Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

For dinner tonight, I made Crock Pot BBQ Chicken. I got the idea from Pinterest from the blog Stick a Fork in it! It's sooooo simple to make. And the chicken comes out so tender that it falls apart. :)

To make:

4 to 6 boneless chicken breasts (I used fresh but you can use frozen like the original blogger)
1 bottle of BBQ Sauce (I used Bulls Eye Original because it's my favorite)
1/4 cup Vinegar
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 cup brown sugar
a little minced garlic (I didn't have garlic powder)
black pepper (because I add pepper to everything I cook)

Whisk the ingredients in a bowl and whisk in your BBQ sauce. Spray PAM in your crock pot so nothing sticks. After you've washed your chicken breasts add them to your crock pot and pour sauce mixture on top of them, being sure to cover them all. Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours. I ate my chicken with a baked potato and some corn. :)

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

If you like bananas then you will go bananas for this. I saw on Betty Crockers facebook page the other day a blog for banana cream pie cupcakes. I talked to a friend (Christal) at work about them. We both thought they looked delish. So, today I decided to make them. :P

You can follow the step by step guide here from CookingwithSugar.com. Get the complete recipe here.

Some of my tips: I added a mashed up ripened banana to the cake mix and I added one to the frosting. The frosting called for banana extract but I didn't have that so I left it out. :D I used reduced fat nilla wafers (taste the same as regular) and I used unsalted butter. :) I brought them to work and well they were devoured pretty quickly. :D YEY!! Huge hit and I will be making these again!!! :)

New Things Monday

3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp bars......I bought a pack at the store one evening. Went right to work with it and later that night when I opened it was melted together. I didn't get 2 bars I got a blob mess. It must have melted during shipment b/c I didn't have it anywhere near heat. BLECH!! It tasted okay. I wasn't amazed or anything. Would I try them again? Yes, I would but I def like regular musketeers better. :D

Via Colori Fredericksburg 2011

This weekend downtown, was Via Colori. It's a paint festival in the streets. Artists use chalk to paint on the street. The radio station took part and Mandie from our promotions department asked for Volunteers. I jumped at the chance because I knew it would be fun and neat. Christal from the station volunteered too with her 2 kids.

The street was closed off. It was a good turn out both days, even with the threat for rain.
I had to work on air from 11 to 4. I stopped by before work and dropped off the station camera and to check on the progress. Christal and her kids are coloring, while Hai (Mandie's hubby) is working on the grid. I also stopped by after work to check in and see if I was needed.

CHALK! :D

Sunday morning, we got some rain even tho we'd covered our painting. Some areas got wet and we had to do a bunch of touch ups and then added some extra things as well.

Meet....American Rock-it! :)

Here's the finished piece. How cool is it? :)

When you checked in you got a big box of colored chalk, a small box of white chalk and a small box of black chalk. Lots and lots of chalk.

Reverie.....I heard the artist mention she was running out of blue chalk.
The picture....

Artist: Melanie Stimmel's piece....

Ice cream cones.......I really like this one.


More chalk!!! :)

These were some others I really liked.....







When I got home I was still feeling artsy so I drew some pumpkins on my driveway. haha :)
It was a great weekend! Sunday evening, we went to Maggiano's in McLean with Nate's work wife Desi. Such a sweet lady! :) We went to a surprise birthday party for the husband (Jim) of Nate's co-worker (Grace). The man turned 75! He was so happy and very surprised. He teared up saying he's never been this surprised in his whole life. Very sweet and nice guy. :)

Chicken Lasagna Cups

I saw an idea on Pinterest for Lasagna cups. I thought I could make this but with Chicken instead of meat. Why not right?

I cooked my lasagna noodles, drained them and then laid them on a plate.

I cooked chicken breasts, cooled them for a bit and then cut them up. Then I mixed up my favorite Alfredo mix. (2 packs of the McCormick Alfredo packets) Add your diced chicken to a big bowl, Alfredo mix and some Italian cheese blend, then stir real good and add some black pepper too.

Add your lasagna noodles to a cupcake pan. Take some of the extra noodles and cut into squares. Put in the bottom of each cup. Then add your mix, noodle square, mix and then sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake for about 15 to 20 min. :)

Let them rest for a few minutes. Then take out and enjoy. They are very cute if you're into presentation. :)

MMMMMM :)
To make:

Chicken (cooked, cooled and diced up)

2 pkgs of McCormick Alfredo sauce (mixed with 2 cups fat free milk, 6 tbs unsalted butter)

1 box of Lasagna noodles

1 pkg of Italian Cheese blend (I didn't use the whole pkg)

black pepper (cuz I pepper everything...haha)

New Things Monday

I keep hearing about how good Fiber one bars are. When I asked Nate yesterday what he needed from the grocery store he said "oh, get some of those fiber one bars" and I said "ok cool, and I also have a coupon". :)

They were on sale. YEY! I got both the Chocolate fudge brownie and the Chocolate peanut butter brownie to try. We both tried the chocolate fudge brownie yesterday and loved it. I had the chocolate peanut butter brownie today and I liked it but I like the chocolate fudge one better. I can't wait to try the other bars. It's a quick to go snack and has lots of fiber in it which is good for you. :)

Firebirds BLT Salad

I woke up this morning craving Firebirds BLT salad which is what I always get when I go there. (as well as the Chicken Tortilla soup) I asked Nate if he'd want it for dinner tonight and he said what goes in it. I said "bacon, lettuce, tomato and ranch'. He said "sounds good to me". And so I made it. And it tasted EXACTLY like the salad. :)

You need:

Ranch Dressing

Smoked Bacon

Head of Lettuce

Tomatoes (diced)

Black pepper

I baked the bacon in a deep glass dish in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 min. I also added some minced garlic to the dish to let it bake with the bacon. I chopped the head of lettuce and diced up the tomatoes. Once the bacon is done, let it drain and cool on paper towels then cut it up into small pieces.

When you're ready to eat your salad:

Add the chopped lettuce to a big bowl, add your bacon, tomatoes and some black pepper. Then add ranch dressing. (eye ball it) Mix until well coated with the ranch.

Note: The ranch dressing at Firebirds is a garlic ranch. I couldn't find garlic ranch at the store so I figured to get the garlic flavor that it would be good to cook it in the bacon and it worked perfectly. :)

Firebirds Chicken Tortilla Soup

Have you ever been to Firebirds Wood Fired Grill? Well if you have and you've tried the Chicken Tortilla Soup then you know how good it is. It's one of my favorites and I decided to make it today. I googled it and found this blog. I was excited to make it. I jotted down what I needed and headed to the grocery store to get the items.

To make:

First heat 2 to 3 tbsp vegetable oil to a pan. I then added some minced garlic. Once the pan heats up, add the veggies and let them saute till tender on medium/high heat.

Turn heat on medium. Then add in your diced tomatoes, seasonings, minced garlic, salt, black pepper, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add crushed tortilla chips and cook for another 10 minutes. Then add to your blender and blend till smooth. This is when you get the orange/yellow color. It's pretty awesome watching it change. Add your cheese and puree it till cheese is mixed in. Mix in some chicken (cooked and diced).


Then add to your soup bowl and enjoy. :)
You can add some diced tomatoes, sour cream and more crushed tortilla chips. I just added chips. It was really good. :) Nate had 2 large bowls full. He said it was a A+. Didn't know I was being graded. LOL :)

Ingredients: (I changed the amount to my preference)

2 to 3 tbsp vegetable oil

minced garlic

yellow onion (I used half of 1 large onion)

carrots (I used 2)

celery (I used 3)

red bell pepper (I used the whole pepper)

tomatoes (rough chopped...I used 4)

salt

black pepper

cilantro (tsp)

oregano (tsp)

cumin (tsp)

unsalted chicken stock (I used 1 container)

crushed tortilla chips

pepper jack cheese

roasted chicken (I used roasted chicken shortcuts)

Give it a try. It doesn't take long to do and if you make extra you could freeze it to have later.

You've been Pre-Approved

For last couple months, I've been collecting all the pre-approved credit card applications I've been receiving in the mail. I can't remember exactly what month I started hoarding these but I want to say May or June. Let's go with May for the fun of it. To this day I've gotten 40!!!!! CRAZY!!!!

Here are the offers scattered about. (I turned them over b/c I'm not about to post my address on the internets)

How ridiculous is this? Of course, not all are addressed to me. Some are addressed to Nate. But still, no wonder Americans have too much debt when they are tempted from credit card companies.

The Help

Tonight, I saw the movie 'The help' with Sharon. Kristen had read the book a while back and she'd told me a few things that happened while she was reading it. Kristen saw the movie with Dave and told me it was really good. She talks about it here. About the movie......it takes place in the 60's with a young girl (Skeeter) who wants to be a writer. She decides to write a book about the African American Maid's point of view on the white families they work for, and the hardships they go through. Of course, in the 60's this was all taking place during the civil rights movement and it was against the law for maids to speak about any white person. Skeeter finally was able to convince two maids named Aibileen and Minny to tell their stories and eventually lots of other maids as long as they were all kept anonymous. I don't want to give anything away. Lots of funny things happen in the movie and of course some really sad things. Be sure to grab some extra napkins from the snack bar. Trust me, you'll need it. Or bring a couple tissues. I really enjoyed this movie. It's so sad that the world was like this and it wasn't really all that long ago. Take a girlfriend and go see this movie. :)

New Things Monday

Well I've got a new favorite fruit bar. I love Edy's/dreyers strawberry fruit bars. Who doesn't like them? And with chunks of real strawberries.....YUMMMMMMO! :) Just recently I tried the grape bars and the pineapple bars. I love grape so I knew they would be good. Nate loves the grape too. The pineapple are really good. They have little pieces of pineapple pulp bits in the pop. Nate said they weren't his favorite but I just don't think he's as obsessed with pineapple as I am. LOL I know Nate has had tangerine bars and he likes those but I don't. Try the pineapple bars for yourself and let me know what you think. :)

Faberge Egg Exhibit

Kristen, Ashley and me all went to the Faberge Egg exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts today.

We couldn't take pictures inside the museum (Like when I saw Picasso) but they did have a display at a gift shop so I took some pics of the window display.

Then we walked our way down to the museum.....
There was a lot of eggs, frames, pill boxes, trinket boxes, pendants, cigarette cases, cane handles and more and more pieces. They were all lovely. If you're not familiar with faberge eggs you can read about it on wiki. It was truly something amazing to see these.

After the exhibit it lead you out to a exclusive faberge tourist trap....gift shop. EXPENSIVE little pieces of treasure. There were charms for $100 or more. Um....no thanks. :)

I liked the little pumpkins. :)

There were nesting dolls in the gift shop too. They were adorable. We didn't get one b/c we knew it would be something that would just end up in the next yard sale pile.

After the VMFA we went to Stuzzi.....
We wanted to try a new place that we hadn't been to before. I don't want to really give a bad review but well when you get a white pizza I'd really rather not have burned crust. BLECH!! I don't know if the wood fired oven needs to be cleaned or what but getting anything burned is just not cool in my book. I don't know if the cook was new or if they were just having an off day or whatever but I just won't go there again.

After that we went and got dessert at DeLuca Gelato. I've been here before with Ashley but Kristen had never had gelato before so we had to introduce her to it.

MMMMM :)

Then we hung out at Ashley's place for a bit before going home. It was a nice Sunday. :)