Easy Baked Chicken Taco's

I can't believe I don't already have these on here! This is seriously a family favorite, and considering that it's a sneaky way to make my kids eat tomatoes and onions, it's a big time personal favorite, too! It calls for a diced onion and a can of diced tomatoes. What I do is toss them in a blender until they make a sauce together and toss the shredded chicken with it. You can do it however you want, though!

What you will need:

• 1 pkg. taco seasoning of your choice
• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• Mexican shredded cheese blend
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• Hard taco shells
• Topics of your choice

Directions:

• When your chicken is cooked and shredded, add the taco seasoning in and mix well
• Preheat oven to 350*
• Either add the diced tomatoes and onion to the chicken and mix, or blend them in a blender until it makes a sauce or chunky texture to mix in with the chicken
• Fill the taco shells with the chicken
• Top with the shredded cheese
• Bake at 350* for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted
• Top with favorite taco topics

Crock Pot Taco Soup

My kids and I made a tradition last year that on the first snow fall of the season we make sugar cookies and have hot chocolate. It's flurried here and there but nothing I would call "the first snow."

Today has been kind of a nail biter! Is it the first snow fall? Really? Is it going to melt in an hour? Can I for sure give it the first snow label? I can't decide, and the clock is ticking!

In the meantime, taco soup. Need I say more? Warm up with this gem. I served it with the Olive Garden Bread Sticks and it was a big hit! Which is extremely rewarding since it was a typical "threw it together" meal. Whew!

What you will need:

• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 3 cans beef broth
• 1 1/2 pkg. taco seasoning
• 1 1/2 pkg. ranch mix 
• 1 lb. ground beef

Directions

• Dump all the canned ingredients into the crock pot 
• Mix in the taco seasoning and ranch mix
• Brown the ground beef and add it into the crock pot to mix in
• Cook on low 4-6 hours
• Top with grated cheese and a healthy dollop of sour cream if desired!

Shepherd's Pie Empanada's

Quite a while back I wanted to make some of those little April Fool's Day "cupcakes" with meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I wanted it to taste good, though. I decided to incorporate a pepperoncini gravy into the whole thing and it was crazy good!

Fast forward to now when I have a thing of Puff Pastry sitting in the freezer and I needed something to do with it. I figured why not try out those cupcakes in empanada form? Honestly, there's nothing too outside the box with this recipe aside from the gravy, which I expanded on after doing a roast with pepperoncini's in the crock pot. It just adds that *thing.*

What you will need:

• 1 box Puff Pastry
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• heavy cream
• 2 T butter
• 2 packets McCormick's brown gravy mix
• 2 T pepperoncini juice
• 1 tsp salt 
• egg wash

Directions:

• Thaw your puff pastry according to package directions 
•  Preheat oven to 400*
• Peel and cube your potatoes and boil them until you can stab one with a fork and it just slides right off when you pull it out of the water
• Brown your meat with some onion
• Mash potatoes with heavy cream and butter
• Prepare gravy mix with pepperoncini juice and salt
• Pour half the gravy mix into the ground beef pan and mix together
• Use a pizza cutter to slice puff pastry into even squares
• Brush the edges of each square with egg wash
• Fill with the mashed potatoes and ground beef
• Add an extra drizzle of gravy over the filling
• Bring one corner over to the other corner and press down
• Use the end of a fork to seal empanada
• Cook for 15 minutes

Homemade Taco Shells and Tortilla Chips

I'm not even really sure how these are "recipe's" because they're so easy but it's always good to have these directions around!

My husband and I usually like THESE tortilla's found in the refrigerated section, but if you're in the mood to make you're own, these are the reason my 7 year old will eat 4-5 taco's in one sitting.

What you will need:

Taco Shells

• White corn tortilla's
• About an inch of oil, heated to the point of it "popping" when you flick water at it (if that even makes sense)
• Tongs (this is important)

Tortilla Chips

• White corn tortilla's
• Kosher salt
• Olive Oil

Directions:

Taco Shells

• When your oil is heated up, place one tortilla into the oil
• After about 30 seconds, grab one side of the tortilla with your tongs and fold that side over towards the other side (to make a "shell")
• Hold the tortilla in that position with your tongs, making sure it's crisping up with a gap in the middle large enough to put your taco meat in (if you just fold the tortilla over and leave it, it will crisp up with the sides folded too closely together and your taco will break in half when you try to open it enough to put anything inside)

Tortilla Chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Cut tortilla's into wedges
• Brush both sides with olive oil
• Sprinkle salt on top
• Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray
• Lay out chips onto baking sheet evenly
• Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on how large your wedges are) until they are crispy and golden brown

Baked Chicken and Spinach Flauta's

*Hello, Pinterest friends! I am so happy you stopped by. You will absolutely love this recipe. As mentioned in the comments below, it has a bit of a kick to it! Feel free to tone down the chili powder and jalapeno's for the kids if you need to! 

*Also, make sure you SUBSCRIBE right over there on the sidebar!--->


We're on another health week. That means testing out some baked chicken and spinach flauta's!!!! Yummm yumm. I mean yes I know it is a flour tortilla and shredded cheese in there but give me a break. I still like food you know.

By the way, these are CRAZY GOOD! Make these tonight! You will love me forever!

What you will need:

• 4 9" burrito flour tortilla's, cut in half
• 2 chicken breasts
• 16 oz. chicken broth
• 2 C water
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 3 C spinach, chopped
• Grated cheese
• olive oil or cooking spray
• salsa or cilantro lime dressing for dipping

Directions:

• Place the chicken breasts in a large pan and cover with chicken broth and water
• Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes (or until chicken is done)
• Shred chicken and mix with seasonings
• Pour out all but 1/4 C of the broth and cook spinach and jalapeno until spinach has wilted (about 2-3 minutes)
• Preheat oven to 450 degree's
• Grease a baking sheet and set aside
• Place shredded chicken, cheese and spinach/jalapeno along the edge of each cut tortilla and roll up starting from the edge
• Place seem side down on baking sheet
• Brush with olive oil or spray with cooking spray
• Bake in the oven for 10 minutes each side

Cafe' Rio Shredded Chicken

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow! YAY! Everyone loves Cinco de Mayo, right? We have a wonderful group of friends that get together every few months to do a Cafe' Rio pot luck dinner party, and we scheduled another for tomorrow. Perfect way to celebrate!

We each pick a Cafe' Rio copy cat recipe to bring and we make yummy taco salads and burrito's. One of us is usually assigned to make the Cafe' Rio shredded pork. I don't have that recipe on here, yet. But I do have this one!

 This one is a family favorite and the chicken is sooo good and it's great leftover in other meals! I always make extra so we can toss them in soups, enchilada's, salads, etc. It's wonderful!!

Unfortunately I have been using this recipe for so long that I have it memorized so I don't know who to give credit for the recipe. If this looks like the recipe you've posted somewhere, let me know and I'll link up to ya! :)

What you will need:

• 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken
• 1/2 bottle of Zesty Italian dressing
• 1/2 T minced garlic
• 3 T ranch dressing mix (recipe asks to mix this with 1/2 C water, I did not. See below.)
• 1/2 T chili powder
• 1/2 T ground cumin

Directions: 

• In a bowl, mix together the dressing, garlic, ranch mix, chili powder and ground cumin
• Pour mixture over the breasts making sure to coat each breast entirely
• Place all ingredients in the crock pot on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 8 hours
• Drain crock pot and shred chicken (I toss it in my Kitchen Aid)
• OR, if you are pressed for time...
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Place chicken breasts in a cake pan
• Poke a few holes in each breast with a toothpick or fork
• In a bowl, mix together the dressing, garlic, ranch mix, chili powder and ground cumin
• Pour mixture over the breasts making sure to coat each breast entirely
• Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge until you are ready to cook them (or until your oven is preheated)
• Cook at 375 degrees for 45 mins-1 hour
• When the chicken is done (in the crock pot or the oven), roughly cut chicken into cube chunks and toss them in a KitchenAid to shred.

Oven Baked Chicken Fajita's

Here is my second recipe this week from Life is a Lofthouse. I made this with the Mexican Rice on the side. I LOVED IT. Also gluten-free for the little one since she's never liked burrito/taco style foods so she just ate it without the tortilla. If you must have a tortilla, I haven't heard of a great gluten-free alternative, so maybe just turn this into a nice rice topper, wrap it in some lettuce or make a chicken taco salad out of it with corn tortilla chips. The flavor is great!

What you will need:

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into long strips
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• 1 tsp. Chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried Oregano
• 1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 red pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 green pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• tortilla's ( I get Abuela brand in the refrigerated section so I can cook my own)
• Cheese (optional)
• Cilantro (optional)
• Sour cream (optional)
• Salsa (optional)
• Mexican Rice (optional as a side dish and is great on the fajita as well)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Spray a 9x13" pan
• In a small bowl combine olive oil, cumin, chili powder, oregano and garlic powder
• Place chicken strips in the pan and coat with spice mixture
• Pour the tomatoes evenly onto the chicken
• Place the peppers and onions over the chicken and tomatoes
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until chicken is done

Mexican Rice

Okay so I stumbled on this blog called Life as a Lofthouse totally by accident and about 30 minutes later had chosen 4 recipes to try out this week in my dinner plans. I have always wanted a nice simple side dish to go with fajita's or Mexican dishes and nothing has ever jumped out at me. But this...this is PERFECT! Such good flavor and so EASY! Plus, you could easily make this extra healthy using brown rice, so I'm tossing it in the "healthy" tab (you can see my standards are slightly low as far as "healthy" goes). Not only that, but it's just naturally Gluten-Free. A plus for my daughter, who freakin' loved this stuff (just make sure you double check the chicken broth you're using with this list I found right here).

The pictures on her site are way better than mine so don't base whether you think this would be good or not on this picture! :)

What you will need:

• 1 C uncooked long grain rice
• 2 C chicken broth
• 1 T butter
• 1/2 C salsa (I used Picante' which is confirmed to be Gluten-Free)
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Directions:

• Put all ingredients into a non-stick skillet
• Bring to a boil
• Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes