Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Over Rice

Here in South Texas it's officially cold front season and the tempuratures can easily go from 85* on Christmas Day to 48* the next morning. My house is sitting at a pretty frigid 67* right now with no heater or AC going so I can finally lay on the couch with a blanket and not sweat it off a few minutes later like usual. So, with this cold weather I felt like eating something to warm my body up and that wouldn't take very long to make that way I could spend extra time cuddling my babies on the couch. Thus, this recipe came about. It's cheesy (Weston's favorite), has broccoli (my favorite), and of course the chicken adds a healthy amount of protein to really fill you up. I served it over rice because one of my FAVORITE homecooked meals is my mom's cheesy broccoli rice and I thought this would fill the void I've been having since Thanksgiving.

This recipe took less than 5 minutes to put together and only 5 hours in the crockpot or you could prepare it in the morning and set your timer that way your crockpot would just keep it warm till dinner time. Luckily I'm on winter break and have all day to do things around the house otherwise I would be going with the morning method.

Ingredients:

• 10.5 oz Cream of Chicken (Condensed)
• 10.5 oz Cheddar Soup (Condensed)
• 14 oz Chicken Broth
• 1.5 cups Shredded Cheddar
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• Frozen/Fresh Broccoli (I added how much I want, you can too, there's no right or wrong!)
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Coarse Black Pepper
• 2-3 Chicken Breasts 

Throw the cream of chicken, cheddar soup, chicken broth and spices into the crock pot and stir until smooth(ish). Add your chicken breasts and set the temp to low for 4-6 hours or high for 3 hours. About an hour before finished or serving shred the chicken and add your sour cream, shredded cheddar, and broccoli. Allow everything to melt and for the broccoli to cook through, you can stir occasionally.

Serve over rice and you're good to go!

Hope y'all enjoy this super quick and easy recipe. Weston loved it and I loved how easy it was to make so it will be a staple from now on.

Grocery Savings and Winter Break

Well, I finally beat my last best of $15.74! This was a complete surprise since I did not put ANY planning into this trip whatsoever like I usually do. However, this was one of the most hectic trips I have ever made because the week before Christmas at HEB is a literal black hole. Despite it all though I came out on top....even with Weston making constant "extreme couponer" jokes about me to the cashier...

In other news, I'm officially on Christmas Break from my kiddos and I successfully slept in till 10 today....then took another nap at 11....and 1....and 3....basically I slept all freaking day and I have absolutely no regrets about any of it. Tomorrow I will get back to work and do some minor winter cleaning around the house. We are hoping to have Weston's family here on Christmas and I would like for our house to not look like its usual very "lived-in" self.

Goals this week:

• Get my office space together
• Wash the comforters and guest sheets
• Fold and actually put away the laundry
• Finally make a schedule to follow for blogging
• And last but not least, spend some quality time with my sister

Gobble, Gobble!

One of my goals this fall was to attempt to cook a turkey...my mom ended up making the turkey this year and my boyfriend's family had a fish fry for Thanksgiving so I thought my moment was shot. However, I love turkey and don't mind eating it after Thanksgiving! So, that's what I set out to do and of course it was made in a crockpot. I had my parents over for dinner and this was a total hit. I was so worried I would mess this up but it is seriously so simple there is NO WAY to ruin this turkey. Have fun with it, use other spices if you wish!

Ingredients:
4-5 lb Turkey Breast
3 Stalks/Ribs Celery (chopped into 2 in. pieces)
1 Carrot (cut into 2 in. pieces)
Garlic Powder
Kosher Salt
Coarse Black Pepper


Chop up all of your veggies and place them in the bottom of your crockpot.

 

Wash and pat dry your turkey breast and place on top of veggies. Sprinkle with Garlic, Salt, Pepper to taste.

That's it! Set your crockpot on Low for 4-5 hours and leave it alone! Internal temp MUST reach 165 before consuming. If you want that "crispy" skin you would get from roasting, feel free to throw it under the broiler for a few minutes to toast it up once it is done cooking.

Enjoy!

Holy Cow! Or at least, chicken!

Today I embarked on a journey I have been scared to try for some time.....a whole chicken. I was mostly scared of royally screwing this up but to my surprise it was a complete WIN!

Right into the crockpot

Ingredients:
4-5 lb chicken
3 lemons
2-3 heads of garlic
brisket seasoning

Cook time: 4 hours
Prep: 15 minutes (depending)

Remove the ends of one lemon on each side as if you wanted to stand it up straight. Cut lemon in half and place at bottom of crockpot. Cut 1 garlic head in half and place at bottom of crockpot as well.

Finished product!

Rinse chicken inside and out very well and pat dry with paper towels. Remember to remove any insides if they are present (I buy ready to cook chickens to avoid this, gross!). Once dry season inside and out with brisket seasoning. Stuff chicken with other head of garlic separated into smaller pieces and peeled. Cut 2nd lemon into quarters and stuff chicken with these too. Cut 3 lemon into slices and place on top of chicken.

Set crockpot on high for 4 hours and leave alone! When thickest part of chicken reads at 165 degrees with a meat thermometer, chicken is cooked!

Enjoy!!!

Btw, of course this chicken was bought on sale :)

Weekend Warriors Pt. 2

After spending Friday evening in watching movies and eating Pozole, we woke up early Saturday with the intent to get more than a few things out of the way. Even when we lived in our apartment the need for a deep freeze was real. Every November Weston goes on his annual SandRats beach trip where he goes about 19 miles down the National Seashore and stays Sunday-Thursday. It's a huge fishing trip he has been doing for years and spends an entire week preparing for. I on the other hand prepare by attempting to make room in our freezer for all the fish or bait he inevitably brings home. Living in an apartment, we had a very sub-par small freezer and barely had enough room for our weekly groceries so imagine trying to fit an extra few pounds of fish in there as well. Not happening. Once we bought our house and upgraded to a brand new fridge that is literally 3x's bigger we still were struggling to find room for all these things. So the hunt was on for a deep freeze.

When you buy a home, you get LOADS of junk mail from companies that somehow found out you were a new home owner. However, they always send really great coupons. We received a few from Lowe's, Home Depot, and Sears worth about 10% off each so we decided to go there first. Home Depot is ran by idiots who don't know what they are talking about and we couldn't even looking for a freezer peacefully at Sears because the salesmen are going crazy trying to get those extra sales in. So Weston finally found the freezer of his dreams at Lowe's. A huge 20 cu. ft. stainless steel freezer that matched our appliances (per my request). We got it on super sale PLUS the coupon, so basically we got it half off. Not bad for a Saturday morning! After unloading it in the rain/mist/wind, we had lunch with Weston's parents at the Saltwater Grill like we do every Saturday.

I spent the rest of the evening at work and later we met up with friends for drinks at their home.

Weekend Warriors Pt. 1

To start off, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving Break!

Definitely missing my kids but I needed this break more than anything and managed to get so much done just this weekend alone. It was a weekend full of cooking, cleaning, buying things, and best of all spending time with Weston.

With the temperatures dropping I have had Mexican Posole on my mind for weeks. My mother always made it for me during the fall/winter because it's one of my favorite cold-weather soups and I haven't had it in at least 2 years since I moved out. I always contemplate making a batch, but I'm always terrified I'll butcher the whole thing and never try to make it again...like fideo. Much to my surprise, I took a chance and it was a complete SUCCESS! I used pork stew meat, chicken broth, white/yellow hominy, and a new addition green chiles and enchilada sauce!

Yum!

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsps. oil
  
  
• 1 lb. pork stew meat
• 1 tbsp. dried onion flakes
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can mild red enchilada sauce
• 1 (7.5 oz.) can chopped green chilies
• 1½ tsp. each chili powder, cumin
• ½ tsp. each Mexican oregano
• 2 (15.5 oz.) can white/yellow hominy, drained
• 1 lime (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large pot on medium heat. Add pork, onion, and garlic. Sauté 3-4 minutes searing pork on all sides.
2. Stir in broth, enchilada sauce, green chilies, and spices. Bring to a boil on high heat. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 40 minutes. Add hominy. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
3. I like to garnish with a lime wedge squeezed!

If I remember correctly we spent the rest of the evening watching The Fox and The Hound (thanks Netflix) and me crying over the ending. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good Disney movie :)

Steak Dinner For Two

Over the weekend I had purchased some steaks on sale and we finally got around to making them for dinner last night. I had the longest day subbing for a junior high special ed class and I didn't want to have to come home and make some huge dinner. Luckily my amazing boyfriend whipped these up for us and all I had to do was make the sides (bought on sale of course!) About 10 minutes later we had an awesome dinner and barely any dishes to do.

We spent the rest of the evening at my parents introducing Sam to my mom's dog, Cinco. All the dogs were playing so well together ane being silly and it was definitely an evening well spent. Bailey and Sam even managed to tree a opossum and of course went NUTS trying to get it down and kill it. Definitely beagles!!

This November I am very thankful for everyone I have had the pleasure of having in my life so far, and of course I'm thankful for my perfect fur babies.

Chicken, and Steaks, and Coupons, Oh My!

I didn't think I could do it, but I definitely did.

Last week I saved $9.75 on my grocery shopping for the week and didn't think I would be able to beat that total for awhile. I was only skeptical because HEB has such a tough coupon policy that you can double coupons, truly piggyback, and coupons.com doesn't make coupons for HEB unless they are manufacturer coupons. So this week I started planning ASAP. HEB's weekly ad comes out on Wednesdays so of course there I was scanning the ad plus trying to think of a recipe that could go along with it, which wasn't very easy this week. Since it's only us two, whenever I make dinner we typically have leftovers for the next days lunch and dinner. In essence, I really only make dinner maybe 3 times a week and we go out 1 night or we find odds and ends in the pantry.

For this week, I planned the following and knowing us this will be MORE than enough.

• Steaks with broccoli cheesy rice
• King Ranch Chicken (my style)
• Pasta Bake 

I got the New York strip steaks on super sale at $4.75/lb. I had a coupon for the broccoli rice which was buy one bag/get one free so I couldn't pass that up. I buy chicken at SAM's, but Rotel, peas & carrots and the cheese for toppings was on sale too. And last week I had gotten the pasta and pasta sauce on sale (buy pasta/get sauce free) so I just needed to buy mozzarella cheese (on sale too). Basically, the only thing I bought not on sale was tortilla chips for King Ranch Chicken. Of course, we got some other goodies like tamales (sale), Delimex taquitos and Bagel Bites (buy tacos/get bagel bites free) and household items for cleaning that I wrote about in my previous post. 

All in all, my grand total savings was $15.74! WOW! Price before sales/coupons was $73.32. Some people turn their nose up at HEB brands like Hill Country Fair, but you'd be amazed that there is NO DIFFERENCE and it's ALWAYS cheaper and on sale more frequently. 

Can't wait to post pictures and recipes for everything I cook later this week! Stay Tuned!!

Welcome Home, Sam!

If you know me, you know I have an undying love for Beagles. Ever since we rescued Bailey last year I have been begging Weston for another Beagle baby. I follow more than a few Beagle rescue organizations and I came across Sam's picture about two weeks ago. It just so happened that Weston also came across the same picture and shared it to me. Within 10 minutes I made up my mind and decided to apply for him. Fast forward two weeks and a couple of emails back and forth, Sam is finally here! I don't think I have been this happy in a very long time. It's always the simplest things that fill our hearts!

Sam came from a pretty rough life before he was rescued. When Sam was found he was shoved into a kennel that wasn't even tall enough for him to stand in (a big no no!!) and was so emaciated that he didn't think Sam would make the drive home. After a vet visit, x-rays showed that Sam's stomach was filled with rocks and sticks, probably because he was so hungry he was trying to eat anything he could. He also had his tail docked previously, which again isn't a good thing for Beagles! That little white tip on their tail is all a part of their character! DFW Beagle Buddies eventually got a hold of him and he has been with his foster family for some time. His foster mom misses him very much but she is so happy that he has found his furever home. Sam is a little scared of his new home but he isn't scared to come up and ask for cuddles and plenty of belly rubs.

So happy to finally say my little family is complete.

    

Winter Cleaning

In South Texas, we don't necessarily have a winter at all (or at least we don't in December like everyone else). If anything we have a couple of cool fronts back to back that allow me the freedom to finally open up all my windows and not crank the AC for the entire day. I usually try to keep my house looking clean day to day, but there always comes a time when I'm finally ready to actually CLEAN and not just hide things around the house in case friends come over. This weekend we will also be having a rescue group over to do a home visit so we can adopt another beagle (very exciting!) so I definitely need to get the house in order before these strangers come over to judge my home.

I'm a list kind of person. I could make lists all day but not actually use them, too. Either way, lists help me feel more organized and probably actually do make me more productive than I think I am.

• Base Boards (Thanks doggies!)
• Window Blinds
• Reorganize Coats/Closets
• Set-up My Office
• Vacuum/Clean Mattress
• Weed Backyard/Sideyard
• Seal hardwood flooring

Everything else is typically things I do daily/every other day. Time to stock up on Magic Erasers and floor cleaner and get to work....one of these days. I woke up this morning with complete intention to get some of these things out of the way but instead my day was better spent laying on the couch with Bailey avoiding all house and homework I needed to get done.

Falling into Fall

I'm with my kindergarteners all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I like to take full advantage of Mondays when I know I'll be completely alone. With midterms coming along full speed and only 4 weeks left in the semester my workload has become insanely busy. However, I still try to get dinner on the table ATLEAST 3 times a week. I haven't had pork chops since I had moved out of my parents and I figured with the weather cooling down now would be the perfect time to try it out. I was so hesitant about whether I wanted Weston (my boyfriend) to grill them, throw them in the crockpot, or bake them. I finally decided baking would be the quickest and easiest way to throw dinner on the table and off to HEB (our AMAZING grocery chain) I went.

If there is anything I love, it is a good HEB sale. For this week's circular pork chops were on sale for $1.97/lb and I also had a digital coupon for $2 off if I got the value pack. The only pork chops I could find were the "wafer thin" kind that had almost no meat or bone-in. Bummer. Right when I was about to give up I went a little farther up the meat section and found the most perfect butterflied pork chops that were not only THICK but for only $7. Since they were butterflied, and still an inch thick, what would have been only 4 humongous pork chops turned into 8 perfectly sized ones. With the $2 off coupon, I essentially got a meal for 6 people for $5. SCORE! HEB also has a great generic brand that tastes just as amazing as name brand products so I grabbed a box of $.75(sale !!!) cornbread stuffing and was out the door.

I am extremely proud to say I made dinner for Weston and me for the next two days for less than $7.
Another great thing about HEB is that they tell you at the bottom of the receipt exactly how much you saved buying their brand + coupons. It is always a game for me to beat the previous weeks bill and I think it'll be a while until I can beat this weeks savings of $9.75. Of course, we bought some extra necessities but, all in all, this was a good trip.

Pork Chops (Baked)

Ingredients

• 1 box Shake and Bake (or generic, always go with whatever's cheaper! You'll never taste the difference.)
• 3.5-4 lbs Pork chops (boneless or bone-in)

Pre-heat oven to 350.

I simply dropped 1 pork chop in at a time and covered it completely then placed them in a greased pyrex dish. Once the oven was heated I popped them in for 50 min - 1 hr depending on thickness and left them alone. 

I also made some stuffing that came from a box (it's still way too hot in South Texas to be keeping the oven on for too long) and prepared some mashed potatoes with chicken gravy. I had dinner on the table in an hour and it's so great to have the time after dinner to still WANT to clean up the kitchen. 

 Right before going in the oven

Fresh out 

We were starving

Welcome!

I am so thrilled to begin this journey online. It has been a thought floating in the back of my head for some time now and I figured now is as good of a time as ever to finally make things happen!

A little about me....

My name is Corina and I am currently a senior at Texas A&M working on my bachelor's in education. Teaching has been something I have wanted to do since before I could remember. There is something about a child's laugh that makes my heart jump and I do not think any other career field would be a better choice for me.
I am the proud mom of a 2-year-old beagle named Bailey and she is the light of my world. I have also been in a relationship with my boyfriend for the last 7 years (yes, we were high school sweethearts). If I am not at school I'm usually rummaging around Pinterest trying to find the next big thing for me to do or I am neck deep in crockpot recipes.

My hobbies include cooking, reading educational books and articles, trying to find a way to keep my house clean at all times, or talking my boyfriend into adopting another beagle.

Let's see where this takes us!
I'm hoping to make this a place where I can post my favorite recipes, cleaning ideas, pictures of my life, and a place for me to finally put to writing all the thoughts I have going on.