It’s been months since I saw a recipe for Oven Baked Tacos on Pinterest, but we’ve been stuck in such a food rut that I haven’t tried anything knew in some time. Yesterday, I was in the mood to cook and after reading Kristin’s post, I wanted both chicken salad and tacos. Such an odd combination, I promise I’m not pregnant and I didn’t eat them both last night. I bought the ingredients for both and saved time by cooking all of the chicken at once, but I just put the chicken salad away for today.

I was distraction-free in the kitchen. Braylen cut grass with Allen and I even snuck in a run on the treadmill. It was one of those days when I’m reminded just how much I love to cook, when I’m not rushed or distracted or trying to juggle a million different tasks. Don’t get me wrong, my little kitchen helper is a great companion, it just multiplies the time in the kitchen by two, at least.

The chicken tacos were a hit and we even sent half over to our neighbors, the recipe was simple and easy and the outcome was delicious. I adapted my recipe from the one I had originally pinned on Mommy? I’m Hungry!

Here’s my take:

Oven Baked Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:

• 3 large chicken breasts (I used boneless, skinless and they were pretty big)
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1/2 squeezed lime (I used the other 1/2 of the lime for guacamole)
• 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can refried beans
• shredded cheese
• 18 hard taco shells

Don’t forget to pick up your favorite garnishes- salsa, sour cream, avocado, tomato, lettuce, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Boil chicken and shred (if you have a stand mixer, do yourself a favor and place the hot chicken into the mixer and mix with the paddle attachment, perfectly shredded chicken each time).
3. In a skillet combine shredded chicken, taco seasoning, cumin, cilantro, lime juice, tomato sauce and refried beans. Mix well and heat ingredients thoroughly.
4. In a 9X13 arrange taco shells so they are standing. I had to play with this a little to get them right, pack them in pretty tightly.
5. Add chicken mixture to each shell.
6. Top with shredded cheese.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes.
8. Top with your favorite garnishes and enjoy.

We’ll definitely be adding this to the rotation.

This past Christmas, I was gifted the Southern Living Tailgating Cookbook. Or as I like to refer to it, the gift that keeps on giving. If you aren’t familiar with tailgating, (come over so I can make you some Rotel dip and we can chat over low-country boil) you must know that tailgating foods aren’t the picture of health. Typically, I chalk it up to, it’s just one day each week, and eat without guilt on game day.  But, this cookbook changed the rules of the game, it even replaced the Cooking Light book on display in my kitchen. I’m always searching for opportunities to cook the things featured on the glossy pages of this cookbook. Football season is coming and I obviously have to do some research before we officially begin tailgating.

On Easter, we tested the Over The Moon Banana Pudding and it was a hit! I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical, I’m a Not Yo’ Mama’s Banana Pudding fan.  This version is different, you can’t really compare the two, but they are both delicious.

 Over-The-Moon Banana Pudding from Southern Living: The OffIcial SEC Tailgating Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 packages cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix (4.6 oz)
• 4 cups of milk
• 1 container of sour cream (8 oz)
• 8 (2.75 oz) Chocolate Moon Pies, cut into eighths
• 3 bananas, sliced (plus one more for garnish)
• 1 (8 oz) container of Cool-Whip- thawed

1. Cook pudding mix and milk in a saucepan according to package directions. Remove pan from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Whisk in sour cream; let stand until pudding thickens- about 20 minutes.
2. Pour half of pudding into a 2-qt baking dish. Layer about 40 Moon Pie wedges over pudding. Top with banana slices and add remaining half of pudding. Top with Cool-Whip. Arrange remaining Moon Pie slices around the outer edge of dish. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. I let mine chill over night. Garnish with bananas before serving.

Since the new year, I’ve made more healthy food choices than I did in the last 3 months combined. Possibly a stretch, but I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’ve been able to say no to a few of my favorite dishes in exchange for lighter fare. While I was grocery shopping last weekend (and starving, might I add) I suddenly felt the need to drive to the nearest Italian restaurant for a taste of comfort food at its finest, chicken parmesan. That wasn’t a realistic thought for many reasons, not excluding the fact that I was wearing a pair of my favorite yoga pants and a t-shirt. Nope, that wouldn’t do.

I pushed through and continued checking things off my list. It wasn’t until I made it to the produce that I saw the ticket to my chicken parmesan, resting between the egg roll wrappers and the Wholly Guacamole, the wonton wrappers. Yes, yes, yes! I knew they could hold up in a hearty Italian dish, the Mini Lasagna Cups are a proven hit. I quickly scratched leftovers off the menu-plan for Thursday and added parmesan chicken. Last night, I switched meals and I finally satisfied my craving for chicken parmesan.

Now, they probably look much fancier than they actually are. You should know, I’m intimidated by recipes with a million ingredients and 27 different steps. My attention span just doesn’t hang on long enough for that. Here’s the quick and easy version. Both Allen and Braylen agree, best dinner I’ve cooked in a long time.

Instructions:

For chicken tenders, I used Rachael Ray’s oven-baked chicken recipe, I just tweaked it slightly by adding parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs. We had extra so I’ll let BK eat them for lunch during the week. If you want to make just enough, you could cut this recipe by 1/3. 

• 1  1/2 pounds chicken tenders
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups breadcrumbs, seasoned or unseasoned
• 1/2 c parmesan cheese
• Salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Season the chicken tenders with salt and pepper, I used chicken breast so I cut them into strips and cut each strip into thirds to make small pieces for the muffin tin.

Use three shallow bowls. In the first bowl, beat eggs and milk. In the second bowl, add salt and black pepper to the flour. In the third bowl, mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Coat chicken by dipping in the flour, then into the eggs, then coating with the breadcrumb mixture. Place on a cookie sheet (I lightly greased mine with olive oil). Bake 12-15 minutes.

Go ahead and turn the oven down to about 325 degrees. Once the chicken tenders are cooked, the hardest part is over, here’s what you need for the rest of the dish.

• 12 wonton wrappers
• 1/2 c marinara sauce
• 1/8 c shredded parmesan
• 3 slices of mozzarella cheese (from the block) Edited to add: We use the large blocks of cheese from Sam’s, you calories can add up quickly if you aren’t careful here. Make your slices thin and you can easily cut it into fourths. If you are using the small, rectangular blocks from the grocery store, just cut your slice in half. 
• parsley
• basil

Grease a muffin pan lightly with olive oil. Place one wonton wrapper into each spot in the muffin tin. Add a piece chicken, spoon about 1 tablespoon of marinara over each piece of chicken. Place 1/4 slice of cheese over the top and sprinkle with parmesan, parsley and basil.

Bake until the edges of the wonton wrapper turn dark brown.

Calorie Info: I calculated calories based on the specific ingredients that I used, actual calories may vary depending on the brand and nutritional content of your ingredients. I deducted for the leftover breadcrumbs, flour and eggs and I cut the final calorie count of the chicken by 1/3.  If you coat yours heavily, you’ll need to add extra calories for that part, but we used a light coating and it saved a few calories when the leftover breadcrumbs were deducted. Recipe yields 12 individual chicken parm-mini’s, each mini has about 140 calories.

 Enjoy!