Slow Cooker Southwest Chicken

A meal fit for any College Boy!  And it is lactose free!  I came across this recipe the other day at the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website.  Anything that I think the family will like, plus be able to make it in a slow cooker?? Well, that is a major plus in my book.  I LOVE my Crock Pot!  This old thing has been going strong for almost 25 years. Can you see it to the right in the above photo?  I hear the new ones now have a timer on them, which would be great, but as long as my dinosaur is still working, I'm using it! 

3 out of 4 loved it,but the 5 year old thought it was a little too spicy. We also had it with some White Mountain Publix bread.  College Boy is spreading his butter on a piece above.

This shows how the two oldest kids had NO TROUBLE cleaning their plates!

And mix it with table conversation?  Priceless!  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Slow-Cooked Southwest Chicken

Added by musingsfromthekitchen on December 16, 2009 in Main Courses, Slow Cooker

Prep Time 10 Minutes
Cook Time 6 Hours Servings 6 Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

30 ounces, weight Canned Black Beans, Rinsed And Drained
14-½ ounces, fluid Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
14-½ ounces, weight Canned Diced Tomatoes With Green Chilies
1½ pounds Chicken Breast
16 ounces, weight Salsa
1 cup Frozen Corn
1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Cumin
¼ teaspoons Pepper
Salt To Taste
Hot Rice, To Serve
Preparation Instructions

In a 2-3 quart slow cooker, combine the beans, broth, tomatoes, chicken, salsa, corn and seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken shreds easily. Shred the chicken and return to the slow cooker. Serve with rice.

Two Graduations

Yesterday we had a VERY full day with two kids graduating from two different schools and having to go to two different ceremonies!  Luckily we had the College Boy in town to help with transportation and picture/video taking!

Big Brother helping out

Alivia had a wonderful 6th grade graduation ceremony that was two hours long, filled with lots of memories from the past year in a beautiful slide show they put together.  The kids were recognized for talents and awards, and afterwards had a fun time socializing with friends, teachers and eating cake!

Here she is with one of her BFF's

Her GREAT teacher, Mrs. Duschl, which she had for 6th Grade

She stayed for the full day and wanted to ride the bus home, one last time.  All of the teachers line up outside and wave goodbye to the kids! For lunch, one of the teachers ordered pizza and a cookie cake for those who stayed, and they helped the teachers move things from their rooms.  She had a blast!

Once her program was over, we LITERALLY ran out of the door and into the parking, along with other parents who were scurrying over to the other school to attend the next graduation ceremony.  Luckily the Little Man's school was just a few miles away.  One program ended at 10:15 and the next started at 10:30!

This was Ryan's last year of Pre-School!  He is now going into Kindergarten, the same school that his big sister just graduated from! 
7 more years for me!  haha

Here he is in the back row.  It was the very last song, which was OVER, but he wanted to keep the arm movements going.  Too funny!  I think he did this 3 times after the song was done.

After their main program, we went to the classroom for a diploma presentation and snacks.  Here he is with his WONDERFUL teacher, Ms. Megan, whom he had this year!  We will definitely miss her, the class, the classmates and the wonderful school.  It was a fantastic year and Little Man loved every single minute of it!

Unfortunately, not all of the kids will be going to the same school next year.  His one buddy here will be going to another school down the way, but hopefully we will be able to keep in touch!

We celebrated with cards and gifts later that afternoon and had dinner with friends whose boys just graduated from 8th grade into high school, at the Alamo Mexican Restaurant. Fun times and great memories were shared over the years!

 

Congratulations Alivia and Ryan!  God Bless you and We Love You very much!

So proud of both of you!

21 years ago

21 years ago, this young man came into the world and changed my life for the best -- giving me a new title of Mom.  Happy 21st Birthday, College Boy!!  We are so proud of you!  xoxo

A Mother's Day Dessert from Little Man

For Mother's Day, Little Man wanted to make me a special dessert.  Here he is, describing his concoction in recipe format:

Hi!  Today I wanted to make a special dessert for my mom for Mother's Day, so here it is.  The first thing you do, is get all of your ingredients out.

You start with a chocolate donut.  You have to have one of those.  So after church, we stopped at Target to get a chocolate donut, and also a banana.  It also has a banana in it.  Mom vetoed the grapes idea.  Other ingredients include chocolate syrup, sprinkles, cherries and pretzel sticks.

Start out by slicing up the banana.  Use a knife your mom will let you use with her supervision, and slice them into bite sized pieces.  Next, put it in the bowl along with the chocolate donut.  Squeeze a bottle of chocolate syrup all over the banana.  Mom says not to get too carried away with the syrup!  Take a spoonful or two of sprinkles, any kind, and sprinkle them over the chocolate syrup so it sticks.

Next get out the whipped cream.  Oh, see how I just used half of the donut?  The other half will come in later.  You will see!  Now, squirt the whipped cream over the bananas so you have a place to put the cherry and the broken pieces of pretzel on top.

And here it is!!  Present this to your mom BEFORE supper, so she doesn't say she is too full after supper for her dessert.  Mom said this was SO good, she didn't need any supper after she ate this! 

(!!YIKES!!)

And here we are!  Mom is wearing the pendant that my sister picked out for her from us, and the flower pin that I made for her in my preschool class.  And do you see my face??  That is where the other half of the donut comes in.  You get to eat it yourself! 

 I love cooking!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

XOXOXOXOXO

Happy Mother's Day

The Rocket Scientist is leaving to go out of town today, so we celebrated Mother's Day dinner out on Friday night.  A great steak and seafood meal at Longhorn's Steakhouse.  Yum!   Then yesterday we did some  cleaning, shopping and swimming, and today we will go to church and I will bask in the love from the kids (and see if Sweet Girl will run the vacuum cleaner for me!).  I do miss my mother and my mother-in-law.  I miss not talking to them or sending them flowers.  Here is a sweet poem I found on my friend Melissa's facebook page:

~~~

If roses grow in heaven, Lord, pick a bunch for me ~ Place them in my Mother's arms & tell her they're from me ~ Tell her that I love & miss her, and when she turns to smile ~ place a kiss upon her cheek & hold her for a while ~ Because remembering her is easy ~ I do it everyday ~ There's an ache within my heart that will never go away.

Happy Mother's Day in Heaven. I miss you Mom.

Power Bars Recipe

Last week, the kids' swim teacher had his last day coaching/teaching, so the kids and I decided to make him some Power Bars as a thank you and going away gift.  I had saved this recipe from Heidi Swanson in my archive a couple of years ago, but just recently on another blog I follow, a girl posted it again.  You can find the original recipe here. So Little Man and I went up to the health food store right up the street and bought the ingredients to make them.  They are SO good! I will post the recipe as is, but it would be good to try adding some dried fruit, like dried cranberries, apricots or blueberries to the mix.  Enjoy!!

Big Sur Power Bars

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or regular butter)
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup slivered almonds
2/3 cup (unsweetened) shredded coconut
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
2 tablespoons ground espresso beans (I did not have this so we didn't put it in)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking pan with the coconut oil. If you like thick power bars, opt for an 8 by 8-inch pan; for thinner bars, use a 9 by 13-inch pan.

On a rimmed baking sheet toast the pecans, almonds, and coconut for about 7 minutes, or until the coconut is deeply golden. Toss once or twice along the way. Mix the oats, toasted nuts, coconut, and the cereal, together in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the rice syrup, sugar, salt, espresso, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the oat mixture and stir until it is evenly incorporated.

Spread into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into whatever size bars you desire.    Makes 16 to 24 bars.

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