The Amazing Little Timer

Here it is. The Amazing Little Timer.  I would recommend every person who does any cooking, baking, or timing of anything invest in one of these little things. And by invest, I mean a whole $3!

It is so easy to use, it's not worth very much so I am not paranoid about it breaking, and it has a really loud buzz so that I can set it in the kitchen, go into another room and still hear it when the time is up.

Plus, it seems like something I've seen in a lot of kitchens growing up, so i feel all growed up just having one!

:)

Green Chicken Enchiladas. Yum!

I think that something obviously must be going on here, because so far every recipe i've tried has turned out...delicious!  I guess it's because I am doing things so simple you'd have to be really distracted to mess up :)  I recently read a post by Tatum Norris on FB who said "I often cook straight from online recipes, and always read the reviews to get a good feel for it first. It just kills me when a reviewer says that they tried the recipe, but substituted the flour, sugar, and milk with oatmeal, pepper, and orange juice, and it turned out terribly, so it deserves no stars. I say if you do more than tweak it, don't rate it."
I agree with this wholeheartedly! Also, some people tweak it so much and then rate it with 5 stars.  How can I know which recipe to follow?  And on another note, sometimes all the ways they tweak it just overwhelms me to death.  I'm a beginner cook here.  When I look at a simple recipe, I want it to stay simple. 
This was a slight rant, and also kind of hypocritical because I seem to be tweaking every recipe I'm trying here on this blog.  So, I guess if my tweaking gets too crazy just laugh and say i'm like the pot calling the kettle black. 

So, I tried out some green chicken enchiladas. So so so good.  And so so so easy.  Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 12 (10 inch) flour tortillas

1 (8 ounce) package shredded Monterey Jack cheese 1 (19 ounce) can green enchilada sauce

Directions:

1.	In a pot with enough water to cover, boil the chicken 25 minutes, or until juices run clear. Drain, cool, and shred.
2.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
3.	Fill each tortilla with equal amounts of chicken and cheese, reserving 1/4 cup cheese for topping. Roll tortillas to form enchiladas. Arrange enchiladas in the prepared baking dish. Cover with the enchilada sauce.
4.	Bake enchiladas 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Top with reserved cheese, and continue baking 5 minutes, until cheese is melted. First item of business, like previously mentioned I always prefer to cook my chicken in a saucepan rather than boiling it.  This should be... Helfpul Hint #4: In all instances possible, cook your chicken in a saucepan rather than boiling it in water.  Always seems to turn out better! I like the flavor and texture much better AND it doesn't seem to get overcooked as much.  So for this recipe, I cut up the chicken into cubes and threw it in a saucepan with lemon juice, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, and paprike.  If you don't have those spices, not to worry! It turns out great without.  However, I would recommend getting those at some point because they add some good flavor to quite a few recipes.  Also to note, 12 tortillas is way way too many.  The max I could fill with a decent load of chicken and cheese was 8.  And thats a lot anyway so i'd go with that.  If possible, buy the brand Las Palmas green enchilada sauce.  It seems to have the best flavor and it is the perfect thickness! Since this is the main ingredient, I don't know if i'd go with any other random brand. I didn't have 8 oz of monterey cheese, but i mixed what i had with cheddar and it was awesome.  And like all recipes so far, this had plenty of leftovers! Have fun. P.s. Do NOT add more than the 19 oz of enchilada sauce.  When looking at the enchiladas covered with the sauce, they look a little...bare.  However, trust me on this! If you add more sauce, the tortillas just get really soggy and the texture is unbearable.  Air on the side of too little in this case.

Salsa Chicken Rice Casserole

 Hi! I guess I'm on a roll because I don't think i'll usually be cooking things so frequently.  But! I'm pleased to say that this meal turned out AMAZING.  Two thumbs up! It is actually the second time i've made it, and it is just as good the second time.  I think one of the best things about this meal for me and Evan is that it is a lot of food which means a lot of left overs.  And it reheats wonderfully.  It is pretty easy prep, but it does take about an hour to get your meal.  Worth it!
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups uncooked white rice 2 2/3 cups water 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups mild salsa

Directions:

1.	Place rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
2.	Meanwhile, place chicken breast halves into a large saucepan, and fill the pan with water. Bring to a boil, and cook for 20 minutes, or until done. Remove chicken from water. When cool enough to handle, cut meat into bite-size pieces.
3.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
4.	In a medium bowl, combine Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheeses. In a separate bowl, mix together cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, onion, and salsa. Layer 1/2 of the rice, 1/2 of the chicken, 1/2 of the soup and salsa mixture, and 1/2 of the cheese mixture in prepared dish. Repeat layers, ending with cheese.
5.	Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until bubbly.

So, first of all I came from a family that steered clear of onions.  So my personal preference is to have less onions if possible.  I used 1/2 of an onion for this meal and it tasted great!  Also, the first time I made it I made as written and it seemed to be a lot of unnecessary dirty pans.  So this time I made it like this: I put the chicken in the skillet with the onion and browned them both at the same time. This also helps to make sure the onions are not crunchy! Then I added the salsa and soups to the chicken and simmered till chicken was done.  As far as the rice and cheeses go, I did those the same and layered the same.  I always like my chicken done in the skillet if possible.  Boiled chicken seems to get very chewy in my opinion.  The first time I made this, I didn't have a whole thing of salsa, so I used about 1 cup of salsa, and I didn't see a big taste difference.  Improvising works well with a recipe like this! This recipe can feed up to 6 people or in our case, 2 with a whole schlode of leftovers!!

I don't know if anybody has tried the previous basil chicken pasta recipe but *warning* it uses garlic, and my hands have smelled like garlic ever since.  I have washed my hands too many times, and I even shampooed my hair twice to no avail.  I love using garlic in recipes, but if my hands have to smell like this, Evan is never going to want to be near me! So I have 

Helpful Hint #3 - to remove the garlic smell from your hands, rub your hands with any stainless steel utensil!! It works!!! Baking Soda also works (no surprise there...)

Fun Fun! Thanks for reading!

Basil Chicken and Pasta

All I can say is SUCCESS!!! I was a little unsure of how this was going to turn out because it takes very few and very basic ingredients but me and Evan both give it two thumbs up. 
Here is the original recipe: (my further comments at the bottom)

Ingredients:

1 (12 ounce) package rotini pasta 2 tablespoons butter 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch cubes 3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 teaspoons dried basil 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 Directions:

1.	In a large pot with boiling salted water cook rotini pasta until al dente. Drain.
2.	Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt the butter or margarine. Add the chopped chicken and garlic, saute until lightly brown and juices run clear. Stir in the ground black pepper, dried basil, heavy cream, and grated Parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.
3.	Toss drained pasta with basil sauce and serve immediately. Ok so to start off with, my newest discovery that is a very useful tidbit of information is... HELPFUL HINT #1: 1 lb of chicken is the equivalent of 2-3 chicken breasts. Of course, this is not exact because the size of chicken can vary but use your best guess.  I used two frozen chicken breasts and it turned out perfect.  Which leads me to HELPFUL HINT #2: When defrosting the chicken, take it out when it is still slightly frozen.  It makes cutting it SO MUCH EASIER!!! Maybe these are things that all ya'll know, however like previously mentioned i'm a newbie cook.  I'm happy to say that the second hint I discovered all by myself :).  When we were grocery shopping last night Evan was in charge of getting the Heavy Whipping Cream.  To him, whipping cream and heavy whipping cream were equivalent.  However, I am pleased to say that i did in fact use regular whipping cream for this recipe and it turned out FABULOUS!! Plus, it just so happens to be more healthy so boom bam baby.  On the healthy note, i also substituted 2 Tablespoons of olive oil instead of butter and it worked out just fine.  I wanted the sauce a little thicker so I doubled the parmesan cheese.  As previously mentioned, this recipe turned out fabulous! It had flavor, but was mild enough that we could each eat a whole plateful.  Definitely something I'll be making in the future.  And to top it all of, it was sooo easy.  The only preparation was the chicken.  Thats my kind of meal! (We did have more noodles than sauce left over, so if I were making for more people I would double the sauce. For us it was perfect.)