1 Crock Pot...3 meals..yes please!

It is cold! I mean wind chill below zero, take your breath away the second you open the back door cold. Ah New England, you have pushed me to the point of pining for Spring once again. I can't wait to be able to open all of the windows, clean the house from top to bottom and not having to put on five layers when I forget something in the car, which is only 10 feet from the back door. Yes, I am officially done with winter. I have been substitute teaching since my long term ended and I do not love not knowing if I am going to get a call to work or not. I especially dislike the morning call. I am not a morning person. Then I have to drag myself out of a warm bed and walk down the freezing cold hallway to get ready. You see, we have been using our wood stove this winter and after 8 hours of no logs being added, my tootsies are almost frostbitten by the time I hit the bathroom. A 30 minute drive to follow plans, or no plans on several occasions--teach a class you don't know that could range from k-grade 5 and have any number of fun personalities to contend with. Oh and no matter what the grade, you have those kids that just love to point out to you what you are doing wrong. Yeah, thanks I know I am not your teacher...in case you haven't noticed, she is not here today, care to help me out? Sigh.... So eight hours later I come home to a wonderful man who has just woken up and is hungry.

Our crock pot is my new best friend, and I totally nailed it this week with getting the biggest bang for my buck. Chicken was on sale ( I adore buy 1 get 2 free deals).

Shredded Chicken Burritos

Day 1:
Put 5 still semi frozen chicken breasts into crock pot...check
Add 1 jar of salsa
Add 1 packet of Taco seasoning and mix as best you can.
Set crockpot on high for 4-6 hours or Low for 8
Shred chicken and return to Crock Pot to soak up remaining sauce before serving.

This lovely combination produced very yummy chicken burritos served in tortillas with lettuce, cheese, salsa and sour cream...YUM!

Day 2: Crunchy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Step 1: Saute half of an onion and 1 bag of baby Spinach

Step 2: Add  left over shredded chicken, half a can of corn and about half a can of black beans to the pan to heat.

Step 3: Add cheese! I used a cheddar jack combo and added handfuls until I like the consistency.

 

Step 4: Assemble! I used 2 methods. I had both leftover tortilla and egg roll wrappers. For the tortilla wrappers, I spooned about half a cup of the mixture into the center of warmed wraps and folded the ends in then rolled. 

For the egg roll wrappers, I spooned 2 or so TBS into the center, spread water along the edges, folded two opposite ends together in the center, then tightly rolled.

 

I lightly drizzled olive oil over all of my creations and put in a 350 oven.

 For the egg rolls, I turned them after 5- 7 minutes, then baked for another 5- 7 minutes without removing. The Tortillas were flipped after about 10 minutes, or when the bottoms were golden and cooked an equal amount of time on the second side.

And here are my Tortilla Wraps: The top was just shredded chicken and cream cheese, the bottom is my Southwest Concoction!

 

And here we have the Southwest egg rolls.

  

This was one of those dinners that J really liked. He liked it enough to take a cold wrap for lunch the next day and comment again on how good they were that night.

Southwest Chicken Salad

And Day 3:

J was sleeping on the couch today and not budging for dinner, so I was on my own and man am I glad he did not wake up mid dinner! I was not going to be sharing this beauty!

 

This is one of those throw everything in a bowl recipes. Here is what I threw...

Chopped Ice Berg Lettuce

1/4 cup black beans

1/4 cup corn

Remaining shredded chicken reheated in the mocrowave

Shredded Cheese

Tortilla strips I had in the pantry for salads 

French Dressing

Throw whatcha got in a big bowl, grab a fork and hide somewhere to enjoy all alone..yum!