Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

I love finding easy make at home recipes for some of my favorite eat out foods! Sweet and Sour Chicken is a favorite of mine and I definitely think that this version is much healthier then the one I have at my favorite chinese restaurant! :)

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
(recipe found on pinterest via life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com)

Chicken:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped
salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat oven to 325. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dip chicken into cornstarch to coat and then eggs. Heat oil in skillet and cook chicken until browned on all sides, but not cooked completely through. Transfer chicken to greased 9x13 pan. Mix all ingredients for sweet and sour sauce with a whisk and pour over chicken in pan. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Baked Chicken Fajitas

Although the hubs isn't a big fan of fajitas and not all the kids are too wild on peppers and onions, I thought that this was a fantastic meal... It was easy to throw together without all the frying and it was so yummy! Guess I'll have to make it again when there are less picky eaters at my house! Sorry about the picture, I forgot to take it before I dove right in to eating it! :)

Baked Chicken Fajitas
(recipe found on pinterest via www.sixsistersstuff.com)

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips or chunks
1 (15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 (4 ounces) green chilies
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a 9x13 pan and set to side. Mix together chicken, tomatoes, chilies, onion and pepper. In a small bowl combine spices and oil. Drizzle over chicken and toss to coat. Place in greased pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Serve with tortillas.

3 Packet Roast

This was seriously such an amazingly easy recipe and it turned out so delicious! We have quite a few roasts in our freezer and while I am still partial to my original roast recipe, this one is definitely coming in a close 2nd. Especially with how easy it was to throw together!!

3 Packet Roast
(recipe found on pinterest)

roast
1 packet zesty italian salad dressing mix
1 packet brown gravy mix
1 packet hidden valley ranch mix
1/2 cup water

Combine all packets with water and mix until incorporated. Pour over roast placed in crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Mexican Turkey Hash Brown Bake

This was a great sneaky way to get my potato fix in without freaking out my son who HATES anything potato... We don't have cubed hashbrowns a lot, so he wasn't sure what exactly it was and ate it up perfectly! Again, a simple meal to throw together and pop in the oven right when I need it to be done!

Mexican Turkey Hash Brown Bake
(recipe found in Taste of Home Healthy Cooking)

1 pound ground turkey (or I substituted beef)
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
32 ounces cubed hash browns, thawed
10 ounces enchilada sauce
8 ounces tomato sauce
4 ounces green chilies
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1 cup shredded cheddar

Cook turkey, onion and garlic until meat is no longer pink. Add remaining ingredients, except cheese and stir to combine. Transfer to a greased 3 quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar; bake until melted.

Enchilada Chicken

I love finding a new chicken recipe, especially one that is as easy and delicious as this one!! I don't own a cast iron skillet, so I made do by transferring my chicken to a 9x13 pan after I had browned it. It was still pretty tasty though...

Enchilada Chicken
(recipe found in Taste of Home Healthy Cooking)

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons salt free southwest chipotle seasoning blend
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

Sprinkle chicken with seasoning blend. In an oven proof skillet, brown chicken in oil. Top with enchilada sauce, cheese and cilantro. Bake at 350 for 18-20 m inutes or until a thermometer reads 170.

Serves: 4
Points: 6 per chicken breast

Blueberry Coffee Cake and the Secret Recipe Club

What a better way to jump back on the horse then to start out with this month's Secret Recipe Club recipe?? This month I was assigned Evelyne's blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz and can I just tell you that I had a blast checking out the recipes that she makes?? Some of them were a bit beyond the cooking that I do but I definitely found a bunch that I wanted to try out right away! She also has a link to pinterest and you all know how much I love my pinterest! Make it so easy to find those recipes that you want to try later on...

So many ideas went through while I was checking through her blog... I usually try to stay away from anything that has been on SRC in the past, but seriously - I wanted to blog about her brown sugar bacon waffles!! My husband is going to flip when I make those! But, I steered clear and headed for the blueberry coffee cake instead! And next will definitely be her blueberry upside down cake... GOod thing I have all those blueberries waiting for me in the freezer!!

I made this for a breakfast for my daycare kids and they LOVED it... They all came running back for seconds, which made me extremely thankful that I had made a double batch! :) I used milk instead of light cream as she called for and I have a feeling this might have cause some issues with it looking a little "curdled" when I mixed in the milk and lemon juice. I was a little concerned but went through with the rest of the recipe and no worries, it tasted fabulous when it came out and looked delicious!!

Blueberry Coffee Cake
(recipe found at www.cheapethniceatz.com/)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, mix well and add milk and lemon juice. Mix until combined. In another bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Spoon half of batter into bottom of 9" round pan sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle blueberries over the top and gently cover with remaining batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Did you miss me?

Wow, kinda checked out for a while there... What can I say? We had the flu, or something, go through our house. 3 days of 3 sick kids and just when I got one healthy, the last one fell victim. We FINALLY got healthy on Christmas morning so that we could spend at least part of the holidays all together! :) Then it was a 2 week dash of spending time with friends and family and MY KIDS... Love when I am able to do that.

Of course something had to give and it was definitely my 2 blogs... But I am back now and back with a whole lot of recipes stock piled!! I was hoping to get all the cookie baking recipes up before Christmas, but I guess they will be here tempting you for next year. Plus we had a few gatherings since the last time I blogged and I have some fun new recipes from there too!

Hope life has been fabulous for all of you and that 2013 is starting off right for you... For me - healthy kids, family, friends, jobs for the hubs and I and lots of great food are a great start!