Bakes chicken and spinach flautas

I've been on a pinterest recipe roll lately. I wish I was finding more recipes that don't require the oven. It's been blazing hot here and turning the oven to 450 degrees is only adding to the inferno. Last night I made the ever famous Crescent Pepperoni Rolls that have been raved about over on CafeMom. I was so amazed how easy and yummy they were! This definitely will be repeat, especially in the colder months. Tonight I decided to do some more baking. 85 degrees in the house yet I cranked up the oven to 450. Yes, I'm crazy I know. I love me some chicken flautas, but I hate how most of them are deep fried. Being on more of a health kick I wanted to find a recipe of my own. I just bought a bunch of chicken from Costco which I love because it comes divided into two chicken breasts in one packet and there are six to the whole set. I used chicken breast instead of thighs to make baked chicken and spinach flautas. I was impressed with these little things. They were tasty although I would do a few amendments. I think I would do 1/2 tsp of the spices instead of 1 tsp and probably omit the salt. It was all a bit much w/ the spices. The combination of the spinach and jalapenos was nice. I was glad to stumble across this blog because I've tried to make a quick shredded chicken and didn't think about simmering it in broth first.

My other suggestion is making 8 minutes per side instead of 10 minutes. They had a nice crunch to them but were harder than I'm used to. Some of them were a little smokey coming out of the oven too. Anyway, here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas

Yields 10 flautas
Prep Time: 15 minutes; Total Time: 45 minutes

Baked flautas stuffed with seasoned, shredded chicken, spinach, and cheese are crispy, but don’t have the greasiness of fried versions. 

To shred poached chicken easily, put it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium for 45 seconds. Store-bought rotisserie chicken can be substituted for the poached chicken to save time. 

You might also like Baked Buffalo Chicken Taquitos. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs (about 4)
• 16 ounces Beer (or chicken broth)
• 2 cups Water
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper, minced
• 3 cups Baby Spinach, chopped
• 5 burrito-size Flour Tortillas (9 inches)
• 6 ounces Queso Quesadilla or other melting cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil, or cooking spray
• Salsa, for serving

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450*F.
2. Put the chicken thighs in a deep sided saute pan and cover with the beer and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the liquid and shred it. Mix together the chicken and seasonings.
3. Pour out all but 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the jalapeno and spinach and cook over low heat until for 2-3 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted.
4. Cut the tortillas in half. Spoon 1/10th of the chicken (about 1 tablespoon) along the long edge of a tortilla. Repeat with the spinach and cheese. Roll the tortilla up, starting with the straight edge. Place seam-side down on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
5. Brush the flautas with olive oil or spray with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn them over and bake for until 10 minutes, or until crispy. Serve with salsa.

Each flauta has approx. 180 calories, 9 grams fat, 6 grams carbs, 1 gram fiber, 18 grams protein

Table Project

It seems like it's taken me a long time to finish this project. Maybe because I've had about 5 side projects going at the same time and I can only work on this in daylight. Pinterest has kept me quite busy. With Avery's upcoming birthday I've been getting too many ideas, been doing too much shopping and am way over my head with birthday. We'll see what happens. With the impending birthday and summer, I knew we were going to be spending a lot of time outside. We have been blessed with a pretty nice backyard, plenty of sun and shade. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of landscaping that I can play with. It's mostly palm trees and bark on the ground. When we moved there was this hideous table in the back. I'm still not sure what they actually used it for. It was warped beyond belief! It was an ugly eye sore and I didn't really have a place to hide it. So, I decided to do something with it. I don't think the owners would be upset :).

I had a couple different ideas floating around. First I just wanted to make it a normal table, like buffet style type of table. I figure I would sand it down, replace the top and voila! Table. Then I remembered how at my first apartment I had a mini herb garden on the rails leading to my apartment. It was so nice to go out and grab some fresh herbs to throw into food. Now that I'm cooking a lot more and don't always have the fresh ingredients to use. The spices I do have are the ones that came with the set at our wedding! We're headed to year 5. I know, gross. We decided to go the herb garden route. So, off I go... I started with removing the towel bar and the incredibly warped top. Then I sanded the whole thing down which I thought would take a lot longer because of all the nooks and crannies. Then I did measurements to see how I wanted to go about putting a box in there for the herbs. We ran into some problems then. The opening of the table was 12.5" and everything I was finding was only 12". I searched so many places but no dice. Everything was either 7" or 12". Also the length was 39". So there was 12x40 boxes. Ugh. So frustrating!! We took a trip to Lowe's and got a couple Hefty storage containers that were 12x16" I got two of them and sprayed them down. I also bought a piece of wood that was 1x2x8". I got those cut into two 42' pieces, sprayed them black in the garage, and drilled them to the top to add the extra 1/2 inch I needed. I also sprayed the boxes down. I chose a dark red color. I was going to antique it a bit and sand a bit after the red color, but at this point I opted not to. The second I opened the drop cloth I got this nasty papercut from the cardstock paper in it. It actually spread to both fingers. Hurts like a mother! And still does! My battlewound:

I had a few hiccups during the whole process, but it's DONE! I got herbs today. Basil, parsley, oregano, and rosemary for the first box. The second box I got green peppers and strawberries. I ended up getting a second planter box to put in some tomatoes. I wanted to get roma and a bigger type of tomato, but I ended up buying two romas :(. Now after I planted everything today, I realized that I didn't drill holes in the bottom of the box for drainage. Also I have figure out the bottom for when it does drain. Heres the finished product!!

I also got a hanging flower pot and added these.

All in all I'm SO excited that this worked out! I hope that we see fruits of our labor :).

Crock pot night

Over the past few months I have become more and more addicted to Pinterest. Whenever I tell my husband I'm cooking he always asks me if it's a new pinterest recipe. I've found some pretty yummy things. I'm always so bad about remembering recipes in order to repeat them later, so I thought I would start reviewing them on my blog so I can go back and see whats good and not. Tonight I decided to try a chicken recipe. I found this one on Chef in Training. I have to say that I am one who tends to forget to put things in the crockpot until too late. I also have a busy 2 year old who makes cooking SO difficult. I did manage to thaw the chicken early. I got caught in a meeting and work drama so I didn't get to throw in everything until 3pm. It only took about 5 minutes to prepare everything to throw in the crock. The directions said the cooking time said either high at 1.5 hours or low at 3-4 hours. The lowest setting on my crockpot is 4 hours at high. I ended up cooking it almost 3 hours and it turned out perfect. I served it over rice and made some corn on the cob. I only chose the corn because it was on its way out the door. It was a great combination. The chicken itself had a little kick to it because of the pepper flakes. I also halved the recipe. Unfortunately my hubby was sick and my daughter wasn't in the mood to eat chicken tonight, so it was mainly just me eating. It was definitely something to repeat, maybe when hubby is feeling better.

No, thank you!

I have to admit, I pride myself on the fact that Avery is so polite. She does awesome with her please and thank you's. Lately we've been trying "No, thank you". It's so sweet to hear her say this...except with the following: Me: Avery, lets go change your stinky diaper. Her: No, thank you!! Me: You want to sit in your poops? Her: Yes, please :) LOL. Now she's playing just saying "poo poo". Just as long as she doesn't stick her hand down her pants.

"10" on 10

This post is supposed to have 10 pictures where you take one every consecutive hour of the day. I had good intentions, but it kinda got forgotten after 4. So it's really 4 on 10. I figured I would share my pictures anyway :) The morning destruction. Not as bad as usual.

Naptime, which means I got to put my feet up for a bit.

I went to my nephews soccer game. It was his last one. He was SO cute!!

Post naptime. She's been such a ham for the camera!

Picture post

I haven't taken many pictures this month. After all the holidays and family gatherings we really haven't had any excuses. Jason won a football pool and wanted to get a new lens. I love it. I don't know the fancy gadget name of it, but it's been great! Ever since we got it, whenever we do anything we ask each other, "Did you take pictures of it?" Granted we can't get every shot, but we sure are practicing! Here's a few.

Chatty Cathy

Over the past few weeks Miss Avery has been talking up a storm! It seems like she's learning new words, pronouncing better and getting more excited about learning more and more everyday. It gives me such a big smile when she can identify things, tell me what they are and is just a little sponge soaking it all up. Someone asked what words she knows at this point and I created a list: hi, bye, thank you, please, milk, chicken, peas, milk, water, shoes, socks, diaper, jammies (damy), night night, moon, trees, lights, ball, go, wow, yay, Elmo, puppy, kitty, mama, daddy, Heidi (our dog), Abby (the cat), book, car, cycle (motorcycle), school, up, down, cheese, Aly & Jakey (my niece and nephew), bee, snowman, George (curious george), lion, pingin (penguin), bear, truck, tractor, buckle, potty, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheeck, button (belly button), yummy, knee, toes (doe's), boots, mouse, bow, zebra (d-ba). I'm such a proud mommy :)