Romance Weekly: #LoveWriteChat

I hope everyone had fun last week during our giveaway! If you found me by way of Jo Richardson http://jrrichardsonfics.wordpress.com/blog/, WELCOME! Enjoy your stay.

This week we're deviating a little from our normal format. Instead of our standard 3 questions, we're sharing our favorite 15 minute meal. I have to confess. I can't cook to save my life. Growing up, my family was always running from one place to another. Between roller skating lessons, piano lessons, Girl Scouts, church, and school activities, we weren't home much to say the least. Mom tried to teach me how to cook, unfortunately I was a terrible student, not very interested in learning at all. Life isn't any easier now that I'm married with two kids, work full time, and write in my spare time.

Despite all that, several years ago, I helped create a Family Cookbook, where we compiled all of our relatives' favorite recipes. It's chock-full of advice for the next generation of non-cookers, memories we want to share, and photographs to reminisce over. It was a year-long labor of love, but worth every moment I spent poring over recipes with my mom. It's time I can't get back, now that she's gone. Here's the front cover, inside front cover, and first page of our cookbook.

Ok. So now for the part you've all been waiting for. THE RECIPE! I couldn't decide which recipe to share with you, so I'm sharing two. One from my husband, and one from me. Both recipes take minimal work and use ingredients we always have on hand.

Salsa, Chicken & Rice

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts or tenderloins
Salsa (we prefer Pace)
Rice (we use microwavable rice cups)

Directions:
Place chicken in a skillet and cover with a generous amount of salsa. Cover. Cook until chicken is no longer pink. While chicken is simmering, prepare white or brown rice per directions. Top rice with chicken and salsa. Voila!

Easy and quick but it smells delicious while cooking. Tastes even better, especially when I didn't have to prepare it!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Ingredients:
1 small can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 can diced green chiles
1 can stewed or diced tomatoes
1/2 package frozen or canned corn (with or without juice, if canned)
Frozen chicken breasts or tenderloins
1 small can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 small can green enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cup milk

Toppings:
Crushed tortilla chips
shredded cheese
sour cream
olives

Directions:
Get out your crockpot and put in a crockpot liner, if you have one. Dump the first 4 ingredients into the bottom of the crockpot. Lay frozen chicken breasts on top of the mix. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream of chicken soup and the enchilada sauce. Slowly whisk in milk. Pour over the chicken. Cover and cook 6-8 hours. In the last half hour, shred the chicken and stir the soup. Return to cooking. When done, top with toppings of your choice.

This recipe is super simple, even for a non-cooker like me. And I pretty much always have these ingredients on hand. Gotta love a recipe where you basically open a can and dump it in a pot to cook. Total prep time on my part is about 15 minutes combined. The crockpot does all the hard work. I recently served this meal to house guests of ours, and despite not being a big fan of chicken, they both loved it.

If you try either of these recipes, please drop in and let me know what you think!

Next up . . . Carolyn Spear http://www.carolynspearromance.com/blog. Head on over and see what she's cooking up!