French Onion Chicken

I made this for dinner last night and didn't think to snap pics along the way. In my blogging hiatus (hiati for plural?) I do keep cooking awesome things if I say so myself, I just forget to snap pics. So it's only natural that upon the return of one, I don't think to obsessively photograph each step. Sorry!

Anwyay, it was really good so I snapped pics of the leftovers which really don't look that good, but I promise they taste great!

I do normally use glass tupperware. I guess not last night.

I sent Jaren and Eden an email with the instructions. Here was my email t them:
I served this over pappardelle noodles, but you could serve over whatever.

I bought chicken breast cutlets from costco - I think I probably used an equivalent of 4 chicken breasts cut into strips. It wasn't organic chicken, we'll survive.

-1/4 block of low fat cream cheese

-1/4 cup fat free plain greek yogurt (or fat free sour cream)

-1 packet of liptons french onion dip

-olive oil

-2 medium onions (I would have done way more onions but i only had 2)

-white wine and chicken broth - I have no idea how much since i just eyeball (start w/a 1/4 cup each and go from there)

1. Rinse chicken. Sprinkle some oil in the crockpot and put the chicken in it - no need for salt, plenty in the liptons. Turn crockpot to high.

2. Mix the greek yogurt, cream cheese, and french onion, then mix in the wine and broth. The mixture should be more runny than creamy (if this helps determine how much broth and wine to put in). Dump it over the chicken and mix.

3. While the chicken is getting started in the crock pot (on high), slice the onions and separate them. Melt a tablespoon of butter and some olive oil over medium heat and add the onions, with some salt. Let it cook for about 10 minutes, then lower to low to caramelize, cover, and let cook for about 30 minutes.

4. Add the onions to the crockpot, stir, and cook for about another hour. It doesn't need to cook for very long since the chicken is smaller strips and the crockpot is on high. I think it was about 2 hours before it was completely cooked through.

It was easy and yum!

Here is a picture of it plated for lunch today:

I added some shredded part skim mozzarella cheese.

By the way, here was Jaren and then Eden's response to the e-mail:

Jaren Rabe	9:46 PM (16 hours ago)
to me, Eden

I stopped reading at "it wasn't organic chicken". 

Sent from my iPhone

Eden Sherman	5:47 AM (8 hours ago)
to me, Jaren

Hahaha oh man I wish I lived in Vegas... Never thought I'd type that

Sent from my iPhone

Haha love my friends, they make my heart smile. Enjoy the chicken!! Oh and speaking of friends and food, one of my favorite things is that Katy will pin a recipe, I see it, and make it for dinner that night or the next (obviously inviting her). We didn't really realize this until one day she said "I love pinning things, they magically appear for dinner at Avigail's that night". Hahahahahah! 

Honey-Soy-Sesame Chicken

Cravings: the best crockpot chicken recipe I know

While at my sister in law's I got the chance to do some cooking! Unfortunately everything got put into tupperware and eaten up before I snapped a picture of the finished result. But trust me, it's DELICIOUS.

I made this for Charlie a few months ago and he constantly requests it.

Ingredients:

-nonstick spray (not pictured)
-4 (or more) boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, fat trimmed
-1/2 cup of honey
-1/2 cup of soy sauce
-1 small onion, or 1/2 large onion, diced
-1/2 tbs minced garlic
-1/4 cup of ketchup
-tsp (or more) of cajun seasoning, or red pepper flakes
-1 tbs vegetable or canola oil
-2 tbs sesame seeds
*I accidentally had corn starch in this image, whoops!*


Directions:
1. Spray the crock pot with non stick spray. Put your chicken in the crock pot. I am a firm, firm believer in always salting your chicken. Except for this in this recipe. There really is no need with all the soy sauce, and the fact that it will sit in this sauce for 6 hours.
2. Mix all the rest of the ingredients (excluding corn starch!), in a medium mixing bowl. Pour over chicken breast.
3. Cover and let cook on low for 5-6 hours.

That's it! It's ready. Go eat it.


It can cook for 8 hours if you want to put it on before work or before going to bed, but it's ready after 5-6. Some people say you can cook it on high for 3-4 hours, and you can, but I don't think it comes out as good. If you do not have a crock pot, put it in a dutch oven at 200 degrees for 6 hours.

Chili Verde

I have several bags of frozen green chilis in my freezer that our friends left us when they PCS'd to a new base. (PCS means permanent change of station for the military and happens every few years).

Ingredients:
-About 3-4 pounds of any stewing meat, cubed. I used pork chuck, but you can use chicken thighs, beef chuck, even turkey loins!
-One bottle of beer. I used miller light because we have it around, but you can use any!
-One small can of tomato paste, plus 2 cans of water
-Salt and pepper, to season the meat
-2 tbs Chili powder
-1 tbs Cumin
-1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Season both sides of the stewing meat with salt and pepper. Sear for about 3 minutes on high heat on both sides.
2. Transfer to a crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. Enjoy!

*This can be a healthy recipe if you use lean meat such as chicken or turkey breast, or a lean pork loin*

A night downtown

We both love Vegas and no matter where the AF takes us we know we want to end up here (maybe not permanently but for a long time). I know now we're going to get pcs orders within the year, now that I've put it out there for the universe. But we'll be back here.

One thing we dont like about Vegas is its lack of a true downtown where you can around, shop, have a coffee, a beer, etc. Every major city has one and we don't. I know we have the strip etc but there really isn't the down to earth jeans and flip flops bar area, or the places where you can just randomly walk around and explore new stores and restaurants.

The Andersens (Jeff was Charlie's roommate in UPT and are our business partners now) decided to get a babysitter and go out and invited us to join them. SOMETHING MADE CHARLIE GO OUT!!! Thanks Jeff and Allison!  Although it's not the downtown we crave, it was fun and different. There are definitely interesting people there. As we were walking around the arts district Charlie made certain that we agreed on private school for our future children :-)

It's first Friday so they had all the local artists at the arts district. We saw this and thought my parents would like it for their house with the copper.

What do you think mom?

I had a very pink drink that was blood orange and something with champagne:


Picture came out good so I wanted one of me and my man:

Something was funny but I don't know what. Look at what a gentleman holding my jacket!


I like this picture because you can see the Stratosphere in the background.

There was a car show type thing and this van was just too funny:


We wanted to go to fremont and do the zip line but we ended up eating at Hugo's Cellar and got stuffed and then Jeff and Allison had to go home for the babysitter and me and Charlie have to wake up early to go hiking with Nikki at Red Rock. The restaurant is very cute and delicious and although it's not inexpensive, it includes sides and an AMAZING salad and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

Here is a picture of Jeff and Allison w/their food - Jeff got the smaller of the two options for his steak and I don't think this picture really does it justice.


I was stuffed although my portion was much smaller, I had a seafood trio so Charlie helped and I only had a bite of his steak, so I felt okay. I also had a total vegan lunch so I felt better. Last night I put veggie ground in the slow cooker with several of the green chilis the Mountains left us, one whole onion, tomato paste and two cans of water, one miller light, 1 tbs cumin, 2 tbs chili powder. Cook on low all night. I added one can of black beans and one can of kidney beans today. Yum!


Not sure it's the most aesthetically pleasing picture but it's chili, come on! Katy came over to help finish the bookshelves and she and I couldn't tell it was vegan, although Charlie claims he could. Maybe next time I'll add bacon grease. (oh wait......)