Crispy Cheez-It Chicken

I really do love to travel. And although I did not have time to explore most cities on the interview trail -- I was able to squeeze in a few explorations (like my Birthday Weekend). I got some extra days in the City of Brotherly Love. I have a family friend who goes to Temple University and learned that area has a TON of food trucks. You can find almost anything -- Koren, Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Ice Cream, Cake, Crepes! It was awesome. For a quick snack, I got a cookies n' creme crepe with Nutella.

Luckily, I happened to come to Philly during restaurant week. I have never done restaurant week but I can't wait to try it next year in Providence/Boston. Well my family friends took me to a restaurant called Barbuzzo. I tried out the restaurant week menu and it was fantastic! I started with the rissotto balls. I have actually made them before but by the time I finished, it was late and I did not have a chance to photograph them :/ Guess I will just have to try to make them again. The best course, of course ;) was dessert. They had a salted caramel budino. Never heard of it before but OH MY! This was so so so yummy! I have been craving it ever since. I have found some copy cats on Pinterest and I am going to attempt to make it soon.

Another random fact for you. My most popular recipe is the Crispy Ritz Chicken. Funny to think that a dessert blog's most popular recipe is a savory dish...SMH. Only me right? Well, I have another one you are all going to LOVE. If you love that recipe you are definitely going to love this recipe. There is NO WAY you can not love this recipe. I mean, it is covered in sour cream and cheez-itz! It is delicious. Especially the crust/coating of this chicken. Do not feel ashamed or guilty if you find yourself scrapping the extra coating off of the baking pan. I sure did and there was no shame in my scrapping game ;) And a bonus: it is super duper easy to make!

CRISPY CHEEZ-IT CHICKEN

From Inspired Dreamer

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 350F Degrees

Pack of chicken breast tenderloins (I had about 12 pieces)*
1 1/2 - 2 c. of sour cream
5 c. of cheez-itz or cheese nips
3/4 c. butter melted

*BREAST tenderloins not regular chicken tenderloins

DIRECTIONS

Grease a large baking tray with cooking spray, butter or shortening. Crush cheez-itz using a food processor or by dumping them into a large ziploc freezer bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. Place crumbs into a shallow dish. Set aside. In another dish, spread the sour cream. I set up my  dishes as follows: sour cream, cheez-its, and finally baking tray.

First completely coat the chicken tenderloin in sour cream and then roll in cheez-itz crumbs. Place the chicken tenderloin onto the baking tray. Repeat for the remainder of the chicken tenderloins. Once all the tenderloins are on the baking tray- sprinkle any non-coated areas with additional crumbs. Drizzle butter over tenderloins. Bake for 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy,

Cheesy Southwestern Chicken and Rice

As I am getting ready for the big move, I knew that one day the stress would hit me and that day has come. I am definitely a ball of nerves. Figuring out the logistics of a cross country move is time consuming, overwhelming and expensive. Did I say expensive? And student? Those two words never really go together. After doing my due diligence about moving options -- I have come to the conclusion that if you want it done right and cost effectively...gotta do it yourself.

To distract myself, I wanted to re-cap some of the fun stuff I got to do while on the interview trail. Like...celebrating my birthday! Thankfully my birthday fell on a weekend I was not interviewing. And the next interview up was in North Carolina, which just happens to be where my cousin lives. He was so sweet and when I landed, he surprised me with an ice cream cake (one of my favs!).

He then took me to this sweet town called Ashville to do some sightseeing but mostly a lot of eating.

First stop was grabbing some brunch. Fried chicken and biscuits, anyone? Yesssss...gotta love my attempt at being healthy with a side of salad to my FRIED chicken HA!

Then we strolled through all the cute little stores -- and by stores I meant dessert stores where I ate till my little birthday heart was content. Birthdays are days meant to be diet free. Where calories are a foreign word and do not exist. A day in which it is impossible to gain weight. You did not get the memo? Glad I told you!

We finished the night at a local gastropub in the city my cousin lives in that had some delicious food. My favorite was the wonton, ahi-tuna tacos with a wasabi glaze. It was so so so drool worthy.

Now to the food. Ever have those days where you look into your pantry and refrigerator and think -- what am I going to make? And I really need to use these up. Well that was me with this recipe. Googled the ingredients that I had and wanted to get rid of, made a few little tweaks and voila ... easy one skillet meal! And did I mention yummy? ;)

Cheesy Southwestern Chicken and Rice

Adapted from Yammie's Noshery

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tbsp. garlic
12 oz. frozen bag of three pepper and onion blend (thawed)
1 3/4 c. corn of frozen corn (thawed)
1 15 oz. can of black beans
2 c. shredded chicken, cooked
1/2 c. salsa
1 packet of taco seasoning
2 1/2 c. cooked rice
1/2 c. sour cream + additional for garnish
1 c. shredded cheese + additional for garnish

Optional: Cilantro or green onions for garnish

DIRECTIONS

In a large skillet melt butter over medium-high heat. Once heated, saute garlic until slightly browned and fragrant, followed by onion-pepper blend, corn, beans and shredded chicken. Cook until warmed through and no residual liquid remains. Stir in salsa and taco seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Fold in cooked rice. Lastly, stir in sour cream and cheese. Garish as desired.

Enjoy,

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

I am not sure if this is a "thing" but one running joke seems to be "in-laws" -- mostly how you are supposed to dislike them in some way. I think I am pretty darn lucky then because I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE my in-laws. I couldn't even imagine changing a thing -- other than relocating them all to California so that my family and the hubby's family can be in the same place. This weekend we went to visit them in Louisiana because the hubby's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary! How amazing is that?

We headed there a day early to squeeze in some extra time with the father in-law (aka: Dad) before we moved and enjoy some good Cajun food! If you haven't tried Cajun food, trust me...you need it in your life. The first night, my Dad took me to a restaurant where I got crawfish and boudin egg rolls. I know! I have never heard of boudin egg rolls before, but it was not as good as you would think because you could barely taste the boudin. And it was drenched in oil. Though it did give me the idea of trying to make a "For the Love of Dessert version" :)

On Sunday before the anniversary party my dad took me to the original Don's Specialty Meats so I could pick up some stuff to take back with us to Texas. He says this store has some of the best Cajun meats you can find (they ship too! So if you do not live in Louisiana like us, but wants some yumminess do not worry). I stocked up on stuffed chicken (with cornbread and rice dressing), jalapeno sausage, boudin, boudin balls, roux, seasoning...the works! And got me some freshly made boudin to enjoy after all that hard shopping ;) #dontjudgeme

In true southern style -- here is a recipe that includes stuffing! There is no rule that says you can only have stuffing on Thanksgiving and if there was, I would break it. I found this recipe for my sister, who wanted some simple meals should could make in the Crockpot since she just bought one (right?! Who "just" buys a Crockpot). Its a super simple, throw it in the Crockpot come home from work and it's done recipe :) The perfect recipe for my super successful, busy big sister. She liked it so much, she shared it with her friends! #win

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

Adapted from Craft Corner

INGREDIENTS

3-4 thawed chicken breasts diced into cubes
1 (6 oz) box of stuffing
1 bag (10-16 oz) of frozen green beans
1 (10 oz) can of cream of condensed chicken soup
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. of milk*
Seasoning (salt, pepper, red pepper flakes)

Use less milk if drier stuffing is desired.

DIRECTIONS

Coat the Crockpot with cooking spray. Evenly distribute chicken cubes on the bottom of the Crockpot. Next, add layer of stuffing and then a layer of green beans.Mix together condensed soup, sour cream, and milk. Pour over the green beans using spatula to evenly spread it out. Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours.

Garnish with preferred seasoning to taste (I added a little bit of red pepper flakes and salt).

Enjoy,

Avocado Chicken Salad

When I first started really getting into blogging and wanted to be a "real blogger" (because that is a thing), I set a goal of posting 6 times a month. Fancy, I know! As my blog grew, I started to become cray about posting. Fun most of the time, a little stressful...yes! Balancing school, home and constantly posting was apparently not in my juggling act because I failed miserably and disappeared for months. So in going back to my roots...I decided to set a similar goal and I will be posting twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays). A schedule for more organization?!?...I love it! It's an self-proclaimed OCD's dream come true!

I thought I would fill you all in on some more fun stuff that went down while I was MIA. Well on June 30th, the hubby and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary! Although marriage is work, I am happy to say that it went by really quickly and I am excited that we are on our third year:) And since we really loved going to Southeast Asia on our first anniversary, we decided this year we would go to Spain. And actually just came back about 2 weeks ago! I thought in the next few posts I could recap some of my travels (I also went to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a conference).

When we came home we celebrated with dinner at a College Station favorite -- the Republic -- and enjoyed some cake.  I had a local bakery remake our second to top tier of our wedding cake! Basically I wanted to celebrate with Ninja back at home :) We actually tried to take a "family picture" and below is what we "got."

[btw: if you didn't notice, I decided to cut my hair]

So -- avocado chicken salad (aka: guacamole chicken salad). It's awesome. I can easily see this as an appetizer  (on these easy homemade tortilla chips -- link to come) or as a sandwich (just like other chicken salad sandwiches). The hubby ate it on both chips (as a snack when he was hungry) and as a meal (like on French bread) for lunch. He really enjoyed it but so did I. I am not really a big chicken salad fan, but this one, I got into. Because it was not sweet or mixed with crazy things like raisins. hahahah. It's super simple to make too! I used some left over rotisserie chicken I had, but you can also use chicken breasts that you cook yourself.

AVOCADO CHICKEN SALAD 

 Recipe adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

2 medium avocados, diced
3 tbsp. mayo
2 tbsp. lime juice
1 small can of Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chilies), drained
2 green onions, diced
2 c. cooked, shredded chicken*
Salt and cilantro to taste

Note: I used left over rotisserie chicken but you can also use cooked chicken breast. Just place it in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on medium-low speed. It will shred the chicken for you. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can shred by hand.

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mash avocados together until no large chunks remain. Mix in mayo and lime juice, stirring until well incorporated. Then add salt and cilantro to taste preference. Finally, using a spatula, fold in the can of Rotel (diced tomato with green chilies), green onions, and chicken until evenly distributed. That's it! You are done!

Serve with a side of tortialla chips or on bread as a sandwich OR grab a spoon and eat this sucker as is ;) No judgement....

Enjoy,

Cheesy Chicken & Dumplings

Major blogger fail. Can I even call myself a blogger when I stop posting for 5 months! CRAY! Okay, I shall-define myself as a spontaneous poster. hahahaha :) Well, what has been up with me in these past few months. A LOT. First of all ::drum roll::.....

I DEFENDED MY DISSERTATION!

Completely worth the drum roll and obnoxious bold-capital letters, right? Super awesome BUT the most tragic part? Because I am studying to be a clinical psychologist, I cannot call myself a doctor until after internship (hence the "pending completion of internship" on the cookie.). The coolest part of defending is being welcomed back (if you don't fail...and let me tell you, while you wait for your committee to deliberate -- time is crawling and every moment seems more painful than the last second), is to be welcomed back as "Dr. ---." Making all those agonizing moments of running participants, data collection, data analysis and writing (100s of pages of writing), so worth it. Well, for me it was just welcome back, hahahaha.

I am really excited about completing another chapter in my life and am looking forward to a whole new one (and terrified). Not only have the last few months been filled with dissertating (totally a word), but really (okay, I am going to sound like a hippie but a little part of me is) -- re-finding who I am, centering myself and relaxing. I really needed these past few months to withdraw and do some "me time." And it has been great for me and my happy. But I promise I did not stop baking and cooking. After all the hubby needed to be fed ;)

Here is a simple and amazingly delicious recipe for cheesy (and I mean cheesy) chicken and dumplings. Its a great way to sneak in the veggies without tasting them. Because I HATE peas. I mean like can't stand them, how did they even genetically evolve -- kinda hate. But you can't taste them and you feel good that you got your serving of veggies on. If you don't like this recipe, I am not sure we can be friends ;) 

CHEESY CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS

Adapted from Pillsbury

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 325F Degrees

1 box of Hamburger Helper -- Cheddar cheese melt

1 2/3 c. hot water 

1 2/3 c. milk 

2 tbsp. butter

2 c. green giant frozen mixed vegetable bag 

1-1.5 c. of mini elbow pasta*

2 c. of cubed chicken (cooked)*

1 (~7.5 oz.) can of Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuits 

Paprika (optional)

Notes: You can use the pasta that came in the Hamburger Helper box. However, I feel that is not enough, and would definitely not be enough to feed the hubby. For chicken, I love using Tysons grilled chicken strips.

DIRECTIONS

In a large skillet or wok over medium heat, combine contents of sauce packet (from Hamburger Helper Box), hot water, milk, butter and vegetables. Heat mixture until boiling. Stir in pasta and chicken. Return to boiling. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer and stir occasionally. Cook until pasta is tender. If the pasta is not tender , but the liquid is low, add 1/3 c. of water and 1/3 c. of milk until tender. 

While the pasta is cooking, cut biscuits into fourths. Once pasta is cooked, place biscuits over hot pasta and place entire skillet in oven. Bake 10-12 minutes until biscuits are cooked through and golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Garnish with paprika (or maybe some extra shredded cheese, if you're a cheese freak like me).

Enjoy,