Fav Fall Recipe - Chicken Enchilada Chili Dip/Soup

It's September! Yay! Which means you can start to fully embrace all things fall! Apples, Pumpkins, Leaves, Cinnamon, Owls, Orange Brown Red and Green color combinations, and Pumpkin flavored everything! AND SOUP! Yay for soup! Now, I must admit, I have been known to whip up a good bowl of soup on 110 degree day and while it doesn't always hit the spot on a feverish day, it certainly is welcomed no matter what the temperature outside, as soon as "fall fever" hits in my house! Soup and fall just go hand in hand. Soup, in general, is pretty easy as far as cooking is concerned but I love a good crock pot recipe soup so I can prep EVERYTHING in the morning and not worry about it ever again until I scoop it up to eat for dinner. 

I have a few favorite crock pot soup recipes but last year I found a chicken chili that was amazing and you could eat it as a chili with a spoon or (it was thick enough to) eat it was a dip with tortilla chips that you mixed, rolled out, and baked yourself. (You can find that recipe here at Budget Savvy Diva). However, the recipe calls for cream cheese which I don't always have on hand because it goes bad to easily. So I scoured the interwebs for a more pantry friendly recipe and I found this little gem that I LOVE. It's just as good, and not quite as hot. 

Chicken Enchilada Chili for the Slow Cooker


2 chicken breasts
1 can of corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can mild enchilada sauce
2 tablespoons of taco seasoning
2 cups of shredded cheese 
Chopped green onions and sour cream, for garnish 
Tortilla chips

Line your slow cookers with a slow cooker liner. If you don't have one, use cooking spray on your slow cooker (but seriously, go get the liners!). Put in your chicken breasts, can of corn, rinsed black beans, enchilada sauce, and taco seasoning..  Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. After about 3 hours on high (or 4 or 5 on low) you should be able to shred your chicken with a fork and finish out the remaining time. It's ok if you aren't able to do this until the end but I like the shredded chicken to soak in some of the juice, if possible. When you're ready to serve, add 1 cup of  cheese.  Spoon bowlfuls and top with cheese, green onions, and sour cream. Serve with chips. It's good just by itself, too. 

Adapted from this recipe. 

I hope you enjoy!

Pinterest Party TIME!

My friends and I love a good Pinterest Party! This Friday we are getting together for a Fall Themed Pinterest Party!

Picture: No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
from afamilyfeast.com

What's a Pinterest Party? You might be asking. We try to pick 2 or 3 projects (depending on how lengthy they are) and we get all the necessary items and craft away. We also have food we find on Pinterest. We try to only include things we see on Pinterest.  Typically we only include food items we've seen on Pinterest, but haven't tried. And yes, we've had duds and failures....but that's part of the fun. 
This week I'm in charge of the food. Here's the menu:

• Pumpkin Smoothies
• Baked Apples
• Apple Nachos
• Carmel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
• Pumpkin Ice Cream
• No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles
• Pumpkin Ravioli

See the links to these yummy recipes on my Fall/Halloween Board on Pinterest.  I've prepped by making the Pumpkin Ice Cream (takes good so far...just needs to freeze), No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake (cheated and tried it and it was de-lish), and Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles.  I'll make everything else tomorrow. Can't wait to try ALL of them!

Making Rice

Everyday in Kindergarten, Wyatt gets a new "book". They are mini books the teachers print off of www.readinga-z.com. Thursday (the last day before Easter Break), Wyatt got a book to bring home titled "Making Rice". The book goes over a little bit of the importance of rice to China and its people. Then it shares how to cook rice and how to cook Chicken Fried Rice. Wyatt and I thought we'd give it a try:

Chicken Fried Rice

Wyatt enjoying his Chicken Fried Rice creation!

Ingredients

• 5 green onions
• 1 large chicken breast (boneless)
• 4 cups of cooked, chilled rice
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1/4 teapsoon of pepper

Chop green onions. Cut chicken into small strips. In one small bowl, beat eggs with a fork. In other small bowl, measure out sauce ingredients and mix them together. 

Heat oil in frying pan. Stir-fry eggs until scrambled. Add green onions, chicken, and peas. Stir them over high heat, until chicken is cooked through. Add rice and sauce, and stir for 2 more minutes. Add pepper and salt if needed.

Here's our special variation:  I usually cook 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice but the book said to cook 3 cups of water per 2 cups of rice. Whatever! But I wanted to follow the recipe because Wyatt was watching, so we got 6 cups of cooked rice (2 cups uncooked). The recipe only calls for 4 cups so I kind of doubled it. We used 6 green onions, 2 chicken breasts, 6 cups of rice (that

was most definitely warm and not chilled), 4 eggs, 1 cup of peas, and olive oil. We doubled the sauce recipe. It was delish! I've made chicken fried rice before but it wasn't that good...like restaurant good. But this recipe delivered...I think it was the sesame oil. I've never used that before....and it made it good!

After our meal, Wyatt added a few pages to his book about American Rice.

With Love,
Megan