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.

Make It Monday: Rice Cooking

Wait a minute - what day is it?

It's Monday, right? Not Tuesday. So why, you ask, am I writing a post about cooking rice today???

Because that's just what we did - "cooked" with rice!

I pulled out our tub of uncooked rice and multiple tools from their play kitchen, and invited Jake and Alyssa to concoct a delicious meal.

They were slaving away, preparing a 5-star meal. Measuring. Mixing. Sauteing. Stirring. Pureeing.  The final product was well-worth the wait.

Our first course was one of Jake's recipes: skunk soup. (Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it!) It may have been the best I've had. It needed a bit more salt, but it was still very tasty.

From there, we moved on to a pasta dish. Mmm, spaghetti and meatballs. Let me tell you, those meatballs were cooked perfectly! And that sauce? Divine. We washed it all down with a nice cup of tea. 

The main course was a recipe that Jake's been trying to perfect for while. I think he did it this time. His bbq ribs were out of this world! I'd love to share the recipe for the seasoning, but I've been sworn to secrecy.

For dessert, Alyssa's was hard at work making her famous sugar cookies. It was a little frustrating when she noticed that someone switched the sugar with the salt (yech). Good thing it's easy to dump it all out and start over.

My mouth starting watering once I could smell these cookies baking. Alyssa defnitely has a knack for sweets. I indulged in 3 or 4 cookies at least. I couldn't stop myself. They had to pry the platter out of my hands. 

The whole meal was scrumptious. I really think they have what it takes to open their own restaurant. Or become personal chefs. Or write a cook book. 

But I just have one question . . . . 

  Who's going to wash all those dishes???

Dino Dig

Jake has been on a big dinosaur kick for a few weeks. We've checked out books from the library, colored pictures, and went to the "dinosaur museum." He has talked about wanting to dig for dinosaur bones. I have talked about wanting to make a sensory bin. This was the perfect excuse to go buy some rice. Twenty pounds of rice ($10) and eight dinosaurs ($1) later, and our sensory bin was complete.

 

They had so much fun! They loved being paleontologists and sticking their hands deep into the rice, looking for "dinosaur bones." They had fun using their hands, measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a few other utensils to play in the rice. We talked about how it felt cold, powdery, and like little pebbles. Zac took a couple of bites. He wasn't impressed.

They especially liked pouring the rice into other cups . . . and on the floor . . . and on themselves. It did not take long for it to end up all over the living room. (Next time, we will be using a larger blanket!) They even took off their socks and jumped right in. This produced lots of giggles. 

After the fifth time dumping the rice from the blanket back into the bin and an hour an a half of playing, I called it quits and put our sensory bin away. Poor Zac cried like a baby. But that's ok, because he is a baby.

The kids can't wait until we pull the bin out again. 

My vacuum has a differing opinion.

Theory Thursday: Rising Balls

It was an easy experiment this week. But a fun one.

My Little Hams, ready to start.

This is the face he made when I asked what he expected to happen.

Start with a ball in a jar.

Add rice.

Shake back and forth.

The ball will rise to the top.

As you shake the jar, the rice spreads out and becomes less dense. The rice fills in the empty spaces when the ball moves, pushing the ball up. They repeated the process about 5 times. It was fun dumping the rice through the funnel and watching it come out the other end. It was still surprising every time they saw the ball at the top again. Eventually, they resorted to bouncing the balls in the kitchen. They had a good time, and I had a few minutes to get some things done. We all were happy.