Food – Page 15

Stuffed Chicken

Hey y’all this recipe is delicious but it is also special. A friend/co-worker shared this with me almost 10 years ago. She made it for our team at work and when I asked her how to make it she wrote out the recipe for me. Now you already know people don’t like to share their stuff sometimes but she did it with no problem and also gave me a cake recipe which I will be sharing with y’all in the future. But the real reason this recipe is so special is sadly my former coworker passed away in 2017. But she will live on in my heart and I think about her generosity every time I make it! I truly hope you make this and share with your friends and family because I know she would have wanted that.

Ingredients:

Chicken- Note: I normally use Chicken breast but they weren’t on sale (I feed six ppl who all eat like adults) so this was my very first time trying it with chicken thighs and I’ll never go back to breasts! I prefer boneless skinless but the bone is fine just pull off the skin.
Chopped onions, bell peppers and mushrooms
Olive oil
Seasonings of your choice
Dry ranch dressing seasoning
Worcestershire Sauce
Shredded Italian cheese mix
Frozen spinach, cook it in the microwave and squeeze out excess water
8 oz block of cream cheese

Directions:

Sauté your onions, bell peppers and mushrooms in olive oil or butter

While your veggies soften mix up your cream cheese and spinach. If you forgot to take out your cream cheese earlier like me then pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds or so with the spinach and that will make it soft and easy to mix.

Now add the softened veggies and cheese to the spinach and cream cheese and mix together. Add the dry ranch seasoning. Season to taste with your spices of choice. I used garlic powder, Tony’s, black pepper and onion powder.

Set your oven to 350 degrees and in a large frying pan on about medium high heat place in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil or oil of your choice.
Set your mixture aside and wash your chicken. Now I know washing chicken can be controversial but it’s what I do. Do what you do and we won’t have any issues.
Cut a small slit in your chicken. It doesn’t have to be real deep and PLEASE don’t cut yourself. You just want to make a pocket to put the stuffing in. Season your chicken.

Stuff your chicken with the mixture and then set aside until you’ve stuffed each one. Don’t try to overstuff because you will have stuffing left over. Don’t worry, my family doesn’t let me waste food so we will use it!

Now I place each piece in the pan to sear and brown. This sears in the juices and also I don’t like light chicken. It is just not appetizing. Put some brown on that chicken so I know it’s real!!!
Also don’t worry about the stuffing coming out. Just use your tongs and stick it back in. Or leave it out. I wouldn’t but you are an adult so you make that decision.

After you have browned the chicken place it in the baking pan. Pour the leftover stuffing over the chicken. Told you we would use it! Bake for about an hour. You may need more time if you used breasts as those are bigger pieces. I encourage you to try the thighs though because they were so juicy and tender! Chicken is done at 165 degrees but if your seasoned like me you know to just cut it open in the biggest part to check lol.

And you’re done!!! I served this with roasted potatoes and a salad but I just had the salad because I am not eating carbs (sad face). This dish is Keto and Low Carb friendy for all my people trying to lose weight in the new year like me! No judgment! I hope you try this and make sure you share this post so my friend’s generosity can live on thru her recipe.

Love Ricki

White Chocolate Mocha Recipe and My Christmas Hot Drink Station

Today I am sharing my favorite coffee drink from you know that place with the green mermaid on the cup lol. I created my version of the White Chocolate Mocha to save my coins and I have to say it’s delicious! This was also the perfect recipe to try out in my new hot drink station! Check out the video of my tour after the recipe.

White Chocolate Mocha

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Milk or half and half
1/4 cup of white chocolate chips
About 2 tablespoons of Mocha mix or Instant coffee
6-8 ounces of hot water

Directions:

Fill up your coffee mug with the white chocolate chips and the milk.
Melt in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds.
Once the milk and white chocolate chips are mixed together add the mocha mix (international coffee house makes a good one) or instant coffee and stir to dissolve.
Add 6-8 ounces of hot water to taste and stir to blend.
Add any sweetner and toppings you like. I like to add a little vanilla syrup because I like it sweet and top with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

I hope you try the recipe for the holidays and check out my video here!

Love Ricki

Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

This is an easy to make crockpot meal perfect for winter time.

Here is another easy to throw together recipe that has been highly requested from my IG framily! It is really really good y’all! Also it was perfect timing for the SNOW (yes I said snow) and cold weather that recently hit Houston. You know we got to take advantage of it while we can because we’ll be in shorts and flip flops next week!!!

Ingredients:

Package of Diced Hashbrown Potatoes (I found these easier to work with than the shredded)
8 oz of Cream Cheese (take out the night before so it can be room temperature or pop it in the microwave for about 30 secs WITHOUT the foil packaging please)
Quarter of diced onion. Use more or less based on your preference
Can of cream of chicken soup
About 32 oz of chicken broth
Water (you may not need this)
Seasonings to taste (I used seasoned salt, garlic and onion powder and dry ranch dressing seasoning)

Directions:

Place cream cheese, onions and entire package of potatoes in a sprayed or lined crockpot.

Pour in can of cream of chicken soup
Pour in chicken broth. It should be about an inch over the mixture if not add water and you can also add a chicken bouillon cube for extra flavor (I did). Then add seasonings. I would suggest lightly seasoning it because you can add more to taste when done. Also if you add bacon directly in the soup like I did later you don’t want it too salty to begin with.
Set on low for 4-5 hours depending on your crockpot. Or high for 2-3 hrs. You can also make this on the stove top just simmer on med low until the potatoes get really tender.
After cooking mash the potatoes until smooth. We like chunky soup but you can use an immersion blender or put this in a regular blender to get it even smoother. I find that with these diced potatoes they cook down enough where just mashing them with a potato masher gives them a really smooth texture and you don’t even need a blender!
Now I add bacon bits directly in my soup because we all love bacon in my household but you can leave the bacon out as a topping for serving.
Serve this up with all your favorite baked potato toppings. I used sour cream, cheese, more bacon and green onions. I also think this soup would be good if you added steamed and drained broccoli and cheese like a broccoli cheese potato soup. Feel free to experiment, that’s what makes cooking fun!

Enjoy and tag me on Instagram or Facebook if you make this!

Looking for more easy and delicious recipes like these? I got you! Check out my cookbook available for purchase here: https://payhip.com/b/WN19

Love Ricki

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Enjoy this easy and quick meal any day of the week!

So when I first shared this recipe on my Instagram stories (@rickiloves) a few weeks back it was going down in my DMs! Finally I was able to make it again so I can share it with you all! Please let me know if you make it and I hope you enjoy!

You’ll need:

Ground meat (I used about 2lbs)

Taco seasoning

Ranch dressing seasoning (not pictured)

Salsa or Picante Sauce (It’s a TX thing!)

Enchilada Sauce

1 block of cream cheese

Jumbo Shells

Colby Jack or Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese

Fixins (toppings like sour cream, guacamole, etc)

Directions:

Cook ground meat in a skillet and season with taco and ranch dressing seasonings while you boil the jumbo shells
Add block of cream cheese and mix thoroughly
After Shells have finished cooking drain, rinse with cold water and let cool.
Pour salsa or picante sauce in the bottom of a pan (I used the pan I make lasagna in) until the bottom is complete covered
Take cooled shells and stuff with ground beef mixture and add to pan over the salsa.
After the pan is filled pour can of enchilada sauce over the shells. Top with cheese.
Bake covered with foil in oven set on 350 degrees for 15-20 mins then remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted thru.

I topped mine with fresh cilantro and served it with fixins and charro beans!

This is an easy and quick recipe that is a different twist on Stuffed shells and my family loves it. I have included the link for the video I used for this recipe below because she gives great tips on how to freeze it. Give this meal a try and make two so you can freeze one for later because you WILL want to eat it again!

Love Ricki

The Perfect Thanksgiving Dress!

So everyone went wild for the Tracee Ellis Ross collection at JC Penney and I fully participated and ended up scoring the perfect dress to eat all you want at Thanksgiving!

So much like every other fashionista I know or just women in general who love Tracee Ellis Ross I was super excited when her clothing collection with JC Penney launched. Of course we all saw the previews and there was one particular dress I really wanted. It was a black and white striped midi dress but it quickly sold out online and I was unable to find my size in the store. My overall impression of the collection was that I liked it and I loved that it included plus sizes but everything wasn’t my cup of tea and that’s okay because I’ve already said in this post here Everything ain’t for Everybody.

Upon visiting the store however I did find this sweater dress but I will not lie I wasn’t too impressed. It looked huge and shapeless and I am no tiny woman so I felt I would appear big in it. Well hunny let me tell you! ALWAYS TRY CLOTHES ON!!! That goes for any size woman! You can never really tell if you will like something on the hanger so trust me on this and proceed to the nearest fitting room. I actually didn’t try this in the first time I saw it but a lovely lady on IG (@divinedivastyle) modeled it and I was like hmmm I might need to revisit that. So I went back to JC Penney and tried it on and I knew instantly this was the perfect dress for Thanksgiving! This is a sweater dress made with a really soft material (the cashier kept feeling on my dress y’all lol) and although it fits large the shape doesn’t make you feel huge. And since it’s not form fitting it is perfect to hide the food baby I will have once I eat my way thru EVERYTHING my mother in law prepares for our holiday meal! I got my dress in a L/XL and I probably could have went down in size but because I’m 5’7″ I needed the extra length the larger size provided. If the tattoo shows it may be a tad bit short lol! This dress was perfect to finally wear my Scarfed for Attention necklace I got for $5 from my favorite Paparazzi consultant Eve and my OTK boots from JustFab (hurry they are currently 50% off for Black Friday and selling out fast!)

So let me know in the comments if you would rock this dress or if you purchased anything from the collection!

Love Ricki