Cheesy Spanish Rice and Chicken

I had a hankering for Spanish Rice the other day.  Put that together with the fact that I've felt like I've been running for my life lately but not knowing where I'm going and this is what you get.  I looked up a recipe for Spanish Rice and started planning my meal.  The thought of cleaning more than one pan seemed like just too much for the day and I decided to combine the meal into one pot.  Have I mentioned I hate dishes?

Honey-Soy Glazed Chicken (Slow Cooker)

 I recently joined Pinterest but I don't know what I am doing.  It is a bit intimidating for me.  I kind of feel like I need to hurry and pin a bunch of random things from websites so it looks like I have interests other than cooking.  I have pinned a few things and instead of overwhelming myself decided to just wait until I come across something I like on a website and then I will pin it.  I also wish everyone couldn't automatically see everything.  What if I want to have a private board?  And pin a bunch of weird stuff I don't want people to know about?  I might be a closet weirdo.  Or maybe I want to pin gift ideas and don't want people to see them.  Can you make a board private?  I just don't know enough about the whole situation to feel comfortable I guess.

Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie

{photo updated 3/4/2013}

Every year after Thanksgiving, my mom would make turkey pie with the leftovers.  I never understood the brilliance of it until I was trying to shove a bunch of leftover turkey down the throats of my family.  Everyone loves it on Thanksgiving, but when it gets to be a couple days later, we are all kind of sick of turkey.  It's such a great idea to transform the leftovers into something that makes them forget they are eating leftovers.  I love this pie so much that I often turn it into chicken pot pie when we don't have leftover turkey on hand.  If you have leftover gravy, it's great to use that instead of the chicken broth in the recipe, just add broth to equal the cup and a half.

Teriyaki Chicken

This might be one of the easiest recipes I make and it might also be Tyler's favorite.  When I first started making Teriyaki Chicken, there were quite a few ingredients that went into the teriaki sauce.  I have since realized that it's so much more simple than I was making it and we like it better.  For 2 1/2 years my son was on a gluten free diet and it's hard to find gluten free teriyaki sauce (sometimes it's also hard to find gluten free soy sauce).  This was a recipe we could all eat and we all like it.

Healthier Chicken and Dumplings

{Photos updated 3/10/2013}

I originally saw a version of this recipe on America's Test Kitchen and then got on the Internet to find it.  I made it the original way a few times and it certainly was delicious.  It just seemed like a little too much.  Too much time, too much fat.  The original recipe calls for bone in, skin on, chicken thighs.  Okay, that is something I never have on hand.  I really like to keep recipes down to things I would normally buy and use, so I didn't love having to buy skin-on thighs for this.  You brown the skin on the chicken in batches and then wait for them to cool, remove the skin and then cook them in the stew for an hour and then take them out and get all the meat off the bone, and on and on.  Don't get me wrong, I am totally willing to spend my life in the kitchen if it's necessary.  In this case, I just wasn't sure it was.  I decided I still liked the taste of the dish and the idea of it; I just wanted it to be a bit more streamlined and healthy. (That way I can have dessert too.Ü)  I still recommend the full version because it is really good, but this is the version we make most often.  It can be on the table in about 30 minutes and is much easier to execute.

Chicken Noodle Soup

{photos updated 6/4/2013}

I think I heard once that chicken noodle soup has actual healing powers.  Or maybe I just made that up, I'm really not sure.  But sometimes I just get this idea in my head that I need some.

Like on days when I don't feel great...

Or when the weather is getting cold...

Or if I realize I have all the ingredients for it.

Chicken Broccoli Soup

I love fall.  One of the many reasons is: soup!  Something about soup and fresh bread just gets me.  

This is an easy but tasty soup recipe.

Chicken Broccoli Soup
Ingredients:
1 T oil
1 med onion, chopped
4 cups water (or substitute water and bullion for 4 cups chicken broth)
6 chicken bullion cubes (1 tsp size)
1 cup milk
10 oz  fresh broccoli, steamed and chopped or frozen chopped broccoli
4 chicken tenders (also great with leftover turkey, just chop and add with milk)
1/2 cup rice (optional, if you leave it out, you might want to thicken the soup with shredded cheese)
4 oz cream cheese, cut into cubes
shredded cheese for garnish

Directions:
Heat oil in pan until it starts to smoke, add onion and cook until tender.  Add water, bullion, broccoli, rice, and chicken (I just throw the whole tenders in there frozen).  Cover and cook over med heat until chicken is done.  (about 10-15 minutes)   Remove chicken, recover so rice will continue to cook, shred chicken and return to pan.  Once rice is cooked, add milk heat until almost boiling, turn down heat and add cream cheese, don't boil once cream cheese is added.  Stir to incorporate cream cheese.  Serve with shredded cheese on top. Serves 6.

Great served with Dinner Rolls.

An Amanda Original

Chicken Marsala

 This is one of my favorite recipes.  It's easy to make and so tasty.