Cilantro Cream Chicken

5 SHINY STARS!

Not a cilantro fan? Well, I'm not but this is fantabulous! I figured that on our low-carb diet, we'd never get to have anything creamy. Not so, my friend! Just one thing to remember for this recipe: don't hold back on the cilantro. As you can see in the picture, i did hold back on the cilantro. Bad decision. Didn't turn out anywhere near as good as the first time I made this. The cilantro is the only thing really flavoring the sauce so go crazy! I also put double the lime juice in. This isn't the funnest thing to cook (I'm a total noob in the kitchen), but it's worth it when you take a bite.



4 boneless chicken breasts (*I used 10 chicken thighs*)
3 tablespoons butter
1-2 teaspoons McCormick Rotisserie Chicken seasoning (*I couldn't find this, so I didn't use*)
3 ounces cream cheese, cubed
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lime juice, 1/2 of 1 small lime
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped, about 2 big handfuls




While heating the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, liberally season the chicken on both sides with the rotisserie chicken seasoning. Don't bother measuring the seasoning, just use as much as necessary. Brown the chicken on both sides in the hot butter. Remove the chicken from the pan. Add the cream cheese and cream to the drippings in the skillet. Over low heat, whisk to blend well as the cream cheese melts. Whisk in the lime juice and stir in the cilantro. Return the chicken to the pan; cover and simmer 15 minutes, turning after about 7 minutes. When chicken is cooked through, place on serving plates and pour about 1/4 cup of the sauce over each serving. The sauce doesn't reheat well.




I made twice the amount we needed so we could test the statement that the sauce doesn't reheat well, but I woke up frantic at 2 in the morning remembering that I didn't take care of the leftovers. They just sat on the stove all night :( I'll have to try the leftover thing next time.


Linking to:
House of Hepworths

Menu Plan Monday

For this week I have planned (in no particular order):

Cilantro Cream Chicken

Enchilada Bake

Queso Chicken

Garlic Chicken

Taco Skillet

Parmesan Baked Chicken

Hmmm, maybe a bit too much chicken. Oh well. Check back for the recipes and pictures. The only one I've made before is the Cilantro Cream Chicken and it is quite delish!

Linking to:

Menu Plan Monday at I'm An Organizing Junkie

Who Knew It Was So Hard To Be Charitable?

My husband and I are on a low-carb diet, which meant no sweets for V-day. But I just HAD to make something! Who could I bake for? Our local hospital has a big children's center so I called them to ask if we could bring Valentine treats to the kids. They said no. So I then called the children's shelter and asked if we could bring THEM Valentine treats. They said no. SERIOUSLY!!?? My husband and I have always talked about getting DeVon into volunteering and community service, but there's nothing that'll let you volunteer before 8 years old. We thought something like this would be a good start. Now we're back to square one. Does anybody have any ideas for getting involved in the community with a 2 year old?


So in the end, I settled for making treats for my husband's team at work. I was going to go all out. Cake balls, cookies, fudge, smores. Whatever I could make, I was going to. That didn't happen. I needed something quick and simple since I have no extra time on the weekends. I settled on dipped pretzel sticks.

They turned out really good. Not pretty, but tasty! I know these don't require any kind of tutorial, but going in I had no strategy, so I'll share mine with you

First, the ingredients

Simple enough. I ended up only using the white chocolate chips. I used almost all the sprinkles though and not quite the whole bag of pretzels. So here's the strategy. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power stirring every minute. This worked like a charm. I started out just dipping the pretzel into the bowl, but about halfway through, I found that scooping chocolate onto the spatula then rolling the pretzel on the spatula worked better. With chocolate chips (rather than dipping chocolate), after you dip the pretzel, you have to hold it a little bit to let it firm up. Toward the end I found that holding the pretzel horizontal and shaking/letting the extra chocolate fall off so there's not too much worked well.

I chose to roll mine in sprinkles rather than sprinkle them with sprinkles. To do this, pour the sprinkles on a plate and create a mound of sprinkles. When you're rolling the pretzels, make sure none of the white chocolate touches the plate. If the chocolate touches the plate, the sprinkles will stick to it and the chocolate will harden, causing you to have to move to a different spot on the plate and wasting a lot of sprinkles. So remember: MOUND of sprinkles, not a layer, on the plate. You can see here that at the beginning I just had a layer and after just the first pretzel I already had a mess.

I didn't have any wax paper so I settled on using my cutting boards. They worked perfectly. The pretzels didn't stick at all

They tasted amazing - like circus animal cookies but with salt. I'm a sucker for white chocolate pretzels. I'm not much of a plain pretzel person, but these Snyder pretzels were really good! What diet? Oh well :)


Linking to:
Today's Creative Blog
A Diamond in the Stuff

Cheesy Broccoli and Hamburger Casserole

5 STARS!!


This is seriously good. It would also be really easy to tweak to make it your own.

I know good blog posts are dependent on good pictures, so I'm sorry :/  I have a really old point and shoot, the pan is disgust (my good ones are at a friend's house), and I don't own any trivets so it had to stay on the stove... In due time, I guess. It'll just take some practice to get the prettiest shot possible. Oh, and did I mention I was STARVING. It was at least an hour past our normal eating time and I get quite cranky when I'm hungry. The picture was the last thing on my mind :) The only problem I have with this dish is what to make for a side dish! It already has the meat and vegetables in it. Maybe some squash or something? So without further ado:



1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup onion, chopped, 1 1/4 ounces
4 ounce can mushrooms, drained (*first time I used fresh, but it didn't seem to make a difference in taste*)
16 ounces frozen broccoli (*first time I used steamed, fresh broccoli and it was so much better than with the frozen broccoli*)
Salt and pepper, to taste


Sauce:
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise




Brown the ground beef, onion and mushrooms in a medium skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Drain the fat. Meanwhile, put the frozen broccoli in a 2 1/2-3 quart casserole with a lid. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover and microwave on HIGH about 6-8 minutes, stirring every couple minutes until tender crisp. Drain the broccoli; stir in ground beef mixture. In a 4-cup glass measure place all of the sauce ingredients, microwave on HIGH about 2 1/2 minutes, or until melted and smooth, stirring every minute. Add to the broccoli mixture and mix well; adjust the seasoning to taste. Bake at 350º 20 minutes until hot and bubbly.




It really is THAT easy. I do all the cheese shredding and vegetable chopping hours before i need to start dinner so that when the time comes, all I need to do is the actual cooking parts. Makes it so much faster, in my opinion. Thanks for stopping by!




Linking to:

Truth and Dare Thursday

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Since I don't have any followers yet, I made this an easy one.

Here's my TRUTH: my major guilty pleasures are Diet Dr Pepper and reading. I love a good book, and even more so, reading a good book in a nice long bath. The book in the picture is the one I'm reading right now (part of the Ender series). It sucks, but I have to finish it. My husband just downloaded Hunger Games for me on the kindle. I am a little too freakin excited to start reading it. And the Dr Pepper - I have 2 a day (shhhhh, don't tell my mom, she'd lecture me). 

Now for the DARE. I DARE you to reveal your most major guilty pleasures. I'm sure we'll all find someone we have something in common with. Just leave a comment!

Linking to:

LambAround

A Restaurant Quality, 5 Star Meal

Artichoke Chicken

In my opinion, this is actually 7 out of 5 stars. That's how good it is. The first time we had it, my husband said it was good enough to have come from a restaurant. Like how I tried getting all fancy with the asparagus? I have a feeling square plates work so much better for arranging food. If you ask my sisters what I wanted to be when I grew up, they'd know I wanted to be a food photographer. We'd be in the Sonic drive through and I would just sit there analyzing their food posters. I guess this new cooking spree of mine will help me get better! Ok, down to business. This is such an easy recipe.



4 boneless chicken breasts (*I used six boneless chicken thighs*)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup parmesan cheese, 4 ounces (*My cheaper hack: Italian Style Six Cheese Blend*)
1 clove garlic, minced
Pepper, to taste
14 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Pound the chicken breasts flat(*did not do this*) and place them on a rimmed foil-lined baking sheet. Mix the remaining ingredients and spread evenly over the chicken. Bake at 375º 15 minutes (*I cook mine for 35 minutes because I have no idea how long it takes chicken to cook and the thighs don't dry out if overcooked*). Keeping the chicken on the center oven rack, turn on the broiler and broil the chicken about 5-7 minutes until the topping has browned, watching it closely so that it doesn't burn (*I did not broil mine at all*).

Seriously, plan to make this meal. You won't be disappointed. I'm sure kids would love it as well (as long as you don't say artichoke).



Linking to:
Somewhat Simple
It's a Keeper
Food Trip Friday
Ekat's Kitchen

exactly!!

image via fiveoeight via designsponge

THIS is what I've been picturing in my mind for so long. I want to make these shelves! Now I have an image to give my husband an idea of what's in my head. Too bad I won't start decorating for at least a year while we focus on spending money on necessities only. Oh well, this way I can plan plan plan so everything is perfect. I love design inspiration. If you haven't checked out fiveoeight.com you should!