Verde chicken enchilada casserole

Verde (green) Chicken Enchiladas are my favorite.   They are creamy and cheesy. I don't make them as often as I would like because the kiddo prefers the beef enchiladas. 

I used a lot of creamy salsa verde enchilada sauce in this recipe mixed with chicken broth and corn starch to thicken.  At the end I mix in about a cup of sour cream.  

chop a couple green onions to add to the mix

Brown the chicken.  I made a big batch but you could make half with about 3 chicken breasts.  I used 5 large breasts. 

Brown 5-6 chicken breasts 

Tip: mix your corn stretch in a bowl with a little water to get out clumps before adding to sauces. 

Cook the green sauce and chicken broth on med-low heat to reduce and thicken it with the corn startch mixture.  

broth and verde sauce 

Before adding to your casserole add a cup of sour cream.

add a cup of sour cream at the end 

And some fresh chopped cilantro or parsley.  

and some chopped parley or cilantro

Once you have cooked your chicken thoroughly,  you add 2 containers jalepeño cream cheese.   Again, half this recipe using smaller containers and 3 breasts.  

mix the cream cheese in with the chicken and onions 

I added onion flakes to the chicken.  If my husband wasn't so weird about onions being cooked I would have added fresh because our garden is overflowing with them.

4-5 cups of your favorite cheese

For this recipe I mixed sharp cheddar, mozzarella , and pepper jack cheese.

layer your ingredients 

Time to assemble.  Spray your pan first, lightly coat with sauce, tortillas, more sauce, chicken, cheese, a little bit of fresh onions and then start the process over with more tortillas.   I did 2 thick layers and covered the last with the remaining sauce, cheese, onions and a small can of black olives.

almost done! 

Bake at 350 until your cheese turns golden and good.  

let stand for about 5 minutes to serve 

And enjoy!  These are so good.  I was surprised that my husband actually prefers these to beef.  He and the kid are not huge fans of creamy for example, they don't like Alfredo sauce.  I mean how weird is that?  

YUM!

I topped these with nothing or guacamole, even a little Siracha sauce. 

Top as you like it! 

This is a recipe I just made by trial and error after a coworker brought similar enchiladas to work.  Mine are better but his were good.  :) 

What you need: 

Chicken:

6 chicken breasts cubed.  (You can cook them and pull them if you prefer) 

2 containers jalapeño cream cheese.

Fresh or flakes onions to taste.  About 1 onion.  

Sauce: 

1 large can of green enchilada sauce 

1 can chicken broth

1 tbs corn starch mixed with equal water. 

1 cup sour cream 

A handful of chopped parsley (add before assembling) 

Assembling you will need:

About 24 corn tortillas 

4 cups of cheese.  I used a combo of sharp cheddar, mozerella, and pepper jack.  

2016: Secrets of Addiction and recovery or Learning to Live right

There wasn't a smile, trust me! 

Fitness and Food have always been a problem for me.    Somewhere back in time, I wrote a blog or two about my struggles.   Beats me where they are and looking back on some of the stuff in my blog makes me sad so let me give you the Cliff's Notes version:

*I have suffered from compulsive eating and bulimia since somewhere between birth and 16 years of age.   I don't really remember when it started, I just know it started.   I am 45 so let's just say I have struggled about 30 years of my life.  

*I don't know what a "Normal relationship with food" means.

*I tend to be just a little bit OCD when it comes to food and fitness.

*I go in funks that can last years.   I either am really on with my food and fitness or very, very off.  I have been off for about 3 years.   There are a ton of excuses for why I fell off the wagon 3 years ago: broken heart, work stress, life stress, friendship stress, but all they are is excuses.   For example, the broken heart part, well, since that broken heart 3 years ago I fell in love and got married.  You would think that would snap me out of it but no such luck.   

So what does that say about me?  I am a freaking mess, I suppose.   In the 2 1/2 years my husband has known me, I have never been "In my zone".   See, I get in a fitness zone and when I am in it, I am a demon.  My doctor has never seen anyone lose weight faster than I do.  Well, I did.  I have no idea if my 45 year old self can do it but my 40 year old self was a master at it.   Don't let me kid you, that is part of the bulimia too.  I have been known to workout for 2 hours a day and eat 800 calories while doing it, to be thin.   I am not proud, mind you, just honest.

Anyway, I digress.   I have slowly started to work myself back into working out.  There is a magic thing that happens to me when I workout and it has nothing to do with losing weight, well, it does but as a side effect.   When I work out, I eat healthier.   I figured out a long time ago, if I am going to work my bottom off and still eat M&M's then I might as well just not workout.  

So at the beginning of the year I decided to make slow changes, because for me, diving in head first can send me on a roller coaster of bulimic tendencies and I now have a 12 year old girl in the house, who, as most 12 year old girls do, feels like crap about her appearance half the time.   She brushes it off and plays tough, but she doesn't fool me and my obligation is to set an example so, I have started to make a few changes.

First, I started by eliminating the high calorie, fun flavored creamer that I put in my coffee.   I switched to almond/coconut milk and while not anywhere near as flavorful, it gets the job done.  I also cut out all candy and sweets.   I bake nothing sugary and I keep next to nothing in the house to tempt me.  (Full Disclosure: Somewhere up on the top shelf in the baking section of my pantry are chocolate chips.  The good kind.  The chocolate crack kind.  At least, I think there are.   I haven't moved all the stuff in front of them to check.)

Next, I started to narrow down what is causing me to have serious stomach pain about every freaking day of my life, or 5 days a week, whichever is shorter.   I have pretty much concluded after not eating gluten for several days then eating gluten on the last two Sundays, that gluten and I do not get along. (My husband makes the best buttermilk fried chicken in the world.  It is amazing and dipped in flour.  I tried really hard to stay away from it this weekend but it called me and I answered it's dang siren call.   Trust me I am paying for it today.) 

So I have switched to protein filled green smoothies about once a day and healthier veggie and meat based foods.  Sometimes I have them twice a day, which I am going to explain below.  

Now, here is the worst part, I had a surgery two years ago which should have helped me lose weight but because I am a sugar addict, it helped me lose 60 pounds before I realized I could still eat sugar and gained 30 back.   In other words, I failed at the "easy way out" too.   Let me tell you one thing about any type of surgery, it is not the easy way out of anything.   A side effect of the surgery I had is that when I eat too much, to this day I vomit.   Unfortunately, most sugar and calorie filled stuff doesn't require you to eat a bunch before you blow your whole day.   A second and really annoying side effect is that raw veggies make me sick about 90% of the time.   This means for me, eating salad with a chicken breast is a crap shoot.  I may be able to stomach it one night and the next day, it makes me sick.   This sucks because I am just weird enough to like raw veggies.   As I said above, I have added green smoothies into my diet.  What I have figured out about that is that when I put spinach in the smoothie, it doesn't  give me the digestive challenges that eating a cup of spinach can.   So, I make a smoothie with spinach and a banana and protein powder because my goal after having surgery is to get between 60 grams and 90 grams of protein a day.   That's a lot.   

The one positive about the surgery, the one thing it forced me to stop doing, which I have never been able to stop previously, is purging.   Maybe it is because the surgery causes you to purge at times but mostly I believe it is because, once I went through with the surgery, I just couldn't do that to my body anymore.  Making myself sick when I am already struggling with constant stomach problems, is just not an answer for me anymore.  

Okay, so in the end, what I am telling you is that I am a 45 year old, overweight woman with at least 2 eating disorders, gluten intolerance, an addiction to cigarettes which will probably kill me and I made 2016 a year for baby step changes to get me back on track for good.   So yes, I am working out and behind that smiley face above you will see an exhausted old lady.   I am working on cutting the literal fat out of my diet and even replacing my cigarettes with something good for me.  (I haven't figured that one out yet because Ecigs are not good for me either.)

Here are my weight and fitness goals for this year:

Weight: Lose 50 pounds.   I have lost 6 so far this year so only 44 more to go!  

Workouts:  At least 3 times a week until I have a good base built up then 5 days a week.  With my ultimate goal to be back on my mountain bike by my 46 birthday.  That is in August if you are keeping track I have just under 6 months to get there. 

Quit smoking......TBD.

Plan:

Food: I have started keeping track of my food (most days) on one of those on-line calorie tracker things.  I forget on the weekends mostly.

Fitness:  I am going to be working out at home.  I use to go to the gym right after work.  I use to also be single and not have anyone else at home to answer to.  Now, just to be able to tell my husband: I am working out now, when I get  home, sometimes takes effort.  The minute I walk in the door, a to-do list hits me in the face.   I am working on getting all three of us used to the idea that when I get home, I am changing cloths and working out.  

 Years ago, I learned to take a 12 step approach to eating disorders and take it one day at a time.   Today I wanted pizza, gluten free pizza but pizza.  Instead I had a salad (and yes it gave me an upset tummy) and I feel like I did right.  I told myself, just for today, just for lunch, I will make the right decision.   This is what I am working on right now, telling myself, just for today I will eat right and workout.   If I take it as a daily challenge instead of getting fixated on the big picture, I am hoping to finally get into a life long habit.

Oh, happy Monday people!   Happy Presidents Day.   

Super Bowl Weekend: Photobomb

I was confident Peyton would silence the haters!

We decided to have a few friends over for a Super Bowl party Sunday which meant that I spent my weekend cooking, cleaning, and driving everyone crazy.    Finally though, the food was done, the house was scrubbed and the time was right to cheer on Peyton Manning, who is one of my two sports man-crushes.  (Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, is the other).

and so was Hubs!  He just can't make a normal face!

Super hubs grew up a Broncos fan and became a Cowboys fan a little later.  The Cowboys are his team but he has a decided soft spot for the Broncos.  I grew up a Cowboys fan and became an Indianapolis Colts fan in adulthood because they are sort of my team by default.  The Colts moved to Indy when I was a kid, after we had already moved to Dallas, but I always cheer Indy teams after Dallas teams.   It just seems right.  Anyway, that is when I fell in sports-love with Peyton Manning.

EVER!

So hubs and I dressed in our finest Peyton is a Bronco shirts and I twisted his arm for selfies.  

And the kiddo dressed in her cutest football jersey because she didn't care who won but wanted to look good.

We had 2 TV's set up but somehow, everyone ended up huddled around the little one until we kicked them into the other room.   Monica, Julie, and Lynn are my Rangers girls from way back.  During the course of time we have inherited husbands along the way and so Jonathan and Mike were hanging out, and keeping it real.

Not pictured: I forgot to take photos when Jennifer, Scott, Sophie, and Sherry were around which was just dumb because Scott brought the cheesecake and you must keep the man with the cheesecake happy!

Sadie wanted in on the picture, or maybe she was just thinking hubs had a treat, who  knows?

Julie is actually the realtor who sold my old house and helped us buy the one we are in now.  It is the first time she has seen the house in a year and she got to see all the changes I made and we talked about things I still plan on doing.   Plus, everyone got a tour of my furniture, live and in person, so they could check out my passion, obsession.

The good news for the ladies is, well, it is baseball season officially in like now, but technically, 9 days when Pitchers and Catchers report.

So I cooked a little and we ate a lot.....okay really we had stupid amounts of food.   There was pulled pork for sandwiches, grilled chicken, and smoked ribs.  We had potato and corn chips, pretzels, french onion dip, spinach artichoke dip, queso dip, buffalo chicken dip, salsa, guacamole, chex mix, cheese with regular and glutten free crackers, jalapeno poppers, sopapilla cheesecake,  brownies, cookies, potato salad which I kept forgetting about and 2 kinds of nuts.   Looking at this table makes me thinks I was all kind of nuts to cook so much darn food.   One thing you can now and always have been able to say is nobody ever leaves my house hungry, at least not from me trying to feed them.

But there was something that stole the whole party. 

My chickens were a huge hit.   They were not nearly as excited about being loved as everyone was at loving them, but they all survived.

And got babied.

And seriously, if you don't have a chicken butt shot, you are doing it wrong.

Congratulations to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.   Nobody does it better and nobody deserved it more!

Have a Pinteresting Wednesday:Texas State Fair, Food, Adult Beverages and Texas Rangers

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Howdy Folks!   

It's Wednesday!  Are you as excited as I am?   We have a huge weekend planned starting with: 

Texas State Fair:

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If you have never been to the Texas Stare Fair you are missing out!  

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Mostly on a heart attack!  They have every version of anything fried you could possibly ever want and dream of including things nobody ever dreamed of frying.   You can thank the State Fair people for frying Oreos, Twinkies, S'mores,  Mac and Cheese, an aside here, why does Mac and Cheese need to be fried?  It was perfect before, right? I mean, sure, that crispy crust is delicious and I am sure it just takes it to another level, probably cardiac arrest, but come on, Mac and Cheese is probably what God sent down from heaven as Manna.  Who's with me.  I mean, Manna from Heaven surely had to be something very close to Mac and Cheese.  

Anyway, now that I have completely gotten side tracked by my Mac and Cheese love, let me remind you that all things bacon come in second only to mac and cheese...wait there is bacon mac and cheese. Me? I am looking forward to trying the new bacon margarita because what my margaritas have been missing my entire life is pork fat!

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So aside from my fixation lately with the Texas State Fair, my pins have run in two simple directions food and alcohol!  You see I am ready for fall but I don't like pumpkin anything.  Instead I prefer apples, cider, and salted caramel.  Well imagine my joy when I was shopping for a birthday present at the local liquor establishment and ran across Caramel Apple Vodka!  

Adult Beverages 

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Now I have an entire new "adult beverage" board which leans heavily toward the caramel, salted caramel, and caramel apple theme. :)  

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Just yum!  I have been under the weather all week so I have had zero tolerance for alcohol or food or breathing. 

Texas Rangers:

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My Rangers are still fighting to win the West and it is going to come down to the last series of the season with the HATED Angels of California.  *Yes, I know they don't go by California Angels anymore but I refuse to change.  Period.

My husband and I may seriously be forced to watch games in different rooms if he doesn't quit being so negative.  Only I am allowed to be negative, darn it!  I mean, I try really hard to leave him alone if I don't have anything nice to say about his beloved Cowboys.   REALLY!  

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I love this set of signs so much I think I am going to make them for my spare bedroom which is rapidly becoming my sports bedroom.  I have plans for a new=old full size bed in dark grey or dark blue and light grey walls for this room so it will work for all my teams but it will lean heavily on the Rangers, ND Fighting Irish, and Texas Longhorn side because I have so much....and I mean so very much stuff. 

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This has basically become my go to Tweet for the Rangers this season.   I post it a lot lately.   

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Think of all the money my Hubs could have saved if only we had known we could get a Rangers engagement set!  LOL  You know, I could easily make this work for my right hand!!!

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These are so not practical for the Ballpark in Arlington but they are so darn cute!  I have a good friend who would love these.  Yes Tricia, I mean you. Your shoe wardrobe is missing these and you would actually wear them to RBIA because you are just that girl. 

Randoms:

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Yeah, I am not much for PC these days.  Count me out on caring if I offend someone's feelings because usually me being required to care about someone's fragile ego means I have to give up some right I am guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States of America and that just doesn't really sit well with me in my grumpy old age.

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 My grandfather, God rest his soul, told me 20 years ago, "I am done with worrying about this country.  It is your problem now."   I really want to say, no thank you Grandpa.  Don't get me wrong, he earned the right to be done.  He was in World War II.  He lived his life, paid his taxes, raised his family, worked his job and his farm both.   He earned his right to be done.   I am just not sure that either of my grandfathers would like much where this country has gone.   They would tell you to stop feeling so much and pull yourself up by the boot straps and get to work.  As, I believe, most World War II vets would tell you.  There is a reason they were the Greatest Generation.  They didn't waste time, they got to work!

Food:

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I made a version of this and it was mighty fine.  Not as good as my poppers themselves but a lot easier on my hands!

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God forgive me, but I am tired of hamburgers and tacos.  I am ready for soup, casserole, and pot roast.  Come on cold weather.   BTW, my hubby, stud that he is in the kitchen, makes THE most incredible pot roast.  I am drooling just thinking about it!  I still prefer my pasta but I will gladly never make anything pot roast related again. 

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And back to my fall inspiration.  Pears and Apples.  Actually, I have been baking with Pears for the last couple weeks.  This is a Apple-Pear coffee cake.  YUM!

Okay that is it for my Have a Pinteresting Wednesday post.  By this time next week, God Willing, the Texas Rangers will be AL West Champs.   Pray for me. Pray for them.  Pray for 4 wins this week so there is no question!!!

GO RANGERS!!!

Favorite Things Thursday

Katherine's Cornere Blog Hop

Duck Dynasty Hat. 

Monday I shared my weekend photos which included our "Lunch with Si " and I forgot to post the hat.   Here she is.  I love that it is signed by 5 of the Duck Dynasty cast including Jase and Si.

Chest of Drawer Makeover

New pulls!

A few weeks ago I shared the makeover on this chest of drawers (Link above).  I thought it was done but the drawer pulls bothered me and the size was a different from average size.  Well, I found an amazing set of pulls and redid the redo.   I love the feel of these babies and I think it makes the Chest feel a little more romantic.  Or maybe that is me.

Yes this is my house...don't worry we are going to get rid of that ugly 1970 peach brick one of these days.  Totally not on my favorite things list but the never ending parade of flowers in the front yard are definately amazing!

My Hubby's Norwegian Tacos

Husband calls these Norwegian Tacos.  My comment was, when did they get tacos in Norway?  Basically, his grandma created this cross between a taco, quesadilla, and grilled cheese sandwich.  They are pretty great.   He uses venison, because that is what we have in our freezer, a thin layer of refried beans and he used velveeta (the grilled cheese/Norwegian part because lord knows Norway is famous for American Cheese!).  You grill them kind of like a grilled cheese with a little butter (or Butter flavored Pam) in the pan for crispness. Then you top with your favorite fixings, salsa, guac, sour cream, green onions, and tomatoes. (I don't like head lettuce on my sandwiches or tacos but you feel free.)  The production line to make these babies is actually more complicated than the recipe and personally, I would make them with sharp cheddar but he loves velveeta.  Men, gotta love them!

I am simply loving this chicken that I get from the Mexican Market pre-marinated and so tender.  Also, how great our weather has been lately. We are so lucky to have a great spring with 70's and 80's because I know soon it will be pushing 100.  You have to love North Texas weather.   It always gets you back to 110.

Finally, one of my favorite things this week has been all the amazing feedback I have gotten over my Tuesday Blog about parenting.   It is nice to know that parents can laugh at the tongue in cheek funniness of the craziness of kids.  Probably because we would cry if we didn't. :)