Walking Taco Casserole....cheesy melty goodness!

     So the other day I pinned a picture on Pinterest of "Walking Taco Casserole". HOWEVER, it was just a user uploaded picture. UGH!  There wasn't a link to follow to grab a recipe. So I decided to create this and it fits the bill. It is so yummy!
     I served my casserole over lettuce and topped it with some salsa. You could also do sour cream, guacamole, or whatever your favorite taco toppings happen to be.

Walking Taco Casserole

1 lb Ground chicken, beef or turkey
1 small onion sliced
1/2 Can of Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chillies)
1 Packet of Taco seasoning
1 Bag of Frito Corn Chips
1 Can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Can Enchilada Sauce (10 oz)
2 oz. Cream Cheese
2 C. Shredded Cheese

In a skillet brown the meat and onion. Add the Rotel and taco seasoning. Simmer until any liquid is evaporated. Add black beans and cream cheese. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream cheese until melted and combined. Stir in the enchilada sauce.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Dump 1/2 of the bag of Fritos into the bottom of the pan. Top with 1/2 of the meat mixture and 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layer Chips, meat, cheese.

Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and casserole is heated through.

Brown the meat and onions. I used ground chicken.

When it is time....shut off the heat before adding the cream cheese. Once it is melted into the meat mixture, add the enchilada sauce.

Layer 1: 1/2 the bag of fritos (get the skinny kind, NOT the scoops)

Layer 2 :Meat Mixture

Layer 3: 1/2 of the cheese

Repeat the Layers

Layer 4: Chips

Layer 5: Meat

Layer 6: Cheese

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes

This recipe is so yummy. It is one of my new favorites!

-Jessica

Zucchini Bread and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

    This is what happens when you are gifted a zucchini and you didn't have plans for said zucchini. You make an attempt at zucchini bread. I hear that's what everybody does with the oodles of zucchini that they don't know what to do with. Ha! Ok, so maybe ONE zucchini isn't oodles....and maybe I could have grilled it which I LOVE...but I wanted to try zucchini bread.
    I did a search for zucchini bread recipes. There are about a zillion of those out there by the way! I decided to base mine off of a famous lady named Paula's recipe. However, I made mine gluten free. I also took out the gobs of oil she used and replaced it with cinnamon applesauce. Lastly, I switched up some of the spices because of what I had on hand. I also added chocolate chips to one loaf. I hear that chocolate chips are yummy in zucchini bread.

Zucchini Bread - gluten free

3 cups GF Flour Mix
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup cinnamon applesauce
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon almond extract

* add 3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips to make Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, xanthan gum, salt, pie spice, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Mix wet ingredients into dry. Add the grated zucchini and stir until combined.  Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with cooking spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Use a cheese grater/ box grater to grate the zucchini.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Add in the grated zucchini and stir until combined.

Plain Zucchini Bread Batter

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Batter (I divided the batter in 1/2. I did one loaf plain and one loaf chocolate chip by adding 1/2-3/4 c. Chocolate Chips to the batter)

Plain Loaf is done!!

So moist and yummy!

YUM!

Chocolate Chip is done!!

So pretty

Look at those chunks of chocolaty goodness.

Two yummy loafs of zucchini bread.....THIS is the way to eat your veggies!

After making and trying my zucchini bread I have no idea why I have never made this before. It is GOOD! I do believe I am a fan of zucchini bread now....mmmmmm.

-Jessica

Thai BBQ Chicken In The Slow Cooker

     I'm in a cooking rut. It has been hot outside, nothing sounds good when it's hot. I hate to heat up the oven and heat up the house to make food. I'm feeling very blah about food. I decided that I can't live on yogurt, blueberries, and Bakery on Main Maple Granola. Ok, so I COULD.....but it probably isn't a good idea.
     I didn't want any heavy foods with the "Cream of" soups. UGH! The thought of eating creamy heavy sauce and heat make me sick. UGH! I thought about making stir-fry. However, the thought of standing over a hot wok also makes me sick! ha
    I was going to BBQ some chicken last night, however it wasn't thawed out in time. So there goes that idea as well because tonight I'm busy so no time to stand at the BBQ. That left me with the option of throwing something in the crock pot. I already had the chicken out (from last night). So that left me with two things to go on....chicken something in the crock pot.
    I LOVE to make Thai BBQ sauce to slather on chicken when I grill. I love the sweetness of the BBQ sauce and honey with the creaminess of the peanut butter. YUM! So I decided to see if I could replicate the taste in the slow cooker. Here is my result.

Thai BBQ Chicken in the Slow Cooker

2 Small/Medium Sweet Potatoes, washed, peeled, and cut into chunks
1 Package Chicken Breasts (could also use boneless thighs)
1 Small Onion, sliced
1/4 C. Water

Sauce:
1/2 C. BBQ Sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
2 Heaping tablespoons of Peanut Butter
2 T. Honey
1 tsp Soy Sauce
1/4 tsp. Chopped Fresh Cilantro

Generously spray your slow cooker with cooking spray. Place the sliced/diced sweet potatoes in the bottom of the cooker. Pour the 1/4 C. Water over the sweet potatoes (it will not cover the potatoes). Place the chicken breasts over the top of the sweet potatoes. Combine the sauce ingredients with a whisk. Spread the sauce over the chicken breasts (sauce is very thick). Lay the sliced onion on top of the sauce covered chicken.

Cook on high for 3-4 hours.

Layer 1 is sweet potatoes

Layer 2 is the chicken breasts

Combine the sauce ingredients.

Whisk until thick and creamy looking.

Spread the sauce over the chicken breasts (layer 3).

Top with the sliced onion (layer 4).

Cook on high for 3-4 hours.

Smells good!

 

Ok, so after making this there are a couple of things that I would change. I think I would leave the sweet potatoes out. They seemed to flavor the chicken more than I thought they would. So then everything kind of had the same flavor. I think I would maybe add some garlic to the sauce. It was good. It wasn't exactly like my BBQ chicken that I make on the grill, but it was still good.

-Jessica

Pasta Salad and a trip to the Farmers Market

     This pasta salad recipe is one that my Grandma used to make. It was one that was a staple in her refrigerator during the summer when I was growing up. I always knew that when I would finish mowing her yard I could go inside and grab a big bowl of this to cool off. Of course back then I wasn't gluten free, so the pasta was regular gluteny pasta.
     I was thinking about this salad a couple of weeks ago and begged Grandma for the recipe. She was kind enough to give it to me, and I turned it gluten free. It tastes just as amazing with the gluten free pasta as it did with the gluteny pasta. I have a big bowl of it in my refrigerator now.....yum!!
     In my excitement to get the ingredients today at the Farmers Market, I picked up a zucchini. I got home and was slicing the zucchini and putting it into the dressing and I went OH NO, this recipe takes a cucumber. OOPS!! However, it still tastes amazing with the zucchini. Possibly even better than the cucumber....because I'm not a big cucumber fan. Anyways.....in the pictures for the recipe...yes I know that's a zucchini haha I'm a dork and picked up zucchini. I may make it with zucchini from now on! ha

Pasta Salad

Dressing:
1 1/4 C. Sugar
1 1/4 C. Oil
1 1/4 C. Vinegar
2 T. Garlic Powder
1 T. Parsley

1 Onion, thinly sliced
1 Cucumber
1/2 Bag of Tinkyada Penne pasta or spirals (approximately 8oz of gf pasta)

Combine the Sugar and vinegar for the dressing. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved completely. Very slowly pour the oil in whisking the whole time. Keep a steady stream of oil pouring while whisking quickly creating an emulsion. Add the garlic powder and parsley and whisk to combine.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Run cold water over the pasta to cool. Drain and add to the dressing mixture.

Thinly slice the cucumber and onion. Add to the dressing mixture.

Refrigerate the salad. This pasta salad is best when it is made in advance so that all the flavors can mesh. It keeps up to one week in the refrigerator and if you run out of pasta/veggies and have leftover dressing you can just replenish the pasta and veggies and add them back into the "juice".

Whisk quickly and pour the oil slloooooowy to create the emulsion

Thinly slice the cucumber or in this case the zucchini.

Also thinly slice the onion.

Combine the veggies, pasta, and dressing. Toss to coat and refrigerate so that all the flavors can mesh.

I hope you enjoy this yummy summer pasta salad!

-Jessica

Basic Muffins turned into Three Different Kinds of Muffins!!

   I have been preparing wildly for tonight's Relay for Life event. I have been packing my bags of campsite decorations, gathering donations, checking with my team to be sure they are ready...and then it hit me...what in the world are you going to eat? The snacks and such that are served are not usually gluten free. You will have to take FOOD!! UGH....so I decided to bake muffins. I couldn't decide on a flavor though...so I just made three kinds. They turned out pretty good so I thought I would share the recipe with you!

Basic Muffins

2 C. Gluten Free Flour Mixture
1/2 tsp. Xantham Gum
1/2 C. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
2tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/4 C. Milk
2 Eggs
3 T. Oil OR 5 T Applesauce
1tsp. Vanilla

Combine all ingredients. Divide batter into muffin tins generously sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 Deg. for 15-20 minutes.

I divided my batter into thirds and added the following ingredients in to make 3 different kinds of muffins. 

Blueberry Muffins
1/3 of the batter recipe from above
1/2 -1 C Fresh blueberries
1/2 tsp. Almond Extract.

Mix together and bake as directed

Apple Cinnamon
1/3 of the batter recipe from above
1/2 C Applesauce
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. Pie Spice

Mix together and bake as directed.

Lemon Yogurt
1/3 of the batter recipe from above
2 tsp. Lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Lemon extract
1 Cup Lemon yogurt

Mix together and bake as directed.

I used applesauce instead of oil in the basic batter.

Adorable cuppeycake wrappers with awareness ribbons on them.

Divide the batter into thirds.

Lemon yogurt muffin batter

Blueberry!

The 3 different kinds of muffins.

The recipe came out making 15 muffins, so I had to use a 2nd muffin tin.

Yummy finished product! Mm Mmm Mmmm!

Blueberry came out super fluffy and yummy!

Applesauce was very moist and good flavor.

Lemon yogurt came out very very moist, could use a little more lemon flavor. Next time I will buy a lemon and put in some zest.