Category Archives: Food for Thought

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Food for Thought, Recipes

Returning home after work today and having my house smell like heaven was quite a little treat! I like cooking on my weekend evenings, but Friday nights are sometimes a struggle. I want home-cooked food, but I’ve been at work all day and have most likely forgotten to even defrost anything, let alone prepare something awesome for dinner. This is where my handy-dandy Crock Pot comes into play!

Nick bought me my first Crock Pot a little over a year ago, and I have used it about once a week ever since. I love it! ‘Set it and forget it’ cooking is my specialty 🙂

During my lunch hour at home today, I threw together our dinner in about 5 minutes. It may be hot outside still, but this dish is all about warmth and yummy comfort food. My fave!

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 large chicken breasts (mine were still frozen)
  • 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup, low-sodium
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups Baby Carrots
  • 3 celery stalks, cup into chunks (not diced)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 2 ts Paprika
  • 1/2 TB minced garlic
  • 2 ts Garlic salt
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • A dash of dill weed
  • 1 cup instant Brown Rice

Turn your Crock Pot onto high. Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of the crock. In a separate bowl, mix up all the other ingredients, except for the rice, to create a chunky, creamy sauce. Pour this over the chicken in the crock. Cover and leave to cook on high 4-6 hours. The chicken will become more tender the longer you let it cook!

photo(30)When I got home from work today, I shredded up the tender chicken with 2 forks and stirred in the brown rice. Note: Use 1/2 cup more rice if you would like a thicker consistency. Recover the crock, leave it on high, and let it cook for about 1 more hour. Once the rice is nice and soft (and has soaked up a lot of the liquid), dinner is ready to be served!

YUMM!
YUMM!

This recipe came out to the consistency of a thick and hearty stew. Nick immediately said it reminded him of chicken pot pie. He was right! It is exactly like chicken pot pie without the crust. It was delicious and filling. We both had to have seconds tonight!

Since my lunch was completely carb filled (you’ll see below!), I opted to eat mine with extra veggies – green beans to be exact.

Green beans are hiding!
Green beans are hiding!

Nick would rather have his chest hair plucked than eat green beans, so he just ate his on it’s own. He completely loved it!

No beans here!
No beans here!

I think this will definitely be a go-to recipe for this Fall and Winter. It was a bowl full of comfort food at its best! And even better, we have enough leftovers for a few more bowlfuls. Yay for quick and easy leftover meals!

Since we both had several bowls of this hearty meal, we were in complete food-comas. So we leashed up Mac for a nice evening walk. Nick was totally game with the nicer weather we’ve been having. It’s so nice to go out for a little family walk! Plus it definitely helped my bulging food baby digest a bit. 🙂

Lunch

Backing up a bit…Lunch was rushed and all over the place since I was trying to decide what dinner would be tonight and walk Mac at the same time. I was STARVING when I walked in the door, so I won’t lie…I definitely overate at lunch today! I started with a Whole wheat Bagelthin topped in a mixture of cottage cheese and mango salsa. This mixture is completely savory and delicious!

photo(44)I lightly toasted the bagel first, making this extra yummy! I then moved on to graze around the kitchen as I was putting our dinner together in the crock pot. Other food included (but is not pictured!) some Wheat Thins and cheese – which I am now regretting! – some leftover pasta with marinara, and some more carbs (ahem…more whole wheat bread…) with strawberry jelly. I think I was just needing some carbs today after my morning workout! I only wanted bread and crackers, so I indulged. Oh well, a splurge once in a while is a good thing, right?? Let’s hope so 🙂

Luckily, I think I was in need of the nourishment. Usually this meal would’ve left me sick and feeling tooooo full. But I felt like I had barely eaten anything by the time I arrived back at work today. Just call me the real life Bottomless Pit!

So it’s been a food-filled Friday! Hope it’s been a good one for you all. Tomorrow will hopefully start out with a good run and then I’m teaching a 10 AM Jazzercise class. Have a great night!

Return of the Pleasant Evening Walk

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Workouts, , ,

Mac gets at least a short walk 1-2 times a day, regardless of the weather. It’s been a sweaty summer so many of these walks have been super unpleasant and resulted in a stinky mommy. But it’s necessary for him because we don’t have a nice, fenced yard for him to run around in during the day. I’m happy to report that some pleasant weather has finally returned to SW MO this week, and we can finally enjoy our walks again! Mac is especially excited…

photo(42) photo(41)photo(38)Yes, it’s still warm, but the humidity is slim to none, making it feel amazing outside in comparison to the rest of the summer months. I’m excited to finally look forward to our time together outside again. And hopefully this means that Nick will finally be joining us for some evenin’ walkin’ in the near future. If Nick has to choose between sitting on the couch watching TV or going walking in hot and sticky 100 degree weather, the couch always wins. Smart guy, right?

Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!
Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!

The forecast for the next 7 days is still in the 90’s each day, but low humidity is also in the forecast. So I’m okay with it 🙂  We’ve gotta soak up some daylight while we can during the next few weeks before the time changes. It’s so depressing when the sun is setting, and I’m still just driving home from work for the day! Then our long, pleasant evening walks will turn into dark and cold mini-walks around the block. I cannot complain though; my love of Fall will keep me happy with or without some sunny outdoor time!

Pretty!
Pretty!

Workout

This morning I woke up bright and early to make it to the gym for a solid hour before my busy day had to begin.

I was feeling pretty spry and lively when I arrived, so I hopped on the treadmill for a 30-minute interval workout consisting of walking, jogging, and sprinting. I love counting down the minutes during an interval workout as opposed to a certain distance. It always makes the time and miles go by so much faster. My 30-min. interval brought me to around 2.9 miles, and I was sweatin’ like a piggy!

I then completed some upper torso work, mostly focusing on my shoulders, chest and biceps with a circuit very similar to what I completed on Wednesday. I’m always a creature of habit, so I’m hoping this weekend Nick and I can go to the gym together so I can change up my routine with some free weight exercises. (I hate that part of the gym unless he is with me!) I finished off my workout with some light cardio on the Elliptical for about 15 minutes before heading home.

Breakfast

Can you guess what my breakfast was today??!! You got it: hot oatmeal with blueberries! I’m still loving it 🙂 And I had some Greek yogurt for extra staying power on the side.

photo(37)And now I’m off to finish up this workday and figure out what we’ll be having for dinner. I’m in the mood to cook and it’s Friday, so this usually leads to me becoming a little creative with our evening meal since I have the extra time. We’ll see what I can come up with!

Hope you’re Friday is going great! We can at least be happy that the weekend is here again!

Search for Flavored Coffee

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Recipes

So I’m a BIG sucker when it comes to flavored coffees in coffee shops. I’ve never ordered just a plain ole cup of Joe at Starbucks, that’s for sure! But only recently have I started experimenting with flavored coffee at home. (Gevalia mocha and vanilla flavors were on sale at Dillon’s a couple of weeks ago – they make my house smell fantastic and fancy!)

photo(23)Since I’ve come to the realization that I can make awesome flavored coffee at home with my completely normal drip coffeepot, I’ve been determined to find and purchase the fun holiday flavors to try. My current mission: find the best Pumpkin Spice ground coffee that I can afford! I’m beyond excited that Fall is quickly approaching, and I want my house to smell like pumpkiny-spicy goodness each morning when I wake up. Is that too much to ask? Nope. Nope it’s not.

Currently, I’m considering ordering this one from Green Mountain Coffee. It has lots of positive reviews! I’m sure lots of good flavored coffee options are going to pop up in my local grocery stores anytime now, but I’m impatient and want to know that my delicious smelling coffee is on it’s way asap!

Google has been slightly helpful in this hunt, but a lot of good seasonal coffee flavors are not available yet for purchase. Sad day, I know 😦 But the anticipation of the season and all its wonderful flavors and smells is still kinda fun! It also makes me excited for peppermint mocha and gingerbread flavors as it gets closer to Christmastime. Can you tell I’m a BIG time holiday lover?? Starting October 1, I’m in heaven for the following 3 months!

So while we wait for Fall and cooler temps to arrive, let’s back up to lunch today…

Lunch

Lunch today came together quick because I threw together a nice chop salad last night so I wouldn’t be so rushed at noon. It contained a spinach spring mix, snap peas, carrots, and mushrooms! A little light zesty Italian dressing topped it off.

photo(36)I may have had a few tortilla chips on the side for a salty crunch 🙂 Yum! And the rest of my lunch is unpictured because it is boring and not healthy at all! I had a spinach, artichoke, and chicken Lean Pocket for my main meal. It was as delicious and filling as a frozen lunch can be. But, to be honest, it was pretty tasty.

I also took a second to cut up a massive apple that has been sitting in my fridge for the past few weeks because it is too big to eat like a normal apple. I don’t think you could’ve bit into this sucker! It filled up this 2-cup container and took me about 20 minutes to polish off at my desk this afternoon.

photo(35)A super filling snack to say the least!

photo(34)Dinner

Dinner started with yogurt. Key Lime pie flavor!

photo(26)I ate this as soon as I came in the door from my Jazzercise class tonight.

I then quickly showered before my main meal: leftover veggies from last night and shrimp salad that I threw together right before I headed off to class tonight.

photo(25)

Shrimp Salad for One

For this easy peasy recipe, I combined:

  • 3/4 cup salad shrimp, thawed
  • 1 1/2 TB Light Miracle Whip
  • 2 ts mustard
  • a little sweet relish
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • Salt & pepper to taste

I let this sit in the fridge for a little more than an hour, and it was delicious! Keep in mind that I love mustard, so I added quite a bit for this small serving. So alter for your taste as needed 🙂

photo(24)Salad shrimp are one thing I try to always keep in the freezer. They are yummy; you can toss them into basically anything; and they are a great source of protein!

Now I’m headed off to relax so I can wake up early and hopefully get in a good workout at the gym before my Friday workday begins. Sleep tight everyone!