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.

All About That Queso

The other day I was shopping at Haggen and spotted Late July Organic Tortilla Chips. But not just the normal multi-grain flavor I've purchased at Costco many times. Nope. These were red and blue! Suddenly I had an idea to create a Red, White & Blue Chip Platter. When we have tortilla chips we always have salsa or guacamole, but this time I wanted a white dip to complete the platter. Ranch dip just wouldn't work and I was drawing a blank. So I did what I frequently do when I'm shopping, I posted to instagram. Nobody replied right away so I finished my shopping and headed home. Later, in the evening I checked Instagram again. My good friend from high school had the perfect solution, white queso. Yes! Why didn't I think of that?

I've had this at two different Mexican restaurants but had never made it myself. I had no idea if it was complicated. Luckily there's Google. I looked at a few recipes and it looked like I'd need a long list of ingredients. I was beginning to feel disappointment. I wanted something simple. Then I saw my friend Maggie's picture next to one of the search results.

Maggie only posts really good stuff. We joke about drooling over our keyboards when we visit her page. When I say "we" I'm referring to the google plus community. It reminds me of how people describe San Diego.... a big town with a small town feel.  I've just been getting back into google plus after a hiatus and have been loving reconnecting with my friends there. And I love that developing those connections there has helped my search results time and time again. It's not just a search, it's like getting a recommendation from your friend without picking up the phone and bugging them. I mean, I know Maggie wouldn't mind if I called her to ask how to make white queso, but this is so easy and ready at the fingertips! So back to the queso.

Maggie had shared a post from Six Sister's Stuff that was exactly what I was in need of; a white cheese dip that was simple! It was like google had a little tab connected to my inner thoughts.

After buying the ingredients I realized we would need to make just half a batch since we were not taking this to a party. This was also going to be shared with the kids and they don't all tolerate spice the way Cory and I like it so I reduced the amount of jalepeno considerably.

Okay, the end result? Ah-mazing. Like I couldn't stop eating it, amazing!

I have a feeling the kids will be asking for this again very very soon. And I will happily oblige!

If you're hosting a party and want a spicy queso for adults, be sure to check Six Sister's Stuff.

Here's how I made mine our family style white queso...

Ingredients:

.64 lb white american cheese (a little over half a pound) GET THIS AT THE DELI COUNTER
2 oz. diced green chili (half of a 4 oz. can and store the rest in a plastic container in the fridge)
7 slices of jalepeno from a jar
1/3 cup half and half
1/4 cup cold water

Directions:

Cube the cheese.
Dice the jalepeno slices - will yield approximately 2 TBSP.
Add all ingredients to a glass bowl.
Microwave on high for a minute, take it out and stir.
Return to microwave for additional minute, take it out and stir.
Repeat this until everything is smooth and creamy. I microwaved it 5 times for a minute each time.
Stir one final time and serve immediately.

If you're using this as a party dip know that the dip will thicken after being out for awhile. Simply pop it back in the microwave for a 30-60 seconds and stir.

I'm so excited that something I've enjoyed time and time again in restaurants is something I now can recreate and enjoy with chips any time. I imagine it would be amazing poured over chicken or shrimp enchiladas, burritos and probably many other delicious Mexican plates. Oh but I'm getting hungry again so I'm going to go warm up the little bit that was left!

PIN IT to your Party or Potluck pinterest boards!

Check out my Organic Mexican Fiesta Chicken if you liked this post.

Random Rainy Days, Let's Make Random Parfaits!

June gloom stuck around all the way til the end here in southern California. We even had a bit of  a thunder and lightening storm! It's not something we see very often here and I sort of chuckled when my husband turned off all the electronic devices when the storm was right over our house. I grew up in Minnesota and I really don't know if that's something people do because I was just 9yo when we moved to CA. I'm glad that my husband is always thinking about safety! He's definitely proactive when it comes to stuff like that.

I was delighted that Kyle thought to take out a fun game for everyone to play. We've had this game Brain Quest for awhile but only recently has it appealed to Owen who's six.  With the culture of electronics in our lives it is kind of a nice to see how readily they enjoyed playing this game together. But, all good things must come to an end. So when things started to wind down with the game (you can read that as some boredom set in or they began bickering, frankly I don't remember), I suggested we make a snack.

Parfaits may not be the immediate thing that comes to mind on a rainy day, but I had an abundance of yogurt and blueberries and like to make sure we optimize what we have on hand. Yogurt and fruit is just fine most of the time, but we needed to make this an activity, you know stretch it out a bit and keep the kids busy.

So, since we had some random rain, why not make some random parfaits?

Ingredients:

1 cup organic vanilla flavored yogurt (the kids love Stonyfield smooth and creamy variety)
1/3 cup peach preserves (this one I picked up at Jimbo's - a cool local natural food store)
1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup fresh organic blueberries
1/2 banana sliced

What's awesome about yogurt parfaits is the fact there are no rules, you can really layer it how you want. You can see from the image below we chose to go yogurt, peach preserves, yogurt, granola, banana, blueberries. The kids ended up mixing everything up. Again, no wrong way to enjoy your yogurt parfait!

This yields 3 kid sized parfaits. The cups are 10 oz size. As you can see they are maybe 6 oz servings.

Sometimes our parfaits are not typical flavor combinations but what I've learned is that you just don't know until you try it! The kids gobbled these right up. Kyle specifically wants to make these again next time. It will just depend what fruit we have on hand! Random is not all that bad.

Oh and here's a picture of the kids playing Brain Quest.

And per his usual, Owen had to strike a pose when he saw I had the camera in hand.

The rain passed more quickly than I would have hoped. Even I was eager to open up the laptop and catch up. But for a little bit we really disconnected from media. For that I am grateful for the rain. Plus, we are in a serious drought here in California so we've been appreciating every rainfall and reminding ourselves not to complain.

What does your family do when it rains? Share in the comments below. I'm working on a rainy day post and your ideas may be included!

Fruit Smoothie with Chia Boost

The last couple of days we have had some funky weather! It was muggy and dark, very atypical SoCal weather. This weather makes me feel totally blah.  It didn't feel like the kind of weather to make a smoothie. Not that you need perfect sunshine for smoothies, but it also made for ridiculously poor lighting for photographing anything in the kitchen. Thank goodness the sun started to peek out again today.

Around snack time my kids wanted something to eat and I haven't restocked our healthy fridge snack box so of course they come to me to find out what they can nibble on. Amberly wanted a smoothie and I had just been given a tip to try adding chia seeds to a smoothie for a boost of energy so that's what we tested out in the kitchen.

I used apple juice for this smoothie. We don't typically drink juice in our house but for a smoothie to blend well and taste good I find you need a cup of juice. And remember my cool smoothie tip from this post about adding liquid to the blender.

Amberly knows I can easily get distracted so she got everything out and on the counter.

Here's what you'll need to recreate this at home:

1 cup apple juice

1 cup organic yogurt - I used Stonyfield Smooth & Creamy Vanilla flavored

3 heaping cups frozen fruit - pineapple, mango peach, strawberry 

2 Tbsp chia seeds - I used Chosen Foods

optional - kiwi slices to garnish

When you've added everything to the blender (remember liquid goes in first!), cover and blend for 2 minutes on high.

This recipe made 3 kids size smoothies and one tall smoothie.

The verdict? The kids loved it and were arguing over who got the last bit that was left. 

I have to say this one ranks right up there with the Organic Tropical Smoothie Surprise we made recently. If you didn't see that one, I highly recommend you give it a try. It's perfect for breakfast!

Be sure to PIN THIS TO YOUR SMOOTHIE BOARD!

If you like this post, you'll also like these (just click on the image to get recipe):

            

Organic Tropical Smoothie Surprise

Amberly asked if we could make a smoothie. I was busy working at the computer so I asked her to give me 30 minutes to wrap up. She agreed and dutifully went off to play video games with her brother. Well, 37 minutes later she came back to peer over my shoulder and take note of the time on the laptop. Alright, alright, alright....

She got busy getting out the ingredients and asked that we only use half the amount of yogurt that we normally do because this particular brand in our fridge (our first and last time ever picking this one up) had too strong of a taste and changed the flavor of the smoothie. Okay. Now I had to put on my thinking cap and think about what else we would add to make up for using half the amount of yogurt. Looking at the bag of organic frozen fruit I noticed it was a tropical feel. "Hmm... I think we'll add coconut oil." To be honest, we made this twice, the second time with the tweaks made it perfect!

We had just enough mango nectar (juice) left. Whew! Nothing like having an idea in your head and your fridge makes you change your plans.

INGREDIENTS FOR ORGANIC TROPICAL SMOOTHIE SURPRISE

1 cup mango nectar
2 heaping cups frozen fruit (I got this Organic Wawona daybreak blend at Costco - pull out the strawberries so what is left are frozen pineapple, mango and peach chunks)
1/2 cup yogurt
1 banana
1 ice cream scoop coconut oil (we love Nutiva)
1 heaping tablespoon hempseed (again Nutiva)

Directions:

As I've mentioned in my last smoothie post, start by putting the juice into the blender first. I happen to have a Vitamix and love it! Next add the yogurt, the idea is that the more liquid ingredients go in first. Add everything else except coconut oil. Liquefy the coconut oil. I did this in a glass measuring cup in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. Go back to the blender. Cover blender. Blend on high for a minute or two. Now pour in the liquid coconut oil through the blender opening while still blending, continue blending on high for 45 seconds.

I've been adding in hempseed to our smoothies for a boost of protein and omega 3s. My kids can taste it if I add too much so I stick to the 1 to 2 TBSP and it is undetectable.

I happened to have fresh mango on hand and thought to garnish my tropical treat!

I hope you give this one a try! If you want to save it for later PIN THE IMAGE BELOW  to your "smoothie" or "healthy snack" or "breakfast" board!

If you enjoyed this post you may want to check these out... just click on the image!:

                 

Red, White and Blueberry Simple Yoghurt Parfait

Today it was all about the yoghurt parfait. And simplicity. We've been trying to find simple, yet healthy snacks to mix things up a bit. Since Amberly loves helping in the kitchen I recruited her for this healthy snack mission and she happily obliged! With berries in season, this was a good time to recreate a personal favorite....

First, we headed to our local grocery store to purchase items for our Red, White and Blueberry Simple Yoghurt Parfaits. Red, white and blue make it perfect to enjoy for 4th of July celebrations you have coming up. Simple means you don't have a lot to fuss over and you can put the kids in charge of making it themselves.

1. Fresh Strawberries (Red)
2. Granola (for crunch factor!)
3. Mountain High Vanilla Yoghurt (White)
4. Fresh Blueberries (Blue)

Once we got home we were sure to rinse our berries.

Next, I had Amberly mash the strawberries to release more of their juice since that juice lends it's sweet flavor to each spoonful.

We found our strawberries were a bit tart. So we added 2 tsp. of sugar to the 1 pound of sliced strawberries before mashing them.

Now we have our layers lined up. It made sense to use ice cream scoops for simplicity

Now for assembly of the Red, White and Blueberry Simple Yoghurt Parfait!

Strawberries and granola. Check.

Mountain High Vanilla Yoghurt. Simple.

Then, blueberries. And repeat!

Now that is a beautiful and simple parfait!

She had so much fun creating this!

She can't wait to make these again! And neither can her brothers, whom she shared this with since we went a little overboard on layering. Good thing it is a healthy snack!

I love the idea of getting kids in the kitchen. The trick is to start off simply. We hope you try it with your kids this summer!

Thank you for checking out Mountain High Yoghurt. Doing so makes it possible for me to continue blogging. Be sure to download your coupon on their site HERE.

For more simple inspiration and healthy recipes visit Mountain High Yoghurt on their Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages!

I've linked up this post over at....