Chicken Enchiladas!

Until about two weeks ago my "I'll gladly cook dinner 5-6 times a week" routine was drastically waning. Zach's so grace-filled...he doesn't even care. I mean he cares cause he loves my cooking, but he never cares in a way that makes me feel bad for not cooking. He's a keeper.
 
But, for the health of both of us I decided I should get my butt in gear and start cooking  again. And I've stocked up on the crockpot recipes baby! Throw some stuff in there the night before, turn it on before work, come home from work and voila, dinner....easy peesey!

I'm not Martha Stewart, none of what I've been cooking are my own recipes, but I thought i'd share my main source just in case there's anyone else out there that needs more of that awesome crock pot in their lives. 

Slow Cooker Recipes Galore @ Six Sister's Stuff


On the flip side, here's my stepmom's chicken enchiladas. yum yum yum!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
8 medium sized flour tortillas
Refried beans
Spanish Rice
Black Olives, chopped/sliced
3 Cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1 can green sauce

1. Boil and cube chicken
2. Cook spanish rice per package
3. Spray 9x13 in pan with nonstick stuff and add just a little water
4. Fill tortillas with a spoonfull of beans, rice, and a handfull of chicken. The trick is to fill the tortillas on a plate that has a little water on it. The water on the plate and baking dish keeps the enchiladas really moist.
5. Roll each enchilada and place in baking dish, outside flap down.
6. Pour green sauce over enchiladas. Any spot on tortillas that doesn't get sauce will be crunchy. Don't pour too much or they'll be yuckily soupy.
7. Sprinkle with Cheese and Olives
8. Cover with foil and bake for 350* for 35 minutes.

These are great to freeze and pull out for a quick dinner/lunch.

Biscuits and Chocoloate Gravy

This has been a family favorite since I can remember and my sweet Grandma's southern specialty.  We LOVE having biscuits and chocolate gravy and grammy and papa's. mm mm mm.

I woke up craving this so bad on Saturday morning...bad enough to go to the store in my PJs and bedhead to get some ingredients I was missing. and it was SO worth it!

Ingredients
1/8-1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla

Directions
Whisk cocoa, flour, and sugar together in a bowl.  Pour in milk and whisk together. Transfer this to a pot and cook on medium heat, stirring frequently (stirring becomes more important as it thickens).  Cook 10-15 minutes, until it is the consistency of gravy.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Voila! Server over biscuits.

If you make this and love it like I do, let me know....because most people I talk to have never heard of it or tried it!

Chicken Biscuit Casserole - a recipe

Found another win for Charnock Dinner Time! This is for sure going in our keeper pile.

1/4 cup butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped baby carrots

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 cups chicken broth

1 (10 ounce) can peas, drained

4 cups diced, cooked chicken meat

                    

2 cups buttermilk baking mix

2 teaspoons dried basil

2/3 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Boil chicken and cut into 1 inch cubes.
3. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Cook and stir the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots in butter until tender. Mix in the flour, sugar, salt, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and pepper. Stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil 1 minute, reduce heat, and stir in peas. Simmer 5 minutes, then mix in chicken. Transfer mixture to the prepared baking dish.
4. In a seperate bowl, combine the bisquik and 2 teaspoons dried basil. Stir in milk to form a dough. Roll dough into 8 balls. On floured wax paper, flatten each ball of dough into a circular shape; place on top of chicken mixture.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Cover with foil and bake for 10 more minutes. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over biscuits.

I substituted corn for the peas and yellow peppers for the celery. I halved the recipe and baked it for 25 minutes without foil and 7 minutes with and it turned out great. I wish I had made the full recipe though, it was good enough to eat two days in a row!

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Crock Pot Italian Chicken

Finding a recipe that Zach and I both LOVE is a rare occasion. Being from Ohio, Zach is a steak & potatos kind of guy. He loves anything saucey, creamy, salty, etc. And then there is me, who is pretty much the opposite of all of that. Lactose intolerate means no creamy, saucy meals for me....& according to Zach I like my food "plain." hah! Let's put it this way; if Zach had his way we'd eat Taco Bell every night. If I had it my way the only place I'd shop is Trader Joes & the fruit stand.


So, dinner is interesting sometimes @ the Charnock house. 

The other night I made a new recipe and we both actually enjoyed it! I was so shocked that I had to document it!

Crock Pot Italian Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 packet dry Zesty Italian dressing

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (depending how creamy you want it)

Put the chicken in a crockpot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it. Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat and pour over chicken. Cook on low for at least 4 hours. You can leave it in there all day. We just scooped the chicken out and ate it with rice. You can cube it, shred it, or cut it into strips if you want, too.

Happy Eating!

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Crock Pot Cake!!

Yes, I made cake in a crock pot!! And it was good!
We were a little skeptical, but pleasantly surprised.

You'll need:
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, & salt).

2. In a seperate bowl mix the eggs, milk, oil, & vanilla. After these are combined, wisk in the boiling water.

3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well.

4. Pour the batter into a 13 inch crock pot that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.

5. Turn on LOW for 3-4 hours and voila--divine chocolate cake!

Notes for next time: My cake took about 3 hrs and 45 minutes to bake. It was gooey on the top, but we liked it that way. Add some vanilla ice cream and it is heavenly!

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Red Velvet Brownies (Recipe) !

I LOVE desert! Well, that is an understatment. I seriously adore desert. I have such a huge sweet tooth.  Here's one I made recently thats a keeper.

Red Velvet Brownies

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring
2 tsp pure vanilla extract, divided
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 can of frosting (I jused vanilla, but I'm sure cream cheese frosting would be good too!)

[The original recipe calls for white chocolate homemade frosting. I didn't have the time or ingredients for this so I just used plain ole' vanilla in the can. Still delish!]

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8″x8″ baking pan.

In a small bowl, slowly stir together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla into a thick paste until no lumps of cocoa remain. Set aside. [I would use more food coloring next time for a deeper red]
In another bowl beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then stir in the remaining 1 tsp of vanilla.
Add in the cocoa mixture, then turn the mixer to medium and beat the two mixtures together until they are one uniform color. Slowly add in the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed, just until combined. Do not overmix. You’ll want one uniformly colored (red) batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the brownies. Allow brownies to completely cool in the pan on a baking rack, about 45-60 minutes. 

Frost brownies in the pan, cut into 12 bars, and serve, or remove the entire batch from the pan to a cutting board, cut into 12 bars, frost, and serve.