Spinach Cheese Tortellini Soup

Ever lack the energy or creativity to come up with an amazing dinner?  Try this.  Seriously easiest dinner, ever.  I don't say that lightly.  I can make this while Simone hangs on my leg and it still comes out perfect. 

What you need...

2 fist fulls of fresh spinach.  I just use the regular box (or bag) spinach from the salad section of our Fry's.

2 cans of low sodium chicken broth

1 can of peeled & diced tomatoes 

1 package of cheese tortellini 

Dash of garlic salt & black pepper

1 lb of ground Italian sausage (you can omit this for a meatless meal and it's still amazing)
 

Get it done...

Toss the first five ingredients in your crock pot on LOW.  

If you are going to add the Italian sausage, brown it in a pan, drain it, and add that to the crock pot.

Allow it to cook on low for 1-4 hours.  You can't really mess it up!!

It's BEYOND EASY, and goes well with sandwiches or garlic bread!  It keeps nicely, too for up to a week in the fridge.  We use this as dinner on nights when we are busy, will be getting home late, or days when I'm completely overwhelmed and want dinner to make itself.

ENJOY!

Mother's Day

Ahhhh Mother's Day 2013.  My first Mother's Day as a Mother of a baby girl (who is outside of the womb).  It was so sweet.

First thing in the morning Todd woke me up with coffee from my new Verismo... bliss!  Coffee is seriously like my life blood these days.  It's just the most amazing drink on the planet... and maybe margaritas...and beer... ughhh I could never actually choose between them.  

Anyways, he woke me up with coffee, a sweet sweet card, and a beautiful gift.  A few weeks back Todd had taken the most precious picture of me and Simone snoozing together.  He had that pic printed on a large canvas to be hung up in our house.  It's seriously so wonderful.  Simone is the highlight (as well she should be, pretty baby) and I'm in the background.  Gotta love a man who understands Mommy with no makeup does NOT need to be the point of focus on a huge canvas.

It's in sepia tone... picture here does not do it justice... 

After calling Todd's Mom and getting my own loving phone calls from my Pop Pop & Aunt in New Jersey. We skipped over to breakfast at The Nosh.  I know I've talked about this place before.  Their pancakes are perfection...and on top they put this amazing pecan butter.  I could eat my weight in them.

My Girl & My Feast!

Um, Sweetest Picture Ever?  Yeah, I think so!

We stopped off on the way home at the local farmer's market.  This is seriously one of my favorite things...and we are almost always running around too much to fit it in.  Todd bought me this sweet stone bracelet.  I'm in love with it!

It's soo pretty and my favorite colors!

We bought a bunch of veggies for a big salad, and also grabbed tamales.  SERIOUSLY, if you live in Ahwatukee... or you hit the Ahwatukee Farmer's Market go see the tamale guy. They are amazing.  We always buy at least a dozen... and always wish we had more!

After that we hit our grocery store to grab mimosas (needs to be added to the most amazing drink list...) and some chicken to make one of my favorite dishes Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Coleslaw.  While the chicken cooked in the crock pot, we enjoyed mimosas pool side with our baby girl.  In Arizona... that's about the only thing you want to do outside around this time of year.

Look at that HAT!

These three cuties!

That's what I like to see on the bar/grill in construction!

My father-in-law, Jim, joined us for dinner.  Whenever we have extras we invite him over, and he always is very appreciative of both the food and the time with his favorite girl in the world, Simone.  He even had a mimosa!  Gooooohead get down, Grandpa Hart!  He treated us to an Orange Leaf dessert, his favorite...and mine, too!  Simone soaked up the snuggles from Grandpa, and I enjoyed way too much frozen yogurt with sprinkles.

Orange Leaf Fun - She matched the decor... HA!

In honor of my Mom I rocked some of her gear.  Her style was the best, and I just copy her any chance I get!  I also wore my new favorite white eyelet shorts from White House Black Market.  I actually scored these at Goodwill a few weeks ago.  They are sooooo summer.  My chambray shirt is from Ross...that's where "I got it", and my pink shirt was another Goodwill find.

Mom's seagull pin, her "Michelle" necklace, and very Aztec-y earnings 

We had a great day with our sweet girl, and really coffee, pecan butter pancakes, mimosas, pulled chicken, and froyo... what more can a Mom ask for?  Oh yeah, Todd even did the dishes.  

Hope all of your Mother's Day festivities were amazing!

Pulled Chicken with Cole Slaw

This meal is ALWAYS a hit.  Got a bunch of people with varying tastes?  Serve this!  I'm telling you, everyone acts amazed at how great this is and asks me how to do it...and it's simple!  I tagged this as a three ingredient dinner...and that's pushing it, but it basically is.

When I make this I always buy the big package of boneless chicken breasts.  If there's no "big" package then get a few 2 packs of them.  I usually try to do one breast per person (hardy, har, har), but usually I have big time leftovers.  Which, is a good thing around here.  The chicken reheats beautifully and I use it for Todd's lunch or my lunch during the work weak.

Throw the chicken in the crock pot with a cup or two (I'm not an exact-o cooker all of the time) of chicken broth.  If you don't like using chicken broth you can add plain water and fancy it up with some garlic salt and a little pepper.  I do that when we're out of stock.  Cook the chicken on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.  At that point the chicken will be cooked through and you can break it into chunks.  No need to "shred" it quite yet.  Add in a bottle of your favorite wing sauce.  Any will do... but I usually use Frank's Red Hot in mild.  It's still got some kick, but if you have someone who can't hang with the heat it's not too bad.  If you want NO heat you can use honey BBQ sauce, it's still delicious.  

**Note...there are also recipes online to make your own BBQ sauce.  I've done this before and it's super yummy, but takes more time...and that was before I had a baby girl to keep up with.**

Let the chicken cook a bit longer.  You really can't mess up chicken in a crock pot, I promise.  Once the wing sauce has time to cook in, get to shredding.  I always get Todd to do this part for me... it's a bit of a pain to get it exactly right.  He's the master of it.

While Todd's shredding I make the coleslaw.  By I make the coleslaw I mean I add the mayo and vinegar to the bag of coleslaw mix.  You can make your own, too.  I have an amazing recipe for coleslaw from my Mother in law that I'll post someday...

For the buns the best are the King's Hawaiian rolls.  They are a bit pricey, but taste soooo dang good.  If you opt for regular hamburger buns it's good to get the harder rolls in the bakery.

Sooo good... what is it about these!?

I serve these with the slaw right on the roll with the shredded chicken.  I think it's the only way, but I love coleslaw (something my Grandmother did to me), so I'll eat it on the side, too.  Other good sides are a big salad, chips, veggie chips, fries, & onion rings.  No pics of the actual sammys because when they came out, we scarfed them... whoops.

Our Favorite Picks for Chips!

What you need...

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 bottle of wing (or BBQ sauce)

1 package of rolls 

1 bag of coleslaw

1 bag of chips (or fries, onion rings, potato salad, etc.)

Get it done...

Cook the chicken on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.  Break into large chunks once cooked through.  Add wing sauce.  Cook another 20-30, or 45 mins.  Shred chicken.

Prepare coleslaw.  Put shredded chicken on buns topped with coleslaw, throw chips on plate & serve!

These are my go-to when we host a party or big gathering of friends.  They are easy and "buffet style" friendly!  

Enjoy!

Simple Dinner - Lemon Pepper Chicken, Carrots, & Rice

I'm pretty obsessed with easy dinners. Especially easy chicken dinners because we eat chicken 80% of the time.  So, it takes some work to keep making that chicken exciting!  

I figured I'd share a few SUPER SIMPLE dinners that I make when Simone is not in the mood to watch me chop & prepare a big elaborate dinner. 

I'll have several of these dinners posted soon, since it's just about all I normally make. 

Lemon Pepper Chicken, Carotts, & Rice (I obviously love rice & carrots)

What you need...

Bag of baby carrots

2-4 Chicken brests

Rice (or Quinoa, or other starch)

Get it done...

Throw chicken, some chicken stock, and bag of baby carrots into the crock pot around 3pm and pray it's done before we are starving for dinner.  

I usually put it on high and power cook it for a few hours.  If you're gone all day you could set it to low.  I use a lemon pepper spice I bought at our grocery store and cut up a fresh lemon and toss it in.  It smells amazing while it's cooking.  

Then I cook up some rice (boil in a bag because I'm horrible at rice) and toss it all together.  Todd's always super impressed with the flavor, and chicken in the crock pot is EASY and juicy.

ENJOY!