Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I know, I know. Not the most creative title. But, that is what I feel like right now! I am so excited. Now I am pretty sure at some point I have seen something like this recipe I used last night. I know I have seen many similar, and possibly what I ended up doing. I am not, by any means, trying to claim this as an original - never been done before meal. Yet I can't help feeling excited by the big thumbs up from the husband, both kids, and the Mother in Law. So I decided to share. :)

As I was scouring my freezer and fridge for something to put together, banging my head against the door, my eye caught sight of a block of mozzarella that needed to be used and bacon that needed to be used.  So... I decided to pull out the trusty bad of frozen chicken tenders from Costco (which I swear by) and see what i could make.

I pulled the chicken out, rinsed it in luke warm water (some may or may not know, they put a glaze on the chicken for preservation) and then put it in a ziploc baggie with a can of sprite and a good amount of shakes of Lowry's Garlic Salt. A tip I learned from a friend, soda is an amazing tenderizer/marinade. When mixed with seasoning salts and other things, you don't want to smell it. It won't smell good. But, your meat will not only taste amazing it will also be super juicy - even if it gets a little overcooked. Now, I wasn't too worried about the chicken thawing all the way before it went in to cook and I will explain this in a moment.

While the chicken was sitting in its happy little soda bath, I sliced up the mozzarella and pulled the bacon slices apart. I also took a cookie sheet, lined it with foil and then set a rack on top of that. My thought was, let the bacon fat drip down , air circulate around the meat a little better, and save a few minutes of scrubbing during clean-up time.

After of about 25 minutes of letting the chicken sit I drained the liquid off and brought the bag back over to my little station. Time to assemble! I grabbed a chicken tender, placed a slice of mozzarella on top and then wrapped the bacon slice around it. I did this with each piece with the exception of one due to a shortage of bacon. Once everything looked ready to go I stuck it in a cold oven, set the timer for 25 minutes and set it to bake at 375.

Explanation: I let the chicken go in a little frozen because I knew if it sat in an oven long enough for the bacon to crisp it would be way overcooked when it came out. I put it in the cold oven because that is the way I cook my bacon. Per Martha Stewart, if you put your bacon in a cold oven and allow it to cook as the oven heats, more fat is rendered.

As the little chicken bundles were baking I decided that the side items should have good color and be fresh. So I sliced up some avocado for the side. I then found a cucumber that was begging to be used and a tomato, sliced those up, sprinkled with a little salt and set those aside. Last I threw some Costco frozen green beans in a steamer to be brought to life. After all of that, I still had a few minutes to clean up. I am a huge advocate of cleaning as you go.

And here you go! The hubby loved it, Brandon not only ate super fast but then asked for seconds, and it was the first thing off of Katelynn's plate. My mother in law had left super fast for a meeting and I knew she would come home hungry so I made her a plate. When she came home she was super hungry, so it worked out. I later got a text from her telling me that she loved it and that it was simple gourmet!  Really, there is not a better reaction than that!

So there you are. If it inspires more great meals, sweet. If anything, now I have something to come back to if I ever get stuck again.

Adventures in Pinteresting...

Okay, so lately I have become a little obsessed with Pinterest... Like most of the women I know. Most conversations begin with.. "so I found this on Pinterest the other day and..." My husband, recently returned home from Afghanistan, is quite impressed with my newly developed crafting skills. The reality is, I am NOT creative enough to come up with this stuff on my own, but the amazing women (and men) who are, are kind enough to blog about it or pin it. Thus my crafty skills are developing. It is fun when I get asked about something and all I can say is, Pinterest.

I have been very lucky so far with Pinterest fails. Off hand I cannot remember one. I know they have happened a few times, but they obviously have not been horrible enough to scar me. So here I go, to those who pay attention. I think I am going to try and keep track of the Pinterest things we try...

Latest one was just this last weekend. We had a baby shower for a cousin and the theme (completely adorable) was based off of the nursery, vintage travel. So we had samplers from several different countries. One of mine being Ireland. This cousin is not only super Irish, but she also spent a couple of years living there. So there was a little pressure to get something good and authentic. I am not sure how authentic my item was, but everyone seemed to love it.

I chose to do an Irish Potato Leek soup. The recipe and directions can be found here: http://spicedblog.com/hearty-irish-potato-leek-soup.html

A few changes I made: I did not use roasted garlic. Instead I dropped in 4 full cloves of garlic with the potatoes to simmer. Also, I used a chicken stock that I had made the previous day. (honestly, I will never buy chicken stock again. This was the most amazing stock and didn't have all of the yucky preservatives)

A few things I want to try: I saw one recipe during my search that had many of the same ingredients but called for coconut milk instead of cream. Thinking about it, I really think that the coconut would add a great flavor, maybe a little more depth.

Also, I crisped up some bacon and chopped it up into moderately small pieces. Not super small, I wanted it to be big enough to need to be chewed to get that salt in there. I also threw in some shredded Tillamock cheddar. The recipe did not call for it as a garnish, but come on.. We know the UK loves their cheese... Most of Europe for that matter. And it added just the right flavor.

I didn't take any pictures of my own.. Lesson learned, it will not happen again. :) But here is the picture from the site that I got the recipe from.

Enjoy!