One of my favorite soups is Chicken and wild rice soup.  We love how filling and hearty it is.  I had chicken and rice, so I decided to make some on Monday.  

Wild rice, chicken, carrots, garlic, celery, milk, chicken broth, and butter make this soup so comforting. 

I usually make mine in the instant pot, so I'm adding to my instant pot section for the recipe.  However, you could easily make this in a slow cooker or on the stovetop.  For slow cooker, I would cook on high for about 5-6 hours and for stovetop, cook in a large pot for about 45-50 min.  

 My friend Ashley told me that her favorite chicken dish was Marry Me Chicken, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was so amazing!  It's a creamy chicken pasta dish that has parmesan and sun dried tomatoes.  It had so much flavor!  We loved it and thought it definitely needed to continue to be on rotation.  

You can find the recipe in my Dinners section 

 Yesterday for dinner I made 20 garlic chicken in my slow cooker.  This recipe I received in a cookbook made by David's mom back when we first got married about 15 years ago.  It is an old favorite!  

Garlic chicken only has 7 ingredients, so its super easy.  I love to make it with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.  My daughter, Jane said "Mom, this chicken is so flavorful!"  

I'll add this recipe to "Dinner Recipes" 

Chicken,Onions, garlic cloves, paprika, salt, pepper, and olive oil!

For the mashed potatoes, I take the roasted garlic from the dish and mash into the potatoes... yum!

 This morning I made breakfast pizza using pizza dough, homemade sausage gravy, Colby jack cheese, and breakfast sausage.  It was yummy!  Recipe has been added to breakfast recipes. 

Yesterday for dinner I made hamburgers in the instant pot.  This is one of my favorite instant pot recipes because I love hamburgers, but sometimes the weather doesn't always cooperate for grilling.  I was able to make hamburgers even during an ice storm.  I feel like this recipe is better than grilling because the patties stay extra juicy.  

I use Worcestershire sauce and hamburger seasoning to season the burgers.  Sometimes I even add in a splash of kitchen bouquet.  I make patties and wrap them in foil and then place into the trivet to cook in the instant pot.  Meanwhile, I cook all of the sides while the burgers cook.  

For the sides I made garlic butter corn on the Cobb, tutor tots, and macaroni salad.   

Recipe in the instant pot section!  

  

 This morning for breakfast, we made bagel bites in the instant pot.  My 5 year old daughter, Jane loves to make these and has gotten really good at making them herself.  We get pizza dough and cut it into about 20 squares.  We also cut about 20 squares of cream cheese.  We wrap the pizza dough around the cream cheese and then roll into the everything bagel seasoning.  I have a silicone egg cup tray for my instant pot that fits each bagel bite perfectly.  Place the bagel bites into the instant pot and then we bake into the oven to toast them.  They taste exactly like a bagel! 

 For dinner tonight, I made Instant pot meatloaf.  I've been trying to use up all of the chicken in my freezer, so we were definitely ready for beef today.  This is one of my favorite recipes, its so delicious and the leftovers are just as good.  I buy a McCormick meat loaf package and use Italian sausage, ground beef, half and half, egg, ketchup, and ritz crackers.  I form into a loaf and place into the instant pot.  If you are only making one loaf, then you can add your diced potatoes in the bottom of the instant pot with 2 cups of water and then add the loaf on top.  I wrap the meat loafs into foil and I usually make two loafs and stack on top of each other in the instant pot.  Turn to custom and cook for 25 min, then top with ketchup and broil.  (Adding to instant pot recipes) 

Form the loaf and then fold in the sides

Wrap loaf completely and place into instant pot with 2 cups of water on top of the trivet. 

If only cooking 1 loaf you can add chopped potatoes on the bottom and then add the trivet on top of the potatoes, then add loaf to cook everything at the same time.  I made two loafs so I did not have room to do that and made my mashed potatoes on the stove. 

Cook on custom and 25 min on high for the meatloaf in the instant pot. 

Once the instant pot has cooked the loafs, mix ketchup and brown sugar and brush on top.  Broil until bubbly.  Enjoy with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. 

 Yesterday, I made lazy lasagna in my instant pot.  If you do not have an instant pot, I highly recommend it!  It really makes life a lot easier.  

This recipe is a favorite because I can cook everything fast on a busy day.  Only a few ingredients too which I love.  Onions, garlic, Italian sausage, marinara sauce, chicken broth, lasagna noodles, and ricotta cheese.  I also love that you can cook everything in one pot, so you don't have a load of dishes to wash.  I turned my instant pot on saute to cook the onions and sausage and then poured the rest of the ingredients and cooked for 5 min.  So easy!  

Turn your instant pot to Sauté and cook onions, garlic, and Italian sausage until sausage is browned, 

Crunch up the lasagna noodles and add to the instant pot with the marinara / chicken broth covering them

Turn instant pot on for custom 5 min on high and then enjoy!  I add a dollop of ricotta cheese on top.  You could also add to a casserole dish when finished with shredded mozzarella cheese on top and pop in the oven on broil until cheese is melted. Such an easy dinner!  

I'm adding this recipe into Instant pot recipes 

 Yesterday I made some bone in chicken leg quarters in the slow cooker with some salsa for Mexican food dishes this week.  I was going to make burritos using the chicken and made my Spanish rice in the instant pot.  For the burritos I was going to use corn, refried beans, large flour tortillas, cheese, sour cream, etc and then crisp up in the air fryer.  My plans quickly changed, when David came home with some masa flour.  Instead we decided to make tamales!!  

I've always heard that making tamales is labor intensive, and steered away, but honestly it wasn't any worse than making a batch of cookies.  The instant pot also helped cut the time of steaming the tamales. 

For the Masa dough, we used David's Nana Chavez's recipe which included lard, broth from the chicken, masa flour, baking powder, and salt.  We shredded the chicken and added herdez salsa ranchero and blended into the food processor.  As we were doing all of this, the corn husks were soaking in warm water to make them more pliable.  

We added a small amount of the masa dough into the corn husk and topped with the chicken, then rolled the corn husks and placed into the trivet in the instant pot with 2 cups of water.  

We placed the tamales into the instant pot and cooked for 40 min on high.  They were the most tender and soft tamales I've ever had.  Usually when I've had tamales, I've had to drench in sauce because they were so dry, but these we ate all by themselves and they were amazing!  I'll add this recipe under instant pot recipes.  

 I have really been crafting lately and making a lot of bowl cozies.  They are so fun!

Bowl cozies are handy little pot holders that wrap around your bowl and are microwaveable to keep your food warm and your hands from burning. They are great for protecting table tops and can also be used for ice cream to keep your hands from freezing. Bowl cozies also make a cute addition to your table for parties to keep food bowls warm and tables decorative. 

I just got some new fabrics to work with and have enjoyed finding the right combinations to make them beautiful.  

My next project will be to make some tortilla warmers with the pepper fabric and taco fabric!  Sewing is my happy place.  I love the feeling of creating something new and beautiful, especially when it's handy! 

Here are some of my latest: 

Cute Farm fabric cozy with cow print 

Pioneer woman floral cozy with red 

Pioneer woman floral cozy in teal

Dessert Print cozy with purple flowers 

Cozy with my chicken and dumplings.  You can find the recipe in my Instant Pot section of this blog.  

All of my cozies are listed on my Easy shop - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahsCleverCrafts

If you are local, send me a message on which ones you like and we can work it out locally.  If you are not local, I ship anywhere in the US.  

 I've made a new section under Crafts called Bowl cozies.  Here I will be showing all of the different cozy projects I will be making.  

Bowl cozies are my new favorite sewing projects.  They are so handy, and now that I have some, we can't live without them.  They are potholders that fit around your bowl and are microwavable, so that when you take a hot bowl out of the microwave you don't burn your hands.  I have made many for family and friends and I just added them to my Etsy shop!  These make amazing gifts.  

The most popular is the Pioneer Woman fabric cozies.  I love that I can find her fabric so that it can match your kitchen decor!  This is my new favorite combo...so pretty!  You can find all of my new bowl cozy projects under the crafts section of my blog.  

You can find them on my Etsy shop here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahsCleverCrafts

 For dinner last night, I used the leftover rotisserie chicken to make a Chicken spaghetti with a creamy white sauce.  David thought it was wonderful and went back for seconds.  He was really excited to eat it again for lunch, and requested that I make more!  

I diced some onion and then made a rue with butter, flour, and garlic.  Next I added white cooking wine and half and half, shredded chicken, parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and some pepper.  

I served with spaghetti noodles and Brussel sprouts. 

This is definitely a keeper!  

I'll add the recipe to the Dinner recipe section 

 Are you wondering what you could make with leftover rotisserie chicken?  Why don't you try this amazing appetizer!  These were incredible.  So many flavors!  I used the rotisserie chicken I made in the slow cooker yesterday, cream cheese, olive spread, and then crisped them up in the air fryer for 5 min and cut them into bite size pieces.  WOW! 

This is the olive spread I used, that I found at Walmart.  Here is one from Amazon though too - https://amzn.to/3W0yzGt

Here is the link for my air fryer as well - https://amzn.to/3vYlv9O

 One of my favorite easy dinners is to take bone in chicken leg quarters and place them in the slow cooker for shredded chicken.  I purchase the McCormick marinade packets and follow the directions to add water/oil/ vinegar and place in with the chicken.  It makes delicious rotisserie chicken that I can shred and eat with cheesy rice or use in additional recipes.  The marinate packets really add a lot of flavor.  Two packages is even better! 

I cook in the slow cooker on high for about 5 hours then turn to warm.  It is always fall off the bone delicious.  My favorite marinade packet flavors are Mesquite, zesty herb, and tomato basil.  

I made maple sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches on rolls for this weeks breakfast.  I couldn't find the maple sausage, so I just added some maple syrup to regular breakfast sausage while it was cooking.  I try to make sure my daughter, Jane gets a hearty breakfast before school.  She loves these and will eat half and home and take the other half in the car to eat on the way to school.  She loves to put strawberry jelly on the rolls.   What are your favorite breakfasts?  

You can find the "You are special today" plate here - https://amzn.to/3GRFnln

 Today I had some frozen shredded chicken in the freezer, so I pulled it out and decided to make some salsa verde chicken enchiladas with Spanish rice, beans, and roasted cauliflower.  For the sauce, I used salsa verde and added some chicken broth and chopped garlic.  Then boiled to cook the tomatoes to make enchilada sauce.  You could use green enchilada sauce if you want.  I honestly didn't have enchilada sauce on hand so I compromised and made my own by using what I had. 

When the sauce is finished cooking, I added some into the chicken and added some mozzarella cheese then mixed.  To make sure the corn tortillas didn't break apart and stay their shape, I added some olive oil into a pan and heated them up on each side. 

You can find my pan here- https://amzn.to/3imowOe

Once the tortillas are warm and soft, I add them into my handmade tortilla warmer.  

Don't have a tortilla warmer?  You should contact me and I can make you one!  They are so handy and keep the tortillas warm for a long time. I love mine! 

On each tortilla, I spread some sour cream, add the chicken mixture and place them into a casserole dish.  Pour the remaining salsa verde enchilada sauce and add shredded mozzarella cheese on top.  Broil until slightly brown and bubbly. 

You can find a great casserole dish here- https://amzn.to/3jZ7bey

I am going to add this recipe to the Mexican food section and the Spanish rice to the instant pot section.  Let me know how it turns out if you decide to make it!  

Have you been wondering if you should get an air fryer or an instantpot?  I have decided to make a youtube channel to give you reviews on items in my kitchen so that you can see why I like mine and if you should get one for yourself.  Check out the right side of my blog under "Videos".  Right now you'll see my review on the air fryer, and coming soon will be more kitchen gadgets.  Enjoy!  

 This morning I made little pigs in a blanket for breakfast.  I had some little smokies and pillsbury crescent dough, so I decided to have an easy breakfast this morning.  

For each of the little smokies you only need about 1/3 of the crescent triangle.  I topped it with some everything bagel seasoning.  I'll post a link for the seasoning in my "Items I love" section of my blog on the right if you want to get some.  This stuff is good on just about anything.  

Assembled and about to go into the oven 

                     Crescent dough and little smokies.  My favorite is using the Cheddar little smokies, 

                                         but Aldi didn't have them.  Walmart usually does tho!

                                                    Right out of the oven, hot and delicious 

You can order the seasoning here following my affiliate link:

Everything Bagel Seasoning  - https://amzn.to/3jQbRmQ

 Do any of you still have recipe cards like these?  I have several cherished cards with recipes from my Mom, Grandma, Aunt, and Granny who are all angels in Heaven.  This is Grandma's praline recipe.  She used to make these every year for Christmas and we couldn't stop eating them. They are delicious!  My family has been looking for this recipe and I happened to find it this morning!  I will be happy to share it with you as well.  

Did you know that you can actually still get recipe cards with boxes?  What a cute idea to write some of your favorite recipes down or family favorites for your children or family as a keepsake.  I know I cherish mine!  

You can find some here:  https://amzn.to/3ZnNj4Q

 First favorite recipe for 2023 is Chicken n' Dumplings!  I love this recipe especially because I can cook it in 5 min in my instantpot.  The flavors are so comforting on a cold day.  I also love it because I normally have all of the ingredients on hand.  Even though I usually cook in my instantpot, I'll see if I can find other instructions for stovetop and slow cooker for you my friends!  Seriously though, the instantpot is amazing and well worth every penny. 

I'm going to create a new "Instant Pot" section in recipes, so that is where I will add if you would like to try it.  Chicken, peas, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme are some of the ingredients.  My daughter, Jane loves to help me make the dumplings!  I love when she gets excited about helping me in the kitchen.  This is one of her favorite recipes as well.