Balsalmic Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

Man, tonight's dinner was AMAZING. I'm pretty impressed with myself. This was my first dinner where I made sure it followed the Hormone Diet detox guidelines. This was a healthy, tasty, and filling dinner.

Sorry for the crappy picture. It looked better on my phone.

This is such an easy recipe! Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 45 min to 1 hour.
Balsamic Chicken:
- Chicken (enough for who you are feeding)
-1 can of diced tomatoes
- balsamic vinegar
- diced onion (I always keep some frozen in my fridge)
- Basil
- Oregano
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- garlic salt
- pepper

1. Put chicken breasts in a pan. Top with garlic salt and pepper. Pour some diced onion on top. (This gives it nice flavor). I always have a bag of diced onions in my freezer. I just took it out and shook it over the chicken.
2. Pour can of diced tomatoes on top of chicken. Pour balsamic vinegar on top of the tomatoes and chicken. Be generous, but don't over do it. It'll flavor the tomatoes nicely so they can be eaten as well.
3. On top of the tomatoes and vinegar, sprinkle on some basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. It may seem like a lot of herbs, but it'll be worth it. I didn't measure it out, maybe 1 tsp of each. The flavors seep into the tomatoes and then down to the chicken It''ll look soupy in the pan, but it's ok! The chicken will be moist and have all that yummy flavor sucked up into it.
4. Cook for 45 min to 1 hour at 350 degrees or until done

This might be my new favorite potato dish!
Rosemary Sweet Potatoes:
- Olive oil
- Sweet Potatoes
- Rosemary
- Onion
- Green Onion

1. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them up and put them in a pan. Sprinkle with olive oil and shake them around in the pan. The oil helps crisp the potatoes. Sprinkle some onion on the potatoes, just like how you did with the chicken.
2. Cut up a green onion and put it on top. I only did one sweet potato, and one green onion. It may seem like a lot of onion, but the onions and potatoes get crispy from cooking in the oil and they become almost sweet. The onion really accents the sweet potato. Top with rosemary.
3. Cook for 45 min to 1 hour at 350 degrees.

I put both the chicken and the potatoes in the oven at the same time. Serve with salad. These are 2 recipes that I am going to be making again! I got the approval from the husband, he liked them too! These certainly don't taste like "diet" food! Both were so easy to throw together and the dishes complimented each other very well!

- SamiMae

Pita Pizzas

I got this great idea off of pinterest to make pizzas on pitas. So, at Costco a few days ago, I got some yummy pita bread. This little pizza, which was quite tasty and filling had:

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Cheese
• Green Onion 
• BBQ sauce

This would have been great with veggies too! Just pop it in the oven until the cheese is melted. It's great for a night when I really don't want to cook!

- SamiMae

Yummy Salad

Sunday night, we had a bit of extra lettuce, apple and avocado. I whipped up some chicken to top it with. So, I turned it into a salad. I wish I had a cucumber, red onion, and cherry tomatoes. It was tasty even without that stuff though.. I put a bit of raspberry vinaigrette on it  and it was quite tasty. 

- SamiMae

Haystacks with Veggies

So last night as I was thinking of what to cook, I found a recipe that had broccoli in it and looked really good. But after looking at the ingredients, I realized its just haystacks with broccoli in it. lol.

But, I still made it. It was tasty. I added some garlic and onion seasonings in it to give it a bit more flare.

- SamiMae

Cilantro, Lime and Garlic Chicken

So, I bought some cilantro this week and wanted to try to use most of it. So, I gave this idea a shot! It was risky and I didn't know if it'd taste good, but it worked!


Ingredients:
- Chicken
- Chili Powder
- Cumin
- Garlic
- Lime
- Cilantro
- Green onions
- Vegetable Oil



It's super easy. :)

1. Put a little bit of oil in a pan and spread it around the pan. Start heating it up while you put your chicken in (I used frozen chicken breasts).

2. Sprinkle some cumin and chili powder on it. I went really light with mine, afterwards, I realized I could have put some more on.

3. Sprinkle on the garlic and green onions as well. These become sauteed in the pan with the chicken.

4. Squeeze 1/4th a lime on it. I went easy, you can customize how you'd like.

5. Cover and let cook for a while.

6. Just before it's completely cooked, turn chicken over to cook the other side.

7. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro on top, cover. Turn off heat and let the chicken sit for about 7 minutes so it can absorb the seasonings.

Pretty simple ingredients

Green onions, garlic, cumin and chili powder

Final product. YUM!

I served this with the Cilantro Ramen Noodles. The Cilantro in the meal wasn't overpowering at all.

It's pretty easy. You really can't screw this up. Adjust the spices to whatever you prefer. I went easy because I'm still learning the strength of some of my spices.


- SamiMae

Homemade Bean and Chicken Burritos!

Today I had the hardest time trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner. I cruised Pinterest for quite a while and gathered a few ideas. Finally, I decided to make homemade bean and chicken burritos.These burritos were delicious because - the tortillas were homemade, the inside was kept simple.

Some times, things are better and tastier when kept simple. This dish was one of those. I've been perfecting my tortilla making, so they were soft and flexible and oh so flavorful, way better than store bought. Even though there is no extra seasoning involve in this stupidly simple dish, it had a LOT of flavor. You can spice it up however you like with any extra spices or keep it mellow.

You'll laugh when you hear the inside mixture. A drained can of pinto beans, and a drained can of chicken. Ya, that's it. Nothing else. I drained both cans, put them together in a pot on the stove and warmed them up. Wrapped up inside a tortilla with a little bit of cheese, sour cream and salsa if you like, these things were AMAZING. Better than any frozen bean burrito and belly filling delicious for homemade.

I also made homemade guacamole again, (which was EVEN better than before.), and Spanish rice. (Super easy, see recipe here)


Ingredients: 
- Can of chicken (or cooked chicken breasts)
- Drained pinto beans
- Tortillas
- Cheese
- Sour cream (optional)
- Salsa (optional)

1. Make/ warm tortillas
2. Drain chicken and pinto beans. Warm up on stove.
3. Load it all up and dig in. :)

Doesn't get better than that. Homemade, healthy, fast, simple, cheap. Altogether this meal cost me probably less than $5 and it'll get us both lunch tomorrow as well! :) Trevor and I ate way to much! So tasty!

It's to easy not to try it!

- SamiMae

BBQ Chicken Tin Foil Dinner

This was another original. Not to complex by any means though. It was quite tasty, completely healthy (other than the BBQ sauce), and I had everything on hand. It's similar to my favorite BBQ pineapple quesadillas .

Ingredients:
- Chicken tenderloins
- Pineapple
- Green or red bell pepper
- Green chilis (I used a tiny bit from a can, optional)
- BBQ sauce
- Onion (Optional)

- Tin Foil.

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Put chicken on tinfoil, top with pineapple, green chilies, about 3 slices of green pepper, a few slices of onion. Top with BBQ sauce. Wrap it up.
3. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour.

Pretty customizable. Use whatever you have at home!

In the last 10-15 minutes this had to cook, I prepared an super easy and quick stir fry. I LOVE stir frys 

Stir fry: 

I cut up 1 zucchini and 1 squash. You can add in peppers or other veggies like broccoli. I cooked them in a bit of canola oil and topped with Mrs. Dash seasoning. Quick, simple. Tasty. Healthy.

This was a favorite. Quick and easy. It was perfect for a weeknight. I love meals that I can put in the oven and continue on doing my own thing. The BBQ sauce is pretty liquidy after it comes out, but the chicken was so moist! I'm making this again. 

- SamiMae

Lick the Bowl - Chicken Enchilada Pasta

This was an AMAZING meal. So good, that I didn't manage to get pictures of the final product. Hahaha. This one is a MUST. It was super easy, and it tasted so good! I got the idea off of Pinterest, but did mine quite a bit different. View the original recipe here.

This is better then hamburger helper, and probably quicker. I'm so excited about this meal, I was worried, and experimented. I also had to feed this to my mother-in-law. I was hoping it'd turn out edible, but it is probably one of my new favorite. I'm a huge fan of enchilada's and this just took it to a whole new level.  Are you ready?

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts (or a can of chicken. I did 2 breasts, and the flavor and texture were great.)
- 1 can of enchilada sauce
- Noodles. (I used bowtie)
- Sour Cream
- Cream cheese
- Diced onion, or minced (Optional.)
- Crushed garlic, or garlic powder. (Optional.)
- 1-2 tablespoons of veggie oil.
- Shredded cheese. (Optional.)
- Green onions. (Optional.)


Yup, that's it. You can add any seasonings you'd like. I really like the enchilada sauce that I use. I don't put amount sizes because it differs for everyone.  Now, I'll explain my process.

1. Cook the chicken breasts in some vegetable oil. Add in some diced onion and garlic while it cooks. It adds great flavor! If you are using a can, you can skip this step.

2. Boil your water, and begin cooking your noodles.

3. Warm up enchilada sauce. When I make my enchilada I use this:

This stuff is a small brand I've never heard of, but this is liquid gold in a can. Amazing heavenly goodness. I found this at Winco I believe. I need to pick up some more, because we use it so much.

So, I cooked this, it was a little spicy, and my husband and mother in law are a bit sensitive to heat. So that's where a couple scoops of sour cream come in handy. Well, that wasn't quite enough. So I added in a few tablespoons of cream cheese. Feel free to get creative and try adding different spices to yours. I continued to heat this on the stove. Then, this mixture did something awesome! It began to thicken and...kind of enlarge in size. I could just tell by looking at it, that it was ready to get dumped on my noodles!

4. Dump over noodles, stir. Top with cheese and green onions. I love green onions, so for me, those really made the dish. This dinner had so much flavor! It was gobbled down and almost gone by the time dinner was over. Everybody had a nice helping of seconds.

Top with some green onions and cheese.

Again, this dish was so good, I didn't get a final picture because it was so good and I didn't have leftovers. I was so excited about this meal that I forgot to take a picture before I began eating!

I served this dish with a salad and a side of veggies. Super quick and cheap meal to make. I'm doing this again!

- SamiMae

Rotel and Cream Cheese Chili!

This recipe was amazing! This was probably a top 10 dinner. There was a punch of flavor in this dish! This is another meal that I found off of Pinterest. You can view the original recipe here.


This was a crock pot meal that I put in before church. When we got home, the house smelled WONDERFUL! This would have been a great chili to put in my bread bowls. I made last week. This meal is so easy, crack open some cans, shake a few bottles and forget about it. :)


Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts (I use 2 tenderloins)
- 1 can of Rotel
- 1 can of corn
- 1 can of black beans
- Cumin
- Chili powder
- Ranch mix packet (I only had half a packet of the spicy ranch. Still turned out great!)
- Cream Cheese
- Onion powder


In crock pot, put in chicken, rotel, corn, black beans, ranch mix packet. Sprinkle on some cumin, onion powder, and chili powder. Let it cook as long as necessary. Mine cooked on low for 5ish hours. I drained my corn and black beans, if you do that, add a bit of extra water. I added about 1/2 cup.

Once it's cooked and you're ready to eat, stir in some cream cheese. I probably used about 3 oz. Then dish up! Top this with cilantro, sour cream, and cheese. YUMMY! I had 2 big helpings of this. It's perfect for a cold day.

I only took one picture, because today was Fast Sunday, and we don't get out of church until 3:30. So I was starving. :) I could hardly top it with sour cream and cheese fast enough. I did grab out some cilantro and put it in mine as well. It added a nice dynamic to the flavor. This dish can be a bit spicy. It was warm, but not burning. The cheese and sour cream helps, for sure.

Enjoy!

-SamiMae

Asian Haystacks!

So, I have Hawaiian haystacks, I have Mexican haystacks. Now I have Asian haystacks. :) This recipe is fantastic! I'm so making this again. I found the original recipe on Pinterest, but changed it around a little bit.

Ingredients include:
- Chicken breasts (I use tenderloins)
- Mr. Yoshida's marinade sauce
- Pineapple and juice
- Brown sugar
- Garlic
- Green onions
- Water
- Rice
- Cornstarch (To thicken sauce)


This is a super simple meal. It can easily be a crock pot meal, but I just prepared mine in the oven.

1. Set oven to 350 degrees
2. Put chicken in a casserole dish, along with:
     - About 1/4 cup of Mr. Yoshida's
     - 3/4 cup water
     - Sprinkle some brown sugar over the chicken (Go easy on the brown sugar, I did about 2 tablespoons, but I only cooked 2-4 chicken tenderloins)
     - Pour some pineapple and juice on top.
     - Crush some garlic on top, (or whichever way you use garlic)
     - Cut up 2 green onions and put it in as well
3. Make sure the meat is covered with sauce.
4. Cook about 45 minutes to 1 hour


In the last few minutes that it's cooking, there are a few other things we can do to prepare. Cook any side dishes or desert that you'd like. Make sure to get some rice cooking (whether you use 5 minute rice or steam it, it doesn't matter).

During this time, you can also take about 1/4th cup of cornstarch and dissolve it in about 1/4th cup of water. I've never used cornstarch before, so it was neat to try this! Stir it and it should dissolve pretty quick.

Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out. Cut/shred chicken into small pieces. Put the chicken and the sauce in a small pot and bring to a boil. After it's boiling, then pour in cornstarch. Stir. It will quickly thicken in to a "sweet and sour" sauce thickness. Then, serve this lovely mixture over the rice and Ta-Da! Dinner is served!

Note: Mine was really sweet, almost like a dessert. I would ease up on the brown sugar, go more for the pineapple flavor. I would have added a bit more garlic in it too than what I did. This was an easy weeknight meal that could be done in the crock pot and can be adjusted for any size of crowd! Give it a try!

See the chunks of pineapple?! YUM! 

The green onions are still in there as well. 

Happy cookin!

- SamiMae

Homemade Fajitas

I love fajitas. Whenever we got to Chilies, that's what I get. So today, I decided to make some, to go with my homemade tortillas. I used the Six Sisters recipe. It was pretty good. I think next time I'll do it a bit differently. I stuck pretty true to the recipe on this one. I love using my cute little crock pot, that's why I chose this recipe.

Ingredients:
- Chicken (I used 4 tenderloins)
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can diced green chilies
- onion
- bell peppers (I used red and green for color.)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- chili powder
- cumin
- garlic powder
- dried oregano
- salt
- tortillas

Crock pot recipes are the best, toss everything in, (Except the tortillas), and let it cook on high for 2-3 hours. I didn't have guacamole or pico de gallo, but I had cheese, lettuce and sour cream (which is what I normally put on it. :) I have to say, I was pretty pleased with the recipe. My bell peppers and onions were frozen previously, so I think that effected the quality a bit, but still good. Next time, I'll play with the spices a bit more.

First time making homemade tortillas, not bad

Still steaming. YUMMY!
(These pictures are all taken with my phone.)

Going on my second...YUM! 

-SamiMae

Chicken and Veggies

I love dinners that require little prep time. This was another dish that was delicious and took very little time. It was simple and filling with a burst of flavor. It's super simple. Are you ready for this?!

1. Wash and cut up 3 small russet potatoes
2. Pull out 3-4 chicken tenderloins
3. Drain can of green beans
4. Put in a casserole dish. Potatoes on one side, chicken in the middle, green beans on the other side.
5. Top it all with Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning and a little bit of butter
6. Cook 1 hour at 375.

This was simple and perfect. It took me maybe 15 minutes to prepare, and then I could go about doing other things while it cooked! (Like cleaning the house. :)

Everything is raw in this picture. The only oil in this dish, was the little bit of butter I used. I think I had about 2-3 Tablespoons that I used. I just cut it up small. 

Here is the finished product! YUM!

- SamiMae

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti Squash

Tonight, I made a super yummy meal. This is one that I've wanted to make for a while. I always keep enchilada stuff on hand. Beef or chicken, its one of my favorite. I got the idea from Pinterest, but did mine a bit different. Click here to see.

First, I had Trevor show off his muscles by cutting the squash in half for me. This squash came from Grandma's garden from this past summer. One of my favorite things about squashes are they last a good long time. You don't have to worry about using it within 7 days. 

So, after it got cut, I covered the flesh with vegetable oil, salt and pepper. I then popped it in the oven, with the skin side up, and let it cook on 400 for about 35-40 minutes. You'll hear some sizzling from within the oven. That's OK. :-)

After that, I began to fix my inside mixture. I don't believe in measuring  things out. I prefer to just eyeball it, makes each meal unique. In a bowl I mixed the following ingredients:

- Canned chicken
- Black beans
- Corn (about half a can, were leftovers from another night.)
- Cream cheese. (I used about 4 tablespoons. Just to help thicken.)
- Green enchilada sauce
- minced onion

- Cumin

I filled the inside of the squash with this yummy goodness. I topped it all off with cheese, green onions, and olives. I would have put cilantro on, but mine wilted and I couldn't. But, then I put it back in the oven fore about 15 minutes and then BAM dinner was ready. 

This was a super fast and forgiving meal. If I had made a mistake in the ingredients, it could have been corrected. This meal was quick to prepare. It was a little time consuming to gut the squash, but other than that, maybe 10 minutes. Within an hour I have a tasty and beautiful meal that looks like I slaved over it all day. :) 

I slaved over this meal all day.....lol

We cut it in half and the insides came gushing out. Oh YUMMY!

 - SamiMae

Pineapple BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

I actually made this dish a few weeks ago and I don't think I have pictures, but let me tell you - it was YUMMY! This dish I will be making again. It was so super fast and easy, and the idea came from Pinterest. :) It was a hit!

Ingredients:
Tortillas
Shredded cheese
Can of chicken
BBQ sauce
Pineapple
Cilantro
Jalapeno (optional)

To make this dish, I drained the can of chicken and put it in a pan. I added some BBQ sauce and the pineapple. I used quite a bit of  pineapple juice to keep it moist. I diced up a jalapeno real fine and only added a tiny bit. So, I cooked all these items in a pan to warm them up. After they were warm, I moved the mixture onto a tortilla, on a skillet. Before I folded the tortilla in half, I added on some cheese and a some cilantro. I folded the tortilla over, (so it's in half) and cooked it until it was golden brown on both sides. This let the cheese melt and hardened the tortilla just a bit to make it crispy.

After it was cooked, we dipped it in sour cream. This was a super quick and tasty dish. Next time I make it, i'll pictures. Give this recipe a try. It was AWESOME!

-SamiMae

Cranberry Chicken and Lehi's Rice

So, these are not original recipes, but I do modify the portion sizes. I went home to visit and my mom let me have a cookbook of hers. My chicken and rice recipe came from the Worldwide Ward Cook Book, by Deanna Buxton. 

Cranberry Chicken (pg 83)

• Chicken
• 1 16oz cranberry sauce
• 1/2 C. Catalina salad dressing
• 1 envelope onion soup mix

Combine cranberry sauce, Catalina, and onion soup mix and pour on top of chicken. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

My favorite kinds of meals are ones I can throw together and not have to do much else. This a perfect recipe. I did homework while it was in the oven cooking! Boy, I'll say, right now, it smells AMAZING!

The side dish that I chose to make with my chicken also came from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It's as follows.

Lehi's Rice

• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 C. onion, chopped
• 1/2 C. Carrots, chopped
• 1/2 C. Celery, chopped
• 2 C. Chicken broth
• 1 C. long-grain rice, uncooked

I'm using brown long grain rice instead of white. In a saucepan, melt butter and add veggies. Cook and stir until veggies are "slightly wilted" and onions are clear. (You know how they look when they get cooked). Then, stir in chicken broth and rice. Bring everything to a nice boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, or however long it takes the rice. 

I'm serving this with a nice green salad, something simple. 

For this meal, total prep time was about 30 minutes, by the time I got the chicken in the oven and got the veggies cut and cooked. My little apartment smells amazing! It reminds me of Thanksgiving. It's a festive meal. 

As soon as Trevor gets home, its dinner time! 

-SamiMae