I have posted this recipe in a different incarnation by cooking it all in the crockpot. Even though the ingredients are essentially the same, the result is a completely different meal. The chicken cooked in a crockpot can be shredded and used in tortilla shells or eaten with chips. The chicken in this recipe stays whole.  In grilling weather you can also put these ingredients in tin foil packets and cook it on the grill.

You will need:

Chicken: breast or legs, bone in or out
Salsa or picante sauce
2 cans of Black beans
Shredded cheese

First, pour your salsa or picante sauce into the bottom of your baking dish. How ever much you need. I wanted there to be extra so I could mix it in with the brown rice I was also cooking and have a spicy mexican rice to go along with the chicken.

Then I fillet the chicken breast, like I always do, to cut down on the cook time and the chances of the breasts getting dried out on the outside, yet still being raw on the inside.

Lay them on top of the salsa.

Put it in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, remove from the oven and pour your black beans in the baking dish. Pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Don’t you love my pot holders?  One of my children went through a phase where he could not make enough of these.  He made them constantly .  And being ever so helpful he threw away all the other pot holders and mitts that we owned.

Take it out again and sprinkle the top with shredded cheese. Pop it back in the oven for 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. You can see my side of the dish over there on the left with no cheese. It is delicious without it.

Serve it over brown rice.

Today my fourth born son turns nine. NINE?! When did that happen? I told him this morning that this is it; I will not tolerate anymore of this growing up.

He too wanted to make his own cake. By himself. With no help or interference. Luckily he picked Monkey Bread, which is as simple a recipe as there could possibly be. And in spite of what the name might suggest, is NOT made of monkeys.

My children have different theories on why it is called monkey bread. The dough in the finished product looks like monkey poop. It is easy enough for a monkey to make. You eat it with your hands like a monkey.

Your guess is as good as theirs and probably less gross.

Is your mouth watering? It should be. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that I consider hummus to be one of the major food groups. I make it weekly.

What’s not to love about it? High in protein. Excellent on chips or veggies. Easy to make. It’s like the perfect food. I could live in it. Oh wait, I already do.

I was talking to Mir the other day and she mentioned that she wanted to make some hummus too, but she didn’t have tahini. Where in the grocery store was the tahini hiding? I guessed the ethnic foods section, but really couldn’t recall where it was located.

Then yesterday afternoon I was in a grocery store I rarely go to, because it is small and over priced and everything seems slightly dusty, and there was tahini, mixed right in with the peanut butter and jellies. Because Lord knows that it is a sandwich spread of choice for children. “Nah, I don’t want a Fluff sandwich today, Mom. Make me a tahini one. And toss on something green and sprouty too while you are at it.”

Of course I had to grab my phone and call her where I found it, even if my random small grocery store 1000 miles away from her. That’s what friends are for, right? Celine Dion would agree.

Turns out that at her grocery store the tahini was located with the natural foods. As opposed to the unnatural ones, I am guessing.

Unless you want to examine every aisle in your store, you might just want to do that crazy thing and ask someone who works there where it is located. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever see those recipes in magazines that say they will be done and on your table in ten minutes or less. And you laugh because you know it will take longer than that just to chop up whatever it is that needs to be chopped, or to find the ingredients in your cabinets?

I won’t promise ten minutes. But this delicious recipe takes only as long as your pasta takes to boil. That I will promise.

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I love my crockpot. I really do. But sometimes I get bored of all the food tasting the same. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I want crunchy meat or less liquid, darn it!

This recipe is a two parter. I toss the ingredients into the crockpot so that it will be cooking all day and I don’t have to mess with it.

But then when the spaghetti is cooking I take the chicken out and turn it into a sauce on the stove top. It is easy and worth the extra effort. You are going to be standing there with your pasta anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

I have one son who is not a big fan of sweets. I know, I don’t understand where he came from either. He likes the idea of sweets, but more often than not he will pass them by.

Every year for his birthday he requests carrot cake. The past few years he has baked it himself. Everyone loves this cake.

This is his recipe.

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Generally speaking, I prefer ribs cooked on the grill. But the fact that my grill is currently buried under a foot of snow and whipping winds that produce a negative wind chill temperature in the air have hampered my outdoor grilling.

I pulled out an old crock pot rib recipe that I have made in the past and tweaked it a bit. This time I decided to brown the ribs first. And then I forgot to put in two of the ingredients, having lots of little “helpers” will do that to you. (IKNOW one of you will ask what ingredients did you forget so I will tell you, dry mustard and vinegar. Okay?)

The results were amazing. All of the kids loved it and declared that they were the best ribs they had ever tasted. And that I should make these every day! We will be rib-atarians.

Hello, gorgeous.

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This is another one pan wonder dish. I love making things for dinner that do not require multiple pans. I hate cleaning up after I have already slaved away cooking. (Okay maybe I don’t exactly slave away, but when I have a huge sink filled with dishes and pots and pans I feel overwhelmed.)

You will need:

green beans
potatoes, scrubbed and diced, not peeled
lemons
chicken breast
extra virgin olive oil
a few cloves of garlic (I used 4)
salt and pepper to taste

Don’t you love recipes that don’t have exact measurements? I do because it means odds are I can’t mess it up.

The most labor intensive part of this recipe? Washing and trimming the green beans.

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