Easy Chicken Fajita Skillet

Another successful recipe from Kraft! It’s Mexican :)  I found that I needed far more water than the recipe calls for but start with what they call for and then add water in ¼ cup increments as needed, that is what I did and it worked fine. I gave it a splash of olive oil too to help with sticking macaroni. I also added just a touch of milk at the end and more cheese.

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/velveeta-easy-chicken-fajita-62461.aspx

"Yum honey, you are a really good cook"

I had to make 2 skillets, most of you know Aaron is gluten-intolerant and his special food is expensive so I find it more cost effective for me to make his separate from mine.
I highly recommend trying this recipe; it’s not spicy, just super yummy!

The Marriage Course

2 weeks ago we started a class thru church called The Marriage Course. I had heard good things about this class and was excited to find out the fall session worked out with our schedule. The first week was spent on the topic marriage time, main point – set a date once a week to spend uninterrupted time together. We decided Friday nights would be best for our ‘marriage time.’ Overall we spend quite a bit of time together but it just helps to know we have a specific date each week to enjoy each other’s company.

Second week was spent discussing communication. Aaron and I talked about how sometimes I just like to vent and complain and he is always looking to solve the issue. He has a hard time understanding this, but sometimes I am not looking for a resolution to a problem/issue, I just want sympathy and for him to listen to me. On the other hand, he says I ask way too many questions and want details on stuff that doesn’t matter. This was not new news to either one of us.

We don’t have issues, we rarely argue. I actually think the class is a lot more fun and easy going for us because our ‘issues’ are not a big deal. We really enjoyed our pre-marriage classes and thought this class would be similar and good to help keep our marriage strong. It was my idea to take this class and have been appreciative that Aaron has been eager and showed interest in the class and how he knows how important it was to me that we took the time to invest in this class.

And it’s paying off!! This Sunday he has planned a date day for us. I know we have an appt for massages and he spoke of cooking dinner for me. He also said he knows how I’ve been wanting to go to Panera and just sit and drink coffee out of their cool mugs, not just take it to go so it sounds like we are doing that as well. I appreciate that he listens to me and has prepped a day just for us and I never mentioned having a date day, he just has done all of this planning on his own! I’ll let you know how the day ended up!

Creamy Herbed Chicken

I made this Crockpot recipe last night. I thought it was okay but not great. (see link below) Aaron thought it was a keeper to make again, so going to let you decide what you think of it! I guess I’ve gotten into a bad habit of making recipes with lots of cheese in it and this one didn’t have cheese as an ingredient. Also, it might have helped to try a different brand of garlic/herb pasta sauce mix. There were a few choices at the store to go with and they all probably have different ratios of garlic and herbs that could make a difference in taste.


http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Creamy-Herbed-Chicken

IKEA

Over Labor Day weekend we made a trip to IKEA as we were in the area for my cousin’s wedding. I love IKEA and their contempary styles/reasonable prices. Here are some of our awesome finds.

We were in need of a guest room bedside table. We thought this would work perfectly and found it functional for shelving as well. We also bought the 2 cubby box inserts at IKEA to spice it up a little and add more function to the shelving. Perfect find!

Second find was also for the guest bedroom. We were looking for something for the wall opposite of the bed and found this shelf and frames. What I love about this shelf is it is very narrow and it has a lip on it, which I found to be unique and perfect for resting frames on.

Third find, this fun little candle holder. We have a ledge at the top of our stairs which happens to be right behind the couch. I don’t like clutter so don’t want a lot of junk displayed but thought this works well here. Now just need to find what to display on it. I’m bummed because I now recall these fun little candles at IKEA that would have worked great with this that I didn’t buy. I didn’t even realize at the time that it would have worked perfectly with this holder. Shucks.



Fourth find, this vase. We recently started collecting wine corks and looking for a fun way to display them. The plan is to fill this jar and then use it for décor in the kitchen. When we overfill this, I have another very large vase to put these in that would be great in our wine themed dining room. Save your wine corks and give them to me, I’ll take them!!!!!

Also if you are at an IKEA, eat at their restaurant and get their macaroni and cheese. Holy cow it is some of the best mac n cheese I’ve ever had!!! It should be a requirement as part of the IKEA experience!

Football, Football and more Football...

Well you always know when football begins at our house.  Aaron has watched more TV this weekend than he has all year.  I had football in the background for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  We went out for dinner tonight and he had to sit in a booth that had a good visual of a TV and then he was checking updates on his phone of other games and of his fantasy football team.  Tomorrow night he probably won't get home until after 10 pm, he has Monday night football with the guys out at Granite City.   He can get all of his high fives and chest bumps in with the guys.  (Okay so I've never actually seen his buddies 'chest bump' but I like to joke that's what they do during guys night).

I don't mind too much and try to be a good sport.  Yesterday I sat clear thru the game, didn't fall asleep and enjoyed it.  It just becomes a little much by the end of the season because he watches NFL, College and even high school football in addition to playing fantasy football so it starts to become a little overkill for me by the time the Super Bowl arrives.  I have to say Go Hawks and Go Cowboys because those are Aaron's 2 beloved teams!

Random Thoughts for Today

• Have I mentioned how much I LOVE kraft.com! I’m obsessed! Just left that site before coming to my blog. Found 3 new recipes I’m excited about.

• Had a darn fly in my house that was driving me nuts, went to the store and bought a fly swatter, when I returned home that darn fly was no where to be found.

• Go Hawks!

• Really excited because this Saturday I’m making chicken tortilla soup for the game. Yum.

• I love my new sweater I am wearing today. Old Navy has had some awesome finds lately and wondering if I could get away with wearing it 3 days in a row

• This morning when I left the house I couldn’t remember if I put the garage door down or not. Oh well. Pretty sure I did.

• I think there is a chance of rain today

• Not sure what sounds good for lunch

• I have an awesome coupon for $5 off champion apparel that I have a lot of copies of and it expires this Saturday. I found some tanks on sale and with my coupon they ring up for 61 cents so I drive to the Mills Civic Target then over to the Valley West Target. I’ve been visiting both locations twice a day now and only have a few days more of this craziness.

• Ever wonder how Polar bears get so big? I’m mean really they just eat mostly fish right?

Okay that wraps up a quick synapses of what’s on my mind!

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas

As promised, here is a great summer time crock pot recipe. Go figure, it is Mexican. We love Mexican food and eat it all the time. Super easy. Smells great. Irresistible.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Busy-Mom-s-Chicken-Fajitas  (may have to copy/paste into browser)

Instead of mincing a garlic clove and dicing an onion, I used garlic powder and onion powder. Just shook some into the crock pot mixture, don’t know how much I really put in but it worked out fine. Forget mincing and chopping, I live for shortcuts…mincing a garlic clove…Are you serious? I don’t even know how to do that!

Grandma got me hooked on Taste of Home at the beginning of the year. It is a great subscription, love how every recipe in the magazine has a picture. I rarely make something I don’t have a visual for.

Crock Pots!

I’m talking about crock pots. Yes that round thing in your cupboard that takes up a ridiculous amount of space that you only use once every leap year. I know what you are thinking… that thing that you have to plan 10 hours in advance for?!?! Ya, that thing. Well, I’ve recently dusted mine off and started getting creative. I recall back a year or so ago when I thought I would just throw some soup together and an hour later I was like why isn’t it done!?!? And then I said forget this and transferred it to the stove top and had my soup 20 minutes later. What’s the point? I’m really impatient so why bother?

With a little pre-planning, crock pot meals are super easy and tasty. They make the whole house smell great. Chicken in the crock pot is so tasty and tender! Many of the recipes are super easy; many of them don’t require much measuring.

You might think crock pots are for the winter but I have found that they are great for summer because I don’t have to fire up the oven. There are lots of summer recipes. I will be posting some new ones soon for you; my cream cheese chicken recipe from an earlier post is a great summer time crock pot recipe. So yummy!!!

Cleaning is fairly easy too. I have used before the crock pot liners you can buy at the store and they work fabulously! Makes clean up virtually obsolete.

Now since I’ve fallen in love with my crock pot, I have heard of the ‘luxury’ crock pots, yes that is the ‘Rolls Royce’ of crock pots. The kind that acts as a refrigerator and then heats up based on a time setting. Wow, amazed. I don’t need one though but sure was impressed to hear there are such kick-butt crock pots out there.
I challenge you to dust off your crock pot this week, find several recipes to try over the next month, and fall in love with crock pot cooking!