Delicious salad with green goddess dressing

Green goddess salad: mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sunflower greens, hemp seeds

Dressing: 

small avocado, 

1/2 c plain Greek yogurt, 

1/4 c milk, 

2 tablespoons garlic wine vinegar, 

1tsp anchovy paste, 

2 T chopped tarragon. 

Whirred together in blender.

After tasting this, it would be amazing on so many things: eggs, sandwiches, fries, chips... But I liked it on the salad.

Ps: sorry I've been gone so long!

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

leftover cooked and shredded chicken (crockpot chicken taco meat works great for this!)
tortillas (corn works well, but I've used flour)
2 T Vegetable Oil
Enchilada sauce (I usually make a batch of hatch chile sauce, but a can of store bought works as well)
Monterrey Jack cheese
Greased casserole dish

Warm the Vegetable Oil in the skillet. Slide most of the tortilla into the oil. (If you're being cautious, use tongs) You don't want to fry the tortilla until it's crispy, just soften it up some. After a count to 15, flip it.
You'll want to start moving quickly here:
Move the tortilla to your casserole dish
Start another tortilla
Add chicken to first tortilla
Flip second tortilla
Roll up first tortilla into a tube
Move second tortilla to casserole dish and start a third in the oil
This works best if you have someone to help.
Once you filled your casserole dish up, top with sauce and then cheese.
Bake at 350 until bubbly.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Sometimes, you just don't want to go to the store. You don't want to eat out, and you don't want to put forth a lot of effort for your dinner. However, that is no reason to sacrifice flavor.
I had one of those days recently. There wasn't much in the way of ingredients to make much of anything and I wasn't in the mood to go to the store.
I just threw together some chicken with some sauce and made a sandwich. It surprised me when I heard Brad wanted me to put this on the blog. After all, I didn't plan the meal.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
1 c cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 c buffalo sauce (I like Franks.)
2 T chunky blue cheese dressing (or crumbles)
2 toasted sandwich rolls

Combine the chicken and the buffalo sauce in a bowl and microwave for 90 seconds.
Serve on the roll with dressing or cheese on top.

I think next time, I'll include romaine lettuce to add a bit of crunch. Brad says it's good the way it is.

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

This was so easy, I couldn't believe it turned out so well.
Or that I had this much leftover. Oy.
The good news is that it can be used in a bunch of different applications: tacos, enchiladas, taco salad, taco soup. . .

Crockpot Chicken Taco

Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Frozen Chicken Breasts (I used three, but one was probably enough unless you're feeding a firehouse)
1 cup salsa
1 can of "Mexican" style tomatoes, with juice
1 can of beans, drained and rinsed (I used black)

Put the chicken in the crock. Yes, frozen. You could use thawed chicken if you want, but frozen will work very very well.
Dump everything else on top.
Cook on low for 6 hours. Go pick up the taco fixin's.
Shred chicken with forks.

And that's it. This is a flour tortilla, romaine lettuce, fresh tomato, avacado, chicken taco meat, and salsa.
It was amazing.
By the way, here's what Crock Pot has to say about frozen food in the crockpot:

http://www.crock-pot.com/CustomerService.aspx?id=faq&fgid=41

Egg in a cup

It's my new favorite breakfast food and it is super customizable and super easy.
Take an oven safe dessert dish: about 3/4 cup total size
Spray with non-stick spray
add meat (I've used bacon, breakfast sausage, chicken taco meat) if desired
Crack an egg on top.
Add about 1/2 tsp of your favorite pepper sauce (Chaloula, tabasco, etc)
Salt and pepper to taste
Place in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or egg has reached desired doneness.
Sprinkle with cheese, as desired. I usually skip the cheese. It's good as it is.

Christmas Noms: Appetizers

Or: how to keep people happy while you're peeling too many potatoes.
So when I started fixing Christmas Dinner, I knew there would be lots of people ready to eat. So I laid out a table of snacky foods to minimize the "when's dinner going to be ready?" question. After all, it was a 3 hour endeavor.
Here's what we did:

Cheese plate with 3 kinds of cheese, salami, and grapes
tangelos, crackers, bananas
Christmas Cookies (thanks, Mom!)
Nut Crack
Brownies (Thanks, Pam!)
chocolates
and Rum Cake

Christmas Noms: Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These were good. AND I got to use my stick blender. But, peeling potatoes is only something I do for special occasions.
Alton Brown's Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes
(there's a video on that link)
I used about 5 lbs golden potatoes, peeled and cubed, then boiled until falling apart
Here's how I look peeling potatoes:

I put about 8 cloves of peeled garlic in the mini-food processor, then added it to 3 cups of cream.  I put the cream mixture in a saucepan and scalded it
Then I drained the potatoes and added the cream.
I used my stick blender to combine and turn into lump-free goodness.
The result: very creamy and garlicky mashed potatoes. I used the leftovers to top shepherd's pie.