Chicken Spaghetti

This is such a satisfying family-friendly meal.  Turns out there is something super fun to a 3 year old about twirling spaghetti on a fork and it doesn't just have to be with marinara sauce.  I think that by itself may have sold this dish.  

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat oven to 375

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 small jar diced pimentos
1/3 cup half and half
8 oz Velvetta, diced
1 can health request cream of chicken soup
8 oz spaghetti, cooked and drained (I did half regular and half vegetable)

Mix it all together and put it in a casserole dish.  Bake 375 for 25 minutes

Here's mine.  I'm obsessed with french fried jalapenos and find 

any excuse to put them on top of what I'm eating.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you're having a great day!

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Muffins

These were really good.  This recipe comes from Closet Cooking.  There were no leftovers on the day we made them.  I'm hoping to make them again soon and plan for leftovers that I can freeze so we can have a warm breakfast during the week.

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat the oven to 400

Mix everything together:
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces ham, diced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Divide the mixture between 9 muffin tins that have been sprayed with pam.  The recipe said 12 muffins... but it felt like those muffins be too small.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown

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Nacho Cheese Soup

I tried this soup for the first time at my Mom and Dad's.  It's from the Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Soup and Stews.  It's a good cookbook for a lover of soup and stews.  My only complaint is that I wish there were more pictures.  There's some... but not a lot.  I LOVE to eat food but I also LOVE to look at food.  

The recipe is for the slow cooker but I've made it on the stove and just simmered it for 20 minutes or so and it was just as tasty.

Let's Get Crafty!

Here's what I did:

1 lb ground beef, browned and drained

1 can rotel

1 can Southwestern Corn with the colored peppers included (I like the del monte brand because it's a bigger can than the other smaller brands)

1 can cheddar cheese campell's soup

1 can fiesta nacho cheese campell's soup

2 cups water

Everything into a stew pot and simmer for 20-25 minutes or into a crock pot for 4-6 hours on low.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great day!

Shredded Ranch Chicken

You'll find this recipe all over Pinterest and Facebook called Crack Chicken.  It's all generally the same recipe and you can do it in the Crock Pot or the Instant Pot.  I can't seem to stop using my Instant Pot these days and that's how I made it.

Here it is - all shredded up and ready to layer onto sandwiches.  I've also seen people using it as a dip with chips or crackers.  I'm wondering if celery and carrots might also be tasty with it.

Here's my sandwich.  Of course I needed to add some green chile.

Let's Get Crafty!
4 chicken breasts
4 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons ranch dressing mix (or one packet)
1 8oz block cream cheese
1/4 cup crumbled bacon (I like to cheat and use the real crumbled bacon already ready to go from Costco)

Put the first three ingredients in the instant pot and cook for 40 minutes using the manual setting.  It should only need 15 minutes or so if the chicken is thawed but all of mine was frozen.  That's also 4 cups of frozen chicken stock in the middle.  With everything being frozen - it took a little while to come to pressure and start cooking.

Release the pressure - open it up and add the cream cheese on the top.  Do the manual setting again for only 5 minutes this time.

Release the pressure, add the bacon and shred it all up.  The first picture of the blog is after I've shredded it just before putting it on sandwiches for dinner.  I had leftovers one day for work and just did the chicken on the side with some vegetables next to it.  It was really good leftover too.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Chicken Nacho Casserole

So here's the deal.  I'm going to give it to you straight.  I wanted to make the Chicken Doritos Casserole.  It's Ah-Maz-Ing.  But... I was missing several ingredients (one of which was Doritos) and I didn't want to go to the store.

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat oven to 375

Warm in a saucepan until the velveeta is melted:
12 oz 2% milk velveeta, diced
1 can cream of celery
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can rotel
I think you could add some cooked sausage to this and eat it by itself watching a football game.  Just saying.  Wishing I was watching the Broncos... but an amazing nacho dip none the less.

Here are the order of the layers (use 1/3 of the amount in each layer): 
1/2 to 3/4 bag of tortilla chips (I really like LaFlavorita.  A big part of that might be because a full serving is 70 calories... but I also do really like the flavor and texture of them.)

3 cups cooked chicken, shredded

Nacho cheese sauce

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (I only did this after the bottom layer after the nacho cheese sauce and then as the very top layer.  Because... well... cheese!)

Layered up and ready to hit the oven

Bake 35-40 minutes until the cheese on top is browned

Thanks for stopping by!

Chicken Tacos in the Instant Pot

This is one of those meals that turns into a "choose your own adventure".  Each of us have it a little differently.  The chicken can be a filling to a burrito, taco or topped on a salad.  Generally with something like this for dinner - we have each of the options already on hand and the kids can pick what they want to do.  The win for me is that when the kids are part of the process of picking how it ends up on their plate - they eat more.

Let's Get Crafty!

Toss everything in the Instant Pot:
3 chicken breasts, thawed
1 onion, sliced
2 peppers, sliced
2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
1/2 can low sodium chicken broth

Lock the lid.  Set to manual and adjust the time up or down to get to 25 minutes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Loaded up Chicken Nachos

Good Morning!  It's Super Bowl Sunday!  Even though my team is out of it - I still love to watch the ads and eat delicious food.  We had this for dinner last night and I realized it would be a perfect Super Bowl snack or meal. 

I've broken out three pieces: The chicken, jazzed up sour cream and cheese sauce. 

Let's Get Crafty!

Part 1 - The Chicken:

4 chicken breasts

3 tablespoons taco seasoning (or 1 packet)

1 can rotel

1/2 can low sodium chicken broth

Seal it up in the Instant Pot and cook on manual for 20 minutes.  I did it for 15 minutes and decided it needed a little more and did another 5 minutes.  If you didn't want to use an Instant Pot - you could cook the chicken and then shred it up and saute with the chicken stock and taco seasoning.  I love the "cooked all day" taste and texture you get from the Instant Pot with less hands on time.

The chicken looked and smelled amazing with an almost creamy sauce between the mix of the seasoning with the rotel and chicken stock. 

Once the chicken was shredded up (reserving 1/2 cup of the sauce for the recipe below), I put it back into the Instant Pot and stirred it to get the saucy goodness all over.  We only used half the chicken tonight and I see chicken tacos or a taco salad in our future.

Part 2:  Sour Cream with a Twist
I like to take 1/2 cup sour cream and add some taco seasoning to it for a kick of flavor.  For 1/2 cup - I added maybe 1 tablespoon and mixed it together and set in the fridge to set.

Part 3:  Cheese Sauce
During the 20 minutes the chicken was cooking away in the instant pot - I got the cheese sauce going.
1/2 block velvetta (we use the one made with 2% milk)
The rest of the low sodium chicken stock

I microwaved this in 2 minute increments until it was melted and creamy.
Set it aside until the chicken is done then add:
1/2 cup hot green chiles
1/2 cup of the delicious sauce from the cooked chicken

Here are the extra fixings while layering up the nacho goodness.

From the top left going clockwise: green onions, olives, jalapenos and tomatoes. 

Here's my nachos all plated up with some diced avocado added to the top at the last minute.  

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope everyone has a great day!