Healthy Mexican Chicken Bake

I was feeling all creative n stuff…and I wanted mexican food without sabotaging all of my weight loss efforts.

A meal at a sit down restaurant averages about 1,300 calories. The whole pan of this is 2380 calories!!! Cheese and all!!! (But don’t eat the whole pan LOL) The pan can be broken into 5 servings at 476 calories per serving.

Ingredients:
5 skinless chicken breasts
1, 16 oz jar of Pace salsa, original
1, 16 oz jar of Pace salsa, fire    roasted tomato and corn
2 cups four cheese Mexican blend shredded cheese
1 can Campbell’s cream of chicken and mushroom (the combo in 1 can is alot less calories than buying 1 can of each
1 oz packet of Old El Paso fajita seasoning mix
Whatever various mexican spices you like (I used chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper)

Step 1
Season chicken with your various spices and fajita seasoning mux

Step 2
Cook chicken on the stove at medium heat (make sure it’s nice and tender)

Step 3
While the chicken is cooking, in a bowl combine both jars of salsa and the can of cream of mushroom and chicken. Stir.

Step 4
When chicken is done, put it in a pan. Pour your mixture in the bowl over the chicken. Top with cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil and cook in the oven at 350° for 20 minutes.

Step 5
Serve!! Enjoy!!! And for your less calorie conscious friends and family (I hate you LOL) add over a tortilla, serve with a sweet cornbread, rice, or top with crushed nacho cheese doritos right before serving.

My plate

My boyfriend’s plate

Tell me how it turns out!

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter
• 2 cups green bell pepper, sliced
• 2 cups sweet onion, sliced
• 3-4 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless
• 1 packet of dry fajita seasoning
• ⅓ cup salsa

 

 

Instructions

1. Turn the slow cooker on low.
2. Add butter, then peppers, onion and chicken breasts.
3. Sprinkle seasoning over the chicken. Add salsa.
4. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
5. Use a fork to shred the chicken and serve.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Ingredients:

-Pillsbury biscuits

-Cup of cooked and diced chicken breast (rotisserie chicken is the best)

-One can of cream of chicken soup

-Shredded cheddar

-Frozen mixed veggies

-Spices and herbs of your choice like onion powder and garlic salt

 

 

Dump everything into a bowl. (minus the biscuits)

 

 

And mix it up! You’d think the frozen veggies would need to thaw first, but they don’t. They cook quickly in the baking process.

 

 

Press your biscuits into a muffin tin, like so.

 

 

Spoon the filling in. Pack it in there.

 

 

 

 

After about 15 minutes of baking at 400 degrees, look at what we have!

Inside Out Oreo Balls

To make these, you’ll need: Oreos, White Chocolate, and Cream Cheese

(you can also get a few plain choclate chips if you want to add drizzle at the end)

Crush up your Oreo cookies very fine, filling and all.

You can use a food processor/blender or you can put the oreos in a ziploc bag and crush them with a mallet or rolling pin

You will then add your softened cream cheese to the crushed cookies. 

 

Roll Oreo into balls and then place in the refrigerator. 

 

While the balls are in the fridge, melt the chocolate 

Place a glass bowl (or a smaller pot) on top of a pot with some water in the bottom pan. Keep it on about medium heat to keep it from scorching.

Melt chocolate and coat the balls

Use two forks, spoon, or chopsticks to do this. Or heck, use whatever gets the job done!

Drizzle with milk chocolate then place in the refrigerator

Let the balls sit in the fridge until the chocolate has set or has hardened a bit and then ENJOY!!

       

 

Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo

So I tried my hand at gumbo for my homesick, Louisiana native boyfriend. It was delicious but according to him it was more like a stew because “gumbo is supposed to be more soupy” blah blah lol either way he ate it up!

I used chicken breasts, sausage, veggies (corn, okra, peppers). Its easy! Cut up everything! Cook the chicken and sausage. In another pot, heat up some butter, and a little flour, then add chicken broth. After it has browned a little add the meat and veggies…let it simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Yum!! I put it over rice.

Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 8-10 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes  (I leave the skin on)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 TBS. freshly ground pepper
• 1 TBS. paprika
• 2 TBS. garlic powder
• 6 TBS. hot sauce

Topping:

• 2 c. Fiesta Blend Cheese or a mix of Cheddar & Monterey Jack
• 1 c. crumbled bacon
• 1 c diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500 degrees…Yes you read that right!

In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, hot sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder & paprika.

 

Add the potatoes and stir to coat.

 

Add the potatoes to a greased baking dish.

 

 

When scooping the potatoes into the baking dish, leave behind any extra olive oil/hot sauce mix.

 

Add the diced chicken to the “left behind” olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat all the chicken.  Allow to marinate as the potatoes bake.

 

Roast the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and nice and crispy on the outside.

 

Once the potatoes are fully cooked add the marinated chicken.

 

In a large bowl mix all the topping ingredients together.

 

Top the raw chicken with the topping.

 

Bake until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is melted and bubbly delicious.  Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

CrockPot Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Over Rice

Crock-Pot Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Over Rice Recipe

It’s easy! Just set it and forget it. (Oh and cheap!!! Great Value literally LOL)

Creamy Crock-pot Chicken and Broccoli Over Rice

3-4 boneless chicken breasts
1 10oz can cream of chicken soup
1 10 oz can cheddar soup
1 14 oz can chicken broth
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garlic salt seasoning

1 cup sour cream
6 cups broccoli florets, just fork tender (I cooked it in boiling water for 3-4 minutes)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Place soups, chicken broth, salt, and garlic seasoning into a crock-pot over low heat. Whisk until smooth. Place chicken in, pressing to the bottom. Cover lid and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours.

2. When chicken is cooked, use 2 forks to shred into bite size pieces. Stir in sour cream and broccoli.

3. Serve over steamed rice and sprinkle with cheese.  4-6 servings

 (Yes.. I took the picture before I put the cheese on)

19 Dips You’ve Gotta Try!

Dips can make or break a party! It’s summer time so you can have anything from a get together at your house to a party for the playoffs. Either way a dip is usually a chip, easy, and delicious placeholder. The links to the dips are under the pictures. Give them a try!!

Bacon Double Cheese Burger Dip

Pizza Dip

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Chorizo Queso Fundido

Artichoke Bread

Taco Dip

Hot Cheesy Mushroom Dip

Greek 7 Layer Dip

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Hot Cheesy Corn Dip

Hot Cheesy Bean Dip

Hot Caramelized Onion Dip

Bacon Guacamole

Hot Cheesy Crab, Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Reuben Dip

Loaded Baked Potato Dip

Blue Cheese Guacamole

Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Dip

Visit http://www.closetcooking.com for more things like this!!

Dinner for the night: Broccoli and baked chicken

Dimner tonight was baked chicken and broccoli. The broccoli was Steamfresh brand. I heated the bag in the microwave for 6 minutes. It seasoned it with a little garlic salt. The chicken was seasoned and then topped with Stubbs Hickory Bourbon bbq sauce. I then coverd it with aluminum foil and baked it for about and hour and a half on 360°. Then I took the chicken out and covered it with a little more bbq sauce and cooked uncovered for 10 minutes. Then walaa! Deliciousness!!!