Chicken Taquitos

Printable Recipe

Let's review my schedule on Tuesday...

11:15 am Lunch
11:45 am Take Naked Toes to a friend's house, who will take her to preschool
12 pm - 2:30 pm   Volunteer at Field Day for Smiles A Lot
2:50 pm - 3:45 pm Grab Smiles A Lot and head to ice cream party at Preschool
4:00 pm - 4:15 pm Register Naked Toes for Tee Ball
4:30 pm - 5 pm  Make dinner
5:15 pm Eat and clean up dinner
5:30 pm Leave for nephews 5th Grade Graduation which starts at 6 pm
7:30 pm Cub Scout Committee Meeting until 8:30 pm

It was crucial that I defrosted the chicken breast and cook it BEFORE lunch so that we could eat taquitos for dinner.  That did NOT happen.  So at 4:20 when we got home from tee ball registration, I immediately thought GREAT!  Now what do we eat for dinner?!  It quickly became an uh-duh moment because I have THRIVE FD Chopped Chicken.

I put the FD Chicken in my strainer and set the strainer in a bowl and then the combo into my sink.  I added just enough water to cover the chicken and stirred the chicken to make sure everything touched the water.

I gathered my taco seasoning ingredients (4 t chili powder, 4 t cumin, 1 t salt, 2 t garlic powder) while I let the chicken soak.  To keep it simple, you CAN use a packet of taco seasoning.  We've just come to love this recipe and I keep all the ingredients on hand.

I didn't let the chicken soak for more than a few minutes because I was pressed for time AND I knew that I'd be using water to heat it up.  So just like making taco meat, I put my chicken in my skillet, added the taco seasoning, and 2/3 cup water.  I brought it to a boil and let the water reduce as the meat heated up.

 Once it's all heated up, I add 3 oz cream cheese and 1/2 to 1 cup of shredded cheddar and mix it up.  It doesn't look pretty like this but it's yummy.

 It's hard to take photos of myself while I'm adding the meat mixture to a tortilla and rolling it up - so I didn't.  Roll up the tortilla and place in a 9x13 pan.  Spray the tortillas with Pam and sprinkle with salt.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes - I generally turn them over halfway through so that it's crispy all the way around instead of just on the top.  Serve with sour cream, salsa, and your favorite sides.   Once again, Shelf Reliance saved our dinner!

Remember all those soccer practice nights?  This is actually one of the items I made for one of our picnics - I used a 9x13 pan with a lid that I have an insulated carrying case for.  They were a great finger food at the park!

 Simple Baked Chicken Taquitos

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups Shredded Chicken Or Freeze-dried Chicken
• 1 package Taco Seasoning (or One Recipe)
• 3 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Shredded Cheddar
• 10  Tortillas
• ⅔ cups Water
• Salt

Preparation Instructions

If using freeze dried chicken, you should completely or partially rehydrate the chicken before combining with the seasoning.
Combine chicken and seasoning in pan with water. Heat up, then add cream cheese. Stir until creamy. Add cheddar. Spoon onto tortilla and roll up. Place seam side down on baking sheet. When done creating taquitos, spray them with pam and sprinkle with salt.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
For crispier taquitos, flip over halfway through baking.

Picnic at the Soccer Field - Smokies in a Blanket

 Printable Recipe - Smokies in a Blanket

It's soccer season.  I love it!  And then again, not so much.  Every Monday, we have soccer practice at 5:30 pm.  On the other side of town.  Most nights, we eat dinner at 5:30 pm.  Our Monday nights are reserved as Family Home Evening (Family Night), starting shortly after dinner.  So soccer practice has really put a crinkle in our normal plans.  To help preserve FHE time, I came up with the "brilliant" idea to have a picnic at the soccer field at 5 pm every Monday night.  My sister-in-law is always talking about their family picnics so how hard could it be?  Except I'm not a big sandwich person.  Each week I have to get my creative juices flowing for how to have a picnic without doing sandwiches and hopefully make it healthy.  The first week we did pizza (it cooled off a little by the time we got to the park but cool pizza is just fine with our family).  The next week I made Chicken Taquitos (Recipe to come soon).  It's definitely a challenge finding something to bring for our family that we can eat sitting on a blanket under the shade tree.

The recipe I'm sharing today we made for our 3rd week of soccer and then again just for an easy night.  I call them Smokies in a Blanket.  A friend had made them for a baby shower ages ago (even before my 9 y/o was born) and I've loved them ever since.  The original directions I was given called for canned biscuits or crescent rolls.  Since I've been trying to avoid "extras" in our foods like additives, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and I also like to use whole grains as much as possible, I try to not buy the canned biscuits.  So I turned to my bread machine manual's dinner roll recipe as a starter and changed it up a bit.  I posted about that recipe here.


To make the Smokies in a Blanket, you need a package of Lit'l Smokies, one package of sliced swiss cheese, and either a can of biscuits/crescent rolls, or one rolls recipe.

Step 1 - Cut cheese slices into pieces slightly smaller than the dough.  Set these aside but in easy reach.  Open the package of smokies and keep within easy reach.

Step 2 - smash out your dough into about 2x1 pieces.  I do these one at a time by grabbing a small ball of dough and then pressing it in the palm of my hand.

Step 3 - Place a piece of cheese on top of the dough.   Add a smokie on top and then wrap the dough around the smokie, laying the ends on top of each other and pressing together. 

Step 4 - Place seam side on a baking sheet or stoneware pan. Bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes, until dough is golden brown.

Smokies in a Blanket

 Printable Recipe 

• 1 package (8 Oz. Size) Crescent Rolls, Or You Can Make Your Own Dough
• 3 slices Swiss Cheese
• 1 package (16 Oz. Size) Lit'l Smokies

 
Prepare crescent roll dough recipe and roll to about 1/4 inch thick, or use store-bought crescent roll dough.
Cut dough into 1″x2″ pieces. Cut cheese slices into pieces slightly smaller than the dough. Place cheese on top of dough, then wrap dough around smokie.
Bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes, until dough is golden brown.

Picnic Food - PW's Beef Noodle Bowl

Have I mentioned soccer?  If I haven't, let me mention it again - soccer.  We have soccer practice on Mondays at 5:30 pm - yes, at dinner time, but with dads who work coaching I'm not complaining.  We have soccer games on Thursdays with anywhere from 5:30 pm to 7:10 pm game times.  Game nights are not as hard as practice nights as the games are done in 30 minutes.  But practice is 1 hr long and it's on the opposite side of town from where we live.  That means we finish at 6:30 pm, pack up our gear, hike to the van and then drive home, generally arriving at 7 pm.  In my opinion, that's too late for my kiddos (and me) to be eating dinner.  So every Monday night we have a picnic at the soccer field just before practice.  My husband works close to the soccer field so he meets us there as soon as he gets off work.

These weekly picnics are trying my creativity as I plan a picnic but not serve sandwiches every week.  This week, I made Pioneer Woman's Beef Noodle Bowl..  I love how Pioneer Woman tells it like it is and shares her life with us.  It always makes me miss living in the country - but not the working a farm part, and not the snakes and mice near (and we'll not talk about inside) my house parts.  And have I mentioned I'm not much of a sandwich fan?  You'll have to bear with me as I'll probably remind you every time I post a recipe from our picnics - last soccer practice is May 14th.

The cast of characters for this recipe (not pictured here, spaghetti and grilled steak):

Before I tried this recipe, I had never heard of Ponzu Sauce.  I still don't know what else to use it for.  But since this recipe is ALWAYS a winner for my family, Ponzu is a staple in my cabinet. 

Yes, I use a fork as a whisk - because I don't like my current whisk.  Someday I'll replace it.













Pour 3 Tablespoons of the marinade over your steak and put in the refrigerator.

Cook your spaghetti and then add it to the remaining marinade.  Put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve.  Just before serving, take out your steak and slice it against the grain.  Add it to your noodles and mix it up.  Serve.

And yes, this is a staged serving since my family ate it at the park and I don't normally take these bowls to the park.  Even though I did have to take ceramic bowls because I didn't have any plastic ones available tonight.

I am not adding the recipe here because I'm not sure what Pioneer Woman's policy is on sharing her recipe.  Go here for a printable version of her recipe.  Her pictures are a million times better than mine too, plus she adds green onions which I was out of today.

You may have noticed that there are no THRIVE products used in making this recipe.  Shelf Reliance does offer Spaghetti and Brown Sugar.  I just haven't purchased those items, yet.  I am also very excited to know that if I bought THRIVE FD Beef Dices and used dried garlic instead of "fresh", I could try making this as a shelf stable recipe!