Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken

Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts cut in half (I only used 4, judge by the number of servings you need, but if you're going to use more definitely add extra sauce!)
• 1 Regular Bottle of BBQ Sauce (I used Kraft Chicken & Rib and it turned out perfectly)
• 1/2 Cup of Italian salad dressing (I used Kraft's Italian dressing)
• 1/4 Brown Sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

• Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
• Place the cover, and cook on Medium-High for 3 to 5 hours. Any more then that will dry the chicken out.
• (Optional) I've seen on other similar recipes that some people will take out the chicken after 3 hours and shred it, and then put them back in for another couple of hours. Below I have a picture where someone actually put it on a bun for a delicious sandwhich, but I didn't do that, I just left the chicken in halves and I definitely didn't have any complaints!

   

Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

Well, I haven't posted any recipes in quite some time so I thought I should post one of my favorites. I like to call it Chicken & Broccoli Pasta.

Serving size 3-4 people depending on portion sizes. If serving to 4 add more a bit more pasta, if serving to more then 4 adjust ingredients to fit your needs.

Ingredients:

2- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 cup Broccoli(or any desired amount)

Half a box of Rotini

1 bottle of Classico's Alfredo & Sun-dried Tomato Sauce

Instructions:

1.) After gathering your ingredients, put your defrosted chicken breasts into a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes or until cooked fully through. 

2.) While cooking the chicken breasts cook Rotini as the package instructs. Normally they tend to be ready around the same time as the chicken breasts.

3.) When you notice the chicken and pasta are ready, put bottle of the Classico Sauce into a large pan and put on medium heat. Cut up chunks of broccoli and put in sauce to cook a bit. I normally cut the broccoli to be about one-bite sized.

4.) Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and put in pan with sauce and broccoli. Drain Rotini and do the same.

5.) Cook together for about 10 minutes, until it is all fully cooked together, then serve. I normally serve with a salad, but however you like to serve is fine.

Enjoy!

I find this recipe pretty easy, only downside is that you have two pots and a pan to clean up, but I definitely think its worth it, tastes great! I've tried it without broccoli as well, but it just doesn't taste as great. 

Chocolate Croissants

Super easy way to make a delicious dessert in 15 minutes!

Ingredients:
1 pack Pillsbury Croissants

1 pack Milk Chocolate Chips

Unroll the pack of croissants, place 10-15 chocolate chips in the middle, and roll up starting from the largest end. Follow the baking instructions on the croissant package. Super easy!

Yields 8 croissants.

Cookie Dough Dip

Ingredients:

-1/2 cups Butter

-1/3 cups Brown Sugar

-1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

-1 block Cream Cheese, softened

-1/2 cups Icing Sugar

-3/4 cups Chocolate Chips

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture starts to bubble. Set aside to cool, and whisk in vanilla. Cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar for 60 seconds. With mixer on low speed, add in brown sugar and butter mixture. Mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. You can serve this mixture with just about anything, but I served it with graham crackers and they turned out wonderfully. I sort of thought while making it that it wasn't very much, but I had WAY too much for 4 people, so it's probably a good size for 6-8 people.

Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake

I absolutely love this dish. At first I wasn't a huge fan, but now I can't wait to try it again!

Ingredients:

-8 oz uncooked rigatoni

-1 T olive oil

-1 c chopped onion (I only used half and it was plenty.)

-1(10 oz) pack frozen spinach, thawed (This is what the original recipe calls for, but I hate the smell/taste of frozen spinach so next time I make it I'm going to try fresh spinach.)

-3 c cubed, cooked chicken breasts

-(8 oz) container Philadelphia chive & onion cream cheese (I couldn't find one, so I bought one container of chive, and another of onion and mixed them together.)

½ t salt, ½ t pepper

1½ c shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Prepare rigatoni according to pkg directions. Spread oil on bottom of 11×17 in baking dish; add onion in a single layer. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to large bowl, set aside. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between paper towels. Stir in rigatoni, spinach, chicken, & cream cheese mixture into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into dish & sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake covered at 375 for 30 minutes; uncover & bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Taco Cupcakes

Ingredients:
½ lb lean ground beef
1 T taco seasoning
16 wonton wrappers (found in the produce section)
1 c chunky salsa
1 c reduced fat shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 375. Lightly mist 8 cups in a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Cook ground beef in a large pan until brown, add a cup of water and the pack of taco seasoning. Cook until water has evaporated. Once the meat is cooked you can add green peppers, or tomatoes or anything else you'd like. I don't enjoy these things in my tacos so I don't add them. Plus, the salsa adds most of those things anyways.
3. Push a wonton wrapper into the bottom of each of the eight sprayed cups in the muffin tin. Place the meat into the cups, and then place a spoonful of salsa on top. Sprinkle plenty of cheese on top.
4. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from muffin tin.

Yields about 8 taco cupcakes.

Spinach and Chick Tortilla Bake - Rachel Ray

Spinach and Chicken Tortilla Bake

Even though this is originally a Rachel Ray recipe (Which I will include below) I made a few changes.
I couldn't find any salsa verde in my grocery store, so I left it out. I also replaced the shredded pepper jack cheese with shredded marble cheese. I'm not a huge fan of spiciness so thats why I excluded some of the ingredients. The outcome was delicious, but make sure you use fresh spinach and not frozen, because it gets VERY soggy and disgusting... I learned the hard way.

ENJOY!

Recipe from Rachel Ray

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken cutlets (about 1 pound)
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups store-bought salsa verde
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
4 large (8″) flour tortillas
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3 cups baby spinach (about 1/4 pound)
2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add to the pan and cook, turning once, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Let cool, then shred the meat.

Whisk together the salsa verde and ricotta; season with salt and pepper. In a greased 9-inch square baking dish, layer one-third of the salsa mixture, tortillas, chicken, onion, spinach and pepper jack; repeat twice. Bake until golden-brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 4 servings