Chicken Enchilada Pasta

After you read through this recipe you need to go straight to the nearest store and buy the ingredients to make it.  Do not hesitate, do not pass go, do not collect $200!  This is one of the easiest recipes I’ve made lately and is definitely one of our favorites.  I won’t lie, at first I was hesitant to try it but I’m so glad I did!  It is easy, simple and delicious and smells SO GOOD as it’s cooking.  This recipe seriously makes a TON of food, so you’ll have leftovers for days which is awesome if you’re like me and eat lunch at home everyday!  So here’s what you will need…

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

2-3 Chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

2 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 [4 oz] can diced green chiles

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

2 [10 oz] cans green enchilada sauce

2/3 cup red enchilada sauce

2 cups shredded cheese (I used monterrey jack)

1 cup sour cream

Penne pasta

Optional Toppings

Avacado

Green Onions

Tomatoes

Sour Cream

Cook, drain, and shred your chicken.  To keep the chicken from being dry, put it in a pot with water, some cumin and a little chili powder and set it over low to medium heat.  It is best to never let the water boil, but just cook the chicken slowly.  See all the spices? Yummm.

While shredding the chicken, your dog(s) may gather around to sniff for scraps.  They will not get any chicken, but they do make nice cooking companions ;)

Cook pasta and drain.  Next, chop up your veggies.  This doesn’t take much time at all, another reason why I LOVE this dish!

Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet and cook the onions until they’re nice and translucent.  Then add in your red peppers and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes or so. 

At this point everything will smell so heavenly that it may bring your husband in from the couch to stand next to you and sniff the goodness.  Bless him!
Now, add the chicken, green chilies, cumin, chili powder, salt and enchilada sauces. 

Stir this up and let the sauce simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  If it seems a little thick you can add some chicken stock to thin it out.  At this point everything smelled so good that I forgot to take anymore pictures, but the sauce just looks like sauce…  I was distracted by the excitement of a new episode of New Girl.  I LOVE that show!  It’s HILARIOUS.  If you’ve never seen it you really need to.  See, follow my instructions and eat delicious food while watching hilarious television.  Just don’t laugh so hard that you shoot chicken enchilada pasta out your nose.  Hahahaha!!! 
Ok, ok, ANYWAY… after the sauce simmers for a minute, add in the shredded cheese and stir until it is melted and heated through.  Now add in the sour cream but DO NOT bring to a boil.  Your sour cream will curdle and that ain’t sexy. 
Now, put your drained pasta back in the large pot you boiled it in and pour the sauce over the pasta and mix it up.  Now, get yourself a bowl and chow down.  I topped mine with a little sour cream and dug in.  I’ll wait, while you try your pasta.. Now come back here and leave me a little love note because you’re so grateful that I shared this recipe! 

SO GOOD!!!!!  Let me know what you think if you try it!  Thanks for stoppin’ by!

Slow Time

That’s what they call it here in the south.  What it means is that the sun goes down around 4:00pm.  But that’s ok, because this is what was waiting for me when I arrived home from work one day last week. 
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A Little Disappointed…

So a few weeks ago I pinned this recipe and was so stinkin’ excited to try it!  It sounded so seriously delicious I couldn’t wait.  I finally got around to putting it in my weekly meal rotation last week.  It smelled so insanely good while it cooked that I thought for sure it would be my new favorite meal!  Fast forward 5 hours after I assembled it all and dumped it in the crock pot….womp womp womp….  It wasn’t as good as the hubs and I had hoped, but I still want to try it again with a few changes.   I took some pictures while I made it, so here ya go..

For Angel Chicken you will need:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/2 pounds)

1 8-oz. pkg. fresh button mushrooms, quartered

1 6-oz. pkg. fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced

1/4 cup butter

1 0.7-oz. pkg. Italian dry salad dressing mix

1 10-3/4-oz. can condensed golden mushroom soup

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 of an 8-oz. tub cream cheese spread with chives and onion

Hot cooked rice or angel hair pasta

Now you may notice that I’m using all white mushrooms, it’s because all they had at the store was white mushrooms and who really wants to go to 2 different stores, right?? Right.  Also, I’m using some old chardonnay that I’ve had hanging around for a few months.  The hubs questioned whether it was ok to use wine that old, and I assured him it CERTAINLY was.  So feel free to use some stanky old wine in your recipe too!  Kidding, kidding.
Ok, so first we melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan.  Once it’s melted we add in the packet of Italian seasoning.

Add in your soup, wine and cream cheese and whisk together.  It looks pretty much like barf at this point, but it smells UH-MAY-ZING.

Now, bust open your mushrooms and dump those bad boys down in the bottom of your crock pot.  I forgot to take pictures at this point, but it’s pretty simple.  Next, lay your chicken over top of the mushrooms in a nice, even layer.  Pour the cream cheese/wine/soup mixture over all of that, put on the lid and set it on low for 5 hours. 

And this is how it looks five hours later!

I wish you could smell this through the computer, it is truly heavenly.  Maybe that’s why it’s called Angel Chicken.. Duh, Megan.  Anywho, make some rice and plop some of everything on your plate and chow down! 


I’m still not sure what it’s missing, but maybe it needed more Italian seasoning??  Who knows, but I will surely try again.  If anyone has any suggestions of things that might give it that little extra ZIP, please let me know and if you make it yourself let me know how it turns out!  On a side note, that golden mushroom soup is wonderful.  I used it in another recipe this week and it really added some great flavor.
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A Month of Sundays

Sundays are for being lazy around our house. We usually cook some breakfast and the only chore that gets done is laundry.  I’m also usually running around with my camera snapping pictures either for the blog or just for fun.  So I’m not sure why, but one Sunday I stepped out on the back stoop just off the laundry room and snapped a quick picture of the trees over to the right.  In the summer I took a few of these photos because I thought it was interesting that when standing on the stoop I could see into about 3 other people’s backyards!  No, I’m not a creeper, I just think it’s crazy how close together our houses are. 
Once the leaves started to change I took a picture every Sunday, just to see how things were changing and it’s pretty neat to see the colors change over time.

The leaves are still very green but just the tips of the branches are starting to turn yellow and orange.

A week later and not much change except maybe a touch more orange.

Seriously just one week later!  So much more orange everywhere!  Gloomy, but still beautiful.

Another week and even more bold and beautiful!  It all changed so quickly.

So neat! Now most of the leaves have fallen off the trees because of some rainy and windy days, but it’s still beautiful in my neighborhood.  There are three gingko trees right around my house and they are always the last trees to turn, but in my opinion, are worth the wait!  If you’ve never seen a gingko tree in late fall you need to, because they are so gorgeous.  I’ll be taking some pictures of those this week, since the tips of their branches are becoming yellow.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!
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