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.

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 :)