Rotisserie Chicken Recipes

One of my new favorite things to do is buy a Rotisserie Chicken for a good price & see how many meals I can get out of it! These are the latest hits in our family that I did this week.

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
3 1/2 cup flour

Directions:

Dissolve sugar in the lukewarm water. Dissolve yeast in the water mixture. Let stand for 5 minutes. Measure flour into a mixing bowl. Add water mixture to flour and stir until flour is moistened. Turn onto floured surface and knead until firm. Transfer to a greased glass bowl. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place. Let rise until doubled. Punch down after rising and spread dough on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone. Add your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes or until the edges are brown.

I used BBQ sauce, Mozzarella Cheese, sliced Red Onion, the Chicken & Fresh Cilantro. YUMMY!

Chicken Parmesan Casserole
(Pinterest ~ Emilybites.com)

This is what I did for the recipe:
2 cups Rotisserie Chicken, cubed
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ t crushed red pepper flakes
¼ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 cups marinara/pasta sauce
1 ½ cups 2% reduced fat shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese, divided
2 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, divided
3.5 oz garlic croutons, roughly crushed, leaving some larger pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Spread the cubed pieces of chicken across the bottom of the baking dish in a single layer. Sprinkle the minced garlic, red pepper flakes and basil evenly over the chicken. Spread the sauce evenly across the top. On top of the sauce layer, sprinkle ¾ cup of the Mozzarella and one ounce of the Parmesan evenly across the dish. Sprinkle the crushed croutons across the top and follow with the remaining cheese.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

20 Minute Teriyaki Chicken
(Pinterest ~ whilehewasnapping.com)

Pre-cooked Chicken

Rice

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

3 Tbsp of Ketchup

1/4 cup water

Directions:

In a bowl, mix brown sugar, soy sauce, water and ketchup.  Stir until well blended.  Set aside.  Measure out enough rice to feed your family.  Pour it into a rice cooker.  If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can still do this on the stove, it just takes a little more watchful eye.  Measure out the correct amount of liquid for your rice.

“For example, I do 2 cups of dry rice.  This means I will need 4 cups of liquid.  I should have almost a cup of teriyaki sauce mixed in my bowl.  I will then need approximately 3 more cups of water.  If you want a stronger teriyaki flavor simply increase the amount of sauce you prepare and decrease the extra waterm accordingly.  Pour the teriyaki sauce in the rice cooker.  Add the extra water.  Dice the chicken and dump it in the cooker as well.  Set the cooker to cook and walk away.  Serve when the switch flips from “cook” to “warm”, at least that’s what mine does.  I usually serve it with steamed veggies (that I cook in my Pampered Chef steamer) or mix the veggies right in.  Super simple and prep time is like ten minutes max.”

Happy Cooking!

~Rachel

Thank the Lord for Pick Me Ups

We’ve ALL have those days…

Maybe you were up all night with a little one, or two.  Maybe you were constantly running to the doctor for an ill child & there seemed to be no answers. Maybe you started the day with high hopes of accomplishing everything on your never-ending to do list & then the house became a disaster behind you one room at a time & you become discouraged & frustrated. Maybe a little one poured a whole container of glitter in the playroom & it was EVERYWHERE & you didn’t even begin to know where to start cleaning up (true story). Maybe you were taking care of sick kids all day. Maybe you actually had an attempt to cook dinner…and burnt it. Oopsie! Maybe you have little ones that cry all.day.long. The list could go on…

I know for me, I’ve been at some exhausting, most discouraging days as a mother & feeling either all alone or that I can’t do one thing right. Praise the Lord for pick me ups from friends that show “I care.” “I’m here.” “I haven’t forgotten about you.” “You’re doing a great job.”

Recently, a friend knew that my little boy was so sick for a couple of weeks & to this day, she will NEVER know how much her text meant to me. She said “let me know what I can get you from Starbucks & I’ll swing it by.” IT MADE MY DAY & there was something that refreshed me from the encouragement that she cared. Bless her sweet heart, she dropped one of her girls off from school, ran to Starbucks with the other wee little ones & then brought it over in the pouring rain. She stopped at the door & listened to me & I just wanted to hug her. What a help she was to me that day.

It doesn’t have to be anything big, it doesn’t even have to cost anything. A text or a quick email when God puts that friend on your heart can cheer up any day! Let them know you’re praying for them. Cards are great too & I know that has been something that has meant the world to me when I’ve gotten one in the mailbox from a friend. You may never, ever fully know what a help that can be to a tired, discouraged mother. Maybe the Lord will use you to encourage that dear Mother who’s hurting, or stressed, or tired.

Let’s encourage one another in the new year!

 

Joyfully Serving Him,

Rachel

Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Here are just a few Christmas traditions our family does for this special time of year!

#1 – 25 Stories Leading up to Christmas

We’ve done this for several years & LOVE it! I go to the library & pick out 25 Christmas books. I wrap each one & print off numbers to stick to the front for each day. We read one story a night leading up to Christmas & I always save the best story for last. I do look at the books & calendar & depending on our schedule, I try to do shorter ones for church service nights or special events that we have going on in the month. It’s been a highlight for our family each year & I have some of the most precious pictures of our boys reading with Daddy.

#2 – 12 Days of Christmas 

This one is for my Hubby. 12 Days before Christmas I have pre-planned for him little gifts or thoughtful messages & I give him one gift a day until Christmas. I have the number of the day match how many items go with that gift. I printed out these cute little “On the First Day of Christmas” tags that I found on Pinterest & organized them with each gift. It can be anything as simple 3 e-cards that day, 4 notes for him to read from when we were dating, a 6 pack of soda, or a CD with 12 Christmas songs. I had so much planning this & surprising him each day!

#3 – The Johnson Express (Polar Express) 

One of our oldest son’s favorite things right now is The Polar Express. Another find on Pinterest, we planned our own little getaway night to surprise him with a trip to the North Pole. 😉 We put both boys in their pjs, had Bible time & prayer & had them go to bed like a normal night. After a couple minutes, we went to their room, flipped the light on & told them there was a surprise under their pillow. We had a “Johnson Express” ticket under each of their pillows. You can imagine the excitement in our home when they heard what we were doing!

My husband also decorated the inside of the van with Christmas lights & we had candy canes ready for the ride! Once they got outside, they found the conductor (with his hat & puncher) out by the “train” to punch their ticket before getting on. We also planned to pick up one of Josiah’s friends & took them with us for the trip. We drove a ways to get to our destination, looking at Christmas lights along the way, Once at our destination, we had them punch their tickets & we watched The Polar Express & had popcorn. Our son still talks about it to this day & we made so many funny memories that night! 

#4 – Felt Christmas Tree

Last year I made a Christmas Tree out of felt for the boys to decorate as they wished. They loved decorating their own & I could always remind them that they had a special tree to decorate if they tried to rearrange the ornaments on the tree in the living room. 😉

#5 – Happy Birthday Jesus! 

We make a cookie cake for Jesus’ Birthday & let the boys decorate it.

#6 – Christmas Eve Dinner 

My husband & I wanted to do something special, but nice for Christmas Eve. We do an Oriental Theme dinner with all of our nice dishes & put out the chopsticks. We invite a couple families over & enjoy each other’s company while making sweet memories!

We keep adding to our list of traditions we do each Christmas…these are just a few ideas to make your Christmas time one of many memories! We would love to hear your ideas of what you do together as a family too!

Joyfully Serving Him,

Rachel Johnson