Chicken and Black Beans Over Rice

I seriously love this. My Mom has made it for me before, and I was thrilled when I finally saw a recipe for it. Although it's so easy, I probably could have just asked my Mom how to make it. When I found this recipe, I showed Hubby and SS, and they both said YES. My favorite part of this recipe....only six ingredients! Usually things we have around, too, so no special grocery shopping. Prep time? Two seconds. Even better...Crock Pot!!! Slap it all in there and go do everything else the house demands gets done. Hubby asked this morning what I was going to make for dinner, and of course I had forgotten to plan ahead. He told me he wanted something he could take to work the next day for lunch, so this immediately popped in my noggin! It makes so much, and is still super easy, with very little prep or any of your tears, sweat, and blood.

Ingredients:

Two or three large boneless skinless chicken breasts

One can of black beans (15 oz, slightly drained)

One can of whole corn (15 oz, drained)

Salsa of your choice (15 oz, I used medium)

Cream cheese (8 oz)

Cooked rice (can substitute with tortillas - yum)

In your crock pot, throw in the chicken, salsa, corn, and black beans. You can leave all the juices in there, or none at all. It depends on if you want to drain out the chicken juices or not. If you don't drain your veggies or the chicken, there will be a lot of liquid. The more you drain, the thicker it will be. I partially drained my beans, and drained out as much from the corn as I could. But I didn't drain any of the chicken juices.
Cook this on high for two hours.

After the two hours is when you can drain the chicken juices. Give it a good stir to make sure everything is mixing well. It should be pretty toasty in there, so there may be bits on the side like there was on mine!

You then want to throw in your cream cheese and let it cook for an additional thirty minutes. When time is up, give it a really good stir and break up all that chicken. You can choose to leave it whole if you like, but I loved that every bite of my chicken was covered in that yummy sauce.

Cook your rice according to the directions. You may want to do this step while the cream cheese is brewing. Another awesome option is to pile this yummy goodness into some tortillas. That's the way my Mom made it, and it is YUM. That's also when all the draining comes in handy....other wise it's a total mess. But with rice, it soaks up all those juices and is amazing. Give it a try and tell me what you think! SS loved it and showed it off to his Dad on Facetime while he was on break at work. I can't wait for him to come home and taste it! He's going to absolutely love it (:

Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Apples

A month ago, when I was still living with my parents, I made this yummy dinner! Hubby got me an awesome apple peeler/corer, so I knew this was the perfect time to make this dish I had been saving. My little gadget has come in handy and gotten good use already just from all the apples my SS eats. He likes them without the skin, and likes to help me peel them. Prep that would have taken me probably half an hour or longer with a hand peeler, took literally ten minutes. I was THRILLED. Our bunnies were happy, too, because they got all the yummy peels. They scarfed them up!

I got this recipe off of Pinterest, of course, but after making it, I've tweaked it a bit to how I felt made it better. This also let me use my crock pot for the first time (: So all around, this dinner was full of excitement!

Living at home, there were more people to feed, on top of the huge amount my boys already eat. so I'll give you the smaller ingredients that will feed four to six people.

Ingredients:

5-6 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored (I used 10)

4-6 boneless pork chops (I think I used 6)

Some butter to cook pork chops in

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

Start by heating a skillet over medium high heat, and add some butter. Slap your pork chops in there and cook them for 5-6 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. 

While they're cooking, peel, core, and cube your apples. If you have the little gadget like me, this is super easy to do while the chops are cooking. Put all of your apple cubes in a large bowl and add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss them around and put them in the crock pot. My SS loved this part, too, since I let him mix them while I finished the pork chops.

Then, place your pork chops on top, and cook on low. The recipe I followed said 6-7 hours but that was far too long. I think I cooked mine for 5 hours and the apples were almost mush. Also, if you want some really juicy pork chops, try putting them in the middle of the apples. Mine came out just a bit dry. Experiment with it and watch your apples to see what works best!

I served these with some potatoes and broccoli, and they were a hit. The apples tasted incredible, and probably would have made an awesome apple sauce if cooked longer. Hubby took some to work the next day, and my SS bragged about dinner to everyone. Mostly that he got to help peel the apples, but he still loved the dinner, too. (; I've been waiting to make this again, so let me know how ya'll like it! (:

Nutella and Strawberry French Toast Roll Ups

For my first post, I tried something completely new this morning. I learned how to make French Toast probably before I even started school. I've always loved it, and it's served as a comfort food for me. Meeting my Husband, he loved how I made my "country" french toast in two different ways, and it's been one of his favorites of mine. My stepson loves French toast sticks but loves MY french toast even more. He is such a great eater and loves his fruits and veggies, so strawberries are almost always in the house. This recipe is constantly popping up on my feed on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a go finally!

It was surprisingly a LOT easier than I expected, so don't let it scare you. It didn't take exact measurements, so I'll just tell you what I used. You can always use more or less. My boys eat like they haven't in years, so I always make plenty of food around here.

3 large eggs
Splash of milk
Loaf of white bread
10 strawberries
Nutella
Cinnamon sugar
Optional: Whipped Cream

First off, you want to make sure and wash off your strawberries really well, and chop them up. You want them pretty small, so they will easily roll up. But not so small that they fall out of the ends when you're cooking them. A couple did that to me (:

When you're done, cut off the crusts of your bread as close as possible so they stay a good size. If you have a rolling pin, USE IT. You want to get your bread slices as thin as you can. The fluffier they are, the more they will rip. My first two I made, I didn't squish them at all, and they just ripped with every roll. I don't have a rolling pin since we just moved into our first home and still getting established. So Hubby's muscles came in handy here.

Now this part is all on you....you can put as much or as little Nutella as you want! I put a somewhat thick amount on just one edge of the bread. But, if you REALLY love your Nutella, slap it on the whole piece! I then topped the edge of chocolate with some strawberries, and started rolling! Try to tuck them in on the first roll as best as possible. You should be able to get about three rolls.

Next, you want to make sure you have a pan with vegetable oil over medium - medium high heat depending on your stove. Mine gets pretty hot, so medium worked for me. Mix together your eggs and milk and carefully roll each one in the egg mixture when the oil is hot, and place each roll in the pan. It should sizzle like bacon on a hot pan. It only takes about a minute on each side, so watch them carefully. Mine turned out to become pyramids, so they took three minutes.

As soon as I took them out of the pan, I dusted each side with some cinnamon sugar and let them cool a bit. You could always use just sugar. I then served with left over strawberries and whipped cream! If you've got some chocolate syrup, it would be super good drizzled over the roll ups!

This was a hit with Hubby!! SS wasn't too sure about it since it didn't look like the french toast he's use to me making. But he got a couple down. This is definitely something I can see Hubs and I making together and munching on for breakfast or even dessert. I would definitely recommend them, and like I said, they aren't as scary as they look! You could even mix it up with different fillings! Peanut butter and bananas sounds super yummy....May have to try that next time (;