Easy Shredded Chicken

This is where I remind you that I am in no way an "experienced chef" or a "professional". Because I just found out the easiest way to shred chicken, and I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't discover this before. You can shred chicken like this for pretty much all of my chicken recipes - baked penne, chicken pot pie casserole, or chicken and noodles, It even works for the slow cooker recipes, if you make it sans slow cooker: cheesy chicken and broccoli and chicken spaghetti 
*Note - this really only works if you have a Kitchenaid or some kind of mixer with a paddle attachment.

Teriyaki Chicken - Sarku Japan Style!

So I know I already have a post for teriyaki - and it's super easy and definitely still tasty! - but if you're willing to work for it, this chicken teriyaki recipe is TO DIE FOR. When I was pregnant last year, Sarku Japan was a huge craving of mine, so I learned this recipe, and it is excellent! It does involve a lot of prep, though. I always have to set a lot of reminders for myself when I make this recipe because you need to marinate it overnight! So be warned!

Ingredients
3 lbs boneless chicken thighs (if you're using less, make sure to make half the amount of the teriyaki sauce. I don't usually use this much chicken, so I make less sauce otherwise I have wayyy too much leftover)

MARINADE 
1 cup water 
⅛ cups Shaoxing wine or cooking sherry  (I omit this)
1 tsp garlic powder 
1¼ tsp pepper 
1 tsp baking soda 
½ cups Kikkoman soy sauce 
¼ cups Canola oil 

TERIYAKI SAUCE 
2½ cups chicken stock 
¾ cups + 2 tbs Kikkoman teriyaki sauce  
¼ cups Kikkoman soy sauce 
2 garlic cloves sliced (I didn't have this on hand, so I just added more garlic powder)
a piece of ginger, sliced (I omitted this)
¾ cups + 2 tbs of brown sugar 
2½ tbs cornstarch 

2½ tbs cold water

Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

So I know I've been pretty quiet lately... but I have a valid excuse. We recently found out I'm expecting Baby #2, and my aversion to normal food has been terrible! I can't eat anything anymore! But now that I'm in the second trimester, things are normalizing a little bit, so I'm able to try new things, like this recipe.

We were expecting a big crowd for dinner, so I wanted to find something that would feed a lot of people. This easily fed ten people, and we had an extra serving leftover that Hubby took to work the next day. 

This recipe is a bit time consuming - if you can manage to cook and chop the chicken ahead of time, that really helps. Or your could buy chicken that's pre-copped or pre-shredded. 

Ingredients
1 lb chicken breast (I used 2 lbs)
12 oz frozen peas and carrots, thawed
2 cups frozen diced potatoes (like hash browns)
1 onion diced (I used half a cup)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup water (because of the larger amounts, I used 2 cups)
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning (omitted because I didn't have any)
salt and pepper to taste

Fudgy Brownies

I know I'm big on desserts lately, but let's just say my son has entered the Terrible Twos and I'm needing desserts more frequently in my life haha.

Brownies made from a mix are delightful, but I'd never made them from scratch before and I wanted to try! And now I don't think I'll ever go back! This recipe is so easy, and these brownies are so fudgy and not at all cakey and dry like brownies can sometimes get.

Ingredients

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Frosting
3 tbsp softened butter
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk

Pesto Sauce

This recipe was certainly an adventure for me! I'll walk you through my trial-and-error experience, but in the long run, the sauce came out a success! It all started when I was trying to hunt down jarred pesto sauce in the grocery store and it was surprisingly difficult to find, so I thought, "Why not make my own?"


Ingredients
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup walnuts/almonds
4 cloves garlic, peeled
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

First of all, it's really hard to find this much basil, so I actually ended up buying an entire plant haha. The leaves weren't even a third of what the original recipe called for, but the sauce was still pretty strong so I think 1 cup was plenty. And if the plant thrives, then awesome! More pesto sauce. If not, well, then, I would've spent $5 on basil leaves if they'd been available anyway, so no harm done.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Hubby gets full credit for this one. Chocolate cheesecake is my favorite dessert, and he surprised me with this on my birthday! He made two whole chocolate cheesecakes by himself, and kept it a secret from me. I was so impressed! This time around, I helped him make it and we contributed it to our family's Thanksgiving dinner. It is so delicious!

Ingredients
1 package Oreos (about 36 cookies)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 8-oz packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp flour

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

It's time for pumpkin-flavored everything!! I love this time of year, and I'm keeping the tradition of baking pumpkin treats every fall. This is a new recipe I tried this year, and it was super tasty. The original recipe yields two loaves, but one loaf was plenty for my family, so I'm going to share the halved recipe that I used. With a half-recipe, you only use half a can of pumpkin, so I used the other half to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Everything was delicious!

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg (I had none, so this was omitted. It still tasted great)

1 cup sugar

6 tbsp butter

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/2 can of pumpkin

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 tbsp chopped pecans (also omitted)

1 tsp sugar