Recipe: Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken & Rice

I'm sure I've mentioned before how menu planning has changed and saved my life, and I'll say it again. Menu Planning is really such a great tool, and I know I'm not the first to realize it. Pre-kids, Matt and I were doing it on a more relaxed scale, shopping week to week, but our menu was more relaxed. I've now found it important to plan the meals ahead of time, organize the grocery list with those ingredients, and even find recipes that I can slot into limited time-frames (and yes, I have an excel file to help me accomplish all of this....). 

I've been reading tons of new food and cooking blogs and having a lot of fun testing out a ton of new recipes lately. This Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken & Rice falls into my Slow Cooker Sunday meals. I know the picture is really not that appealing, but the taste of the dish is good, and it was easy to make! How can you not like a recipe that has one step? 

This is a pretty blank canvas to start with, so don't be limited by the below recipe.  You can easily mix up the frozen corn and replace it with peas, broccoli, or carrots, or all three. You could also switch up the cream of chicken soup with mushroom or broccoli. There's a lot of easy ways to add more vegetables to this dish. I actually think adding chopped red peppers at the end would give this a much brighter taste, so I'm going to do that next time.

INGREDIENTS

    2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
    1 large onion, chopped
    1 cup of rice, cooked
    1 cup cheddar cheese
    1 - 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken soup 

    1-2 cups frozen corn (or other vegetable)

DIRECTIONS

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Scatter chopped onion over top. Spoon cream soup over top of that. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. A few minutes before serving, shred chicken with a fork and add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese. Stir to combine and let cook 20 minutes longer. Serve hot.

Crafty Find: Scrabble!

I love crafts that can re-purpose common items into new and exciting ideas. I came across this drink coaster made out of scrabble tiles (brilliant), so I was curious to see what other crafts made use of these alphabet tiles. Any one of these would be a great gift for the scrabble lover in your life. And the best part, with so many letters to choose from, personalizing your gift is pretty simple. You could even make them bilingual.

To start, you could make your own Christmas Ornaments: 

Or perhaps a magnet for your dishwasher to let you know when the dishes are clean or dirty:

The letters would always look nice spelling out a message in a nice frame: 

And if you can make it work, make your own family tree:  

You could use them as wine charms: 

You could also use them for a bit of inspiration. How about pillows that look like scrabble tiles? 

There seem to be a lot of fun variations with this versatile letter game. I just might have to book mark this for the next time I want to make a personalized gift for someone.

Book Nook: Holidays On Ice

Holidays on Ice
~ David Sedaris

BBB Rating: 1 out of 5

I love finishing a book and adding it to my Read List, almost as much as I love adding books to my To Read List. Granted, the latter is much lengthier and I wonder if I'll actually ever get through them all, but adding new books is so much fun. 

Holidays on Ice was a book I received as a Christmas gift, oh, maybe three years ago, from my wonderful and observant husband. He noticed a few other books on my shelf by David Sedaris and picked this one up for me as a gift. It's a collection of short stories, all holiday themed, and I started reading it shortly after I got it, but then put it down and clearly forgot about it for several years. 

Well, I picked it back up over the holidays finished it not to long ago. What did I think? To be honest, I was a little unsettled by his humour this time around. I know he's a pretty quirky guy, but some of the ideas he puts out there made me uncomfortable. So I'm sad to say that this one was a miss for me. Not all the books I read can be hits, but I'm sharing them with you anyway.

40th Birthday Party

So, my husband turned 40 this year. No biggie. 40 is the new 30, right? So in his honor, we got ourselves a sitter and headed out for a big night on the town. First, we had drinks and snacks with friends at a local pub. Then we headed to a bar to meet up with more friends and watch a cover band. It was a late night but a great night (and nap time the next day was enjoyed by all). We looked forward to celebrating with our closest friends, so I wanted a little something to thank everyone for coming out. I put together a little something for people to take home (yay adult treat bags!), which looked something like this: 

That's not my photo (I neglected to take one), but I did put together a bouquet of Pop Rocks for our guests to take. And I have to say, it was kind of a hit. It was like a little blast of nostalgia in your mouth.

On a smaller scale, we had our own little party for Matt at home, including balloons and a very special birthday 'cake'. In general, I would say traditional cake falls at the very bottom of his dessert list. Nearing the top is Ice Cream Cake, which we enjoy when celebrating with his family, but I thought I could find something even better. 

Enter the Popcorn Cake and my inspiration: 

A mixture of popcorn, pretzels, and M&Ms, all coated with melted and gooey marshmallow? This combines all of Matt's most favorite things! So, I made it in secret the night before (A much smaller version than the one in the link), and after Liv had gone to bed (it wouldn't be fair to eat it in front of her, after all), I busted out the candles and presented it to Matt.

Thankfully, and not surprisingly, he really liked it. That yummy mix of salty and sweet really does hit the spot. He still talks about it, remembering fondly back to that delectable treat. I'm glad he enjoyed it, and he can look forward to this 'cake' for many birthdays to come.

 

Recipe: Banana Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Courtesy of momables.com

I've been wanting a way to start introducing new treats to Olivia, but I am conscious of the amount of sugar that is possibly involved. I know there are tasty ways to give her a sweet treat, and the internet is full of them. And I like that it means making my own version of easily store-bought items (such as pudding). This chocolate pudding is perfect for an after dinner dessert. And you adults, you just might like it, too!

I've seen this recipe making the rounds on various food and mom blogs I visit, and one even suggested it as a morning breakfast. Heck, why not? If it means your kid will eat a good amount of fruits, then I'm all for it. Right now Olivia is eating everything in sight, so we don't have the problem right now, but so much changes so quickly that it's a good idea to have this in my back pocket. 

We regularly have bananas and avocados in the house, so I just threw them in the processor, added the cocoa powder and this pudding was ready in seconds. Not surprising, Olivia seemed to dig it, as did I. This is my adapted version, but for a larger batch, HERE is the original.

INGREDIENTS

1 ripe banana

1 avocado

2 tbsp of cocoa powder 

DIRECTIONS

Add banana and avocado in processor or blender. Blend until smooth.

Add in cocoa powder and blend further.

If desired, chill before serving. 

A variety of other options are out there, including using Orange Juice,  Coconut Milk & Dark Chocolate, even a Spiced one for those of you who like some heat.