Baked Chicken Flautas

Oh my gosh, these flautas were so good!!! We were watching "Hungry Girl" on TV over the weekend and she made a recipe for baked chicken flautas that we both thought looked really good. I love flautas, but James, although he prefers other forms of Mexican food, just likes them. I didn't look the recipe up, instead I just flew by the seat of my pants and made up my own recipe.

Kat's Baked Chicken Flautas

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 t taco seasoning, divided
1 T coconut oil
water
1/4 c salsa (we used homemade)
1/4 - 1/3 c shredded cheddar cheese
7 corn tortillas

1. Sprinkle 1 t taco seasoning over chicken. Place chicken and oil in Crock-pot. Put in enough water to cover the bottom of the crock. I used a little more than 1/4 c. Cook on low until moist and tender. I ended up cooking mine for about 7-8 hours.

2. Remove chicken from crock and use two forks to shred the chicken. Add in salsa, cheese and taco seasoning and stir together.

3. Wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and warm in the microwave for about 1 minute.

4. Spread 1-2 T of chicken mixture on each tortilla. Roll up each tortilla and place on a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake at 400° for about 15 minutes until crispy!

I hope you enjoy!

"Art" work

I saw some "artwork" in the most recent Family Fun magazine that I thought looked pretty cool. I thought I would give it a try. James thought that I was so artistic after looking at these, but I really just colored in boxes in patterns. It was at least fun and took up some time to do these!

Homemade corn muffin mix

I love corn bread, corn muffins, corn cakes, etc., so I was excited to see this recipe for a corn muffin mix in the latest issue of the Food Network Magazine. I changed the recipe a little so I'll include my version below.

Just in case those don't look enticing enough, here's a close-up!

These were so good with honey drizzled on top!

Corn Muffin Mix

Whisk together the following ingredients and store in an air-tight container. This is about 2.5 dozen muffins when made.

3 c white wheat flour
3/4 c succanat (or use 1 c sugar)
2 c cornmeal
1/8 c baking powder
1/2 T salt
a small dash of cinnamon

To make 1 dozen muffins, whisk 1 c milk, 2 eggs, and 4 T melted butter into 2-1/4 c muffin mix just until blended. Transfer to a greased muffin tin and bake at 400° for 15 minutes.

Oh, I hope you like these as much as we did!

Beef Barley Soup

My boss made this soup last week and I loved it. He got the recipe from Cooks.com and was nice enough to share it with me. I changed it up a little based on what I had in the house and how I wanted to cook it.



Beef Barley Soup

1 lb. stew beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
4 c beef stock
2 c water
1/2 c barley
1 c chopped carrot
1/2 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onion
1 t Italian seasoning
1 15-oz can of crushed tomatoes

1. Brown meat over medium high heat. Add salt and pepper to meat and let cook for about thirty seconds. Add one cup of stock to pan and scrape bottom of pan. Pour this mixture into a preheated crock-pot.

2. Add the rest of the beef stock, water, carrots, celery, onions, Italian seasoning and bay leaf to the crock-pot and let cook for two to three hours on low.

3. After two to three hours, add barley and tomatoes. Check the flavor of the broth to see if you need more salt or pepper. Cook for 5-7 more hours on low.

This was a pretty hearty soup and we really liked it.

Bacon-Cheese Biscuits

Last night I made a new soup recipe that I was really looking forward to: Beef and Barley. James usually gets hungry quickly after eating only soup for dinner so I was looking for something with a little filling power to add to the meal. I found the recipe for these Bacon-Cheese Biscuits in the newest Food Network Cooking magazine. They are by no means a "light" recipe, but James really liked them. He described them as "excellent". I thought they were ok, but I only really like biscuits when they are covered in jelly or honey, so I am not really the one to ask about these. I did omit a few things from the recipe, so I'll just give you what I made.

Bacon-Cheese Biscuits
4 slices bacon
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
scant t salt
6 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 c grated cheddar cheese
1 c buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Cook the bacon until crisp, reserving two T of bacon drippings when done cooking. Chop bacon.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chopped bacon together in a medium bowl. Cut butter into the flour mixture until it is in pea-size pieces. (I used a pastry blender, but you could use two knives or your hands.) Stir in the cheese. Add the buttermilk and reserved bacon drippings and gently mix just until moistened.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead 3-4 times. Don't overknead! Pat out to about 1/2 inch thick, then cut into biscuits using a 2 inch round cutter. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. I was able to get 9 biscuits out of this recipe.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Holy Cacao Cake Balls Review

I read about this little trailer and it's products in a magazine and they made it sound really awesome. James and I had never tried cake balls before so on a whim one day we went looking for this little trailer. Holy Cacao specializes in making cake balls which are essentially made by baking a cake, tearing it up into pieces, mixing it with frosting, rolling into balls, putting a stick in the balls, and then coating in chocolate.

We tried three varieties starting with (from left to right in picture) "Diablo", "Brass", and "Velvet" cake balls. The "Diablo" is a chocolate cake mixed with ancho chile cream cheese and then covered in chocolate. "Brass" is peanut butter cookies mixed with chunky peanut butter and then milk chocolate dipped. "Velvet" is your typical red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese frosting and then covered in white chocolate.

I was not a fan of this dessert. While they all had a nice flavor, especially the "Brass" cake balls, I just didn't enjoy the mushy texture in the center. Just not my thing. The "Diablo" had a nice little kick while you were chewing but again, I just wasn't a fan of the texture. James thought they were alright but nothing special.

At $5 for 3 cake balls, I would have rather spent the money on an ice cream at Amy's Ice Cream!!