2 new recipes

Earlier this week in my quest for healthy eating with a family I stumbled upon this recipe and I had all of the ingredients already, which is great, (anything to avoid going to the store) and my family loved it.  All four of them--very picky Steve, almost as picky Aliese (although she tries more foods everyday lately), Anna of course, who loves everything, and oops, Gracie didn't eat it.  So I guess, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.  Steve's statements were, grunt, "this is good", after his first bite.  And after he was all done, a grand statement of, "That was really good."  His usual comments are, "It was fine."  So, big success.  Will be making it again soon.


Chicken and Black Bean Tacos (Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker)

serves 4-6

1/2 large onion
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you could use breasts if you are afraid of thighs, which is sad for you because thighs are so yummy)
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t pepper (I know I didn't use this much)
2 c black beans, drained and rinsed or 1 can of beans
1 c frozen corn
1 c favorite salsa
1 1/2 t cumin
1/4 t hot smoked spanish paprika (of course I didn't have this and used smoked chili powder)
8-12 corn tortillas

Use a 4 or 5 quart slow cooker.  I used my pressure cooker.  Slice the onion thisly in moons from end to end.  Put the sliced onion in the bottom of the crock.  Put chicken on top, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Put the beans, corn, and salsa on top of the chicken, then sprinkle the cumin and paprika across the top.  Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 -5 hours, until the chicken shreds easily with a fork.  I cooked mine for 10 minutes on high pressure in my pressure cooker.  Then I let it stay on warm for probably a half hour, just because we were waiting for dinner time.  We ate this with the tortillas, cheese and avocados.  I wrap my tortillas in a kitchen towel and put in the microwave for two minutes.  They'll stay warm all through dinner if you keep them in the towel.  We had enough left over even though everyone really ate a lot, to freeze for another meal, especially if you serve with a salad.

For New Year's Eve I thought I'd try something new and easy, from my new favorite cookbook (actually I bought it last summer, but it's still my new fav) Our Best Bites.

Carmel Fruit Dip
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (I did this in the microwave)
3/4 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla
toffee bits (which I'm sure would be divine, but I didn't have any, didn't want to go to the store, ect...)

Mix.  Yum.  We dipped apples in it during our Harry Potter movie.

Next time I'm going to try date or coconut sugar for part or all of the sugar.