2 & 2 fruit smoothie!

2  & 2 Fruit Smoothie!!

2 Ingredients & done in just 2 minutes!

This is the best and easiest smoothie, ever. 

You only need two ingredients, a blender & two minutes. My daughter loves these and its always a special treat for her. We have a smoothie as a mid day snack. 

What you need:

-2 cups frozen mixed berries

-100% juice*

*Please read the back to make sure it is 100% juice and nothing "bad" is in it! This makes it a healthy snack!

Place the 2 cups of frozen berries in to a blender. 

Fill with juice till its just covering the berries. 

Add more or less juice depending on how thin or thick you would like it. 

BLEND on high or Pulse till well blended... ENJOY!

this makes enough for a sippy cup and a mommy cup :)

INGREDIENTS:

STEP ONE:

2 cups of frozen berries

STEP TWO:

Add the juice

STEP TREE:

Blend on HIGH or PULSE till well blended

STEP FOUR:

Pour

STEP FIVE:

Enjoy!

Chili Pinto Beans

Chili Pinto Beans

We eat a lot of pinto beans in our house. They have a lot of nutritional value and are cheap. My husband enjoys taking them to work for lunch or just eating them with cheese for an easy dinner. But they have became "boring" to me. So I decided to try something new. I bought a box of this chili mix kit. I found mine at the local grocery store for a little under $2.00.

**First off, you need to make sure your pinto beans are cleaned and all of the half broken ones are out. **

I used the crock- pot on HIGH

Added about 3 cups of DRY pinto beans

Filled with water so the water is about 2 inches over the beans.

I added all of the packets that came with the chili mix (it wasnt too hot)

Cook for about 5 hours, or until the beans are tender. Keep adding water if the water is getting below the beans.

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These beans are so flavorful and can be eating with some cheese as a tasty healthy meal. I enjoy adding garlic powder and pepper to mine as well!

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 Please remember to clean off your beans before cooking!

Easy stove-top chicken

Easy way to cook chicken on the stove!

This is super easy to do!

All you need is a chicken breast & a stove!!

I like to leave my chicken still slightly frozen, it makes it easy to cut, and it cuts straighter. 

Cut the chicken to the desired size. Bigger thicker pieces take longer to cook, so keep that in mind. 

Place the pan on the stove on "medium", wait for the pan to warm up a bit before placing the chicken on it. Make sure the chicken is 100% thawed before placing it on the pan, if not the chicken will not cook evenly.

If you want to add season, now is the perfect time to do so. I personally like to add spices like chili powder when making a Spanish dish, or adding lemon pepper if i'm making the chicken for a salad.

Cook the chicken on both sides, mixing it every few minutes to make sure it is getting cooked evenly. The chicken is done when both sides are "white" in color and slightly browned. 

There you go, easy as can be chicken!

-enjoy-

Shredded Chicken- Crock pot

Shredded Chicken in the Crock Pot

I like to start the week of by cooking two large chicken breast in the crock pot. It is perfect to use for tacos, salads, enchiladas, soups or anything really! My two year old daughter loves to eat just the shredded chicken. She is not a meat eater, but loves to munch on this. 

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breast. I buy a big frozen bag of them, and thaw them out as needed. 

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup onion

Pepper & Salt

Steps:

Place two chicken breast in a crock pot, I used a 5 qt small one.

Put in the cut up onion.

Add two cups of chicken broth.

Sprinkle pepper & salt to your personal liking.

Cook on low for about 5 hrs, or until the meat is tender enough to shred easily.

You can always save the broth for another recipe if you would like, just store in the freezer!

Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

By Kassi Hill

This is my FAVORITE meal to make and it goes great with homemade tortillas and Spanish rice! We make this at least once a week, its so yummy & easy to make! I like to start it in the morning by placing a couple frozen chicken breast in the crock-pot  But this can easily be made with chicken that is cooked on the stove that has been cut up in smaller bite size pieces. 

Shredded chicken

Grilled on the stove

You can make as many as you need to fit the size of your family.  I normally make around 10 for my family of three, leaving a few leftovers for my husband to take to work. I use an 12 oz can of Enchilada sauce, and I always have leftovers. So keep that in mind when you are buying your ingredients. 

Ingredients:

-Chicken (or meat) of your choice, or you can go meatless

-Corn tortillas 

-Olives sliced

-Small can green chilies

-2 or 3 cups shredded "Mexican" blend cheese

-1 can red enchilada sauce

-Onion (half or less will work)

Steps:

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees

-Coat a casserole dish with the red sauce (pick a dish that will accommodate how many you want to make)

-Place the corn tortillas in the microwave, spread them out so they aren't layer. warm up the tortillas for about 20 seconds. this helps them roll with out breaking. 

-Take a tortilla and fill it with cheese, some chicken, a couple olives and a spoon full of green chilies.

-roll up the corn tortilla, and place them in the dish, folded part on the bottom.

-Repeat until you have filled the dish.

-Take the can of sauce and go around the edges, this makes sure it doesn't burn.

-Take the rest of the sauce and lightly make a zig-zag pattern over the enchiladas. coat with cheese and any left over olives or chilies if desired. 

-Cook for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. 

-Enjoy!-

Spanish Rice & Tomato sauce

While at my husbands Aunts house she taught me how to make Spanish rice. It was amazing and so perfect. As soon as I got home I just had to make some more to go along with my homemade tortillas and chicken cheese enchiladas. But upon coming home I realized, I didn't have a main ingredient! uh-oh! I didn't have the plain tomato sauce, so I got to thinking "why not make my own?"

So that's just what I did...

Plain Tomato Sauce

For the Spanish rice you need an 8 oz can of plain tomato sauce. 

To do this, you will need:

-3 medium or large ripe tomatoes

-Blender or food processor. I have a ninja blender which does it just as a food processor would. I'm not 100% sure on what blenders would have the same effect. Just something to blend it up really well. Steal blades. 

-small or medium pot & stove

Steps:
-wash tomatoes in cold water.
-cut up tomatoes in to small pieces, doesn't have to be super small. just small enough that it puree's nicely.
-if you want you can take out the seeds, I only take out some of the seeds.
-place all of it in the blender or food processor.
-pulse until the tomato is fully pureed & blended.
-pour the pure in to the pot and cook covered on the lowest setting.
-stir every 15-20 minutes for 2 -3 hours until the puree becomes rich in color and is thicker.
-pour into a container and let it cool off before putting it in the fridge or freezer for later use.

**this will give you about 8-10 oz of sauce, it is thinner than canned but taste just as good!**

Spanish Rice with homemade tomato sauce

Ingredients:

-1 cup white rice

-1 tablespoon oil (olive, vegetable or canola will work)

-homemade tomato sauce recipe (8-10 oz) OR one 8 oz store bought can

-2 cups room temperature water

-quarter of an onion, chopped up to desired size

-frozen corn (optional)

-season to taste (I use garlic powder, chili powder, pepper & salt)

Steps:

-on a pan turned up to medium-high, heat up oil

-wait a few minutes and then add rice. brown the rice till its slightly brown. stir every few minutes.

-add tomato sauce, water, corn & seasons

-stir then let it boil

-cover & DO NOT STIR AGAIN!!

-cook for 15-20 minutes

-to check to see if it is done, take a spoon and peek in the side of the pan to see if water is still in the pan, if no water is visible... ITS DONE. still DON'T STIR. 

-place pan to the side and wait till the rest of the meal is done, right before you are about to serve, then you can stir the rice!! Stirring the rice multiple times will cause it to become mussy. 

Homemade Tortillas!

Flour Tortilla's

By: Kassi Hill

Once you try these homemade tortillas you will never want to buy plain ole' store bought ever again! 

That's a promise. 

The first time I made these my husband said "so will you have a fresh plate of these every day when I come home from work?" (he was serious!) Funny thing is, they are so easy and so fast to do, I can very well have them ready everyday! 

Prep time: 8-10 minutes. Sitting time: 30 minutes Cook time: 2 mins per tortilla

Yields about 12 tortillas. 

Ingredients:

-3  Cups un-bleached flour

-1/2 tea baking powder

-1 teaspoon salt

-1/3 cup canola oil

-1 cup very hot water

Steps

1- add flour, baking powder and salt to large bowl. Mix with a whisk. 

2- add 1/3 cup oil to flower. Use fingers to mix together until it is crumbly and well mixed. 

3-add 1 cup of hot water, use a spoon or whisk. After it is well mixed. Use hands to make sure all the flower is mixed in then form a ball.

4- let is sit for half an hour (or you can refrigerate it over night). Leave it covered with a slightly damp cloth.

5-after it sits form 12 balls about the size of a golf ball. 

6-Turn your stove on to very hot. Castiron works best, but a normal pan will work fine. Let it heat up.

7-on a slightly floured surface use a rolling pin to flatten the tortillas. They wont always make a perfect circle, but practice makes perfect!

8-place the flattened tortilla on the hot pan. Cook each side till bubbles form. Make sure both sides get cooked fully. 

9-repeat until all of the tortillas are rolled and cooked! ENJOY!

**You can refrigerate any leftover tortillas in a gallon bag, but keep it unzipped or they will become too moist. Reheat on a pan & enjoy warm!**