BBQ & Southwest Tacos

Now I found this recipe originally on Pinterest titled Callies Soft Tacos. However, I modified it AND it wasn't quit correct on a few points. Thus I will be correcting it and not linking to the original.

Southwest Soft Tacos

5-6 frozen chicken breasts
1 can enchilada sauce
1 pkg taco seasoning
2 cups corn (I prefer frozen)
4 cups cooked rice
2 cups mexican shredded cheese

Place chicken, enchilada sauce & seasoning in crockpot. Cover. Cook on high 4 hours. 

Pull the chicken out - shred it - re-add back into sauce in crockpot along with corn & cook 30 minutes more. (more photos to follow)

Add cooked rice and stir together.

In medium soft shelled burritos, add some cheese and a few scoopfuls of southwest mix.

Roll up, I fold in two side slightly and roll the rest up and over.

 

Serve immediately with a side salad or wrap in either foil or press n' seal wrap, place in gallon freezer bags and freeze for quick lunches.

 

Using medium soft burritos I was able to make 30 (I used only 5 lg chicken breasts)

 

 

BBQ Soft Tacos

5-6 frozen chicken breasts (2-3 pds pork)

1 bottle of honey BBQ sauce (or flavor of choice)

3 Cups cooked rice

2 Cups mexican shredded cheese

Place chicken & sauce in crockepot, cover, cook on high 4 hours. (low up to 8 if you need it to cook while working same for recipe above). Remove chicken from crockpot - shred, return to crock pot and cook 1/2 hour more. 

Add cooked rice, stir together.

Add mix & cheese to soft tacos and roll up.

 

Serve immediately with side salad or wrap and freeze for later.

Using medium soft burritos I was able to make 30 tacos.

 after shredding

after adding in corn

My husband loves both of them and has been eating them for lunches from frozen

It took me two days of making one large batch of each and will feed him lunches for a month!

(working on the theory of 2 burritos a day)

Coffee Creamer

 French Vanilla Coffee Creamer

14 oz. Sweetened condensed milk
14 oz. Milk (any - including soy, almond ect)
2 tsp. Vanilla

1 quart mason jar. I used a washed out, wild coyote Blue Cheese dressing jar.
Add all ingredients into jar - shake well (stirring works also)

Very yummy!

Next time however I am going to do it a little different.

I will substitute the milk for a 13.5 oz. can of lite coconut milk.
I think it will add to its allure - especially since my favorite creamer is coconut!

Shepards Pie - Favorite

Shepard's Pie - Garris Family Favorite

1     pkt Anjus Sauce
3     C. Water ~ for Anjus Sauce
4     C. Normandy Vegetables Mix
1-2 C. Ground Beef/pork/turkey
1/2  C. Sour Cream
2     C. Potato Flakes
3/4  C. Milk ~ for potato Flakes
2     C. Water ~ for potato Flakes
2     Tbls. Butter ~ for potato Flakes
1/2-3/4 C. Grated Cheese

Serves 4
cook time 1 hour
cook at 350

Now as I've stated before, this is what I call an Egg roll recipe. My previous Shepard's Pie found HERE, was good but the mashed potatoes were too thick and the sauce to thick.
My hubby still loved it, but he voted tonight and this is the WINNER!
Many people take cooking far to seriously - especially these types of foods. Both of these recipes I created on the spot to suit what I had available on hand.

Recipe Directions:

Add Anjus packet to a large pot - slowly add in water. Stir frequently over med heat. My packet called for 3 cups water.
Once the sauce is ready add veggies and pre-cooked (leftover) ground meat.
Start oven
I add the veggies about 10 minutes before the meat to give them time to cook.
Add the sour cream and stir.

At this point I prep my casserole dish by spraying the bottom with non stick cooking spray. Feel free to also use butter.

Pour into prepared bowl and place in oven with out the lid - cook 20 minutes at 350.

Start water & butter for potato flakes - once its boiling remove from heat then add both flakes & milk.

Pull out casserole dish from oven, mine was extra runny so I drained 1-1 2/2 C. of juice from the dish. Next time I will drain it before adding the sour cream - leave some of the sauce or it will be too dry.
Spread potato's over the top of the meat sauce and return to oven for 15 minutes.
A few minutes before the timer goes off shred the cheese.
Remove from oven sprinkle cheese over the top of the potato's and cook an additional 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
Serve and enjoy!

My veggies & ground meat

veggies while they cooked







My helper, trying not to step on top of my helper took an additional 5 minutes of cooking and prep time! Although he is rather cute!

Add the sour cream 

Next time I will have already removed half of this sauce before adding the sour cream 

however it still turned out well

using flakes instead of mashed really cut down the cooking time!

I didn't have to heat up cold thick potato's and these really seemed to do better in the dish.

Add cheese, cook - enjoy!

Tub & Tile Cleaner (Tub Magic)

Tub Magic
A pinterest recipe

12 oz. White Vinegar
12 oz. Dawn Dish Soap
1 - Empty spray bottle

Heat vinegar until hot - add to bottle, add dish soap, cover & shake.

Spray, scrub, rinse & voila done!

Tough stains spray on & allow to soak in as long as overnight.

This has been stained for a year!

No amount of soaking or products have made a difference

This is after only 5 minutes!

I am so happy!

Also as a side note, the recipe for this that I found on pinterest (the many) all called for BLUE Dawn.

As I am fully against DYE's of any sort and am working them out of our life I used Dawn Pure, their one and only dye free dish soap.

It worked like a charm!

Also I try not to buy bottles, especially not if I have an old one that I can clean out and re-use.

But if you are going to buy a spray bottle - make sure it can handle a thicker stream - this is not something that will flow through a small spray bottle for water.

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie - A Garris Cooking recipe

1 10 oz. Can Chunk Chicken Breast
3 1/2 C. Frozen small veggies (I used a carrots, corn, peas & green beans mix)
Salt & pepper to taste

White Sauce* ingredients & instructions to follow
Bisquick biscuit mix ** ingredients & instructions to follow

Prep time - 30 min
Cook Time - 35 min

White Sauce

1/4 C. Butter
1/4 C. Flour *see note at bottom
2    C. Milk

Melt butter in small pan over low heat. Add flour slowly stirring continuously. Add milk slowly. Turn heat up to med/high.
Heat until boiling.
Add salt & pepper.
*If using skim milk (like I prefer) add more flour I used 1/3 C. If using whole milk lessen the flour by a tsp.

Biscuits

2    C. Jiffy Baking Mix (this is what I used, I believe that any biscuit mix would work)
2/3 C. Milk

Combine, mixing thoroughly. Turn out onto floured surface and pat gently into the shape of whatever bowl your going to cook the pot pie in.

Cook white sauce first.
Then add veggies & chicken.

Add salt & pepper to taste

Pour into casserole dish that has been spayed with nonstick or rubbed with butter

Cook in preheated oven at 350 for 20 minutes

Pull out of oven - carefully lay biscuit over the top and return to oven.

cook an additional 15 minutes or until crust turns light brown.

This is the best chicken pot pie I have ever made!

Thick, rich, yummy! 

Stuffed with veggies!

Feeds 4-6

Kiwi Bakery in Magna - a review

We've lived in Magna under 2 years.

The first year we focused on school, yard, redoing the house... didn't do a lot of neighborhood scouting.

Magna, however, has a few hidden treasures on Magna Main (2700 S.)

Our favorite is The Kiwi Bakery.

We also liked the Pizza Stop, but due to a recent change in ownership they have cut half their menu and changed a few of the recipes - drastically reducing my families love for them.

Now their full name is, The Kiwi Bakery and Fish & Chips.

They & their recipes hale from New Zealand, foods like meat pies & sausage rolls can be found here!

Great food for very low rates!

Their staff is friendly, personable & the restaurant is always clean.

I LOVE their pasties!

This has two chocolate donuts for the kids, one cinnamon roll for papa & one cream puff for mama.

Also for lunch the next day is a steak & mushroom meat pie for papa.

~~~~~~~~~

Now I have made a few rather drastic changes to my food blog - first I took it off of the dynamic view - it had tons of views a day but no new followers, no new people commenting, liking ect.

So I switched back to "normal" blogger.

Thus I was able to add two new fun features to my blog!

A - Follow me on Pinterest - button

&

A new super cool, print or pdf. button, that can be found at the bottom of each blog.

Great things about the new print feature is that it allows you to remove photos, personal commentary - allowing you control of what you print and what size!

Genius!