Mexican Chicken Stew

Believe it or not I just experienced my first ever "professional" full body massage. At my school, the massage therapy program has a clinic that gives them for only $10....don't mind if I do! Let me tell you, I will now be getting one at the end of every quarter...a...ma...zing...

This quarter has been particularly stressful so the massage was the perfect ending to the last week of classes. This is a bit crazy, I know, but one of my teachers offered to drop our lowest quiz grade to get one of these massages...if that doesn't tell you you have a stressful major, I don't know what does...

I think people would be shocked to learn how much pressure and stress is involved with being an American Sign Language interpreter. I would have never imagined it would be like this. Though I am incredibly stressed out all the time, I still love it. I just hope I can last throughout the rest of the program. I have confidence with regular excercise, a boyfriend who picks me up when I'm down, baking/cooking/lotsa' eatin, and now quarterly massages, that I will make it.

Crossing my fingers at least!

Hope everyone is having a good Mardi Gras week! Unfortunately I haven't had even a minute to make something special for it...sorry :(

In slightly good news, the weather is slowly creeping back to being tolerable though today was particularly cold and nasty. It's incredibly gray and cold but let me tell you, this soup will warm you right up. This is the kind of soup you could eat cozied up on the couch wearing your thickest socks and comfiest blanket or out on the porch enjoying the sun with a margarita (can't wait for those days...eek!)

Aka, this soup is yum...and always will be...

Mexican Chicken Stew
Adapted from Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, 1 seeded and both sliced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cumin
1 (28-ounce) can chopped fire-roasted tomatoes
2 medium-large chicken breasts
Few dashes Worcestershire sauce
3 to 4 cups chicken stock
1 lime
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 chipotle in adobo sauce chopped
Sea salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
Fat-free sour cream, for garnish
Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish
Whole grain tortilla chips, for garnish

Directions:

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute for 1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeno and sweat until soft and translucent. Add spices and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant and aromatic. Add tomatoes, chipotle,  chicken, rice, corn, black beans, Worcestershire, and stock.
Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes.

Cut the lime in half, squeeze juice into the pot, and then add the juiced halves as well.

Make sure chicken is thoroughly cooked. Pull out chicken and shred using two forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the pot. Season, to taste, with salt.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with sour cream, cilanto and whole grain tortilla chips.

*PS: Check out this neat article about my beloved city's good eats!

Blog Birthday! Funfetti Cake Balls

Today is my blogs birthday! One year ago today I reluctantly started this blog looking for a creative outlet for all my crazy baking and cooking shenanagans (thats the best I can do with the spelling of that). I may not have 698+ blog followers and fancy pictures like many of the great blogs out there but I am still pretty darned proud of this thing and very thankful for the 108 of you that do follow...it makes me :) lots!

In the future, I am really really really hoping to get a nice camera. Sure I still wont really have the extensive knowledge on food photography and proper lighting but a reliable camera that actually works would be a great start!

Here's to another year of doing something that really makes me happy...getting fat and telling people how I did it ;)

I actually made these cake balls on thursday for a girl I had become friends with in the interpreting program. She definitely deserved something for her birthday so I stayed up all night doing these...trust me, this is a big deal with how impatient I am.

I thought these were the perfect little gifts to post on my blogs birthday...funfetti is my favorite favorite favorite! I know most cake ball recipes out there have you using one box of cake and one can of frosting. Funfetti is one of the few boxed cake I say "go for it" for, but that frosting? Blegh! Hate it...

So I made a frosting from scratch and played around with it and made cake balls a little different from your average cake balls...and thse are oh so good!

Funfetti Cake Balls
Dame Good

Ingredients:

1 (18.9 oz) box funfetti cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
32 ounces white chocolate
non-pariels (sprinkles)

Directions:

Follow directions on box to bake cake in a 9x13 in cake pan. Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes after baking. Crumble cake into a large mixing bowl.

Cream 1/2 cup butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla exract. Slowly add the powdered sugar until incorporated. Add another teaspoon of vanilla. Add the milk and whip frosting for about a minute.

Mix the frosting with the cake until fully mixed. Put the mixture in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop 1-1 1/2 inch balls of cake. Roll into the shape of balls and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. When all the balls are rolled out, place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

While the balls are cooling, melt the white chocolate in a double broiler over medium heat or in a microwave-safe bowl for about 1 min 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds.

Transfer the baking sheet to the refrigerator and work on a few balls at a time. Using a toothpick and a spoon, dip the cake ball into the melted chocolate, using the spoon to spoon chocolate over any uncovered parts of the ball. Once the ball is covered, remove the ball from the chocolate and tap any excess chocolate off the ball with the spoon. Place ball on a baking sheet lined with waxing paper by letting the ball slide off the toothpick...smooth the hole over with the spoon and sprinkle the top of the ball with non-pariels. Repeat until all balls are covered.

Store balls in an airtight container in the refrigerator (for several days), or zip lock bag in the freezer (for a couple weeks). Enjoy!

Ps. You can also attatch popsicle sticks to the balls and make cake-pops for a fun gift :)

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Waffles

Word on the street is that today is National Peanut Butter Lover's Day. If you consider peanut butter to be a food group (same as with cheese and chocolate) like I do, then today is your day...

I am obsessed with peanut butter. No bake cookies are one of my absolute favorite anything...when I was younger I could last hours with a spoon and a jar of peanut butter. A morning is not complete without a piece of peanut butter toast. At work, I make these peanut butter payday bars and it takes every ounce of my being to refrain from shoveling it into my mouth...so seriously...

I frickin love peanut butter...

Lately, I have loved it more than usual...odd I know...perhaps my body knew the holiday was coming. I have been making peanut butter everything...peanut butter banana oatmeal, peanut butter chocolate oatmeal, bars, waffles...the list is never-ending (all posts are coming soon btw!)

These...waffles...are...amazing...

I searched high and low for a good whole wheat peanut butter waffle recipe that I could play around with and I found one that I found to be perfect. I changed some components and added banana and boom! Heaven...these waffles are the only reason I now get out of bed...

I could go on and on about my love of peanut butter and these waffles but it is a holiday and I have cream cheese coming to room temperature for a peanut butter pie and my laptop can only handle so much drool....

(how much do you wanna bet these would rock with chocolate chips?...just sayin...)

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Waffles
Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:
(makes 6-8)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cups skim milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 ripe bananas, sliced

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all of the ingredients.

Preheat a waffle iron. When it is hot, spray its surface lightly with the cooking spray or brush it with the butter.

Fill a medium-size ladle with batter and pour it onto the waffle iron. Cook until the waffle is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Serve hot with sugar-free syrup.

Chocolate and Cheese Danish

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Oh how quickly Mondays come upon us :( My day is finally winding down with pumpkin cheesecake ice cream and "The Bachelor".

This past week was Shawn's week off and it flew by. I sent him off this morning with homemade whole wheat peanut butter banana pancakes and a sausage, cheese and tomato scramble. It's the least I could do...

His next week off is in 3 weeks...boooo...but it is also my Spring Break so something tells me these next 3 weeks are going to draaaag...and I have tons and tons of work to do to catch up and finish this quarter strong...

This of course equals lots of stress eating...crap...Luckily, I made these danish (is it danish or danishes?) a few weeks ago because if I made them now I would probably eat them all in one sitting...no joke.

I made these with croissant dough because I had it on hand but I'm sure its a lot better with puff pastry. If cheese and chocolate are food groups to you like they are me, then try these...now...seriously.

Chocolate and Cheese Danish
From Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup (2 ounces) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2 (9-inch-square) sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten

Directions:

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Filling: In a small bowl, mix together the cheeses, egg yolk, flour, sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Cut each sheet of pastry into 4 equal-sized squares. Put 4 pastry squares on each prepared baking sheet. Spoon about 2 to 3 teaspoons of the filling into the center of each piece of pastry. Fold 1 corner of the pastry diagonally over the filling to within 1-inch of the opposite corner. Using a pastry brush, brush the folded-over section lightly with the beaten egg. Fold the opposite corner over the egg-brushed pastry to form an open-ended Danish. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake until puffed and golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Pretzel Treats

I will be the first to admit that oftentimes my food or presentation of my food is not that pretty per se. I mean I get it. I'm aware....

Many times this is because I either A.) I don't have the patience to make it pretty because I want to get to the eating part... B.) I care more about how it tastes than it looks...or C.) I don't have a very good camera

This lovely treat that I threw together is a little bit of all of the above... A, B and C.

As I have said many times before I have this little obsession with the chocolate, peanut butter and pretzel combination. Remember my Love Triangle Cookie? Yeah, anything like that!

I had some rice crispy cereal and marshmallows laying around and decided to try to have some fun with them and make a few fun things...this is the first fun thing (since the Whatchamacallits)...and by fun I mean super, sinfully awesome.

Sure, its not that pretty. In fact, its a bit of a mess but I'm gonna call that fun...because the taste sooo makes up for it :)

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Pretzel Treats
Dame Good

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (10 ounce) package regular marshmallows
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups Crisp Rice cereal
1 1/2 cups broken pretzels (break each pretzel into 4 pieces)
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Add the cereal, pretzels and chocolate and mix up.

In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter until melted.

Pour the marshmallow mixture over top of the cereal mixture. With a spatula that is sprayed with cooking spray, combine the two mixtures and stir until everything is evenly coated. The chocolate will begin to melt, but that okay.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray (or an 8x8 pan if you want thicker bars). Using a spatula evenly press mixture into prepared pan. Let cool for about 15-30 minutes. Cut into even squares.