Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

As Meg mentioned in an earlier post, we're going to expand the focus of the blog a bit. I made this super easy dinner last week and wanted to share it because it is a) simple, b) cheap, c) healthy and d) delish.

I'm not a great cook. I don't particularly enjoy cooking - I'm much more of a baker. But I realize that I can't live off frozen meals forever, and there will be times when it will be nice to have some good go-to recipes for dinner.

I was on Weight Watchers in the months before my wedding, and I've adopted many of the principles in to my every day eating. I had searched for Weight Watcher friendly recipes that were easy and didn't SOUND like Weight Watcher recipes, and this was one of them. Conveniently, it also sounded like something that Tim would like.

And even though he asked that I buy Chipotle for him to eat in the event that he didn't like MY cooking, he finally admitted that it was good and he would enjoy having it again. And since it was so easy, I have enjoyed making it again and again and again.


Ingredients:

1 package frozen skinless chicken breasts (about four breasts)

1 jar corn & black bean salsa

Directions:

Dump into crock pot (chicken must be frozen). Cook all day on low.

Before you're ready to serve your meal (it was about 7 hours later for us), shred chicken and let cook another 10 minutes or so.

Serve in corn tortillas for tacos or in an egg roll wrap or over rice.

Optional: Top with shredded cheese

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is a very popular holiday to celebrate in Arizona. Mostly, it is celebrated with cervezas and margaritas. Since I can't celebrate that way this year, I opted to consume something else in honor of the holiday: Mexican corn bread.

I made this for Cinco de Mayo last year, and swore I'd make it a yearly tradition. See that post (and the recipe details) here. I thought about making it in an bread loaf form this time. But I wanted to make it after work for dinner, and I'm pregnant and hungry all the time, and making them as muffins really cut down on the baking time. ;)

When Mike got home from work, I declared that we should have a Mexican-themed dinner - the cornbread was already baking away in the oven - and enlisted his help with (i.e., asked him if he would make) some tacos.

We eat tacos a LOT, usually with ground turkey (sometimes ground chicken). Mike puts in the perfect amount of onions, spices, peppers, and even black beans. We threw together a salad on the side and wrapped the taco meat up in whole wheat tortillas, for a healthy but celebratory meal:


My notes are pretty much the same as last year. I used the whole can of chilies again, and cut down the butter and sugar. For the muffin version, you only need to bake them for about 30 minutes. They come out all warm, fluffy and delish:

Mexican Brownies

My husband came home from work one day a few years ago and told me he'd had a really good dessert at an office potluck. His co-worker, Lisa, had made Mexican brownies. He raved about them all night. Finally, he asked me if I would make them for him sometime, if he was able to get the recipe from her.

I agreed, he got me the recipe (thanks, Lisa!), and it's been a favorite dessert of ours ever since. They're easy to make, and so rich and delicious. I made them again recently when Mike and I went over to our friends' place for dinner. My friend Kelly said they were the best brownies I'd ever made.

Brownie ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Coffee Frosting ingredients
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder or granules
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1-1/3 cups confectioners sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease 13 X 9 inch metal baking pan.

2. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in granulated sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well-blended; add vanilla. Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until blended. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

4. Bake brownies 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of pan comes out almost clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.


5. When brownies are cool, prepare coffee frosting. In cup, disolve coffee in vanilla and 2 tablespoons of water; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, heat brown sugar and butter over medium heat until mixture melts and bubbles, about 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. With wire whisk, beat in coffee mixture and the confectioners sugar until blended and smooth.


6. With small metal spatula, spread warm frosting over cooled brownies. Let stand 20 minutes to allow frosting to set slightly. Cut brownies and serve.


Yum!


Source: Good Housekeeping (via Lisa)