Cook hash browns in skillet until golden brown, season with sale and pepper.  Place in bottome of a large, greased casserole dish and set aside. In a small saucepan saute mushrooms and onions, set aside.  Scramble eggs and place on top of the hash browns.  Layer with Ham, mushrooms and onions, and tomato's. top with cheese and bake until heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

finish product, minus tomato's*

now for my own little notes. we did not use ham, i think the stuff is nasty so we went with turkey sausage, and used 1 1/4 cup.  I have been told this recipe would be delightful with any meat replacement though, such as bacon. or as my grandma suggested you can leave it out all together.  We ended up using only 2 cups of cheese, but this recipe is really based on your taste, so if you think you need a bit more or less of something, change it up.  it turned out really good though. we made four 9x13 pans to feed 45 people and we had the perfect amount!

*I also left out the tomato's because i'm allergic, but we had fresh salsa for people to add to their dish and they loved it even more!

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

When my parents came to visit last weekend I decided to make this scrumptious treat.  Thank you Pioneer Woman, these were SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!

Caramel-Apple-Sticky-Buns Recipe

No-Bake Macaroni & Cheese

This is a super easy, fast recipe and we had everything in our house so it was a perfect after work meal.

• 8 ounces elbow noodles (2 cups)
• 2 cups frozen chopped broccoli
• 1 3/4 cups milk, divided
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 3/4 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

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Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta for 4 minutes. Add frozen broccoli and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the pasta and broccoli are just tender, 4 to 5 minutes more.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 1/2 cups milk in another large pot over medium-high heat until just simmering. Whisk the remaining 1/4 cup milk, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl until combined. Add the flour mixture to the simmering milk; return to a simmer and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in Cheddar, Parmesan and mustard until the cheese is melted.
3. Drain the pasta and broccoli and add to the cheese sauce. Return to the heat and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat, until heated through, about 1 minute.

We topped ours with classic Tony Chachere's seasoning and Dane pointed out that it would be good to sprinkle more cheese on top and bake 

Delicious Chocolate Cake and Frosting

This recipe comes courtesy of my friend Erin. She made this cake for a BBQ this summer and it is amazing! I love it! (It might have something to do with the 2 sticks of butter....) It is even easy to make, it is the first cake I have made that did not begin with getting a Betty Crocker box out of the pantry and it turned out pretty well :)

Cake

2 c flour
2 c sugar
1/4 salt
1 stick butter
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c buttermilk with 1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved

Mix together flour, sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, oil, water, vanilla and cocoa. Cook until it comes to a full boil. Add to dry ingredients and stir to incorporate. Add the buttermilk/soda mixture and the eggs, stirring vigorously to avoid scrambled eggs :) Pour into a greased sheet cake pan. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. (I think this would work in a regular cake pan also, it would just need to bake longer and it would be thicker.)

Frosting

1 stick butter
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cocoa powder

Right after cake comes out of the oven, cook the above ingredients until they come to a boil. Then remove from heat and add 2 cups powdered sugar. Stir until all lumps of powdered sugar are melted into the frosting. Pour over the hot cake and spread evenly.