I guess I'm on a roll today!

I was just texting a friend about cooking, and I remembered a delicious recipe I found online a few months back.
Chicken again...surprise surprise, you'd think I never eat anything else...I do, I swear!
This is a recipe for puff pastry wrapped chicken. However, instead of puff pastry, I use pilsbury crescent rolls, they give it just a little more flavor.  First, cook the chicken on the stove, I usually just season it with a little garlic salt and pepper. Cook it until its nearly cooked through. Then stick it in the fridge for about 15 minutes.  Preheat the oven as directed on the package of crescent rolls. Open them up, unroll them and cover it with a garlic cheese spread, like Allouette, or Roulet I think is the other one.  They have all kinds of flavors and now that I'm thinking about it, sundried tomato would probably be pretty good! After you have spread it on the crescent rolls break them into 4 pieces.  The rolls are broken up into triangles so it should be 2 triangles per piece, making a rectangle. Place one piece of chicken in the middle of each rectangle and wrap it around the chicken, pinching the ends together so its full wrapped.  Then place them on a cookie sheet and bake them for about 20 minutes, or until the outside is golden brown.  Pair with yummy vegetables.
I can't believe I forgot about this recipe, its so good!!

Clearly, I suck at this blogging thing.  I guess we also haven't been cooking as much lately.  This week, on Tuesday, Bryan's mom and brother came over for dinner.  Usually we go there, but we thought we would mix things up a bit.  I've never made dinner for them before, so I was really excited.  Since it was Tuesday, I decided to make chicken tacos! They are super easy, and equally delicious.  We love chicken, and cook with it a lot.  We shop at fresh and easy and they sell chicken escalopes, which is just chicken breasts cut in half.  I love cooking with these because the chicken is much thinner so it doesn't take as long to cook all the way through and at the same time you can still get a good brown on the out side.  I seasoned the chicken with fajita seasoning and cooked it on a grill pan on the stove.  Beforehand, I cut up all the toppings and put them aside.  We like to keep it pretty simple, tomatoes,lettuce, avocado when its in season (my favorite!) and sour cream and cheese. After the chicken is cooked through, I use a fork to shred it, rather than chopping it.  Its easier to make tacos with and it also seems to yield a lot more chicken.
Sometimes if we're looking for a little more flavor, after I cook the chicken I stick in in a frying pan and add some salsa and shredded cheese.  I heat it up until all of the cheese it melted and the chicken is coated in this deliciousness :)
Then we heat the tortillas, fill 'em up and enjoy!

I'll try to be better about blogging....I promise!

to blog or not to blog? everyday that is..

I've been going back and forth about how I want to go about writing this blog.  Do I want to blog whenever I feel the need? Or only when I cook something? I've decided to go with, whenever I feel the need....

I really love potatoes. I think I could eat them everyday. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries.  You name it.  I don't know how to cook potatoes very many ways, but I do make a mean roasted potato.  I think it might be my favorite side dish.   They are super easy and so delicious! I made them on Monday, using some of the russet potatoes I had leftover from the mashed potatoes I made last week. Usually I like to use smaller white or yellow potatoes that I get from Fresh & Easy, but last week I was shopping at Target and the big bag of russets was just so cheap! I couldn't pass it up!
Anyways, roasted potatoes! They're made pretty similarly to the cauliflower. I cut the potatoes into 2 inch pieces. In a large bowl, I mix enough olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper and thyme leaves (dried or fresh) to fully coat the potatoes.  I then bake them at 400 for about 45 minutes flipping them every 15 minutes until they are golden brown.  Although, I like mine a little crispy so I usually bake them a little longer.
Yum, now I want some roasted potatoes :)

Number One

Today I decided to start a blog based on my experience with learning to cook for myself.
Recently I reconnected with an old friend from high school.  I follow her blog where she poignantly chronicles her life with her husband and raising their adorable baby boy. I love reading her witty and honest recount of her day to day life, and I wrote to her to let her know.  In messaging back and forth, she suggested I start my own blog about cooking, something she admittedly struggles with, after i offered to share some of my successful recipes with her. so, here it goes!
I moved out of my parents house just over a year ago and all of the sudden I didn't have anyone to make me dinner every night! since then, I've had a great time messing around in a kitchen of my own, looking or new recipes online, borrowing recipes from home and making up a few of my own.   By now, we have a few go to recipes that we have from week to week, but every once in a while we like to mix it up a bit.
The first recipe I'm going to share was Monday nights dinner.

Balsamic chicken with cheddar mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower.

I marinated 2 chicken breasts in balsamic vinaigrette dressing all day in the fridge and then i just sauteed them with a little olive oil on the stove.  For the potatoes, I peeled and cut 4 russet potatoes then chopped them up into about equal pieces.  I put them in a pot with water and let them boil until the potatoes fell apart when I stabbed them with a fork.  After I drained the potatoes, I put them in my mixer and whipped them with some butter and a little milk and about a cup of mixed shredded cheddar cheese. For the cauliflower, first in a bowl I put some olive oil, some minced garlic and a little lemon pepper (enough to coat all of the cauliflower).  Then chopped the head of cauliflower and mixed it in the bowl until all of the pieces were coated.  then I placed the cauliflower on a covered cookie sheet and cooked it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes turning the pieces every 15 minutes.

I'm not so much of a measurer... so I apologize for my lack of tablespoons and ounces.  I'll try to be better about it. Anyways, not all of my entries will be so long! but I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading!!