Sunday Afternoons Make For Good Eating

So, Dee Jay, his brother and I went out fishing last night and got to see the beginning of this meteor shower that's going on! We caught one baby catfish (I did... thank you very much) and saw lots of beautiful meteors with their long and sparkly tails! Tonight is supposed to be the best chance to see them, so we're hoping the clouds stay away and we can get a great spot to fish and watch the stars! We didn't get back home until about 2:30-3:00 this morning so needless to say we crashed hard and woke up in time for lunch! I had made some shredded chicken in the crock-pot the other day, so I went to work on a little "brunch" for all of us, and then got in the baking mood and decided to make some cupcakes I have had my eye on for awhile now. Both were BIG winners, and the chicken that I thought we would never get through is almost gone now :) So let's start with the chicken and move on to the cupcakes to end our weekend! Here we go...

I got a text from my friend Amy who said she just cooked some shredded chicken for her and her hubby and that I had to try it! Well, we are so glad we did because we have loved it! You can find the original recipe on a blog titled Chocolate Therapy. Already, with a name like that you don't really feel anything can go wrong :) It is ridiculously simple to make and we let it simmer on low for almost 10 hours! By the time we got home this morning, we were starving and ready to eat a taco and crash, and then this morning I took the leftovers and made some breakfast burritos! Here are your ingredients...

1 jar of salsa (I used Pace-Hot)
1 envelope of taco seasoning
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

I told you it was easy. You literally are going to put all of this in your crock-pot, turn it on low and cook for at least 6 hours or high for 3-4. Last night, we added guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos, and shredded cheese for soft tacos. This morning I added sliced green onion, finely chopped white onion, one tomato, and half a jalapeno. I scrambled 7 eggs, and half-way through cooking them, I threw in all the yummies! Then we rolled them up burrito style with sour cream, shredded cheese, and a big spoonful of the chicken! It was heavenly!!

Now on to the cupcakes :) I got the "idea" of this recipe from Sweet P's Baking Co. blog. Now you can check out her version, and I will tell you mine! The ingredients I used were...

1 box of French Vanilla cake mix
1 cup of orange soda
1/2 cup of canola oil
3 eggs
1 container of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter
1 envelope of Duncan Hines Flavor Mix powder-Cotton Candy

You are going to mix in a bowl the French Vanilla cake mix, 1/2 cup of canola oil and 3 eggs. After you have this well mixed, you are going to gradually add the one cup of orange soda! Stir or mix together well because the orange soda had a tendency to separate from the rest of the batter. Once we got everything mixed in, I spooned the mixture into cupcake liners and popped them in oven at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.

Right out of the oven :)

 

Now while these are cooling, you are going to follow the directions on the frosting creations. You are going to stick a knife in the middle of the frosting causing it to form a "hole". Then dump the envelope of flavoring into the frosting hole and mix together! Now you will have a delicious blue frosting that the taste of alone will bring you back to your childhood days of eating cotton candy at the fair! I spread the frosting on the cupcakes once they were cool and added some sprinkles for decoration! The boys tried them and fell in love! I have a feeling these won't last long either in our home! 

I am not a professional when it comes to decorating...But I'm going to work on it :)

The combination of the orange soda, vanilla and cotton candy frosting makes a really delicious combination that you must try! Add your own decorations and send me pictures because I want to see them to drool over once these bad boys are gone!

~Happy Eating~

Here are both links again! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Shredded Chicken 

Cotton Candy Cupcakes 

Spring Time Cupcakes

So, I'm totally a sucker for reading magazines such as All You, and Better Homes & Gardens and searching it for new recipes to try. I often grab the last minute buy magazines off the shelves at Wal-Mart to look for new dishes!! I was flipping through the All You magazine the other day and ran across these cute little cupcakes they had for Spring. These are incredibly easy to make, very festive and colorful and they taste wonderful (we can't stop eating them)!
You can also find this recipe at: http://www.kraftbrands.com/Jello/recipe.aspx?ID=132787

To start you get the white cake mix and go ahead and mix everything together according to the back of the box. Then you will divide the mixture evenly into 3 separate bowls. Then you will take one box of each of the jello powders and pour 1/4 cup of each "flavor" (lemon-lime-strawberry) into each bowl and stir to "dye" the white cake mix into flavored fun colors! In the recipe it says you will place two TABLEspoon fulls of each color into the cupcake tin. NOT SO (at least for me). I tried doing that and by tablespoon number 3 I had completely filled up the tin. So, instead I gradually added each color by teaspoon fulls until I had 3/4 of the tin filled with each color.
NOTE: I found that to get all 3 colors on top, it's easiest to add the first color a little to the side and then the next color on the other side and the final color on top of those two pretty much smack in the middle. Just play around with it, you'll have fun :)

Then you finish them off in the oven for about 18 minutes (or however long it says to bake them on the box) and wait for them to cool and add your frosting. YUMMY!! We used cream cheese frosting, however after eating our way through the tin we both decided strawberry icing would be DIVINE!! These would be very fun at birthday parties, family gatherings, or just to have to snack on after dinner every day, for a week, or two. All depending on how many people are in your house and how much self control everyone has :)

Tie-Dye Fruity Cupcakes

1 pkg of white cake mix (2 layer mix)
1/4 cup lime Jell-O (dry)
1/4 cup lemon Jell-O (dry)
1/4 cup strawberry Jell-O (dry)
1 container of whichever frosting you prefer (or make your own!!)