Queso Smothered Chicken

In an effort not to have the same taco-night each week, I wanted something a little bit different but still quick & easy. This fit the bill perfectly! I used queso as the sauce on some taco-spiced chicken and served it over a bed of black beans. The chicken was very hands off – just seasoned and popped into the oven. I liked the black beans as the base to make this really filling, with a slight cruch to the peppers, spiced chicken, and smooth & cheesy topping.

The Three Bite Rule - Queso Smothered Chicken

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs, boneless & skinless
3 tbs taco seasoning
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/4 of a lime, squeezed for juice
lime zest
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 cup queso blanco

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
In a baking dish, sprayed with non-stick spray, lay out the chicken. Sprinkle with half the taco seasoning. Flip the chicken pieces over and sprinkle with the remaining taco seasoning.
Bake for 20-30 minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Queso Smothered Chicken
In a medium sauce pan, warm the black beans over medium-low heat. Add a splash of water, squirt of lime juice, and a little lime zest.
Add the peppers to the black beans and stir well & often, cooking for about 5-10 minutes or until the peppers cook a bit.
Check that the chicken is cooked through. Then spoon queso over the top and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Queso Smothered Chicken
Spoon the beans onto a plate.
The Three Bite Rule - Queso Smothered Chicken
Place a piece of chicken on top.
The Three Bite Rule - Queso Smothered Chicken
Enjoy!

I loved this. It had all the flavors and textures I wanted. I have nothing against tortillas and we LOVE taco-night here but this was a really great tweak on the usual. My little one tried black beans and he approved! Have you had queso blanco? It is perfect for this.

Today is my Sis’ bday! We’re celebrating with a Mexican fiesta! Ole!

October 2016 Recap

I cannot wait until Halloween! The little one is going to be a shark! It is hysterical.

October was a fun one. In the kitchen, I was pretty into quick meals. Work is busy, the little one is busy and hungry at dinner time, and there are always 1,000,000 things happening. Or sometimes we just want to play and then we’re uber hungry.

I did a flatbread with pear, feta, and balsamic which was awesome. Make some flatbreads on naan immediately.
The Three Bite Rule - Pear & Feta Flatbreads
We’re still grilling over here so it is still burger season where I made a burger with Cobb Salad toppings. I loved it. Mr. J often gets blue cheese on his burgers so this was a natural fit.
The Three Bite Rule - Cobb Salad Burger
Another fav this month was a chicken cordon blue pasta. It was so good.
The Three Bite Rule - Chicken Cordon Blue Pasta
The Green Smoothie Challenge – I did it!! At the halfway mark, I had learned what I really like in a smoothie: frozen & milk based. There were some really great recipes. I’m glad I did it. I probably won’t make one daily from now on, but 30 days of smoothies was great. One of my favorites was a banana & coco powder and another favorite had pineapple/mango/coconut oil. I have a whole new spectrum of ingredients for future smoothies.
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The little one:
He’s too funny. I love his chuckle. I really love his sleeping ability. What a champion sleeper! We’re so lucky. The little dude goes to bed at 7:45pm and gets up at 8-9am on the weekends, or when we wake him at 7 for daycare on weekdays. He crawls then adds a leg in there when crawling isn’t fast enough. He magically began standing unassisted. He’ll pull up to standing and then casually let go.

He’s eating all foods. He literally eats anything we give him and doesn’t seem to have anything he doesn’t like. He’s now eating people food for breakfast & dinner and just a few bottles. He has 8 teeth! I can’t wait to dress him up for Halloween! Eeek. It is just too cute.
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Progress on this year’s goals:

The Year of the Earring:  I got these, just in the nick of time. 

make more salad dressings: I made a dressing with some apple cider.

factor more time into how long every-day tasks/trips will take: 
Ehh. Mornings haven’t been as quick moving as I need it to be. Otherwise, I think I did pretty well.

recreate restaurant menu items:
Sure did! My copycat Roxy’s Grilled Cheese had apple, cheddar, and sweet potato.

be more adventurous with my reading selections: 
I’m reading I am Malala but it has been slow going. I’m almost through the podcast Undisclosed, if that counts.  

use the crockpot more: 
I did a pork tenderloin in the crockpot. It was good to have something to just cook away all day. 

seafood once a month:
Nope, I’m behind on that.

Sweet Potato Apple Grilled Cheese

One minute fall is in the air and the next, it warms up to 70-degrees. Welcome to New England. I wanted some fall flavors for a night that was really quite warm. I decided to make a copy-cat Roxy’s Grilled Cheese. I used apple, sweet potato slices, and cheddar. Then I grilled it in brown butter. Hello. This is what dreams are made of.

The Three Bite Rule - Fall Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

Sharp cheddar cheese
sweet potato, cooked and sliced
apple, sliced
2 tbs butter, browned

Directions:

Layer the bread with cheese, apple, sweet potato, and another slice of cheese.
The Three Bite Rule - Fall Grilled Cheese
Brown the butter over low, being careful not to let it burn.
The Three Bite Rule - Fall Grilled Cheese
Pan fry the grilled cheese until very lightly tanned on each side. Then, spoon some brown butter onto the bread and flip the brown butter side down. Grill a few minutes, then repeat for the other side.
The Three Bite Rule - Fall Grilled Cheese
Give it a minute before slicing so all the cheese doesn’t escape.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Fall Grilled Cheese
I loved this. The brown butter really made a lovely touch…so worth it. I liked the apple crunch with the soft sweet potato and sharp cheddar. I’ll admit, some American Cheese would have been have been a good addition with the cheddar.

I will totally repeat this grilled cheese again this fall.

Apple Cider Salad Dressing

I’ve been thinking about what this month’s salad dressing would be and I wanted to make a vinaigrette with apple cider. I looked online and saw that everyone uses apple cider vinegar, but I didn’t find one with apple cider. Could it be?

My salad was full of fall flavor: butter lettuce; cucumbers; dried cranberries; feta; pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds and the dressing had a sweetness from the cider and a little tang from the cider vinegar.

The Three Bite Rule - Apple Cider Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1/8 cup olive oil
3 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/8-1/4 cup apple cider

Directions:

Put oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper into a jar.
The Three Bite Rule - Apple Cider Salad Dressing
Add in the apple cider.
The Three Bite Rule - Apple Cider Salad Dressing
Shake shake shake.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Apple Cider Salad Dressing
I meant to use some pecorino or shaved parmesan but I forgot to grab some at the store. I seem to always have feta around so in it went for some saltiness. The pumpkin seeds are crunchy and the dried cranberries are tart and chewy.
The Three Bite Rule - Apple Cider Salad Dressing

Crockpot Pork Tenderloin

I’m gently hovering between “it’s crazy time and we need to be eating more prepped freezer things” and “it’ll be crazy time and I need more prepped in advance in the freezer”. I need to do some better analysis of what’s there. One thing I’ve hung onto for months was a pork tenderloin. I almost defrosted it for the grill but then I knew I was months behind on wanting to make more crockpot things. The problem is, so many crockpot foods are beef and I don’t eat red meat. Or they’re weird things people put in the crockpot that don’t get better from cooking all day. I wanted this to be pork-onion-apple-y but forgot about the real apple idea until we were 2 forkfulls into this.

The Three Bite Rule - Pork Crockpot
I cooked the marinated pork tenderloin with carrots and onions in chicken broth & beer. I know. Sounds like a lot going on. I was sort of concerned it might be a bit too spicy for us so I wanted everything else to be flavorful, but to tone down the heat.

The Three Bite Rule - Pork Crockpot

Ingredients:

pork tenderloin, marinated
3 carrots, pealed and cut into 3 inch chunks
1/2 onion, quartered
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
1 bottle beer

Directions:

Put everything in the crockpot, on low for 5-6 hours.
The Three Bite Rule - Pork CrockpotOptional: put a few apples ontop of the pork. (They’ll become mushy if they’re on the bottom and cooking all day.)

Serve over brown rice.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Pork Crockpot
The pork is perfectly tender. I liked how juicy it was and I used a little drizzle on the rice. Mr. J is a gravy man so he made some gravy for his. You could remove some of the cooking liquid and strain/thicken it a bit if you wanted more of a sauce.

It worked out well, but probably wasn’t the most amazing thing ever. It was possibly the easiest thing ever. Leftovers worked well and the pups didn’t seem to salivate all day long.