Chicken Tacos with Creamy Pablano Peppers

Tonight we are having chicken tacos.  I am not a fan of chicken tacos, but my husband and oldest love them.  So to compromise, I make Creamy Poblano Peppers to go on my tacos with the chicken.  My mom found this recipe and it is great.  You can eat it as a dip if you really would like!  Instead of using chicken for her tacos, she uses this chorizo recipe.  My family doesn't care for chorizo, so we use good old fashion chicken.

For the tacos, I pick up a packet of Chicken Taco seasoning, by Old El Passo and follow the directions on the package to cook the chicken.  We use soft tortillas, but hard shells would be good too!  Add lettuce, cheese (I use monterey jack), sour cream, and salsa.

Here is the recipe for what I add to my chicken tacos and below is the chorizo recipe too:

Creamy Poblano Peppers

3 fresh poblano chilies

3T vegetable oil

1 medium onion

2 ears of corn, kernels removed

¼ c heavy cream

¼ c Mexican crema crème fraiche

½ c shredded Monterey jack

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Char poblano chilies in broiler until blackened on all sides.  Enclose in plastic bag and get steam for 10 minutes.  Add the oil over medium heat.  When hot add onion and sauté until translucent (5 min).  Add corn and cook for additional 3 minutes.  Set aside.

Peel and seed chilies.  Cut the chilies in strips ( ¼ inch) and add the strips to corn mixture.  Sauté until corn is tender (5 min).  Add heavy cream and Mexican crema and cook until bubbly (8 min).  Add cheese and stir until melted smooth.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Sautéed Potatoes and Chorizo

 

1 T vegetable oil

10 oz Mexican pork chorizo (casings removed)

1 small onion

1 pound red skinned new potatoes, cut into small diced and boiled

Salt and pepper

Heat oil over medium heat.  Add chorizo and cook until crisp (10 min).  Using slotted spoon, transfer chorizo to paper lined plate to absorb oil.  Leave about 1 T of fat in pan, add onions and boiled potatoes and sauté until brown (12 min).  Stir in chorizo and season to taste.

Easy Crockpot Potato Soup

I have two crockpot potato soup recipes.  This one is the easiest and is very good!  I believe it is a Paula Dean recipe, but not sure.  I got this one off the pintrest, which claims it is but not sure...  It is my oldest's favorite soup!

EASY CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth  (I use lower sodium broth)

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese {don’t use fat free.  It WON’T melt!!!}

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!

Unclutter Your Kitchen

Keeping the clutter off my counters was a chore until I started using a file folder bin. 

With the four of us having things going on,  there are always papers involved and mail coming in which ended up on my counter.  I would have to pile them up or move them when I went to make a meal or bring in groceries.  They ended up lost or messed up or piled up and I would forget about them...

I bought a file holder with with no lid.  No lid, because if there is flat space, something else would be put on top of it :).   There is a file for bills, each kid, my husband, me, recipes, and coupons.  This way everything goes in a file and not on my counter. 
I try to go through each folder at the end of the month and get rid of anything we don't need. 

Really important papers, which are time sensitive, are pinned on a bulletin board in our kitchen.

I bought my bin at Target for about $12.  Twelve dollars well spent!  It even came with the hanging folders. 

The folder I keep my recipes for the month goes in the recipe  hanging folder and then I move the recipe to the hanging folder after I use it.

Great Pumpkin Dessert

Here is the pumpkin recipe that tied first place in my husband's office pumpkin dessert contest!

Pumpkin Lust Cake


1 stick butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tbs sugar
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, soft
1 cup powdered sugar
2 (8 oz) containers cool whip (or one 16 oz container)
2 small packages (3.4oz) of Jello Instant Pumpkin Spice Pudding 
3 cup cold milk
Nutmeg for sprinkling

For the crust:

1. Combine butter, flour, chopped pecans and sugar and press into a 9 x 13 in baking dish.  Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.  Let cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Layer:

1.  Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 1/2 cups cool whip until smooth.  Spread over crust.

For the Pumpkin Layer:

1.  Mix pudding mixes with cold milk, whisking for several minutes.  Set it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to let it thicken.  Spread over the cream cheese layer. Top with remaining container of cool whip. Sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Cut into squares and serve.  Keep refrigerated.

Sorry I have not posted lately...  Computer and camera issues and life...  I will be posting more often now...

Italian Sausage and Peppers

This too is a meal I grew up with. 

5 Italian sausage links (we prefer mild)
buns (we are using hot dog ones today)
jar of roasted red peppers, sliced up (keep the juice)

Grill the Italian sausage on the grill.  Grill on medium/low for about 15-20 minutes. While grilling, place the roasted red peppers on the stove with the juice it they came in.  Cook on low-medium.  Once sausage is grilled.  Place in bun and top with peppers. 

This is the easy way to do the peppers.  My grandmother doctors them up and makes them even better.  I will share that recipe the next time we make this meal!

We had this with cooked broccoli and cheese rice and clementines.