Creamy Chicken Chili

I always revert to this recipe when it gets cold because I always seem to have the ingredients on hand! When you're tired most days, there is a very fine line before you just throw up your hands and go run to a drive-thru. If I can think ahead, I can take the guesswork out of dinner for several days thanks to left-overs!

Creamy Chicken Chili
courtesy of Plain Chicken

2 chicken breasts
8 oz. of fat free cream cheese
1 pkg. dry ranch dressing
1 can black beans, drained and washed
1 can corn, drained
1 can Ro-Tel, undrained
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 to 3/4 Tb. chili powder (add more if you wish, I think this spice can easily become very overwhelming!)

Place chicken on bottom of crock pot. Place black beans, corn, and ro-tel on top of the chicken. Put spices on top of the veggies. I also add the cream cheese at this point (on top of everything and let it melt), but you can wait until the chili has cooked to do so. I personally don't see much of a difference. Cook 6-8 hours on low.

Skinny Sausage Bake!

This is a SkinnyTaste recipe I ran across from a while back that I somehow missed all those times I've combed through Gina's awesome recipes! It originally calls for red pepper, but I'm not a super big fan, so I left that out. I guess you could pretty much add whatever you wanted!

Skinny Sausage Bake
adapted from SkinnyTaste

1 package of al fresco chicken sausage (so many good flavors, you could go with any one of them!), cut into slices (about 6-7 slices for each link)
1.5 lbs of potatoes (any type, I used a combo)
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 tsp. dried rosemary
garlic salt
cooking spray (I used my Misto)
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet with sides on it.

Cook potatoes. I cooked mine up really quickly in the microwave, but be sure to leave them a bit underdone so they won't mush up when you cut them up into chunks.

Spread cut-up chicken sausage, onion pieces, and potato chunks (along with ay other veggie you might be adding) and spread them out on the parchment papered cookie sheet.

Spray the veggies and sausage with the cooking spray, lightly sprinkle the rosemary and garlic salt over all of it. Salt and pepper everything as well to taste.

I baked everything for about 30 minutes, tossing everything about halfway through. After the toss, I did another mist of cooking spray with salt and pepper. Of course, all of that is to taste. I like salty potatoes!!

After the 30 minutes is completed, I bumped the temperature up to 425 degrees and placed the pan back in for 10-15 minutes to get a quick crust. This will end up being one of those dishes you will need to watch at the end to ensure things aren't getting burned. Based on how thick everything is cut, it might happen quickly.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is a recipe that was passed to me by a former roommate's mother. I always grew up eating chicken pot pie a certain way and didn't really enjoy it. When I tried her recipe, I was sold! I have tweaked it a bit and have made it a bit healthier. Enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

1 c. chopped up chicken
1/4 c. fat free italian dressing
4 oz. fat free cream cheese
2 Tb. flour
1/2 c. chicken broth
1 10-12 oz. package of steam-in-bag frozen vegetables
2 refrigerated pie crusts (I have best results with the deep dish crusts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Steam the veggies according to directions. Saute chicken and Italian dressing in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until cooked through (unless its already cooked and shredded). Add cream cheese to the skillet, cook until melted (about 2 minutes). Add flour, mix well. Add broth and vegetables, cook about 5 minutes.

Pour mixture into the pie plate and cover with second pie crust. Make sure to cut slits in top crust if you aren't making a weaved pattern with dough strips.

Bake for 30 minutes. Make sure you put a baking sheet underneath for drips!