Tex-Mex Chicken & Rice

Looking for a quick meal tonight?! Here is an easy crowd pleaser! YUMMY! And it is healthy to boot...just don't go overboard on the Fritos!

Tex-Mex Chicken & Rice (adapted from Cook's Country 2011)
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup long grain white rice
salt & pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Pam
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes (10 oz)
1 can black beans (16 oz), drained & rinsed
Fritos
Shredded Mexican Cheese blend

1. Combine 1 cup broth and rice in a large bowl. Cover with plastic and microwave until liquid is absorbed, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Spray a large saucepan with Pam. Cook chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to plate.
3. Add remaining broth, parcooked rice from the microwave, tomatoes, and beans to now empty skillet. Bring to a boil. Return chicken and juices to skillet and cook, covered over medium low heat until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
4. Remove chicken from the rice and let it rest on a plate tented with foil, for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, letrice mixture stand covered for 5 minutes.
5. Cut chicken into bite size slices. Serve with crushed Fritos and cheese.

Guess what was in my mailbox?!

Are you kidding me?! I drooled through the WHOLE magazine! I LOVE this magazine and since I don't have cable, Jason and I agreed that I could get this subscription! I have had this subscription for about 3 years now and there are some amazing recipes, tips and just plain old fun stuff in every magazine. Kendra recommended! Get a subscription here! And go here to check out some of the recipes...you will probably see them eventually on my blog.

Snickerdoodle Bars

Ok...this is a new one for me. I wanted to have cookies but I didn't want to scoop and wait, so I was looking in the bar section at bettycrocker.com (got to LOVE that site!) and found this little doosie and thought that I would give it a try. YUMMY! It was a way simple recipe and it tasted like a cross between snickerdoodles and cinnamon rolls. I mean, c'mon...how could that be bad.

(I will remind you once again that my photos are by no means professional...what you see is what you get!)
Here is the recipe or you can get it here at bettycrocker.com: 
Snickerdoodle Bars 
CookieBar

2 1/3

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1 1/4

teaspoons baking powder

1/2

teaspoon salt

3/4

cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/4

cups granulated sugar

1/2

cup packed brown sugar

3

eggs

1

teaspoon vanilla

 

Cinnamon Filling

1

tablespoon granulated sugar

1

tablespoon cinnamon

 

Glaze

1

cup powdered sugar

1

to 2 tablespoons milk

1/4

teaspoon vanilla 

1. Heat oven to 350° F. Spray or grease bottom only of a 13x9-inch baking pan with cooking spray. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. (helpful hint: if you have a scale, measure the bowl before you make the dough. That way when you are trying to get half the dough in the pan you just have to measure the weight with the dough and subtract the weight of just the bowl)  In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on high speed until creamy. Beat in sugars. Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla into sugar mixture until combined. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients until combined.
3. (See helpful hint) Spoon half the batter into pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over batter.
4. Dollop teaspoon size amounts of remaining batter evenly over cinnamon-sugar mixture.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
6. In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. (helpful hint: use a fork to drizzle) Drizzle over bars. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.

Makes 24 bars

 

Garlic French Bread Pizza

Well, I guess I better get started with these posts! I will try to do one a day for a while. We will see how this goes and I hope that you LOVE my collection of recipes. I will label them as best as I can so that you can find it again in a hurry! Mind you... my recipes are mostly not of my own making. They are usually good recipes that I have found and put my twist on it. I am NOT for inventing the wheel...there is no time for that in my house! So instead I will try recipes and put them on here if I like them with comments on how I made it better!
One of Jason's favorite things in the whole world is probably pizza. I mean who doesn't like a good warm pizza. How about we make it even better by putting it on a good piece of French Bread! Yummy! This recipe is one of our family favorites and it is a 30 minute meal! AWESOME! The french bread is super crispy and with a hint of garlic and Parmesan! You will have to try it soon!
**TIP** Cook's Country is one of my absolute favorite cook books. Cook's Country is actually a magazine that is published 6 times during a year, but at the end of the year they sell a book of all of the magazines from that year hard bound with an index! LOVE IT!

Garlic French Bread Pizza
Adapted from Oct/Nov 2007 Cook's Country Magazine French Bread Pizza

6  tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (If you can, get the glass bottled Kirkland brand from Costco...it's the best and I am a snob!)
4  garlic cloves, minced
4  tablespoons of fresh basil, divided ( I use dried basil if there is no fresh on hand...about 1-2 tablespoons)
Dried Oregano
Salt
1  loaf of French bread cut crosswise into 8 even pieces (not a baguette...the supermarket French bread)
1/2 cup  Parmesan cheese
1 cup  crushed tomatoes (from a can...I use Contadina or Hunts, freeze the rest for pizza in the future!)

Toppings (optional...pick what you like!):
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Pepperoni, cut into quarters (this allows you to spread the pepperoni out more, with less calories!)
Green Peppers (about 1/2 a green or red pepper) cut into small squares (freeze the rest for pizza later)
Olives, sliced (sometimes I saute them first in a little bit of oil)
Onions, diced (yellow or red)
Mushrooms, sliced

1. Adjust oven rack to the upper-middle position and turn your oven to 425*. Microwave oil with the garlic and 2 tablespoons of basil basil in a mug until fragrant...about 40 seconds.

2.  Brush half of oil over the bread (including the crust and edges of the bread) and arrange cut side up on a foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle parmesean all evenly on the bread. Bake until cheese begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes.

3. Pull bread out of the oven and top all slices with a good spoon full of crushed tomatoes. Drizzle with remaining oil. Sprinkle remaining basil, salt and oregano. Add your toppings. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella. Bake until cheese is melted, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve hot!

**These pizzas are great for left overs the next day! They freeze really well too!