Oven Chicken Fajitas

It is a rare occasion I make a meal and put it on here all in the same night, however these turned out too good not to share right away (This is for you Aunt Kathy). This can be thrown together right before dinner, and if I had the time this morning I probably would have let everything marinade together during the day. I enjoyed these and got "pretty good" from the rest of the gang. These are easy and I thought tasted delicious. 

Oven Chicken Fajitas

Real Mom Kitchen 

2-3 boneless/skinless chicken breast cut into strips

Place chicken in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. 

Mix together

2 TBLS vegetable oil

2 tsp. chili powder

2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried oregano 

1/4 tsp. salt

Pour over chicken and stir to coat

1 medium onion, sliced

1 red and/or green pepper, sliced

Add to chicken 

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, add to chicken and veggies and stir to combine

Bake 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. 

Serve in tortilla shells with your favorite toppings!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Soup is on! Although Spring is just around the corner (hopefully) today turned out to be a very cold, dreary, damp day with lots of rain. The rain hasn't stopped. Luckily it is rain and not snow, so there's something to be thankful for! This soup is perfect for a day like today, but after sampling the soup before it was even ready, I think this soup would be perfect any day. My mom always order this soup and my kids fight over sharing with her, so I was hoping they would enjoy this version at home as well.  This makes a large batch, I first halved it, but then decided it didn't look like that much in my crock pot, so I added more of each ingredient to make a full batch, glad I did because we all had full bowls of the soup for dinner, and there wasn't too much left over!

Before using the hand blender

After using the hand blender the soup is smooth, all the cheese is melted and smooth.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
adapted from Lindsey's Luscious

2 Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breast ( I threw them on the grill the night before and just seasoned with a little chili powder) OR you could easily use a rotisserie chicken that you buy from the grocery store
1 TBLS. oil (olive or vegetable)
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 quart chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (add a little more if you really like the heat)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 (19oz) can red enchilada sauce
5 corn tortillas, minced (this additional helps to thicken the soup and give it some real enchilada flavor)
16 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded

Garnishes, fresh cilantro, tortilla strips*, salsa, sour cream, green onions, or whatever you feel like!

In a skillet, warm the oil and add onion and garlic. Saute till tender. Add onion and garlic to crock pot and add remaining ingredients, minus the chicken. Cook on high for 2 hours or 4 hours on low. Whisk the soup, I used my hand blender, and then add chicken and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Top with shredded cheese, cilantro, tortilla strips, and sour cream.

*I took about 4 additional corn tortillas and sliced them thin, tossed some olive oil over them to coat and sprinkled with kosher salt. Spread them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until crisp. 

Cinnamon Chip Bread

Snow days are allowing some much needed updates to this little food blog! This bread is amazing, served warm with a little butter and you will not be able to eat just one slice! Now, Kathy and my amazing sister, Katy, may want to start off with something more easy like pizza dough or even cinnamon rolls , since I know yeast frightens them both slightly! The yeast is not the scary part in this recipe, however the dough is very sticky, hard to work with. But if you can get past all that, it is completely worth it!

Cinnamon Chip Bread
adapted from Rae Gun Ramblings

1 cup warm water (Not too hot to the touch)
1 cups warm milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 package)
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
4-5 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cinnamon chips

In mixer, combine sugar, warm water and milk. Add yeast to the top and let rest for 5 minutes, or until bubbles begin to form.
Add in oil and egg and mix till combined
Slowly add 2 cups of the flour, then the salt.
Once the salt is combined, add remaining flour, just enough flour that the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Add Cinnamon chips and let rise for 30 minutes. Remove and place in greased in loaf pan, no need to get fancy, as the dough, as mentioned is sticky!
Let rise for an additional 30 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. I checked mine at 30 minutes, and the top was browning too close to burnt for me, so I placed foil over the top for the remainder of the baking time.
Makes 2 loaves

Katy/Kathy-try it :) And Call me before you do so I am ready to take your calls for about 20 minutes :)