I Love Food {I Hate Food}

I have a love-hate relationship with food.

You know the battle? I love to eat food. Yummy... Tasteful... Flavorful... I love ingredients that are common but thrown together in such a way which cause your taste buds to dance. I love foreign and exotic flavors from across the globe which add an element of excitement to dinner. I love trying new foods, new recipes, and eating something outside of our normal dinner line up.

But, for the component of supreme dislike: I don't like to prep food. I am not good at taking the time to read the ingredients and follow the directions. I usually end up making a mistake and botch dinner or I change it to the point where it isn't the same and can't recreate the amazing meal. Hey, I'm working on that! But, it probably keeps me from eating all the food all the time! Ha!

The other night I was super excited. I found a cool cookbook at the library and was going to try one of the recipes. It called for wine, an inexpensive cut of beef, some simple ingredients in my cupboard already, and a new veggie I have been trying to fit into dinners lately. It was a win in my book all the way around. I even doubled the sauce, a mistake I thought I learned the week prior with a recipe from the same book. I followed directions, prepped the ingredients, set the crock pot and was good to go!

I loved it. Loved the flavor. Loved how the meat turned out, tender and juicy. I loved the combination of it with the orzo (first time trying that too). Took a bite and I was ecstatic. Looked over at the baby who was happily devouring her food...

See, I have this tendency to cook for the people in my house. I cook to appease the minions. I cook to feed the husband.

This time, I did it. This time I cooked for me.
Love. The. Food.

I look back at the baby who was silently spitting out all her food. The oldest was complaining about the leaves being something you weren't supposed to eat (it was bits of dried basil). My middle was pushing her meat around with her fork and her orzo with her spoon. Husband asked with every bite, "what's this, what's that flavor, what's this flavor".
Hate. The. Food.

We made a meal once and had some people to come over. One of our guests complained about feeling bloated from "eating this junk". That was a few years ago. What we made was from scratch. How could it be junk? It wasn't junk. But it stuck with me. It was enough to discourage me. Maybe there was/is something wrong with my taste buds. Or, maybe my flavor palate is just different.

And now my family was not eating what I had made...  again...

Love the food...

Hate the food...

It's a fine line.

Do I cook to appease the masses? Or do I cook for me?

I think I am just going to start cooking for me. I have a feeling there will always be that love-hate relationship with the food.

What's for Dinner: Chicken Con Salsa (3-Ingredient Crock-Pot Recipe)

How many of you make time to sit around the dinner table in the evening as a family? It took us a while to get to the point where we were doing it every night. Here is one of our family meals that we enjoy together.

I honestly do not remember where I learned this recipe and I have not been able to find anything like it anywhere. The hubby and kids really enjoy it on those random occasions that I make it and I have no idea why I do not make it more often. It is such a simple recipe with only 3 ingredients and served over rice it is so yummy! Maybe because I am not a huge fan of touching raw chicken, let alone chicken with the bones still in them.

I call this Chicken Con Salsa, mostly because it is just chicken, salsa and corn. Serve over rice and it's complete! I've even frozen ahead and made later!

Chicken Con Salsa

(a 3-Ingredient Fix-it and Forget-it Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 package of bone-in chicken thighs (approx 1.5lbs or 9 thighs)

32oz Herdez Salsa, I use mild/medium but you can use whatever heat you prefer

1 lb frozen corn

Directions:

remove the skin from the thighs. I also prefer to remove most the fat as well. (don't forget to wash your hands after handling the raw chicken!)

place chicken bone side down at the bottom of your crockpot

cover with salsa

pour in corn

cover and cook on low for 4.5-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through (it is suggested that chicken reaches internal temperature 180°F) It will literally be falling off the bone!

Prepare rice according to package directions either on the stove or in a cooker when you have that amount of time left for the crockpot (i.e. I start the rice with 30 minutes left as that is how long it takes to cook 3 cups in the cooker) 

Serve over cooked rice and enjoy!

and then get seconds and not worry about presentation...

I use a 7qt crockpot. you can divide the recipe in half if you have a smaller one.

*update* here is a printable 5x7 recipe card so you can easily access this recipe whenever you need! Just click on the picture!

click here to download the card

Try it! What did you think?

Happy cooking!