3-4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
1-1⁄2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups water
2 cans (14oz) chicken broth
1 can (4 oz each) diced green chiles
1 box (10oz) frozen spinach, finely chopped*
1 can hominy, drained
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1⁄2 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream


*Don't thaw the spinach, just place the box in the microwave for 15-20 seconds so it'll be easier to chop. Also, if your family is not big on spinach, try halving the amount. I added more than the original recipe called for because my kids actually like spinach, and it's a easy way to get them to eat more of it. I know, they're weird. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts in a small baking dish and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the chicken’s internal temperature has reached 165 degrees. Place chicken on a cutting board and cut into bite size pieces.

In a large stockpot, sauté onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium- high heat; about five minutes. Now add the rest of the ingredients (including the chicken), except for the dairy items, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the heavy cream and sour cream. Season with salt to taste and serve immediately.

Note: 
I have adapted a couple things in this recipe from the original to fit our family a little better, like by taking out some of the heat. So if you like your chili with a little more oomph, try adding these:

1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 more can of diced green chiles

Place the chicken breasts in a small baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Turn the breasts over and repeat. Cover and let them marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour. 

Prepare your tortellini according to the package directions. You'll also want to start grilling chicken at this time. Grill your chicken on medium-low heat for about 7 minutes on each side, or until the chicken's internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Once done, let the chicken rest for about five minutes on a plate tented with foil. Then slice long ways. 

In a good sized mixing bowl, stir the pesto and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add your prepared tortellini and combine gently. You don't want to be too rough with your tortellini, their sensitive. Now place your pesto tortellini on a serving platter, and top with grilled chicken and shaved Parmesan. 




Here's what my focus group had to say about it: 

Hungry Man:  Wow, Beth! This could be on Olive Garden's Menu.  It's that good.  
(Oh yeah. We're fancy like that.)

Hungry Boy #1: This is super awesome! What is it? 

Hungry Boy #2:  Good supper mama. (He says that every night.)

Disclaimer: I should probably tell you that this group would be happy with a bag of microwave popcorn for dinner. But, the good news is for some reason the under four crowd didn't care that the pasta had green stuff on it. I was worried that this would be a deal breaker. So, I wish you the same luck.



Next Up:

Rachel's Creamy White Chicken Chili
 Filling out my Olive Garden Culinary Institute Application right now....

We try to eat at home for the most part, which means I "try" to meal plan on a weekly basis. So, since I have a plethora (love that word) of chicken in my freezer, I have officially declared this week Chicken Week! I put a lot of creativity and thought into that title if you can't tell.

I've gathered up all of my favorite chicken recipes, and a couple of new ones, to cook up and pass along to you throughout the week. So enjoy! And let me know what you think!

Last night we had Lemon Chicken Breast inspired by my personal kitchen hero, Ina Garten. Of course I didn't take a picture of what I made, but let's just say that it was as beautiful as this (one can dream):

I tweaked it just a little bit to fit the ingredients I had on hand, and of course Hungry Man, Hungry Boy #1, and Hungry Boy #2 were clueless and singing my name as they devoured it. Okay, maybe they weren't singing my name. It might have been more like a mouth-full-of-food Thanks Mom! from the 2 year old, but none-the-less they liked it.

Here's my version:

Lemon Chicken Breast
(adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That?)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
1/3 cup cooking wine
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest (1 lemon)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme (if you have fresh, hey use it, but if you are a wannabe like me and don't have fresh laying around, just use dried)
Salt and Pepper
4 good sized chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 lemon, cut into eighths Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a small saucepan, warm the olive oil over medium-low heat, and then add the garlic; cooking just for a minute. By the way, this smells AMAZING. Now, take the pan off the heat and add your cooking wine, zest, lemon juice, herbs, and a teaspoon of salt. Stir and pour into an 8 X 8 baking dish (9 X 9 will work too).

Place the chicken breasts over the sauce, and then brush the chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Then place the lemon wedges around the breasts.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the chicken's internal temp has reached 165 degrees. Remove from oven, and cover with some foil so the chicken can rest for 10 minutes. Enjoy the amazing aroma for sure!

Serve over some Basmati Rice or pasta of your choice, and then please don't forget to spoon some of that yummy sauce from the baking dish over it. So good!

Here's what you can look forward to this week (in no specific order):

Pesto Tortellini with Grilled Chicken 
Creamy White Chicken Chili 
Fancy Chicken
Chicken Tortilla Soup 
Crockpot BBQ Chicken

What's your favorite chicken recipe? 


Never Chickened Out,

  It's time to get a fence,
 

Changing my attitude,

Here's a breakdown on how it came together:

The Dresser: is an old reliable friend from my college days. I think I paid $75 for it at a yard sale, slapped some white paint on it, and named her Mary. Not really. Names for dressers are silly. She's been our guest room standard for the last 10 years, so her free and painless transformation from sachet connoisseur to our fab new table console, slash key holder, slash linen closet, slash paper goods keeper, slash stereo table (Pheww...she's busy), is kind of cool.

Lamps: Found these girls at TJMaxx for $29.95 a piece. It was love at first sight fo sho.

Leather Tray: Target, $16.95 on clearance. Not bad. Not bad.

Accessories: The silver bowl was a gift from a work Christmas party like six years ago. It is the perfect place for the hub's keys, wallet, watch, whatever. It's not just a bowl. It's a peacekeeper. The stacked books are just from our stash, but you know the kind, these are the ones that are too tall to fit upright in the book shelf. Yay! Finally a home where they fit in (Get it? Fit in? Nope. I'm here all day people.)

Stereo: It may be little, but it definitely puts out great sound.  It's a Philips Ipod Stereo/Charger that I am pretty sure I got it at Target last year. This is a great spot for it too, because music radiates between the dining room, kitchen, and living room, which is perfect for entertaining. 

Plates: They're all from TJMaxx at some time or another, and I can promise you I didn't spend over $4 for one of them because I'm cheap like that. I did splurge on these adhesive plate hangers from Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each (see below), well, because I'm lazy like that.