Chicken Stuffed Tomato Bakes

This particular meal came to me nearly by accident.  I had about ten tomatoes in my fridge that were starting to get soft, so I knew I had to eat them soon.  I also made my own chicken broth earlier that week, so I had a lot of chicken that I needed to eat up too.  Last night, I didn't have any any clue of what to cook for dinner... until it hit me: "How about I make some sort of chicken stuffing and put it in hollowed tomatoes... they do stuff like that as appetizers in fancy restaurants, right?" So I started looking through my fridge to see what I could use to make the "stuffing part". After looking, here's the ingredients I came up with:

10 vine tomatoes (they work best because they are round enough on the bottom, and not too big)

1 chicken breast , cooked and shredded

1/2 large onion

4 garlic cloves

1 handful of spinach

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 tsp basil

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Rinse tomatoes. Slice off tops of tomatoes, then with a spoon, carve out the inside pulp of each tomato. Place hollowed tomatoes onto baking sheet, set aside.

 Place pulp remains into food processor of blender.  Add to pulp the remaining ingredients (except parmesan and oil), and blend until you have a pulpy mixture.

Spoon mixture into each tomato, leveling off the top of each.

Sprinkle each tomato with parmesan cheese, then drizzle the top with oil.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes, then enjoy!  Serves 2-3

Can be served as an appetizer or a main dish. We ate it as a main dish, with garlic toast as a side.

*Note: There will be left over stuffing. You can use it to stuff other tomatoes, or save it for the next morning to  be the filling of an omelet for two (which is what we did)!  :)

**Note Note: If you want it to be more creamy, try adding 4 oz. of cream cheese. I didn't add any because 1. I wanted it to be healthier, and 2. I didn't have any! haha

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Birthday Pot Roast, Asparagus, and Garlic Bread

My husband requested this meal for his birthday two days ago, so this is why "Birthday" is in the title :) I was just going to post the recipe to the pot roast, but the side dishes were very easy and tasty too! So there are three recipes with two pictures below.

Crock Pot Chuck Roast

1 chuck roast

1 package of lipton beefy onion soup mix (make sure it's beefy! I used two paskages because we had a huge roast)

1/2 cup water

Salt to taste

Poke holes in the roast with a knife. Place in a crock pot. Pour in water, soup packet, and salt. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. Enjoy!

Oven Roasted Asparagus

1 bunch of asparagus

1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil

Garlic Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse asparagus and snap off ends. Place in small baking dish and drizzle oil over them. Sprinkle garlic salt (sometimes I will do fresh minced garlic, thyme, and salt. This is much easier though). Lightly stir so each asparagus has oil and garlic salt. Bake in oven for 30-40 min, testing with a fork for tenderness.

Garlic Toast

1 loaf of French Bread

Butter

Garlic powder

Parmesan cheese (grated or powdered)

Preheat oven to 350. Slice bread to desired width and place in cookie tray. Spread butter onto bread. Sprinkle with garlic powder, then Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

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PIZZA!!!

I was on a pizza kick the other day, but wanted it to be semi-healthy. I love buying pre-made crusts and just throwing a bunch of stuff on them. It's fun!

For this pizza I used

-1 medium zucchini

-a handful of grape tomatoes

- a handful of green onions

- Ranch salad, spritzer (normal Ranch would be just fine)

Brush the crust with a little EVOO and decorate your pizza with the remaining ingredients. Then throw on a couple handfuls of whatever cheese you want (I used mozzarella) and bake according to the packaged crust directions. Mine was a whole wheat thin crust and came out almost flat bread/cracker texture. I loved it, but the hubs likes a thicker, bready crust.

My version of CPK's BBQ Chicken Pizza!

-1 pre-made crust

- a couple glugs of your favorite BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's... all the way!! Woot woot!)

- 1-2 grilled chicken breasts (or enough off a rotisserie to your liking)

- diced or julienned red onions (I buy them pre-cut along with my green onions... I HATE cutting oninos)

- small handful of green onions (not pictured)

- mozzarella cheese, as much as you want

Brush the crust with a bit of EVOO then squirt on a nice, thin layer of BBQ sauce. Cut up the chicken and arrange that on top with the rest of your ingredients, with the cheese last. Bake according to crust package directions.

YUM... enjoy!

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Hamburger Quiche

My mom always called this "Hamburger Quicky" because it is SUPER quick to make and super good!

Start by browning 1/2 lb of hamburger... while it's cooking, grab the rest of your ingredients.

1 unbaked 9" pie crust

1/2 C milk

1/2 C mayonnaise

2 eggs

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 C shredded cheddar and swiss cheese

1/3 C sliced green onions

In a blender combine

-milk

-mayo

-eggs

-cornstarch

and blend until smooth.

Pour into a bowl and toss everything else in (except the crust!.... and don't forget to drain the hamburger first!)

Put your crust into a pie pan (I always spray mine first, just to be safe... Pam makes my life happy) then poke it with a fork several times to let the steam out.

Pour everything into the pie shell and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean.

Sometimes, if I'm feeling adventurous, I top my slice with a dollop of salsa. Or you can just eat it plain... either way is great!!

ENJOY!

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Easy Chicken (or whatever meat you want) Fajitas!

I made these ALL. THE. TIME. after Charlotte was born. It's quick. You usually always have the ingredients. Good for you. And home cooked, not fast food. Here's the list of ingredients!

2-6 pieces of chicken (depending on the size, I used 6 tenderloins)

2 bell peppers, any color

2 onions

Extra virgin olive oil (I'm sure any oil would be fine, I forgot about the coconut oil until now)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Ziploc bag

Fajita seasoning 

(you can buy them in little one use packets or in a nice little shaker, like mine! This lasted me FOREVER. Just finished it off today!)

Put all your chicken (frozen or not) in a Ziploc bag and eyeball about a cup of salsa. I usually do enough to cover all the pieces.

Mush it all around and put it in a shallow dish to sit in the fridge for as long as you want, but a minimum of at least 30 mins.

Ok, now get ready to start choppin'!! Here is a nifty trick.

I've found that if I get a paper towel a bit damp and fold it on the counter, then put my cutting board on top, it doesn't slip all over the place!! Try it!

Chop all your peppers into about 1-2 inch strips. The wider the strips are, the crunchier they will be for your fajitas, the thinner they are, the mushier they'll be. Personal preference.

Onions are easy. About 4 chops and your done.

Throw them all into a bowl and eyeball about 2-4 Tablespoons of EVOO.

Followed by a couple good shakes of your seasoning (or the entire seasoning packet).

Stir it all together and set off to the side while you prep the chicken.

Cut the chicken into strips about the same size as your onions and peppers. About halfway through cutting your chicken, put a nice big skillet (a wok would be even better!) on the stove to start getting hot. I usually set mine to medium hot, or hotter.

Drizzle a bit of EVOO in the pan so your chicken doesn't stick.

Dump the bowl of chicken in the pan and let it cook ALMOST until no longer pink inside. Stir often so it doesn't stick and so all the sides get cooked.

Push the chicken to the outside of the skillet or wok so it just stays warm.

Dump in your bowl of peppers and onions.... listen to the sizzle... love that sound :)

Now stir everything around a bit and let the peppers and onions cook for 10-20 minutes. This time is all up to you. As long as the chicken is cooked through, you can take it off whenever you like. I like mine with a bit of a crunch, but some people like the veggies completely cooked and soft. So adjust the time to your tastes!

While everything is cooking, get out your fajita fixin's!

Tortillas (uncooked are my fave!!)

Sour cream

Any kind of shredded cheese

Salsa

(I also added Ashley's leftover Baja Taco's to mine... soooo good)

And any other toppings you might want.

I put everything on in reverse. Because I'm cool like that.

This is how I like mine to look... Peppers still a bit crunchy and onions nice and soft (abt. 15 mins).

Assemble your beauties and ENJOY!!

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Chicken Tortilla Soup

I was told I don't need pics to post! yeah! So I PLAN on taking pictures- as soon as I ACTUALLY cook something (that's right folks, I haven't cooked in a week now! It's my anniversary and hubby's birthday- so I feel justified!) but when I DO cook, I will post pics- PROMISE! Here's a recipe that I have used like CRAZY! A dear friend made this for me after I had Hailyn and we eat it at least once a month now- and it makes LOTS of leftovers(yeah!) and it takes about 5 minutes to do! Can't beat that! and firemen approve (and they are the biggest food critics ya'll!) Awesome for chilly nights like tonight!


CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

2-3 cups cooked chicken (SECRET: I buy a rotissiere chicken and peel off the meat and chop it up- yep I am lazy I mean BUSY!)
32 ounces chicken broth
1 can black beans undrained
1 can of corn dranied
THIS IS CRUCIAL: 1 jar TRADER JOE'S roasted garlic salsa (it's what makes this soup good and gives it that 'I spent hours on it' feel)
1-2 cups cheddar or mexican blend cheese
1 bag of tortilla chips

add the first 5 ingredients to the pot and stir, heating thoroughly (10-15 minutes on medium heat)
Then add cheese and a couple of handfuls of tortilla chips at the end- last 2 minutes or so. Serve. top with more cheese and chips, sour cream whatever you like- SO YUMMY! This is my go-to meal for whenever someone had a baby or I want to 'impress' someone, it tastes like someone spent HOURS on it- when it really was like 10 minutes. I usually go to Trader Joe's and stalk up on slas so I don't have to go there constantly to make this! ENJOY!

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