Quick and Healthy Southwest Chicken

Fall is really here. You know how I know? Not just that school is in full swing and homework riddles abound and books and binders are on every surface of the kitchen and living room…. Nope. It’s the daily hectic sports schedule. Someone has a practice, a clinic or a game Every. Single. Day… of the week. This is why I have to have a few quick go to meals that are still balanced and healthy ready to go. If you have a busy family schedule too, you’ll want to add this Quick and Healthy Southwest Chicken to your bag of tricks. Even if your schedule allows you to spend an hour or more in the kitchen preparing a meal and you love cooking, this is a meal that has all kinds of color and flavor for those nights you do want something simple, yet delicious.

This post is sponsored by Foster Farms® Simply Raised, which is locally grown in California and 

the Pacific Northwest. The opinions expressed are my own.

Ingredients:

3 Foster Farms Simply Raised Thin Sliced Breast Fillets
¾ cup of your favorite salsa (I prefer organic salsa)
¾ cup organic frozen corn
1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
1 avocado, sliced
¼ cup sour cream

Directions: 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Take the thin sliced breast filets and lay flat in an oven dish prepared with either avocado oil or grapeseed oil. Spoon ¼ cup salsa on each filet. Next, layer ¼ cup frozen organic corn on top of the chicken and salsa. Put dish in oven for approximately 30 minutes. At the last 5 to 10 minutes, sprinkle some of that mild cheddar cheese on top of each filet. Continue to bake for the remaining minutes. This is what you want it to look like when you pull it out of the oven:

Top each fillet with your favorite southwest flavors. I personally like to add avocado whenever and wherever I can! The flavors of fresh, locally grown chicken, salsa, sweet corn, cheese and avocado come together like one big happy family.

I like to keep it simple when determining what sides we will have, remember we’ve been running around getting kids to soccer practice and such. A can of refried beans and some organic tortilla chips and fresh made guacamole is what we opted for this time around. If you’re making your own guacamole and you really want to hit a home run, be sure to get locally grown produce, and organic if at all possible. The flavors are more vibrant and you will taste the difference. Buying local 

supports your local farmer and it’s a good lesson for our kids in how we support our community! Did you know that Foster Farms chickens are delivered from local ranches in 48 hours or less?

This meal takes just 35 minutes start to finish, including prep. The trick is the Thin-Sliced Breast Fillets. If your family is like mine and likes the tender and juicy white meat, you know it can take a bit longer to cook the breasts compared to other chicken parts…. Which is why I look for the Thin-Sliced Breast Fillets from Foster Farms. I prefer to get the Foster Farms Simply Raised, with no antibiotics, hormones or steroids. AND if you live in California or the Pacific Northwest, you’ll be glad to know that these chickens are always raised locally! I think feeding my kids food that is free of hormones and antibiotics is a worthwhile thing to champion. Buying products that are local cuts down on your carbon footprint which means I’m teaching my kids about being environmentally responsible. While we’ve been on a mission to choose healthier foods at the grocer, I’ve also been keeping my eye out for items that are local. To me local means fresh and fresh is always better. 

All Foster Farms fresh chicken products are American Humane Certified.

Do you have a busy after school schedule that has pushed you to come up with some quick and healthy meals? I’d love it if you share in the comments below because I’ll be putting together a roundup post for just that sort of thing and I want to include your awesome quick and healthy meals.

In the meantime PIN THIS one so you have it for those nights you need to pull a good meal together quickly!

This post is sponsored by Foster Farms®, the opinions expressed are my own.

Organic Mexican Fiesta Chicken in the Slow Cooker

All of my kids are in sports, my daughter is currently playing both soccer and softball... and my husband decided it was time for him to get back into rec sports in addition to attending class one evening a week. Well, as you might imagine, this makes for pretty busy weeknights and dinner hour has become less of a priority over the last couple of months. Oh, my husband is also the coach for one of my son's soccer team and I'm team mom... there's so much commitment to all of these things that something got pushed off our plate. Dinner. Not that we've ever been really great at planning ahead for dinner, but now we're always leaving it to last minute and grabbing more of the less than desirable box meals, or eating fast food. Really not a match for my nutrition standards. I've been pinning meal ideas for nearly 2 years. It was time to start making some of these meals!

This is the first of five recipes I prepared the other night. It was my first time ever doing this, so I did not worry myself with trying to be quick. Instead, once we find a few meals we love, I will make extras of those and that will make the process quicker.

My family loves Mexican food, so when I started looking for slow cooker freezer meals I thought this one over at Graciously Saved would work well for us. I've made some adaptations to fit our family, feel free to try it my way or add your own fiesta flavors!

Perks of this particular freezer meal, only 7 ingredients and no pre-cooking needed. There are a lot of ways to serve this meal, over rice, in a tortilla bowl, atop corn tortilla chips as a taco salad or in a burrito. Easy to double up your freezer meal planning. Because of the beans and corn it really is a hearty meal. It cooks in 4-5 hours so it is perfect for those days your morning routine goes awry and you don't think about starting a crock pot meal.

Ingredients:

4 organic chicken breasts

1 pkg of taco seasoning

2 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 can (14 oz) petite diced tomatoes

1 cup organic frozen corn

1 can (14 oz) black beans rinsed and drained 

Note: 

I was going to use organic black beans but did not plan adequately to prepare them the day before - so canned it was. The original recipe called for rice or barley which I omitted because I'm not a fan of those for my made at home Mexican meals.

Toppings and Extras:

Organic salsa 

Shredded cheddar 

Diced organic avocado 

Flour tortillas to make tortilla bowls for the kids

Organic corn chips for the adults to scoop

Directions:

1. Label your bag before you get started.

2. Add rinsed chicken breasts to the freezer bag followed by the other 7 ingredients. Seal the bag, getting out as much air as possible. Give the bag a good shake and mix ingredients by using hands on outside of the bag to massage ingredients around. I spend a minute or two doing this so everything is evenly distributed and the meat can marinate in the sauce/spices.

3. Lie flat to freeze

4. Defrost by pulling item out of freezer the night before and putting in the fridge, or leave on counter one hour, or run under warm water for a minute or two. It does not need to be defrosted completely, just enough to open bag and dump ingredients easily into the slow cooker.

5. Grease the inside of the slow cooker. I use Nutiva coconut oil.

6. Cook on low 4-5 hours. 

7. Shred chicken. Give a final stir. Serve.

Kitchen Tools:

Ziploc freezer bag

Sharpie - label freezer bag 

Can opener

Box grater

Measuring spoons

Measuring cup

Kitchen scissors - cutting open packages

Colander - to rinse the black beans

2 medium mixing bowls - one for putting rinsed chicken in & one to collect trash as you go

a square or rectangular plastic food container - this works well to stand your freezer bag in

Results:

This meal was an overall winner! I took a bite without the salsa topping first so I could get a sense of the taste of the dish on it's own merit and was pleased, not thrilled, but that's because we think it needed more spice. I especially enjoyed it when I ate it with these sweet chile corn tortilla chips. I discovered them at ShiftCon. Let me warn you that they are "way better" and perhaps addictive.
Check them Way Better Snacks and tell me if you agree!

Recipe Rating: 1 to 5 stars

Joann - 4 stars, would like to have more spice. Would like to add to our rotation every few weeks.

Cory - 4 stars, needs a little more kick. Would like to add this every couple of weeks.

Amberly - 4.5 stars. Twice a month

Kyle - 3 stars. Once a month

Owen - 1 star. Never. He's been picky about chicken in general lately. 

There was PLENTY of leftovers. My husband had seconds and there's enough for two people to have lunch - which one of those people will be me.

This is an easy freezer meal to double for your meal planning day. I had a gut feeling this was going to be a winner so I doubled it my first time making it. Since I have one more in the freezer I'm going to add an extra pkg of seasoning to the slow cooker and see how it turns out. Because there are such a variety of ways to serve this dish I am going to make 4 next time, since they can keep fro 3 months that will be just right. I think I will even try one with organic chicken thighs. 

So what do you think? Will you give this a try?