secret recipe club: green chicken enchiladas

i was so so so happy this month when i opened up my secret recipe club assignment and found la cocina de leslie and six years (!!!) of homemade mexican food. why oh why has it taken me this long to find you?!

while the recipe i chose goes back more than five years, it was a pretty easy choice. we have a few good mexican restaurants near us and while i usually get tacos when we go out, whenever we get to salena's, jason and i always get the mexican flag - three enchiladas, one red, one white, one green. i stopped dead in my tracks when i spied leslie's red and green chicken enchiladas and decided that since i had made red enchiladas a couple years ago, that it was time to try green.

we were not disappointed even a tiny bit. these are so good, my almost one year old son stuffed a whole enchilada down before i could even serve myself. and then repeated it with leftovers two days later.

secret recipe club: hard cider baked chicken & mushrooms

the only good part of this time of the year is the food. i am a seasonal eater and the weather here has made the switch from warm and summery, to distinctly fall - more cold than warm, drizzly, and dark - meaning it's finally time for soups, dinners cooked all day in the slow cooker, and meats slow roasted in the oven. my favorite.

this is the quintessential fall meal. chicken is slow roasted in hard apple cider with mushrooms and served over crusty bread, mashed potatoes, or something equally as delicious to sop up all the wonderful gravy.

secret recipe club: 30 minute baked tortellini

to say i've been busy the last six weeks is the understatement of the year. if you think toddlers are a time suck, try adding a newborn into the mix. it leaves an obnoxiously little amount of free time every day. and even less time for all of the usual things. we had gotten into a routine, the three of us, and since the baby made his arrival right before easter, dinners like this twenty minute easy tortellini bake by julie at this gal cooks, are perfect. and while it isn't exactly photogenic, this dinner is delicious with very little hands on time.

secret recipe club: snickerdoodle bars & slow cooker chicken fajitas

for this month's secret recipe club pick at anna's bcmom's kitchen, i followed the same format as last month: a delicious dessert and an easy dinner. and while both were delicious, i have to give it to the snickerdoodle bars. the fajitas were easy - chop, dump, and cook for 8 hours - but i forgot how much i love the still crunchy texture of vegetables in fajitas. anyone that's slow cooked vegetables knows they don't stay crisp. so while the flavor was good and the ease of making them spot on, the texture of the vegetables weren't the best for me.

and then there were the bars. when i was making them, i honestly didn't think they would be anything special and was pleasantly surprised when i had my first bite. they have the perfect balance of sugar cookie and cinnamon sugar goodness, in bar form. so good, i had to hide them from my toddler. otherwise, i heard "mama! bar!" a couple times a day when he saw them sitting on the counter.

secret recipe club: meyer lemon iced raspberry yogurt cake & slow cooker chicken cacciatore

a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine mentioned making a blueberry lemon cake on facebook. after reading that and seeing the post, i couldn't get the thought of a meyer lemon layer cake out of my mind. the very next day i scoured claire k creation's blog for cake recipes. i bypassed - and pinned for later - this best ever carrot cake, this lemon tea cake, and this coffee cake for this greek yogurt & raspberry cake. topped with meyer lemon buttercream, it made two pregnant women - she 38 weeks, me 32 - very happy.

slow cooker honey mustard drumsticks with tangy apple slaw

i've mentioned before how big of a fan i am of my slow cooker. now that we're in the thick of winter, there are few things better than coming home to a big pot of soup, stew, or chicken, with relatively little work. the problem is that i quickly get sick of those things - there's only so much chicken breast i can eat. so i was pleasantly surprised when flipping through my copy of slow cooker revolution to find a couple recipes for drumsticks. these are delicious - just enough sweetness for my taste and crispy from the blast in the oven at the end. coupled with the slaw and a loaf of italian bread, it is a nice reminder of food to come in the summer.

chicken & broccoli stir-fry

when winn first started solids, i made most of his vegetable and fruit baby food by cooking up fresh or frozen produce, whizzing it up in the food processor, and freezing it in silicone ice cube trays. the one thing i couldn't get over was his love of broccoli. like most people, i've never been a huge fan - as a child i remember the only way i would eat it was hiding under a thick layer of homemade cheese sauce - so i was shocked when my 8 month old seemed to not have a broccoli limit. now that he's older and eating the same food as us, i've made it a point to include some of the foods he loves. not only does winn get his broccoli, but because it's clothed in a salty, sweet, asian sauce, i devoured mine too.

slow cooker chipotle chicken & rice

the first time i made this for dinner, i followed the recipe exactly and found out that cooking bone-in skin on chicken breasts on the stove takes literally forever - or at least much longer than i want to wait on a weeknight. when we finally sat down to eat, the three of us gobbled up our plates. between forkfuls, jason had the best idea: throw everything into the slow cooker and let it work it's magic.

creamy chicken stew with bacon

ah, leftovers. i am going to skip right past thanksgiving, since i've never cooked a thanksgiving dinner and don't plan to anytime in the near future, and head straight to leftovers. i made this soup a couple weeks ago with chicken, but there's no reason not to sub it out for turkey. looking for other uses for leftover turkey? check out a few of my favs after the break.

chicken with mustard sauce

it seems like this time of year, everyone everywhere is eating heavy, holiday food. i like flipping through magazines of this year's must have pies to go with the perfect way to make turkey just as much as the next guy, but those recipes don't help at all when it's 6:00 on a monday and i have exactly 30 minutes before a toddler hunger meltdown starts. this chicken is perfect for those nights. virtually no prep, a tiny bit of babysitting to make the sauce, and thirty minutes later you've elevated boring chicken breasts enough to satisfy mom, dad, and toddler and been able to whip up a couple sides at the same time. sick of chicken? i bet this would be great with pork chops.

secret recipe club: mojito chicken tacos

for all of my regular readers, you've probably noticed i haven't been around these parts much in the last couple months. yes, i've been cooking - and even photographing a lot of it - and no, i don't have any big life announcement to make that sucked up all my time and would provide a reason for my absence. it's really quite simple: i've been spending a lot more time with the kiddo (and in less than three weeks, he turns one. my god time flies.) and jason and a lot more time away from the computer. and as much as i've loved it, i have been looking forward to my secret recipe club eats, as they give me a great excuse to get back on here, reminding me how much i enjoy sharing here.

pretzel chicken with mustard cheese sauce

it's been five and a half years since jason and i spent labor day weekend in chicago, and four and a half since we spent the same weekend in cleveland. while it feels like only yesterday we were in both cities it also feels like a lifetime ago. i can still remember - plain as yesterday - walking into the great lakes brewing company in cleveland and having a drink at the bar while we waited for a table. we sat outside and marveled at the fact that we could do whatever we wanted since no, we didn't have any kids in tow. i don't remember what i had for dinner, but jason still dreams of the pretzel chicken he had.

almond crusted chicken fingers

ever since we left the bar almost three years ago to make our own chicken fingers at home, a version makes in into our dinner rotation every couple months. they're easy, delicious, quick, and don't make a big mess when they're baked. this version is breaded with both panko and ground almonds. if you aren't a fan of nuts or have a nut allergy, feel free to skip the almonds all together and just use panko. they're delicious either way.

chicken cordon bleu soup

it's funny how people react to snow. last weekend, we got hit, just like everyone else on the east coast. i had plans friday to take the baby out for the day, but after watching six inches fall in the morning, i ditched them and stayed inside. mostly because i didn't want to deal with the other idiots driving around that don't realize you actually do have to drive differently when there's this much snow falling. by late saturday morning the snow stopped falling and it was absolutely beautiful outside. all the tree branches were covered in snow. it was picture perfect. other than having to be plowed out of our driveway, we weren't really affected. our power didn't go off, we didn't go to the grocery store to stock up, i didn't even bother getting out the flashlights.

44 clove garlic soup with chicken

i really hate to start it this way, but i'm sorry. i'm sorry deb, this garlic soup was just plain too garlicky for me. too garlicky for my garlic loving husband. this is the first and only recipe i've made from deb at smitten kitchen that was a bust for me. that said, i think there are a few ways to totally redeem this soup & it's on my radar to try again.

pan roasted chicken with balsamic bell peppers

here's yet another way to jazz up a relatively boring chicken breast. we eat a heck of a lot of chicken breasts around here, so much so, that we buy them 10 at a time. and even though we eat chicken in many different ways, a simple one dish pan roasted chicken is something i've been gravitating to lately. there's something satisfying about making chicken, vegetables, and sauce in one pan. it's something i can do while simultaneously cleaning up from the day and getting ready for the next. these types of dishes are my favorite.

and if you aren't a fan of balsamic or bell peppers, i've got 49 other ways to enjoy chicken.

chicken yakitori rice bowl

it took three and a half years for us to find a decent chinese restaurant near our house. when jason finally found it, we had chinese a couple times in just as many weeks. and each time we ended up with a lot of leftover rice. not wanting to let the rice go to waste, i ripped this rice bowl recipe out of my december cooking light and made it for dinner one weeknight. i love the flavor of green onions when they've cooked in soy and sugar and they go really well with snow peas and chicken. if i had any carrots at the time, i would have cut those into matchsticks and tossed them in too. stir fry is the perfect vehicle for lots of vegetables, since they're coated in sauce.

chicken cutlets with lemon oregano sauce

i don't know about you, but i go through what i call "kitchen ruts" where i find myself making pretty much the same dinners, sometimes with slight variations, for a couple weeks in a row. lack of time is what usually triggers them and we eat our default meals - those that we've made dozens of times before and are easy, quick, and delicious. when i finally got out of the last rut, this is one of the first dinners i made. and i should have made it sooner. there's something delicious that happens to lemon slices that are cooked underneath chicken. they almost disintegrate and loose enough of their tartness so they're edible, but not so much that you forget you're eating lemons. they're delicious. paired with carrots and rice, this made a great weeknight meal for us.

chipotle chicken skewers with creamy cilantro dipping sauce

rushing off to a new years eve party? or hosting one yourself? these chicken skewers would be the perfect party food! they're simple to throw together, can be cooked up quickly, and are delicious hot or at room temperature. and who doesn't love food on a stick?!

chicken paprikash

if i remember it correctly, i was in sixth grade when i finally got a cd player for christmas. it was the first year in our new house and one of the only times i can remember waking up christmas morning in my own house. usually we went to our grandparents'. that year, they came to us.