Foil-Pack Taco Chicken

Another Monday down. As the alarm went off this morning Jason's first words were "I hate Mondays." My thoughts were....ya I just hate every morning I have to get out of bed at a set time. After a run at the gym and getting ready things weren't looking so aweful and I had a crazy busy day at work which definetely helped the time fly by and get this Monday over with. You might wonder what I'm doing to round off Monday...well I've successfully planted myself on the couch and my oh so wonderful hubby is downstairs making noise which I translate into PROGRESS on the basement! He also grilled for me tonight which meant no cooking for me. Trust me I love this and am ever so happy to wash dishes after supper by myself that's for sure. I forgot to update everyone the last time I wrote on our tax appointment. It was wayyyyyy less painful then I had thought it was going to be. This is good...our marriage has survived our first tax appointment! What a successful tax appointment translates into is a garage. Yay!!!!!! Yes I said we might start another project. The way it's looking it might be before the basement gets done. Yikes. This is not good, but what do you do? I asked my cousin's husband on Friday when he was coming to pour the cement. His reply was next week if you are ready....well that's all nice but that snow bank is still there in the back yard. Speaking of snow...what's this business about another snow storm coming our way? I was really hoping to be done and things to dry out but I needed to be reminded this is MN we live in and that just doesn't happen so easy. I think I will make some soup Wednesday and enjoy one LAST snow storm for the season. Mother nature that is my threat. Listen up and don't you dare snow again! The recipe I am sharing with you tonight can either be made in the oven (which is how the recipe calls for it to be done) or the crock-pot which I did because I wanted it to be done when I got home. It's a little bit of a different twist on chicken but it was great! Enjoy!

Foil-Pack Taco Chicken
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Ingredients

4 small boneless skinless chicken breaswts halves (1 lb)
4 tsp Taco Seasoning
1/2 lb red potatoes, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
3/4 c. Mexican Style 2% Milk Finely Shredded Four Cheese
3/4 c. Salsa
1/4 c. Reducted Fat or Light Sour Cream

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Sprinkles chicken with seasoning mix. Place 1/2 c potatoes on center of each of 4 large sheets of heavy-duty foil; top with chicken, cheese and salsa

3. Bring up foil sides. Double fold atop and both ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place in 15x10x1 in pan

4. Bake 30-35 min or until chicken is done (165 degrees). Cool 5 min. Cut slits in foil to release steam before opening. Top with sour cream.

*My Version

I sprayed a crockpot with Pam. Then I layered the potatoes on the bottom, the seasoned chicken, cheese and salsa on top. Cook on High 4-6 hours. Top with sour cream.

4 Servings
270 colories each

Blonde Brownies

Day off for me today! Yes its enjoyable but I have to remind myself I work Saturday so that isn't so much fun. I'm so glad Spring seemed to make a sneak peak this week. Our driveway which is gravel not cement...is a MUDDY mess. To the point I think I'm going to sink up to my ankles when I walk on it. I dread going outside because of this. Pretty pathetic so I'm hoping for some sunshine to dry it up. Jason hauled snow out of where we hope to build a garage at this spring/summer/fall as we know how long projects around the Evinks can drag on! He promised he'll have the basement finished before we attempt the next thing. I grew up in one those houses that things were started....the finishing never came. I hope we do not repeat this :) My day off has been pleasant to say the least. I hit the gym as soon as I rolled out of bed. I've been trying to run. Yes trying. This has never been a love for me. I started off very slow and I'm up to 20 minutes...still running slow but I'm progressing and 10lbs have came off. WOOHOO! Oh yes those 10 lbs were a lovely reminder of how much my husband LOVES to eat as I gained them all after we got married. So now I'm down to "pre-wedding" weight. I never knew what marriage did to your body! After the gym my little bro graced me with his presence and stopped by to say hello. After that I made some bars for Jason on his construction crew. I promised his two weeks ago when I had the day off I'd bring treats, well that never happened and he's been reminding me ever since how he kept looking down the road for me to come with the treats and I never did so I better get them there today! I made Blonde Brownies which I'm going to share with you today. It's my Grandma Koehl's recipes that she passed down to me. I think I was in 5th grade when she did this which was a while ago! It's got chocolate so I shouldn't eat it as it makes me very ill.....so hopefully those 10 lbs will stay off! Enjoy :)

Blonde Brownies
Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients

1 C. Butter, Softened
3 C. Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
3 C. Flour
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 C. Chocolate Chips

1. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips.

2. Spread in a 10x15 jelly roll pan.

3. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

4. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. The middle takes a while to set and stays a bit gooey but honestly it's my favorite part of these bars!!!

Enjoy! I love recipes with only 4 steps! PS - Did you notice I didn't post on Sunday this time? The tradition has been broken :)

Linguine Casserole

Another Sunday...another blog posting...I'm pretty sure that I'm going to end this tradition sometime! It's been a good day and a good weekend for that matter minus the yucky weather Friday night and Saturday. I know this has been a popular saying but man am I going to be happy when spring finally comes! Friday night we laid low. On Saturday I got a text from my niece saying that she was just soooo bored. I remember when that was my favorite saying. It was very popular for me especially in the summer. My poor parents is all I'm going to say. I think this may be one of those things that comes back to haunt me when I have kids! So Hallie came over to my house for a bit. I warned her that we had to clean up after Jason was in the attic and he came down with half the insulation also. She didn't think that sounded so bad so she helped me do a bunch of cleaning. We then made a pan of bars and she was a good helper. Her favorite part of course was licking the spatula...at one point she had a glob of peanut butter on her nose! I took a pic of her and had to put it in the blog! After we got done baking we went to her house and worked on a wedding scrapbook her mom had made for our wedding and it just needed pics put in it. We knocked a bunch off and Lynn even treated us to supper. Can't turn that down! Today was a day spent doing laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning up a bit ..oh and I can't forget ... getting tax stuff ready for our appointment on Wednesday. Man I'm not looking forward to that! The recipe I'm going to share with you is a new recipe and I just tried it out tonight. I've been trying to eat a little healthier and this is a "lightened" up version. We definitely thought it was good!!

Linguine Casserole
Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients

8 oz uncooked multi grain linguine, broke in half
2 c. cubed fully cooked lean ham
1 3/4 c. shredded Swiss Cheese, divided
1 can (10 3/4oz.) reduced-fat reduced sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 c. (8 oz.) reduced-fat sour cream
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, finely chopped

1. Cook linguine (I used a whole grain pasta so it's really dark in the pictures! You can always use normal pasta also) according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a bowl,  combine the ham, 1 1/2 c. cheese, soup, sour cream, onion and green pepper (I skipped the green pepper). I also used a garlic Italian seasoning from Tastefully Simple which added to it. Since I'm sure not a lot of people have this I would just through a little garlic in it! Drain pasta; add to ham mixture and stir to coat.

2. Transfer to a 13 in x 9 in baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Nutrition Facts - 1 c. equals 293 calories, 12 g fat (7 g saturated fat), 47 mg cholesterol, 665 mg sodium, 29 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 19 g protein.