Kids Cook: Southwest Cheesy Chicken & Rice

Ok, I'm going to be honest up front and say that this is not a pretty dish. What it lacks in appearance though, it makes up for in taste. 

I mean, my pickiest child asked for 4 helpings of it. 

FOUR.

He said, "This is way better than I thought it was going to be!"

I think that was a compliment. Ha. 

Leighton had planned to assemble this in the crock pot the night before, but with all the extra responsibilities and craziness around here because of my injury, it completely slipped his (and my) mind when it came time to do it. We realized it the next morning. 

Oops, I'll have to grab something on my way home.

Nah, don't worry about it. The kids can handle it.

It is really cool having kids who can cook. Jake got the first few ingredients cooking in the crock pot before he headed outside to play with his friend, and the last few were taken care of just before we ate. 

The recipe calls for 4 cups of rice, but the typical directions for jasmine rice produces only 3 cups. I could have explained how to increase it, but for simplicity's sake, we kept it as is. You could use white, brown, or long grain rice, too. Anything would work in this. 

We garnished ours with sour cream, extra cheese, and crushed tortilla chips, but other southwest flavors would be good too, like green chilies, jalapeños, cilantro, guacamole, or a squirt of lime. 

The whole family liked this dish, and it's an easy one for the kiddos to make. Just don't wait until you sprain your ankle to have them make it for you, ha. 

Southwest Cheesy Chicken & Rice

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning

5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, drained

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

8 oz Velveeta cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

4 cups cooked rice

Directions:

1. In a 6-quart crock pot, add chicken breasts, taco seasoning, tomatoes, black beans, and corn. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or low for 5 hours.

2. Remove cooked chicken and cut into bit-size pieces.

3. Add Velveeta and cheddar cheeses to crock pot and cook on high for 15 minutes.

4. Stir crock pot to make sure cheeses have melted. Stir in chicken and rice. 

Recipe adapted.

Taco Seasoning Mix

I boiled a couple organic chickens that my brother raised and picked the meat off the bones to use for various meals over the next couple weeks. Like always, I tossed the carcasses, some veggies, and spices into a large pot of water to make rich stock. By the time I needed to prepare dinner, I had both the chicken and the broth I needed to make chicken lemon rice soup.

That was yesterday.   

Today, I decided to use some of the chicken to make white chicken enchiladas for dinner. Simple. All I would need to do was throw together the white cheese sauce to pour on top. When I started gathering my ingredients though, I remembered that I had used up our taco seasoning the last time we had a Mexican-inspired dinner. Thankfully, it takes maybe 2 minutes to whip up another batch. And that was with a baby hanging on my legs.

I can't even remember how many years we've been making this seasoning mix. Not only does it not have any weird ingredients, it tastes so much richer than the store-bought packets. I always double or triple the recipe, because we use it so much. We use this to season all our Mexican dishes and the whole family loves it. In fact, my oldest was walking into the kitchen one day as I was making this and asked what it was. When I told him taco seasoning, he replied, "No, it's Heaven dust." Yeah, it's good stuff. This is an easy recipe for the kiddos to prepare, since it's just a matter of measuring and mixing. And the seasoning mix itself is pretty forgiving, so if they spill in some extra chili powder or paprika, no big deal.  

Today's dinner may have required an extra step to prepare, but it couldn't have been any simpler to remedy. In fact, it would have taken longer for Leighton to run to the store to grab some packets than it took for me to make my own. Ease, taste, quality. That's a winner in my book. 

Taco Seasoning Mix

Ingredients: 

4 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

4 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and and store in an air-tight container.  Use 2-3 tablespoons per pound of meat.

Tasty Tuesday: Breakfast Burritos

¡Bienvenidos! Cinco De Mayo is quickly approaching. The fact that we're not Mexican, nor do we actually celebrate the holiday, isn't going to stop us from eating Mexican inspired foods! In fact, I even made chicken quesidillas for dinner.

Ok, so it was mostly because I had leftover chicken from the rotisserie we made the other day, but whatever. 

I like to make these burritos for Leighton for the mornings. He starts work at 6:00 am and doesn't always have  time to eat a sit-down breakfast before rushing out the door. He does, however, have time to grab something out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave. (I also make freezer breakfast sandwiches and waffles and like to keep muffins and quick breads on hand for variety, too.) The burritos are quick, easy, and filling. But more importantly, they're tasty!

I have fond memories of these burritos from when I was young.  I can remember watching my mom and aunt assemble these while we were visiting family in Texas. Later, my mom, dad, and I sat around the kitchen table with big bowls of fixings and made them again as a family. Now, I can build memories with my own little ones. What better way is there to bring a family together than food?

Cook the sausage until it's no longer pink.

Sauté the onions and peppers until soft.

I used a combo of green and chocolate peppers. And unfortunately, no, it does not taste like chocolate. Boo.

Scramble your eggs. Add salt and pepper as desired.

Dump everything into a HUGE bowl.

See that coffee cup? See the bowl? There's your size reference. Yes, I make a huge batch at a time. I don't want to be making these things up every week.

Give it all a good mixing.

Realize you forgot the cheese - oh, the horror! - add it and stir again.

Or you could just add it before mixing the first time. But where's the fun in that?

Place a healthy portion (healthy being a relative term) on a tortilla.

 Pull the ends in and roll from one side to the other.

Yum! You can either eat it now or -- Wait, what am I saying? Definitely eat one now.

The rest you can wrap and save for later.

I keep these in a freezer bag . . . in the freezer. Just make sure you zip it closed so they stay fresher longer.

Grab a burrito or two when you're rushed in the morning or anytime you want a hot, yummy meal. Pop it in the microwave for a minute or so, depending on how big your burritos are. This time, I used some taco-sized tortillas and mostly fajita-sized tortillas. (And yes, I'm still calling these "burritos.") I got 40 burritos altogether. Even my kids love these, so a batch doesn't last all that long.

As with any recipe, feel free to change the ingredients/amounts to your liking. Add some jalepeños for heat or potatoes for roughage or change up the flavors of cheese. Make the recipe your own. Also, the amounts can easily be decreased if you don't want enough to feed an army.

Do you eat breakfast burritos? What ingredients do you like in it?

Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients:

2 lbs rolled pork sausage

2 onions, chopped

2 green peppers, chopped

3 dozen eggs

3 cups salsa

5 cups shredded cheese (I used colby-jack.)

tortillas

Directions:

1.Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink. Pour off grease and dump sausage into huge bowl.

2. Cook the onions and peppers in the same skillet (already coated with sausage grease) over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender. Dump into huge bowl.
3. Crack eggs in large bowl and whisk (with milk, if desired.) Pour into skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until desired doneness. Dump into huge bowl.
4. Add salsa and cheese to bowl and combine thoroughly.
5. Warm tortillas in microwave.
6. Place desired amount of mixture onto each tortilla and wrap, bringing in each side and rolling closed. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-safe bag or container.
* To Heat: place a burrito in microwave for 1-1 1/2 minutes, depending on size of tortilla and amount of filling