Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili and Thank You Baby Jesus… The Prednisone is WORKING!

Hey Y’all!

I am back today with one of the yummy crockpot recipes that I cooked up yesterday during my two crockpot Sunday! This Chicken Chili is one of the best things I have made this year… Hee, hee… well. It is ONLY January 13! No but really… this is so yummy. I plan on making it a staple in my freezer!

When I checked in yesterday with the ol’ blog I was still having some major issues with swallowing and ulcers in my esophagus. I am happy to report after being on prednisone since Saturday, I am feeling LOADS better. I am still having some pain, but I am able to eat most soft mushy things right now. I am hoping by tomorrow I will be be back to myself. I still can’t have carbonated beverages right now, so I am sticking to tea and water. But I am feeling so much better than I have been. Now if I can just get this sleep thing going… I was up at 3:45 a.m. this morning. Oh well. I will take eating over sleeping right now!

Now on to the recipe! I found this on Pinterest.. so you can go there and look too. I didn’t take my usual photos of me cooking.. sorry y’all. I just wasn’t up to it!

To make Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili you will need:

1 can black beans
1 can corn, undrained *You can use yellow corn or a mixture of sweet and yellow. I did the mixture!
1 can Rotel, undrained … if you don’t like Rotel you can substitute diced tomatoes without the green chiles. I had to do that this time. Rotel and esophagus ulcers REALLY don’t mix.
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 tsp cumin *I did not add this…. cumin and I DO NOT GET ALONG
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts *I added 3 this time. I was trying to get some more protein in since I haven’t been eating.

Drain and rinse black beans. Place your chicken at bottom of your crockpot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), Rotel, and black beans. Top with the seasonings and ranch mix. Stir all ingredients together. Place the cream cheese on top of the chicken. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. As it cooks, after about 3 hours, you may want to go ahead and blend your cream cheese into your mixture. After about 6 or so hours use tongs to remove the chicken breasts. Then  use 2 forks to shred chicken. At this point your chicken is really falling apart, so it won’t require a lot of effort to shred. Add the shredded chicken back into the crockpot and cook for 20 or so more minutes. Then serve!

It is really yummy! On piece of advice I would give is to double the recipe if you are cooking for more than 3. For me I got 6 Julia servings, which was about a cup and a half each. If you want to cook this and have leftovers, then I would absolutely double the recipe. When I added the third chicken breast it made it less liquidy, which is what I was wanting. If you want it more soup like and you are only cooking for a small group, then just add the two chicken breasts. But go ahead and print this one out y’all… It’s a GOODIE!

Here’s a my plate with a taste…. tomorrow I will be back with the Crockpot Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo… which is now tied with this recipe for recipe of the year!

 

Tootles!

JKP

Easing My Way into 2014!

Hey Y’all!
I hope so far 2014  is finding you well! 2014 so far has been a bit bumpy for me! After being on a strong antibiotic for the sinus thing I could not shake, then another antibiotic and then another steroid…I have found myself in the midst of a Crohn’s flare from the antibiotics. At least it is not my tummy… just my esophagus. Sometimes when I have to take an antibiotic or two, my esophagus will rebel a little and decide to throw a hissy fit. Boo. So I have ulcers that have decided to line the lining of my esophagus. So. NOT. Fun. And a wee bit painful. So I am back on prednisone as of yesterday. But as of today, it has helped tremendously and I hope to be back to myself in the next few days. It just has thrown a wrench in the whole swallowing and eating thing! Today has been much better and I have been able to eat mushy food and drink some tea. I actually had to take Wednesday off from school because I was feeling so yucky. I should have known this was coming! Anyhoo… Life with Crohn’s. You never know what you’re going to get!

This past week I was able to get our New Year’s Cards in the mail! They were delayed shipping slightly by the big winter storm last week, so the day they arrived, back in the mail they went! Here is this year’s card… I think it is one of my favorites! Of course I had to add a turtle too!





For the past few years I have used Snapfish. I have been very pleased with my cards and with coupons they are much less expensive than Walgreens. Also, the choice of card templates that you have are just fantastic! I really like the letter cut outs of “happy” this year.


Since I have been feeling under the weather, I have been hanging out at home with Mr. Paddington. This weekend between rounds of medicine, antispasmodics and trying to eat and drink, we hooked ourselves up with a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime. I love it because I can stream shows like Downton Abby through my roku. Since I fell behind Downton Abby in season 1.. we are working our way through the seasons. It has been so nice to catch up. And you know anything English, I just love! We also had a free preview of Cinemax and HBO this weekend, so I have been restocking my DVR. I had to turn my old one in back in December and I was just crushed. But considering it overheated, I guess I was more than willing to give up all of the episodes of Castle, The Blacklist and my hoarded collection of Knitty Gritty. Not to mention all of the Christmas movies I had recorded from Hallmark. Also, I have been able to catch up on all of my network shows because of On Demand. So, it has all ended well.


I have done some sporadic knitting over the past week. I am back in a dishcloth phase right now. Dishcloths are the perfect knitting project because they are portable and you can finish one in just a few hours! And an added bonus is that dishcloth yarn/cotton yarn is cheap. And it comes in many, many, many colors. I have knitted dishcloths forever, but I felt like branching out a bit. So, here is the Lacy Round Dishcloth. She is just adorable! This cloth took a little under an hour to make.



I think my love of dishcloth knitting has come around again because often times the prednisone keeps me up and/or will wake me up at 3 a.m. During one of those nights I stumbled upon a great website with some great patterns. I am slowly making my way through all of the patterns on this blog. Check it out! I am currently working on the Into the Wind dishcloth.


Today I had to run a quick errand to Dollar General. I mean, come on… it wouldn’t be a day without a visit! I discovered that they had all of their Christmas ornaments on 70% off clearance. I had my eye on a few before Christmas. And even though they were originally just a $1.. I never made a purchase. I just love cardinal ornaments.. and low and behold.. they had a bunch of cardinals left. I stocked up and for $2.40 I have some new ornaments.



That is about all that is going on here! I am very sleepy, so I think I am going to head off to bed and sleep as long as I can. This week is a short one for us.. the kiddies have a half day on Thursday and we have a workday on Friday. Then school is closed next Monday. Ahh.. a three day weekend! I’ll be back soon… I did some crockpot cooking today… it was a two crockpot day at Casa de Pitty Pat! I have some yummy new recipes to share on the blog! I had the need for some mushy but yummy and fulfilling meals this week, so I can’t wait to share.

Have a great Monday everyone! Tootles!

JKP

43 More!

Hey Y’all!

Tonight marks the end of Spring Break. I was sad about it for a few minutes, until I realized that we only have 43 more days of school left. That is a very do-able number. So, as of right now, I am ready to knock those days out of the park and dive into SUMMER! Besides, unlike our spring break, the weather is getting ready to warm up . And. That means weekend beach visits. Oh yes. 43 is do-able.

I am not sure how the furry baby is going to handle us getting back onto our schedule tomorrow. I have been with him almost 24/7. He has had 4 walks a day. And. We have really enjoyed our afternoon naps. Here’s a shot from today’s nap! Pitty Pat is a blanket hog!

 

Yesterday, I started working on and finished the cutest baby hat. I call it Buzzy due to the flowers and the bees. I think it is one of my favorite hats that I have ever done. I bought the pattern off of Etsy.

I made a stop at the Dollar Tree this week to pick up some poopy bags for Pitty Pat. I found those great clips in the first picture holding my patterns together. I also found some other great knitting tools. I plan to post about those tomorrow!

I haven’t posted a lot about my trip to Charleston on Thursday. It was such a rainy and nasty day that I was very glad to get home. The doc made me have more bloodwork (which I did on Friday) and I have to have a Cat Scan of my belly done on Wednesday. He thinks I am having a Crohn’s flare and just wants to make sure I don’t have a blockage or other issue. So, I had to put in for a sub on Wednesday. I have to drink some really yucky stuff and then they take pictures of my belly as it goes through. The last time I had this done it took 4 hours. So. You better believe I am going to have a good book. I don’t take my knitting with me. I having this done in the hospital and it is so germy. I could never take my knitting there!

Well, let me log off. I have to resume “school time” bed time tonight. That is going to be so hard, I have been staying up until midnight and then sleeping until 8:30. 43 more days people. 43 more days!

Tootles!

JKP

So I Once Took a Sabbatical From Blogging....

Hey Y'all!

I am alive and I am somewhat kicking. But I know I have been gone for TWO LONG MONTHS! Right after my last post on Sept. 2... I got really, really, really sick.

This kind of sick.

Then, the next weekend, I got this kind of sick.

Morphine people. The pain and exhaustion that I had been having really did a number on me. And for me to end up in an ER TWICE. Ugh. It was not fun. I was put on a week of bed rest, which finally helped. I am still having some pain, but if I can sit during the day I feel better. My pain is abdominal and there are 1,000 causes for it, but the sneaking cause of mine is my Crohn's. So. I hope you will forgive the absence. I just didn't want to moan and groan about how sucky I have been feeling. Besides, you go to a blog to get away from your life, not be bored with mine! :)

While I took my blogging sabbatical lots of things happened. There has been some knitting!

I finally finished my Crescent Moon Shawlette! So pretty! Pitty Pat thinks so too!!

I made a ladybug hat for my University of South Carolina roommate Jill. She has a new daughter named Caroline. This hat was so fun to make!

This is a sweet pea hat for my friend Marie. She had a daughter too.... Miss Ellie!

The weather has turned chilly here at the beach, so I needed a new pair of Orthaheels to keep my toes warm! Mom and Pitty Pat gave these to me for my BIG Birthday!

This past weekend I TURNED 40!!! My best friends rented a house at the beach for me for the night. We had a big slumber party and had lots of fun!



Of course, before the fun, I had to get my fingers and toes done! This is OPI Kennebunk-Port!

One of the highlights of the past few weeks has been FINDING MY FAVORITE COFFEE IN THE WORLD!! It is in different packaging this year, but still so YUMMY! I also found a cute mug too!

And, there has been a wee bit of cooking. Not a lot. But I did do some baking this past weekend. I plan on posting this recipe tomorrow. It was a big hit at my slumber party and they are so easy to make!

Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Cookies

Anyhoo, that is what has been going on with me! I am so sorry if you have been faithfully checking the blog for an update and there wasn't one. I hope you will come back soon! I have some big Turkey Day plans for my crockpot that I can't wait to share!

Tootles!

:) JKP