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Friday, January 22, 2010

Chicken Enchiladas

I mentioned in a previous post that I had the privilege of taking food to a friend of mine that just had a baby.  I love being able to give to others and it's just icing on the cake when what I give comes from what I love to do, cook!

I made chicken enchiladas, spanish rice, refried beans and a cappuccino cake with peanut butter frosting.

I don't have any photos to post but I can explain the process in case you would like to try it!

I cooked some chicken I had extra and when cool, I shredded it.  I added taco seasoning to the chicken, added some rotel and set aside.  I got an enchilada seasoning packet and followed the packet directions.  To assemble, I took a flour tortilla, dipped it in the enchilada sauce and placed in a 9X13 baking dish.  I filled the tortilla with the chicken mixture and some cheese and rolled it up.  This step is repeated until the entire baking dish is full.  Then I ladled the rest of the enchilada sauce over the entire dish and sprinkled it with cheese.  It bakes in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until hot.

The rice was so easy and flavorful! I have to give credit to my bloggy friends for the recipe!  I cooked instant rice in 1/2 chicken stock, 1/2 tomato sauce.  When it was done, I added corn and seasoning. My DH loved it!

To make the refried beans, I purchased two cans of pinto beans, added cumin and salt and mashed in a electric mixer until slightly smooth.  Then I cooked it on the stove in 1/4 c of oil.  Season again to taste and eat.  This was so easy and delicious that I think I will never purchase canned refried beans again :)

For the Cappuccino Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting, I have posted the recipe below.  When I was at Wal-Mart looking for instant espresso powder, all I could find was cappuccino powder so that is what I used and thus changed the name.

 Ingredients

For the coffee cakes:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for pans
1/2 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup instant espresso powder
2 sticks butter, softened, plus extra for pans
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, plus 2 yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions
Special equipment: Stand mixer and 4 (3/8-pound) mini loaf pans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour mini loaf pans. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together the sour cream and espresso until dissolved.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. On low speed, add half the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Add half the sour cream and mix until combined. Repeat with remaining flour and sour cream. Pour into prepared loaf pans filling halfway with batter. Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks.
For the frosting: In stand mixer, mix together butter and peanut butter over medium high speed until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.
Top mini loaves with peanut butter frosting.

I hope you try these recipes and enjoy them as much as my family did! Please let me know by posting a comment.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Coco Krispies

Yes, I am one of those parents who let their children eat sugary cereal.  I know it's terrible! So I will appologize up front!


However, the idea for this post is from something my 6 yr old came up with. I have Rice Krispies Cereal at home and he loves chocolate milk so he has decided that when he eats both of these items, he pours the chocolate milk (warm) into the cereal thus creating Coco Krispies.  Pretty smart, huh?


Ok, this is my feel good post for today! Oh and the chocolate milk is made with Nesquick so it's kinda nutritional!  I think you should try this too :)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

101 Things in 1001 Days - Update

It is a new year and so as I was scanning old posts, I remembered my "101 Things in 1001 Days" post and thought an update was in order, so here you go:

5. Grow our own herbs - We did this in the Spring but found that we didn't really use them.  The only herb we used reguarly was the garlic chives I got from a friend.  I don't know if we are going to plant these again.
36. Get an amazing camera - This I did! I got a Nokia that I love! I really need to post some updated pictures, I know :)
45. Be a blessing to others when I see a need and have the resource to fill it - This is something I want to be on-going, but I was able to provide a meal to a family that just had a baby and it felt so good!
 47. Start a simple garden - We planted a garden in the Spring and had plenty of veggies.  We were able to cook fresh produce and even give some to our neighbors.  I look forward to doing this again this Spring.
54. Celebrate another year of marriage with DH - Marriage is HARD but I am happy to report that my DH and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary in 2009 and will soon celebrate our 17th! God is GOOD!
61. Have a family picture taken - We did this and even our dog was included.  I will post soon, I promise!!
73. Make and deliver homemade Christmas gifts to all my neighbors- I did this this year and had SO much fun doing it! DH and #3 helped me! It was great being able to visit our neighbors as we delivered them just before Christmas!  This will be a yearly tradition!
76. Keep up with garden for an entire growing season - I have to admit that our garden did get a little over grown at the end, but we kept up with it pretty much until the end.  Now we will have to dig up the old when we plant the new this Spring!
86. Take dancing lessons with DH - Well, we took one dance lesson, does that count?  It is just too expensive to take private lessons and we never went back to the classes.  Life just seems to get too busy and in the way sometimes!

Ok, that is my update. Not bad, but not good either.  I need to review these more often and try to complete more this year.  The deadline is October 15, 2011.




Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Just A Question?

I am so sorry it has been so long since I've written!! :(

Ever since my "new adventure" (http://myhandingods.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-new-adventure.html), I have just been too busy to do things I would like to. This has prompted me to ask the following question:

  • How many Christian Women in the Chattanooga area would be interested in starting a monthly Bible Study?

Let me give you some history....when I lived in S. Louisiana, I had a great group of girlfriends and we were not involved in a weekly Bible Study aside from Sunday and Wednesday's. So, we decided to start one ourselves. Now, I am attending a new church and loving it but just don't have time to attend any service except for Sunday and that doesn't give me a chance to make the bonding relationships I long for. Anyways, back to the history. We would come together on a Saturday once per month. The "Hostess" would prepare the lesson, breakfast or snack and a small gift that coinsided with the lesson. We would gather for a couple of hours and study, talk and pray for one another. There were four of us. It was a great time I looked forward to every month.

When I hosted, I prepared cookies for a cookie exchange. I prepared a study on marriage from a book I had in my personal library. I created prayer books out of composition books and scrapbook paper, sewed easy totes, purchased pretty file folders and pretty pens. It was our first meeting so I was setting up these packages to be the "kit" for our future meetings. It was really inexpensive and I had 30 days to prepare.

I shared this idea with one of the women in my current Sunday School class, but she already attends a morning Bible Study during the week. So I decided to put this on my blog and see if I get any comments from women who live in the Chattanooga area that I may or may not know. If I get responses from women I do not know, maybe we could meet at a public place first. Let me know what you think!!