Slow Cooker Enchilada's

I'm pretty sure that I've never been more thankful for my slow cooker than I have these last few weeks of pregnancy.  It's next to impossible to handle preparing dinner with my pregnant self with Charlotte's "help" these days which leaves us options of eating out, having Jason make dinner, or me making it while Charlotte's asleep.  I am so thankful that I've found some really easy slow cooker meals that I've been able to put together during nap time and have been really good for dinner!  Jason is great at helping me out, but I hate to ask him to make complicated dinners as soon as he gets home from work so this has been our life saver.

This is, yet another, recipe that I found on Pinterest.  You should definitely check out my Recipe board on there if you need some new ideas.  Please note on this recipe that I didn't use any meat.

Slow Cooker Enchilada's

1/2 yellow onion, diced small
1/2 bell pepper, diced small (any color)
1 16-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cheese, shredded and divided - we like monterey jack
2 16-ounce jars of your favorite salsa
12 6”-8” tortillas, flour or corn
Optional: 1 cup leftover meat - chicken, pork, hamburger, or shredded beef

In a medium bowl, mix together the onion, pepper, black beans, corn, spices, meat (if using), and just 1/2 cup of the cheese. Pour about a cup of salsa (half a jar) into the bottom of the slow cooker and spread it around evenly.

Scoop about 1/3 cup into one of the tortillas, roll it up, and nestle it into the bottom of the crock pot. Repeat with the half of the remaining filling, rolling tortillas until the entire bottom of of the crock pot is filled. Spread another cup of salsa over this layer and sprinkle it with another 1/2 cup of cheese.

Continue with the remaining filling and tortillas to create a second layer. Top with another cup of salsa, but reserve the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese for later. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2-4 hours. In the last 15 minutes of cooking, sprinkle the leftover cheese over the top and let it melt.

Serve the enchiladas with the remaining salsa. Leftovers will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

This recipe from Pinterest is very similar to the Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken that I posted a while ago.  The main differences are the addition of corn and that you put the cream cheese in the crock pot from the beginning.  This gives the dish a little more creaminess since the cheese has been in the entire time and also a little healthier feel since there is corn in the dish.  Both are great and I'll probably go back and forth on which variation I cook depending on whether I have corn in the pantry or not!

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

One package of chicken breasts (or more)

8 oz of Cream Cheese

1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of Corn, drained and rinsed

1 can of Rotel

1. Put chicken in crock pot.

2. Put cream cheese over chicken -- cutting into blocks to spread over the entire area.

3. Put in the black beans, corn, and rotel.

4. Cover and cook -- 6 hours on low, or 3 hours on high.  Stir periodically if possible.

5. Serve over rice or on tortilla's.

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

One of the nicest things about Pinterest is that sometimes you not only find a good recipe but a good blog.  This is one such find.  Mama and Baby Love is a blog I stumbled upon and while I haven't spent a whole lot of time browsing it, it looks like a great blog and has some good recipes!  

This one is a freezer slow cooker one that I made recently and that we really enjoyed.  Here are some of my notes on it:

- I split it into two portions like she describes, but one portion was really just enough for the three of us.  If you have more than two adult eaters and one (very small portioned) child eater I would make the entire recipe for one meal.

- As I chopped I split into a gallon bag to go in the freezer and put the rest straight into the crock pot to cook.  Because of this I only cooked the crock pot portion on low for 5ish hours and it was plenty done.

- I might substitute regular potatoes (or half regular and half sweet) next time because I'm not a big sweet potato fan and this dish is really sweet potato heavy.

- I will also probably use regular chicken breasts next time.  It was different to use the drumsticks but I prefer less bones on my plate.  :)

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.

To cook, take bag out of freezer to thaw for 30 minutes then dump in slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.  Or, simply put in the slow cooker fresh and cook for less time.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Yet again, another Pinterest find.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out Pinterest and don't mind being sucked into a bottomless pit of ideas, go and check it out.  It's amazing...and a huge time waster....but still, amazing!

When I saw the picture that came with this pin I knew I wanted to try it.  I've been kind of blah about breakfast foods recently and have been jumping back and forth to things that only really sound good for a day or two.  So I really wanted to try this.  One negative about this cake is that it's hard to have all the ingredients on hand to make it any time.  It calls for buttermilk and unsalted butter which aren't staples at my house (the unsalted butter should be, but hasn't been).

So I made plans to pick up what I was lacking at home but then couldn't find a good time to make it.  Another downside is that it's not a really simple recipe so it wasn't something that I could simply whip up in the morning unless I wanted to get up and make it way before Charlotte got up and, lets face it, at 30 some odd weeks pregnant, that's not going to happen!

Finally, Jason suggested that he'd watch Charlotte after dinner so that I could make it then and just reheat what I wanted to eat each morning.  Stellar idea!  I started cooking and after a few measurement problems (I am pregnant remember and sometimes counting to 7 is hard!) I finally got it cooking.  It took a little longer than the 35 minutes the recipe called for but once it came out it looked delicious.  Jason and I had it for dessert that night and it was fantastic.  The next morning I heated up two pieces for Charlotte and I but Charlotte wouldn't touch it so she missed it and that left more for Jason and I!

I would highly recommend this recipe.  It's a really dense cake but it's not too sweet and perfect for breakfast or for a more tempered dessert.  It was good reheated for about 40 second in the microwave in the morning's but was also great fresh out of the oven.  Next time I might mix it the night before and bake it in the morning, but either way it's a great dish!

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Makes 1 square dish

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature

7/8 cup + 1 T sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter with 7/8 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.  Fold in the blueberries.

4. Grease a 9 inch square pan with non-stick spray.  Spread batter into pan.  Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Bake for 35 minutes (or more).  Check with a toothpick for doneness.  Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken, Bacon, and Avocado Quesadilla's

This is another Pinterest recipe but it actually comes from Kevin and Amanda's blog but I must have missed it when it was posted.  I love avocado's and chicken and bacon and cheese so these sounded perfect to me!  They ended up being superb!  The butter that you cook the tortilla's in added such a nice flavor to the quesadilla's and I felt a little healthy about them since they had the avocado's in them.  Like anything that you cook immediately before serving, they were a little stressful putting them together in the skillet but with my "helper" Charlotte we got them taken care of and enjoyed them for dinner.  I highly recommend this recipe if you're looking for something that's pretty easy (30 min start to finish) and is really good.  Charlotte even enjoyed eating them until she realized that she was eating avocado's and started saying "I can't like a-cado!"

Sidenote: I took some shortcuts from Amanda's recipe so this is my version.  Her version is linked on the post though if you want to be a real cook and do it all her way!

Chicken, Bacon, and Avocado Quesadilla's

Makes 4 quesadillas from 10" tortillas - 1 quesadilla per tortilla

1 package pre cooked chicken

8 strips bacon (we do the microwave kind)

1 avocado

Cheddar Cheese

4 Tortilla's

Butter

1. Cut chicken into bite size pieces.

2. Cook bacon until crumbly and crumble it.

3. Cut avocado into squares.

4. Warm chicken in skillet for a few minutes -- it's precooked so you're just getting it warm.  Put it back in the bowl you were holding it in originally.

5. Put 1/2 tablespoon of butter in the skillet.  Once it melts most of the way and gets foamy put the tortilla in the skillet and get it coated with butter.

6. Arrange chicken, bacon, avocado, and cheese on half of the tortilla.

7. Use tongs to fold the tortilla in half.

8. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes per side until both sides are golden brown and the cheese is melted.  (I use a cake spatula and a regular spatula to turn my quesadilla's over so as not to tear them up.)

9. Remove quesadilla onto plate or pan and stick in the oven (either off or on very low) to maintain the warmth of the quesadilla.

10. Repeat steps 5-9 starting with putting more butter in the skillet until all of your quesadilla's are made.