Chicken Taquitos

This is a recipe I adapted from the lovely ladies over at Our Best Bites ! I <3 them and their recipes are fantastic!! To be honest I actually make their version also (my husband requests this meal pretty much every week and I make him the spicy version and me this version!) so if you like some spice head over to their site and check it out! Our Best Bites Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos . I however like things a little bit tamer... if you know me well enough your probably saying to yourself "she actually eats this??" The answer is yes! With a bit of adjustment I actually enjoy this meal quite a bit also! :D

1/3 c. or 3oz cream cheese
1/2 c. garlic salsa (any salsa will do ... I am just in love with this particular salsa ATM )
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 c. shredded chicken
1 c. sharp cheddar cheese
1 package of small flour tortillas
cooking spray
course salt


This is my other adorable assistant that will be joining us today... :)

Start by cooking your chicken. This would be a great way to use up leftover chicken you have in the fridge but I usually just throw some in the oven with some olive oil, salt, and pepper

shred the chicken ( am I alone in the fact that I find shredding chicken a very annoying task?) 

Man its hard to find good help these days... asleep on the job! How typical!

ok ,while the rest of us get back to work.... place your cream cheese in a bowl and microwave it for 15-30 seconds to make it easier to stir 

mix in your salsa, spices, chicken, and cheese (the pics of this step are not so appealing.. so I left them out .. your welcome ;) ) This is the salsa I am in love with! 

  I am not a huge salsa fan (honestly I have only been eating it since I was pregnant with my first son about 2 years ago now!) but I LOVE this salsa! 

I like to use 6" tortillas for this, but the they didnt have them the last time I was at the store so these are done with 8" which work just fine also. Its pretty much the perfect amount of filling for one package of 8, 8" tortillas. 

Place 3-4 tortillas on plate with a damp paper towel and microwave for about a minute to soften them up and make them easier to roll up!  

place around 2 tbls of filling on the lower part of your tortilla

roll it up tightly 

This batch I am making ahead of time to freeze so from here I rolled them up in wax paper (in 4's since thats the amount I eat for a meal) and placed them in a ziplock freezer bag. 

If your going to bake them right away... place them on a foil lined pan, spray lightly with the cooking spray, and sprinkle with course salt. Bake at 425 for 15-20 mins until the edges start to crisp up and they brown slightly! 

Lacy Oatmeal Cookies

My sweet wonderful husband has to work all weekend this week :( I decided that the guys deserve a little treat for working all week and Sat and Sun!! These cookies are super easy and yummy!

preheat oven to 350 degrees
 Line cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper

1 c. Pecans or Walnuts - finely chopped ( I use the bags of pre chopped pecans to save time)
1/2 c. un cooked oats
1/4 c. flour

1/2 c light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c butter - cut into pieces
2 tbls milk
1/2 tsp vanilla


place the first 3 ingredients in your food processor ( you dont HAVE to do this step...but it ensures you dont have large chunks of nuts or oats in your cookies)

Pulse a couple times (as demonstrated by my lovely assistant! )

Stir last 4 ingredients together in a sauce pan over low heat until butter melts 

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together and cool for 10 mins

Drop slightly rounded teaspoons at least 3" apart (they spread a TON)

bake 7-9 mins until cookies spread and look lacy and lightly brown

let them set up for just a min and carefully move them to a wire rack ( they are pretty fragile and your probably going to break some of them!...but is OK!! we'll get to that in a min!)

Transfer to parchment paper or wax paper lined dish or you can eat them my personal favorite way.... take the crumbs and broken cookies and crumble them up into a "granola" and eat with a spoon! :) 

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

I have a confession... My name is Tonya and I am addicted to baking :) lol I have always liked to bake ...but lately it has become something I LOVE to do! Dont get me wrong I like to cook, but there is something about whipping up something sweet for other people (ok ... or myself too ;)) that I am just loving right now! :D So the other day I was up at 4 am with a certain 3 month old  little boy who likes to get up about then to come to bed with his momma to snuggle...and I could NOT get the ideas of this recipe out of my head! I just kept thinking about how to combine banana pudding with a cupcake....The next morning I was searching some of my much loved food blogs for a recipe to solve this conundrum in my head but I couldnt find a recipe that was quite what I was looking for and thus, my version of the Banana Cream Pie Cupcake was born!

Lets start with the cutest baking assistant on the earth:

And now for the cupcake, these cupcakes are pretty tasty I must say! They pretty much taste like a sugar cookie and I think they would probably be awesome with just about anything in or on them! LOL

Butter Cupcake:
1 c. (2 sticks) of butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar together.

 Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.

 Keep mixing on high until the batter turns light and fluffy (like frosting).   

Slowly add milk and vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Spoon into batter while on low speed.This is not going to look like your "typical" cake batter, its going to be really light and fluffy.. and YUMMY! lol 

spoon this mixture into your lined muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for aprox 15-20 mins. 

I got about 2 and a half dozen cupcakes out of this recipe 

The Filling:

1 prepared box french vanilla pudding 

2-4 ripe bananas diced 

mix bananas into the pudding and chill until the cupcakes are ready to fill 

The whipped topping: 

2 c. cold whipping cream 

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

mix whipping cream on med. speed until ribbons start to form. Then slowly add sugar and beat on high speed until the cream is nice and stiff. mix in vanilla 

(I forgot to take pics of this part... lol) 

you might need to double this to get a decent amount of topping. I used half of this recipe and half of the cupcakes and it was just enough to do barely enough topping on each one (I wish I would have had more on them)

Assembly:

I used a knife to score an x in the middle of my cupcake and then pulled out a small amount of the cake and spooned in my filling  (if you have a pastry tip and piping bag this would work better I am sure! ;) lol )

pipe on your whipped cream (you could totally use store bought cool whip for this... I just felt like making my own since  had never done it before!

and now top with crushed graham cracker or vanilla wafer

(someday.. I will get my camera screen fixed and actually be able to see what I am taking pictures of so the shots are lined up...lol )  

and there ya have it! Hopefully these will get good reviews tomorrow when my hubby takes them to work ;) 

The very first....

So I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now... I am absolutely addicted to reading food and craft blogs at the moment and I am quite sure most of my FB friends are quite tired of my constant ramblings about such things and my MANY pictures! lol Bare with me while I get the hang of this thing! :D Really this is just another place for my many ramblings since being a SAHM I dont get much adult conversation these days!! LOL :) Hope you enjoy what you read/see here!
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