Chicken Quesadillas

The perfectly easy lunch or dinner begins with a quesadilla! Yum! There are so many delicious variations, like adding refried beans, guacamole, salsa or chorizo to the tortilla. Here, I use a classic white flour soft taco size tortilla, Mexican cheese blend and shredded chicken. For simple directions on how to shred chicken go here, I always have some in my fridge or freezer. My favorite tortillas are Guerrero Tortillas. I love the flour and corn in all sizes, they are the only ones we buy. They are thicker than most and just taste great. Quesadillas pack great too, sometimes I'll wrap several in foil and drop of at Hubby's work. Enjoy all the gooey cheese!


Husband Rating: 5 stars

1 cup shredded chicken
2 cups (8 oz) shredded Mexican blend cheese (monterray a must!)
12 flour tortillas
Sour cream and salsa, optional

Warm one side of the tortilla over medium heat in a skillet. Turn over and to the hot side add a handful of cheese and chicken on half of the tortilla.

Fold over and press down with a spatula. Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until cheese is melty and tortilla is toasty. Serve with sour cream and pico de gallo (equal parts red onion, tomato and cilantro with a dash of lime juice and salt.) Enjoy!

Gourmet Hot Dogs

It's time to spoil yourself a little and throw some gourmet dogs on the grill. Buy the best kosher beef dogs you can find, or use spicy smoked sausage. Slice them in half and grill until perfect. Get the fancy rolls (or make your own) and toast them too on the grill! I didn't take the picture after I loaded it, but cram as many delicious vegetables as you can on there. So messy and so amazing!

Husband Rating: 5 stars

Toppings we used:
Grilled mushrooms
Grilled onions
Ketchup
Mayo
Mustard
Lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Pickle relish
Jalapenos (him, not me)

BBQ Pork Chops

Honestly, it can't get any easier than this meal. I could have gone all fancy and made my own BBQ sauce, but this is just good ole store-brand BBQ sauce. No effort involved, your husband could even handle this meal:) Pork chops are always reasonably priced and I always have some in my freezer. I took them out of the freezer the night before and let them hang out in the fridge. By dinner time they were thawed enough to throw in a pan. So delicious it should take longer-- enjoy!

Husband Rating: 4 stars

4 pork chops
1/2 cup (approx.) BBQ sauce
Dash of pepper

Spray the bottom of a skillet lightly with cooking spray. Over medium heat cook pork chops for 2 minutes on each side. Pour BBQ sauce on top and cook for an additional 5 minutes on each side. If too dry, add more sauce. Sprinkle with a dash of black pepper.

On the side I served cheesy mashed potatoes. I used leftover mashed potatoes from a previous dinner, but potato pearls or dehydrated would work fine here too. Put a handful of cheddar cheese on top of potatoes and sprinkle with Italian Seasoning. Microwave until melted. Yummy!

Lemon Pork Chops

It's true, I kind of have a thing for lemons. In dinner or dessert I just can't get enough of lemon flavor. I hate how expensive lemons are here in Idaho during the winter, but I always have a stock pile of lemon juice in the fridge. This recipe perfect for a fall day! To get lemon zest I run the peel of a lemon (washed, of course) across the skinniest part of my cheese grater. Buying one lemon will probably get you all the juice you need. If I can't get enough out of the lemon I add a little chicken broth to make up the difference.

Husband Rating: 3 1/2 stars

4 pork chops
2 TB butter
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 TB flour

Sprinkle pork chops with garlic salt and lemon pepper. Melt butter over medium heat in a skillet. Add chops and cook for about 7 minutes on each side or until done. Remove to a plate. In the same skillet add lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook and stir (scraping the pan to pull up all the drippings from the meat) until the pan is smooth. Whisk in 1 TB flour to lemon sauce. Pour lemon sauce over pork chops.

The tangy lemon sauce is delicious mixed with red potatoes and carrots. Halve baby carrots and chop red potatoes into quarters. Steam until soft, sprinkle with garlic salt and drizzle with lemon sauce. Mmmm.

Shredded Chicken Education

There are so many meals that require shredded chicken and I'm going to teach you a simple way to always have delicious shredded chicken at your fingertips. It takes too long to cook and shred the chicken every time you want to use it, and canned chicken isn't nearly as delicious. Follow along and make your life easier!

First off, when a big pack of chicken is on sale, buy several! My local Albertsons has a buy one get one free chicken event ever 3 months or so, and boy do I partake! You can do this with frozen chicken, but I usually buy it fresh, cook it all, then portion it in the freezer.


First step: Put your chicken in a pan, put in enough water to just cover the chicken and turn it to medium-low (I use a '4 1/2' on my stove). Put the lid on and let your chicken cook. Depending on how big and how many your chicken will probably take 20ish minutes. (This amount of chicken in the picture took 25, I usually cut into one piece after 15 and see how it's coming along.) Go fold some laundry or play wii fit while it cooks, you don't have to do a thing.

Second step: Remove your chicken to a plate to cool. With or fork or your fingers shred chicken.


Third step: Portion your chicken into meal size sections. I usually call a large handful, about 3/4 a serving size for us. Put into quart size freezer bags, label, toss in your freezer.

I usually leave one bag of chicken in the fridge (for last minute quesadillas, omelets, sandwiches, etc.) and put the others in the freezer. I would make sure to use all your chicken within 2 months.

Shredded chicken can be used in:
Chicken Tacos
Taquitos
Chicken Salad
Enchiladas
Chicken Noodle Soup
Omelets
Quesadillas
Casseroles
Chicken and Rice Bake
BBQ chicken sandwiches
BBQ chicken pizza

Have any other ideas for using shredded chicken? Leave a comment and share!

Honey Bunches of Oats

Here is a honey bunches deal you CAN'T resist!

Post cereals are on sale at Albertsons this week for $1.99 per box.

If you go to this website www.postcereals.com/honeybunchesofoats you can print a $2 off a box coupon

So . . . . you are making 1 cent!

Albertsons' deal also says that if you buy 4 post cereals, you get a free box of vanilla almond shredded wheat. Post will only let you print ONE coupon per computer, so you need 4 computers to get a heck of a deal.

The pecan box is husband's favorite cereal. I'm stocking up!

Whine about it!

Here we are for another installment of WHINE ABOUT IT WEDNESDAY!

I'm normally a cheerful person, but sometimes things just get under my skin. I could take up 4 paragraphs ranting and raving, but I've found that I can get it out and get over it in 3 words. Hence the creation of Whine about it Wednesday.

So, here's how you play:
1. Whatever irritated, frustrated, angry or ticked off items you have this week you need to reduce to 3 WORDS
2. Leave a comment with only 3 words, your 3 little whines for the week.
3. Take a deep breath. Now don't you feel better?


HERE ARE 3 little whines:

FATHER-IN-LAW

(this particular whine includes a sigh and 2 rolled eyes:) just imagine . . .