Thursday, March 3, 2016

Slow Cooker "Mexican" Chicken Baked Burritos with Cheese Sauce

Slow Cooker Chicken
2 pounds chicken breast
1/2 cup chili sauce
3 TBL brown sugar
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can green chilies
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano


Mix it all up in the crockpot for 2-3 hours on high or low for about 6 hours.  Shred chicken, I cheat and put it in my mixer, so much faster and I don't have to either wait or get burnt fingers. Throw back in the crockpot.  You can either cook it down some more, or just drain off the juice and pull the chicken out with tongs and let the juice go back into the pot.  


Burrito ingredients
6-8 raw tortillas, find them in the refrigerated section
8 oz shredded colby jack cheese
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
3 TBL butter
3 TBL flour
2 cups warm water (I throw in a chicken bullion cube)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil, makes clean up so much easier. Spray it with cooking spray so they don't stick.  Stuff each uncooked tortilla with the meat that has been drained, or your burrito will be soggy.  Next put on some cheese and roll it up. Place seam side down.  Next bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until getting crispy.  Flip them over and turn on the broiler.  Broil until they are crispy on this side.  While those have been baking and broiling make up the cheese sauce.  Melt the butter in a pot, add in the flour and whisk/stir well until it starts to turn a tan color.  Slowly add in the water and stir until it thickens add the cumin before it thickens too much, every time is different for me for the timing. Turn off the heat and stir in the remaining cheese and sour cream.  Whisk smooth.  Serve.  I didn't smoother them until they were on the plates, less mess and you can better control the smothering.  



I varied this up from this recipe and this recipe.    Carlsbad Carvings...Lots of yummy sounding recipes.  I wanted to make it as written but I thought I had all the ingredients and didn't.  Salsa-nope. Chili powder-how did I run out of that?! So I altered it and really we enjoyed it more, and Pete actually ate it because it wasn't spicy at all, super yummy, but no real spice which is what works for us. It was definitely on the sweeter side.   I loved the idea of using the uncooked tortillas and baking them after stuffing, super genius right there!  Sometime I'm hoping to actually try the recipe as written but so far my brain doesn't function well enough to have everything I need.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Crazy Cake

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 TBL Cocoa powder (unsweetended)
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup Zing baking blend sugar substitute)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 TBL applesauce
2 TBL oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup water



Preheat oven to 350. Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Add in the wet ingredients and mix until just smooth, don't over do it because it will turn out flat once baked.  Bake in a greased 8x8 glass pan or 12 cupcakes.  Bake for 35 minutes for a cake and 18-20 for cupcakes or until knife comes out clean.


This is my go to cake for our daughter with egg allergies and I've switched it to be a bit healthier and it turned out extra moist and delicious with the changes. I don't feel too guilty eating it or giving it to the kids either!

4.5 weight watcher smart points

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Strawberry Pie

4 cups sliced strawberries
1 small box cook and serve vanilla pudding (sugar-free)
2 cups water
1 small box strawberry jello (sugar-free)

Layer strawberries in 9inch pie plate.  On stove mix pudding with 2 cups water, bring to a boil.  Add jello, stir in dissolved.  Cool until mixture reaches room temperature then pour over strawberries and let set at least 2 hours or overnight for best results.

*can substitute strawberries and strawberry jello for canned oranges and orange jello

Recipe from Sandy Julian.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Cheesy Bacony Corn Chowder

4 cups(ish) corn broth/chicken broth
3 slices bacon
1 onion diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 bag frozen corn or a couple ears of fresh corn cooked and cut off the cob
4oz cream cheese
1/2 block extra sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the bacon until crisp in a medium pot.  Remove bacon leave drippings toss in onion, cook until transulent.  Add garlic.  Crumble the cooked bacon and add back to the pot.  Mix in the flour until oil is absorbed and it sticks to the food.  Add broth in 1 cup at a time to stirring well.  Add in the corn and cream cheese.  After cream cheese has melted add a bit of the cheddar to the pot and leave the rest for topping. 

Hopefully this makes sense.  I've never found the perfect chowder recipe so I just fake what I do like.  You can tweak how you'd like.  I made the corn stock from the cobs of corn destined for the freezer and cooked them in water for about an hour.  Lots more stuff can off and the flavor was amazing!  I made 4 extra bags for the freezer so I can use it later on this winter as well.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Coconut Basmati Rice

1 3/4 cups basmati rice
1 can coconut milk
2 cups water
toasted coconut

Combine rice, coconut milk, and water in saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cook and stir until it boils.  Reduce heat and cover. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the water is all absorbed. 
Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Fluff.

To toast coconut:  Pull out a small skillet warm up on the stove add the coconut and stir until it is starting to turn brown dump into a bowl or plate.  You have to watch it or it burns fast.

You can substitute the basmati rice for regular white rice, but I wouldn't suggest it.  The basmati rice is amazing and does actually taste different.  Also make sure to wash and soak the rice, it makes it cook so much faster!

Adapted from: 365 Easy Vegetarian Recipes

Friday, June 21, 2013

Grandma Lich's Seven Layer Salad

1 Head of Lettuce-chopped
1/2 onion-sliced then broken apart
1 pkg frozen peas
1 head of cauliflower-sliced
2 cups sliced celery

Dressing: 
2 cups Miracle Whip or Mayo (it is an entire small jar)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Mix dressing.  Spread on top of salad and seal edges.  Top with 1# crisp bacon crumbled.Top thiswith 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese. Cover and set in fridge for 24 hours.  Toss and Serve!

One of my very favorite foods! Eat it within a day or so of "tossing and serving" because it starts to get a bit soggy.  Each one of us leaves out something when we make it.  Grandma cuts out the onions, mom the peas and I leave out the celery! 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Walnut Berry Muffins

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup corn meal or (1/2 cup corn and 1/2 cup ground flax seed)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 ripe banana, mashed
3 large eggs
1/4 cup canola or applesauce
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup berries- lightly smash half and leave the other half whole
1/2 cup (ish) walnuts for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients. Set aside.  Mix all wet ingredients but berries.  Add the wet to the dry, mix until just combined.  Fold in the berries.  Fill greased muffin pan 3/4 cup full-makes about 18 with this much batter in the cups.  Top with walnuts.  Bake 20 minutes or until done. Consume.

This is adapted from here.  I made the original recipe today and decided it was good but definitely needed to have some things changed to better suit us.  You can use muffin liners but be warned your muffin will stick to it horribly and leave a nice bit behind, I suggest going without them-but I also use silicon muffin pans!  These are not the normal sweet muffins, they have a good flavor but not the normal super sweet am-I-eating-a-cupcake? muffin.


calories 103
fat 5.3
carbs 11
fiber 2
protein 3
(using flax and corn mix, oil, 2% milk)