foodie food food

Here's some yummy stuff we've been munching on lately!

'

Baked potato soup...yum!  For Christmas, Austin's mom got me a crock pot, and since then I have been searching the depths of the Internet to find some good recipes.  This was my first attempt at a crock pot recipe.  I found it here, and it was scrumptious! 

Cheesy chicken rice bake from The Tasty Kitchen.  I've made this recipe before, and I made it again because it was so good the first time.  The second go at this casserole of rice-y, cheesy, chicken-y goodness was also a success!  

This is something that Austin and I came up with on our own.  Here's how the conversation went:

Austin: "Hey we should make like a caesar salad with blackened chicken on it."

Me: "Ok, well we can just get some chicken breasts and some blackened seasoning, and then use the grill pan to cook the chicken.  While the chicken's cooking I'll chop up some-"

Austin: "Alright, you just do whatever you wanna do...I'll eat it."

I'll post the recipe for this salad soon...it was delicious! 

Chili!  The perfect thing to eat during these cold winter months.  Austin and I came up with our own chili recipe using a collection of other people's chili recipes.  It's SO easy to make, and comes together relatively quickly.  Here's what we do:

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

1 chopped onion

2 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 can diced tomatoes/rotel

1 can tomato paste

1 can chili beans, undrained (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, combine the ground beef and onion.  Sauté for about 5 minutes, until beef is browned.  Drain excess fat.  Add the chili powder, garlic, bay leaf, cumin, tomatoes, tomato sauce and salt/pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the beans and heat through.  

Herb roasted chicken (using my poultry 3-pack!) I got the recipe for this from a guest blogger on the pioneer woman's website.  My pictures do not look as pretty as his, but this chicken didn't make it from cookie sheet to beautiful platter.  No way that's happening when I had two boys ready to tear into this baby as soon as I pulled it from the oven. 

This salad recipe is also from Ryan, the pioneer woman guest blogger, and it's the one I was telling y'all about in my last post.  It's delicious and very boy friendly (goat cheese and all)!

I'll round this post out with this BBQ chicken pizza from the pioneer woman.  After tasting this pizza, Austin proclaimed that it was "one of the best things I've ever made".  I would definitely recommend this dish, and I'm pretty sure you should make it as soon as possible.

With that delish pizza we had a quick bleu cheese salad.  I chopped up a head of lettuce, two tomatoes, some croutons, and some bleu cheese dressing.  Quick.  Simple.  Yummy!

I would recommend all of the above recipes.  None of them are extremely difficult, and they come together pretty quick!  If I had to pick my fave it would be that BBQ chicken pizza.  That thing was delish.  AND the pizza dough recipe makes 2 pizzas, so anytime I want I can make this baby again, and I already have the dough, yo.

This week I'm planning on making a classic Mexican dish, some comfort food, and another crock pot creation.  Austin and I are also going on a date to a restaurant that is supposed to be great.  I'll be back to tell y'all all about it!