Olde Cape Cod Chipotle Ranch Chicken w/ Butternut Squash & Green Beans

 

Ingredients:

For the Chicken:

2 or 3 Chicken Breasts



Olde Cape Cod Chipotle Ranch Dressing
Olive Oil


For the Maple & Cinnamon Butternut Squash:
Butternut Squash diced into squares (I bought mine already diced at Food City)
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
Ground Black Pepper
Cinnamon (as much as you want)
Coconut Oil to fry it


Green Beans:


I'm lucky enough to get canned green beans from my Husband's Grandmother! They are delicious, but you can buy some can ones at your local grocery store. To season them I use Goya Ham Concentrate.


Directions:
For the chicken, I cut it up into small squares because it seems to hold more flavor that way. I added some Olive Oil in my frying pan and cooked it until it was no longer pink ( usually 20 min). After it was fully cooked, I added the Chipotle Ranch dressing to it (I just estimate how much to put on). I know salad dressing isn't the healthiest, but it's better than mashed potatoes, pasta, bread, etc. I use salad dressing on chicken when I am in a hurry...or when I am lazy : P
Let the chicken simmer in the dressing for a while on low heat (until the butternut squash is done cooking).




For the Butternut Squash, I dumped everything in a bowl and mixed it --the maple syrup, black pepper, cinnamon & squash. I then put about a teaspoon of coconut oil into the frying pan and fried it for about 15 minutes or until the squash got soft.

The Butternut Squash was my favorite thing about this dinner! It has so much flavor to it, and it's healthy but doesn't really taste healthy-- that's a win-win for me!!

Here's a photo of how it all turned out:

Bell Pepper Taco Beef Boats

Last night I made Bell Pepper Taco Beef Boats! They were so good! I get tired of the typical chicken and veggies for dinner and so I came up with my own version similar to this one, which I found on Pinterest: http://cookingandcooking.com/recipe.php?recname=Bell-Pepper-Chicken-Nachos

Above is a picture of the ingredients I used: Black beans, Rotel Tomatoes, Mexican Cheese, Taco Sauce, Jalapeno's, Sour Cream, and optional Taco Bold & Creamy Spicy Ranchero Sauce (I didn't put this on my taco boats).

First, I browned my Ground Beef Chuck meat, and while it was browning I cut my bell peppers up into 4's. {Side note: I thought the orange and red ones tasted best, but the green ones seemed to hold more filling}.

Next, I added the browned meat into the boats, and followed with black beans (which I cooked on the stove), Jalapeno's, Rotel, and lastly I added the cheese on top and then stuck in the oven. I only left them in the oven for about 10 min (enough to melt the cheese).

Here's a look at my final result:

I gave each my husband 4 boats and myself 4 boats (which was DEF enough). It's a lot more filling then it looks. Zach added the special Taco Bell Sauce on his, but I just added the normal taco sauce to cut down on calories.

I also treated myself tonight with a Zevia Cream Soda. It has no calories or caramel color. Sometimes I just get tired of drinking unsweet tea, water, coffee, or almond milk...so this is what I had!

















Monogrammed letter "wreath" for your front door

Things you will need:


1). Hot glue gun with glue sticks
2). Fake Flowers
3). Letter (I got mine from Michael's)
4). Twine


So...I've had the materials for this project since January but I just never got around to doing it until now. I get tired of the normal wreath for a front door so I thought I would try a monogram. This project cost me about 20 dollars to complete (I borrowed a glue gun from my mom). It was also easy; I finished it within an hour. The hardest part was figuring out what to hang it with. I used twine and made a bow out of it. You can cover up the twine with additional flowers if you want (you probably can't tell in the picture but you can see twine going through the middle of the M). It doesn't bother me though because twine sort of compliments the look I was going for.

This is how the letter looked before I added the twine. I also wish I could have found a bigger letter, but Michael's said this was the biggest they had. If anyone knows where to find a good sized letter, please let me know!!! : )