Roasted Corn Salsa

Several years ago, some good family friends, the Fifes, brought over some delicious salsa.

I made it myself for the first time today and I cannot wait to have it with our dinner tonight!

Here is the recipe:

Roasted Corn Salsa

1 16 oz. bag frozen corn

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 small red onion

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

3 green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 avocado, diced

juice of 3 limes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Put the corn on a cookie sheet under broiler

Mix everything together and allow it to sit for several hours

Serve with tortilla chips

chicken 'n' mushroom gravy over rice

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes . . but you have to like mushrooms to find it as delicious as I do!

Ingredients:

Chicken (whatever your family will eat . . I use 6 tenderloins for 2 meals for the 2 of us)

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 package mushrooms

Rice (again, whatever amount your family will eat)

Directions:

Put the chicken, Cream of Chicken soup, and mushrooms in a crock-pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Before serving, shred the chicken and cook rice.

Serve the chicken 'n' mushroom gravy over the rice and enjoy the goodness!

quick italian chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken (whatever amount your family will eat . . I use 6 tenderloins for 2 meals for us)

Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix

1/4 cup milk

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

6 oz. cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese

1/4 cup water

1 lb. rotini pasta

Directions:

Place the chicken in a crock pot, pour in the dressing mix and the milk and cook for 4-6 hours on low.

Before serving, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.

Shred the chicken.

In a small sauce pan, melt together the cream cheese, water, and Cream of Mushroom Soup.

In a large serving bowl, mix together the pasta, chicken, and sauce pan mixture.

One of our easy go-to favorites! :)

baking

I found these really cute cupcake liners at the grocery store the other week and I couldn't wait for an excuse to use them.

I made cupcakes earlier this week and, unfortunately, once they were baked the liner's cute color and polka dots were completely invisible. But the cupcakes were so delicious. Vanilla cakes, vanilla icing. Recipe from Magnolia Bakery.

Today I am baking many, many mini loaves of Poppy-Seed bread. Recipe from Magnolia Bakery again. I am excited to see how it tastes!

the crock-pot fiasco

I came home from campus this morning for a 40 minute interlude before I needed to be at the Health Center for a doctors appointment. During my 40 minute break I had two goals: 1) put together the chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot so it can be ready for an early dinner before Ben's basketball game tonight, 2) eat lunch so I'm not starving at the doctor's. Simple enough, right?

So not so!

I started putting the ingredients in our normal crock-pot, the one I've had since my days of singledom. I soon realize that I need 3 cans of chicken broth, not the 2 that are in my cupboard, and the chicken broth I have anyway combined with the can of diced tomatoes are going to overflow my little crocky. So, I pull out the nice, big, family size crock-pot that we received for our wedding, unwrap it, get it all set up, and start transferring the ingredients over. I transfer the chicken broth, diced tomatoes, and chicken. Then I dice onion and green pepper, add cumin, chili powder, black pepper, and corn. It's all coming together. It fits. And it (should) smell really good. But all I can smell is smoke!

I put my nose near the base of the crock-pot and realize it's the heating part of the base that smells not too friendly. Luckily, the pot itself has not fully heated, so I grab the handles and pull it out. I unplug the base, exam it, turn it over and put my face real close, and there is a little puff of smoke that blows right into my eye! It hurt! So I run around the house to find my phone to call Ben so he can come home and take me to the hospital before I go blind . . . Okay, just kidding. My eye watered a little and then I put the base down.

Now what am I going to do?

I decide to **hope** that I can fit it all in the small crock-pot - I mean, I am missing a can of chicken broth, so it might be possible. It would be a disaster to try to pour it, so I ladle all of the soup - scoop, by scoop, back into trusty ol' crocky and there it lays - about a quarter of an inch over-flowing!

I am totally returning that nasty old smoker! We need a full size crock-pot! (My mother has been telling me this since I started dating/feeding Ben.)

Anywho, if you want the recipe, it is delicious. And it's below:

Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup

Put all of these things in a big enough crock-pot:

1 to 1/14 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast (I use tenderloins), frozen

3 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1/4 cup chopped green sweet peppers
1 to 2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon black powder
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn

Cook for 3-4 hours, then serve with tortilla chips, pepper jack cheese, avocado, lime wedges, etc.

Yum!

Oh, and did I mention that when I went to the doctor's I had to give blood?!

My least favorite thing in the whole world!

:)

Taco Beef Soup

Taco Beef Soup

(super easy recipe)

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

3 cups water

1 (26 oz.) can stewed tomatoes, undrained

2 (16 oz.) cans kidney beans, undrained

1 (16 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 (1.5 oz.) envelope taco seasoning mix

Cook ground beef and onion until meat it browned, drain excess fat.

Add water, stewed tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning.

Simmer, covered, for at least 15 minutes.

Add toppings to individual servings:

cheddar cheese

tomatoes

green onions

corn chips

sour cream

avocado

I just adore our Pottery Barn dishes!

Laurel, Jackie, Sami, and me - freezing at Da Ducks' flag football game!

(They won because my husband scored the winning touchdown!)