Tasty Thursday

     So today marks less than one week until I will be visiting family in Georgia. I’m very excited to be going home to see our family (both my parents and in-laws live in the same town). Owen has a lot of new tricks to show off and we need to restock his closet since he’s moving up in clothing sizes. (Haha!) Unfortunately, my husband will not be joining us on this trip, but I am so grateful that he was willing to let us go since it will mean he has to spend a week away from Owen (and me). Don’t worry too much about him though because I made sure to stock the freezer full of meals for him to eat while I’m gone. That way he won’t have to revert back to his college days of eating frozen pizza and boxed meals. In case you’re wondering, for dinner next week Tim will be eating: spaghetti, chili, Italian drip beef sandwiches, Dr. Pepper shredded pork sandwiches, taco meatloaf, Italian chicken soup, and macaroni and cheese. But if you wanted to give him a call and check in on him while I’m gone, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. Dinners last week went really well. I pretty much made four things and we ate a lot of leftovers. It has actually been a pretty great system. Here are my reviews for last week’s new recipes.

Chicken parmesan skillet pot pie: A

This meal was super easy to put together. I think it took me approximately 5 minutes after I shredded the rotisserie chicken. Then I put it in the oven and we took a walk as a family. After returning home, I threw together a salad and had dinner on the table in minutes. It’s not the most exciting meal ever, but it was pretty tasty and filling.

Italian chicken soup: A+

This soup was really great. And the recipe makes a ton! We ate the soup for two dinners and at least three lunches and still have two quarts stored away in the freezer. I did make several additions to the recipe and in the future would make some changes from the way Pioneer Woman cooks it. For one, I used less than a whole chicken and had plenty of meat, and I also added kidney beans, carrots, and spinach to the soup for some extra veggies. I also halved the amount of cream (at least) that she included in the recipe. I love Pioneer Woman, but she is seriously addicted to heavy cream. She may have to join HCAA (heavy cream-aholics anonymous).

Slow cooker Bajio chicken: A-

I’m still not having a whole lot of luck with cooking chicken breasts in the slow cooker. They always end up being a little dry. Still, the seasonings were nice. Once again, I changed up the recipe a little bit by using medium salsa and a larger can of green chiles to up the spiciness factor. I highly recommend doing this because otherwise the meat would probably be a little too sweet and needs some spicy to balance out the flavor.

And moving on to this week...

Thursday: Leftover slow cooker Bajio chicken served in baked tortilla bowls with lots of romaine lettuce, black beans, salsa, avocado (for me), and cheese (for the Mister.)

Friday: Chicken curry with coconut milk. This is a recipe from a new site that my friend Katie told me about called Skinny Taste. The blogger makes healthier versions of many common recipes without “[sacrificing] any of the flavor that can be found in their full-fat origins.” (We’ll see…) This recipe seems really interesting and Tim and I both love the taste of curry.

Saturday: Taco soup. This is a recipe that I’ve made before from a blog called For the Love of Cooking. It’s a wonderful cool weather soup and will make plenty for us to have for leftovers the following night.

Sunday: Taco soup leftovers.

Monday: Chicken rollatini stuffed with zucchini and mozzarella. This is another interesting recipe from the Skinny Taste blog. We will probably eat it with a little marinara sauce and a side salad or maybe some steamed broccoli.

Tuesday: I will probably heat up one of the quarts of leftover Italian chicken soup from last week because we will be busy making sure that everything is packed and ready for us to go the airport super early the next day. Also, I can spend more time with my hubby and less time cooking and cleaning up the kitchen.