I ate too much for dinner - NEW RECIPES

I feel like I have so much to share!  But food is what's on my brain right now so I'm going to start with that. 

Dan has said he wanted some White Chicken Chili.  So this past weekend seemed like as good a time as any to try it out.  I scoped out Pinterest and decided to try this recipe.

Here's the ingredient list with my notes in red
1 can black beans (I used black beans with jalapenos)
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained (I got the hot can)
1 package ranch dressing mix (forgot to put this in until towards the end... whoops)
1 tsp cumin (probably put more in than this, but since I just guesstimated I'm not sure how much I actually used)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder (didn't have onion powder.  I wasn't going to add anything, but then I remember I had some onion soup packets so I added that way later in the cooking day)
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts
I also used a can of White beans, drained

Directions:
Drain and rinse black beans. (I did not do this, just b/c the sauce it was in tasted good and figured it would be good, I did drain and rinse the white beans I added though.) Place chicken at bottom of pot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken (barely needed to do this as the chicken shredded on its own). Stir together and serve.

It really was that easy!! A lot of the other recipes I looked at you had to cook the chicken first.  This one you just put it at the bottom and cooks for you.  It was super duper easy and really really yummy.  Mine was pretty spicy, but we like spice which is why I used things like the black beans with jalapenos and the hot can of Rotel.  We are having it for dinner again tonight and I'll definitely make it again!!

In the crock pot - mine was thicker than the pictures of that blog looked... I will probably add some water or chicken stock when I reheat

In the bowl ready to eat.

On Saturday night, since Dan was going to the hockey game leaving me with no plans, I decided I wanted to bake something.  After going to the grocery store for one of those mondo big trips, there just wasn't enough time on Saturday night, so my baking got pushed to Monday.

I scanned all my pinned dessert recipes and was leaning towards making a bread... specifically this Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.  It is a lot like Monkey Bread, however I made this from scratch so it feels more special than just Monkey Bread.  It had yeast in it and everything.  I just took my time and followed the directions.  I'm not going to copy and paste like I did last time - go to her blog she tells you what to do like I would never be able to :)

Just wanted to take a picture of the ensuing chaos that was my kitchen during this process... not pictured the sink full of dishes b/c I couldn't wash them b/c the sink was broken... more on that in a different post.

It was fun to roll out dough - here it is with the cinnamon sugar mixture on top - a lot of this ended up falling off... but oh well it still tasted delicious!  (I added some of the excess to the top of the bread when it was in the pan, but not all of it b/c that would have been nuts)

Out of the oven - how pretty

Top view

It was delicious!! Dan and I ate about half of it last night... I love that it pulls apart in slices... and honestly I'm pretty proud of myself for baking bread from scratch.  There's some bananas browning in our kitchen and I'm thinking I'll make banana bread... or peanut butter banana bread.  I'm excited!