I can easily say this is hands down, the BEST meal we’ve had in a long time! In fact, there are leftovers in the fridge and I can’t stop thinking about them! I dreamed up these tacos when I discovered chicken breasts and a couple of chiles in adobo stashed in my freezer. I had no idea they’d turn out this good. All it took was a brief description to my mom and she was off to the store to get all the ingredients! Spicy, moist chicken topped with a cool, creamy, smoky yogurt sauce…oh man, I’m getting so excited just thinking about it! You MUST make these tacos. You MUST.
Crockpot Chicken Tacos with Chipotle Cream
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 chiles in adobo, whole
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of 1 lime
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
handful cilantro, stems and all (don’t chop it)
1/2 cup water
flour tortillas
avocado for serving
Throw everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove chiles and set aside (you’ll need them for the chipotle cream). Remove the stems of cilantro and discard. Using two forks, shred the chicken. Spoon into flour tortillas and top with chipotle cream and avocado. Serves 4.
Chipotle Cream
3/4 cup reduced fat Greek yogurt
reserved chipotle chiles from the chicken mixture, seeds removed and finely diced (at this point, they’ll almost be mush after cooking for so long; all you’ll need to do is mash them up a little)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime
salt
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl until combined.
*If you don’t want your sauce too spicy (those chiles are hot!), you don’t have to use the chiles at all- you can just spoon in a little of the adobo sauce from the can instead. You’ll still get that awesome smoky flavor without all the heat.
Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper original
First off, let me (again…) apologize for my absence lately. I’ve simply been having too much fun with my little cupcake! She’s 11 weeks old now and constantly keeps us on our toes! She smiles SO much (freaking adorable!), eats a TON, and is growing like a weed- 12.75 pounds at her 2 month appointment! My little red-haired girl definitely has a personality all her own- I love it! Here’s a few other things that have been going on lately:
I won’t be singing with the Fort Worth Opera this season. It was a hard, hard, HARD pill to swallow, but being at home with my little girl is what matters most right now. I simply wouldn’t be able to give her what she needs being gone every single night and weekend for 2+ months. There comes a time when you have to make hard decisions in life; and while this was a very hard decision, I can say with total confidence, it was the RIGHT one.
We’ve decided to move back to our hometown. We’ve found the perfect house, put our house on the market, and turned our lives upside down. This decision literally came out of nowhere, as we never intended to move back there after getting married. But, when something is right, it’s right. Cassidy will be going to the same schools we went to (she’ll even be at the same elementary school I was at! Yay!), she’ll be in the same town as her grandparents, which I happen to think is very important, and we’ll be going to the same church both of us grew up in. Joel and I met there, were in youth together there, and got married there. My family has gone there for 4 generations. It’s a special church, and Cassidy will be a part of it.
And of course, getting used to being parents is still a big part of our lives (the biggest part, actually). Taking care of little miss Cass is a huge responsibility and a joy. Being parents is just awesome. 🙂
Ok, now that you’re up to date on all the happenings, let’s get back to food! The good folks at Tillamook asked me to whip up a grilled cheese sandwich recipe for them since April is National Grilled Cheese Month. They sent me 4 kinds of cheeses to try and asked me to create a delicious grilled cheese for them. Done and done! I love a good grilled cheese. Especially if it happens to have spicy pepper jack cheese, sliced avocado and cilantro butter on thick, buttery Texas toast. Yes sir.
Mexican Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
4 slices Texas toast (not the frozen kind- you can find this with the other sliced breads)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch salt
2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
2 slices Tillamook Pepper Jack cheese
1 avocado, thinly sliced
salsa, for dipping
Stir the chopped cilantro, salt and butter together until spreadable and smooth. Spread the butter mixture on one side of each slice of bread. Place two slices of bread buttered side down on a preheated grill pan over medium heat. Top each with a slice of cheese and 2-3 slices of avocado. Place the remaining two slices of bread, buttered side up on top. Cook for 2 minutes, then flip, cooking until cheese is melted and bread is lightly browned. Serves 2.
Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper
Oh man. Are you ready for a FANTASTIC meal?? This salmon surprised us in the best possible way. I found some bottled ginger-sesame sauce/glaze at the store along with some beautiful looking salmon and decided to throw together a quick Asian-inspired dinner. Wow and WOW. Not only did this meal come together in less than 30 minutes, it blew us away. The ginger-sesame sauce would have been nice on its own, but the addition of lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce and cilantro really took it over the top. The glaze keeps the salmon nice and moist and the flavors of ginger and cilantro combined with the salmon was an excellent combination. I served it with some quick noodles with peanut sauce and it really was the perfect quick, delicious weeknight meal. You really need to try this one!
Asian Glazed Salmon
2 salmon filets
2 tablespoons ginger-sesame sauce (I used an organic brand called Full Circle, but any ginger sesame-based marinade or dressing [not salad dressing] will do. If you can’t find this, a teriyaki sauce will do)
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
squirt of fresh lime juice
1 rounded teaspoon brown sugar
cilantro
In a small bowl, stir together the ginger-sesame sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar and cilantro until combined.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the salmon filets, skin side down, on a baking sheet lined with greased foil. Brush with half of the marinade and bake for 10 minutes. Brush with remaining marinade and return to oven for 10 minutes more until salmon is cooked through. Top with additional cilantro. Serves 2.
Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper original
Oh, how I’ve missed margaritas over the past 9+ months. Anytime we’d go to a Mexican restaurant and Joel would order one, I’d stare at it longingly across the table as I sipped my lousy, boring water (no matter how many limes you add to your water – it won’t taste like a margarita). But now, my beloved margarita has come back into my life and all is well again! When I found some gorgeous looking blood oranges at the store recently, I knew I had to make margaritas. And my friend Shawnda, the queen of margaritas, has the perfect recipe! If you’ve never tried blood oranges, you’re missing out; their deep, red juice is SO sweet and bright- it almost has a floral taste to it. Add that to a margarita and you’ve got one lip-smacking cocktail! Cheers!
Blood Orange Margaritas
3 ounces tequila
2 ounces orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier or Triple Sec
2 ounces fresh-squeezed lime juice
4 ounces fresh-squeezed blood orange juice (3-4 oranges)
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Stir together tequila, orange liqueur, lime, orange juices and confectioners’ sugar. Check for sweetness and add additional sugar if desired. Pour over two small glasses of ice rimmed with salt. Serves 2.
Recipe source: barely adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride
We’re all familiar with chicken parmesan- a breaded chicken cutlet topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. A lot of people’s favorite “Italian” dish. I’ve never been much of a fan, for whatever reason. This recipe, however, I’m a HUGE fan of! It’s basically just a vegetarian version of chicken parm; and it’s soooo much better, in my opinion. I love mushrooms any way I can get them and when they’re topped with marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese??? Sign me up! The best part about this recipe? It’s ready for the table in about 30 minutes. You can’t beat that!
Portobello Mushroom Parmesan
4 portobello mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed
salt
pepper
1 cup marinara sauce (homemade or store-bought)
fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced in 1/4 thick slices (shredded is fine too)
grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season mushrooms with salt and pepper. Spread 1/2 cup of the marinara sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Place the mushrooms top-down on top of the marinara sauce and top with the remaining marinara sauce. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and bake about 15 minutes. Top with fresh mozzarella and return to oven for another 10-15 minutes until cheese is nicely melted. Serves 4.
Recipe source: heavily adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
I feel like I live in my rocking chair these days. It’s where I feed, burp and rock Cassidy to sleep, so obviously, it gets used a LOT. Some days I feel like I don’t get out of that chair. Luckily, it’s in the living room so I can at least watch TV while I’m rocking. I pretty much keep it on the Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and History Channel. A couple of days ago I was watching a show on the Cooking Channel and the chef cooked fish and vegetables in a pouch in the oven. I know this is done a lot, but for some reason I never think of this. So last night I tried it. I found some beautiful Alaskan Cod at the grocery store, seasoned it very simply with olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon, and baked it with zucchini and squash. I took it a step further by topping it with a cucumber/pepper relish. What a fantastic meal! Not only that, but it came together in less than 45 minutes total! Perfect for a busy mom with a very slim window of time to get dinner cooked! Make this! You’ll love it!
Baked Alaskan Cod with Cucumber Relish
2 filets of Alaskan Cod (or any white fish you prefer)
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
1 squash, thinly sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced
salt
pepper
olive oil
Cucumber Relish
1/2 a Hothouse (seedless) cucumber, diced (you can use a regular cucumber, you’ll just need to peel it and deseed it)
1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
Make the relish: toss cucumber, red pepper, jalapeño pepper and salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Refrigerate until needed.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place zucchini and squash in two large pieces of greased foil (large enough to fit the vegetables and fish when you make a pouch). Season with salt and pepper. Season the fish with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on top of the vegetables. Place 2 or 3 lemon slices on top of the fish. Fold the foil down on the top and sides to make a pouch (be sure it’s sealed up tight on the sides so no liquid escapes during cooking). Place on a baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes until fish is flaky. Top with the cucumber relish. Serves 2.
Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper original
If you’re looking for a perfect peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, look no further. This one is amazing. Chewy, soft, slightly crisp around the edges with the perfect ratio of peanut butter to chocolate. I love them. I made two batches of dough so I could have plenty leftover to freeze after the baby came. Lucky I did, because these tasted SO good after a long day of diapers, feedings, burping and rocking. In fact, I still have a little bit left in my freezer right now…we may have to bake some up tonight! YUM!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini-sized)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter. Beat until smooth. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes approximately 30 cookies.
Recipe source: The Pastry Affair
Guess what? It’s time for another virtual baby shower! Yippee! (I never get tired of these!) This time, it’s for my good friend Courtney of Cook Like A Champion. My friend Josie of Pink Parsley is hosting this time and I’m SO glad she asked me to participate! Courtney was sweet enough to take part in my own virtual baby shower in November (remember? She made me that awesome Opera cake!) and I’m thrilled to be a part of her’s today! I feel so much closer to her since we both got pregnant around the same time and have kept up with each other throughout our pregnancies. I remember when she first told me she and Eric were expecting- I was SO excited for them! She’s having a sweet baby girl in March (so soon!) and I know exactly how she feels right about now- excited, nervous and READY! I know she and Eric are going to be amazing parents and this little girl is certainly lucky to have them! I can just imagine all the mother/daughter baking that will be happening in their kitchen! How sweet!
When I was in my last weeks of pregnancy, all I wanted was a cocktail. Something cold, fruity and refreshing…unfortunately, I couldn’t very well go out and order myself a margarita or anything (boo.), so when I found a bottle of sparkling peach juice (non alcoholic) in a pretty champagne bottle at Target, I decided to make myself a little mocktail. I served it in a pretty stemmed glass with a peach slice and strawberries. Even though there was no alcohol in it, it was the BEST thing I had tasted in weeks! I sat there and drank half the bottle by myself! So refreshing and fruity! I decided I would make the same thing for Courtney since I’m sure she could use a little mocktail herself! This time I added a little blood orange Italian soda to it and made it even better! YUM! So here you go, Courtney- here’s a nice, tall, fizzy drink to relax you! Cheers and congratulations!
Virgin Peach-Blood Orange Sangrias
1 part blood orange Italian soda (any brand will do- I used the Archer Farms brand from Target)
2 parts sparkling peach juice (also Archer Farms, found at Target. If you can’t get this, sparkling apple cider or sparkling grape juice will work great as well)
frozen or fresh peach slices
pink sugar and strawberries for garnish
Slightly wet the rim of a stemmed glass and dip in pink sugar. Place a peach slice in glass and pour in peach juice and blood orange soda. Garnish with a strawberry. Serve cold.
Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper original
Be sure and head over to Josie AND Courtney’s blogs to check out all the other beautiful dishes and sweets our friends put together.
Ok, I know I’ve gone a little overboard with the baby updates lately, but this is the last one, I swear! I really wanted to get the full birth story written down so we’d be sure to always remember every detail. So many of you have emailed and commented wanting to know more about our baby girl’s birth, so I thought I’d share the experience with you. And to make it all worth it, here’s another picture of our little sweetie. 🙂
Ok, here we go:
I haven’t had a hot cup of coffee in days. No matter how many times I re-heat it, by the time I get around to actually drinking it, it’s cold again.
I haven’t shaved my legs in 2 weeks. Gross.
Most days, I don’t get to brush my teeth until after 1 or 2 o’clock.
Lunch? More like, late afternoon snack.
Just call me Bessy the milk cow.
I’m not even going to talk about the sleep thing.
Wow. When you sit down and think about it, you can really find a lot to gripe about. And I could probably come up with so much more. But as I sit here watching my little girl sleep, suddenly every single complaint fades away. Becomes tiny. Unimportant. When I cradle her in my arms and softly sing her favorite songs, my heart is so full I literally get tears in my eyes.
Sure, childbirth was hard. Really hard. But so, SO worth it. In fact, I’m writing it down now so I won’t forget a single second. I want to remember every moment.
I went in to be induced at 7am. My room was big and beautiful with a great view of one of my favorite Dallas areas. Joel helped me into my lovely hospital gown, then the nurse got me all hooked up to everything. Shortly after, the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural (that’s right. Epidural. God bless it). My doctor came in and broke my water (which never would have broken on its own, she says. I guess I was never destined to go into labor on my own), which hurt like the devil. Joel nearly fainted. I like that part of the story. 🙂 I was given the medicine to get things started and all that was left at that point was to wait.
My mom and sister came in the room periodically to check on me and keep my spirits up while Joel texted updates to the rest of the family. More waiting.
Finally, it was time to push. This was so scary to me because I knew Cassidy was a big baby- estimated at over 9 pounds. Yikes. The nurse showed me how to push and before I knew it, it was go-time. This had just become very real.
2 ½ hours. Might as well have been 8…or 20. Pushing was hard. Very hard. I held onto Joel for dear life and he helped support my legs and neck while I pushed. There was no screaming, ridiculous breathing exercises or yelling of obscenities at Joel. It was nothing like I had imagined- very calm and quiet, with the chipper encouragements of my nurse. “I can see her head! You’re making great progress!”  But I knew better. I just knew. Each push left me exhausted, red-faced and more and more discouraged. Those 2 ½ hours of pushing came to an abrupt end when it was clear my baby girl was just too big. I had to have a c-section. Ok, fine. No big deal, I said. But I was devastated and so terrified. This wasn’t part of my plan. I had never even considered this option. The horrible recovery…the scar…the pain. Yeah- I was terrified.
They wheeled me into the operating room and got me situated. The doctors were very upbeat and chatted with me about opera while they got things ready. Joel came in a few minutes later in his scrubs. This was happening. My doctor held my hand and assured me everything was going to be just fine. Then she began. Joel stroked my hair and squeezed my hand. I felt lots of pressure- not exactly pain, just pressure and I just laid there in fear and shock at what was happening. Then the world stopped when we both heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Our baby crying. She was out. She was here. Tears rolled down my face and I could hear Joel sobbing saying, “sweetie, that’s our baby girl.” Then he disappeared for a few seconds and returned holding my precious Cassidy, cooing to her softly. He handed her to me and for the first time, I looked my baby girl in the eyes. So this is who had been kicking, wiggling and hiccupping inside of me all these months. I now had a face to put with the movements and it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.
“Hi baby girl. I’m your mommy.”  Your mommy. Wow. In just a matter of seconds, my life was totally changed. All that pushing, exhaustion and fear melted away. Joel and I were parents. I have never loved him more.
Everything after that was a blur (they had given me nitrous oxide during the procedure, much to my chagrin, and I was pretty loopy, unfortunately), but I remember being wheeled to the recovery room and getting to see my parents, then my sister and her family and in-laws. Everyone was teary-eyed and so, so happy. It was beautiful.
Recovery wasn’t bad at all. I had the most amazing, sweet, and patient nurses who took exceptional care of me. Poor Joel had to sleep on an uncomfortable futon with a limited amount of pillows that kept getting stolen from him by the nurses to make me and the baby more comfortable. I ended up with about 9 pillows, while Joel was lucky to have even 1. We had a good laugh at this later.
We spent 4 nights in the hospital (which I really enjoyed, actually!) and had lots of visitors. I will always look back on my time in that little recovery room with such fond memories- working on nursing, visiting with friends and family and cuddling with my sweet baby.
Just as quickly as it had all happened, it was time to go home. Thank goodness for my sweet mother who has stayed with us to help (the BIGGEST blessing in the universe!). It was time for us to join the ranks of moms and dads all over the world. A new chapter. Which brings me back to the long list of gripes…remember those? No sleep. Unbrushed teeth. Unshaven legs. Blah, blah, blah. But there’s another list. A list of all the beautiful, wonderful moments I get to share with my little girl on a daily basis. Things like rocking her to sleep singing Sondheim melodies and Edelweiss from The Sound of Music (her favorite), feeding her a bottle and seeing her sweet face watching me intently, seeing her smile in her sleep (heart-melting!), cuddling with her first thing in the morning, watching Joel hold her…I could go on and on and on. My little red headed girl is the greatest blessing in my life. I look into her face and see the miracles of God. Joel and I made that. Childbirth really is a miracle. I see that now.
…Love, Cassidy
