Buffalo Chicken Everything

When Tom is on night shift, my go to meal used to be buffalo chicken dip.
http://www.franksredhot.com/recipes/franks-redhot-buffalo-chicken-dip-RE1242

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup FRANK'S® REDHOT® Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce or FRANK'S® REDHOT® Buffalo Wings Sauce

1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch dressing

2 cups shredded cooked chicken.

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or your favorite shredded cheese 

     

DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 350°F.
COMBINE all ingredients in a 1-quart baking dish.
BAKE 20 min. or until mixture is heated through; stir. Serve with crackers or vegetables.

This is also my go to for any party ever.  I used to use canned chicken so this recipe was almost the easiest thing ever because I just always had the ingredients at home.  Ever since last year I've been making it with shredded chicken in the crockpot instead.  This is still easy, but required more forethought because I have to cook/shred the chicken at least 6 hours before I want to make the dip.

ANYWAY.... I made this dip for a party last Saturday and it all got eaten.  While I'm pleased people loved it, I was looking forward to leftovers.  So the next day I made more.  I've been eating it everyday since.

Monday night: Buffalo chicken dip with white corn tortillas and celery

Tuesday night: Cooked pasta and scooped buffalo chicken dip on top of it.

Wednesday night: Went out after work... no buffalo chicken dip

Thursday night: Grilled cheese with buffalo chicken dip.  Yes you heard me.  Two pieces of homemade cheese and onion bread, two slices of Swiss cheese and a scoop of buffalo chicken dip.  Cooked like a grilled cheese. Ummm, amazing.

 

I made a sandwich to take for lunch tomorrow too. 

 

October Unprocessed... Thoughts and Revelations

So I did not do as well as I had hoped with October Unprocessed.  :(  I knew already that there would be a few cheat meals in the month (one weekend we had a wedding to go to).  And I was pretty impressed with myself that I went to the Renaissance Festival twice and packed lunch both times so that I didn't buy food there. So there is that.  But I really, really wanted to go 100% this month.

Before the challenge I would say that about 80% of my diet was unprocessed.  Tom and I made a switch last winter and have been pretty good about sticking with it.  This month I would say it was closer to 90% or 95%.  Other than the wedding, there were two days when I ate food at the bar after our football game (who can say no to a blue cheese chicken cheese steak).  There were a couple other things here and there too (cliff bar at work, cheddar cheese with some preservatives when I sent Tom to the grocery store...).  I will say that a  point in the win column is that I did not order Papa Johns or Chinese food at all this month.

So with all that being said... how do I feel about all of this?  Blah.  I was kind of hoping for some weight loss or feeling less tired or something.  But I think because most of my diet was already unprocessed I didn't see any big changes this month.  What I really struggled with was the guilt I felt every time I ate out this month.  I mean, I get that eating unprocessed foods is better for me.  BUT I also do not want to be that person that doesn't have any fun with my friends because I'm too concerned with what I'm eating.  Take yesterday for example, fire pit at my neighbors house.  I may have consumed my body weight in cheese curls, Halloween candy and Doritos.  Could I have eaten carrots instead?  ABSOLUTELY.  I definitely think I over did it yesterday.  I think my goal going forward is to make healthier options when I am at friends houses.  When I'm at a restaurant I have no problem ordering what I want.  But when I'm at a friends house, it should be easy to choose something healthy over cheese curls.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm not going to eat cheese curls.  But maybe one handful instead of five would be better.

Crock pot Buffalo Chicken

So buffalo chicken dip is my go to for all events (in fact I have chicken in the crock pot now so that I can make dip for a party tomorrow).  I saw this recipe on Pinterest and wanted to try it...


http://www.emilybites.com/2012/07/slow-cooker-buffalo-chicken.html

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
Source: My Kitchen Apron

Ingredients:
3 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts (the original recipe used frozen breasts, but I used them unfrozen, so it appears you can do either)
12 oz bottle of Buffalo wing sauce (I used Frank's Wing Sauce)
1 oz packet of dry Ranch mix (I used Hidden Valley)
2 T light butter

Directions:
1.    Place the chicken breasts in your slow cooker. Pour the bottle of wing sauce over the top of the chicken. Sprinkle the packet of ranch mix over the top of the wing sauce. Place the lid on your slow cooker. Cook on low for 7-9 hours until meat shreds easily.
2.    Remove meat and shred it using two forks. Return shredded meat to the sauce and add the butter. Stir to combine. Continue to cook on low for another hour so the meat can soak up the sauce. Serve however you like!

We went to a friends house last night for trick or treating so my husband threw this in the crockpot earlier in the day so we could take it over.  We used 1/2 ranch dressing instead of the ranch packet. 

Served with a package of Italian rolls from Giant.  I still haven't figured out a good sub roll that doesn't have a million ingredients in it.  Our homemade bread is delicious, but hard to hold something sloppy between two slices of bread.  Anyway... we topped the chicken with blue cheese and mozzarella cheese.  It was delicious!!!!!  Like really, really delicious!

 

And yes, that is some VERY processed candy corn on my plate.  I mean, it was Halloween after all. 

Greek Stuffed Chicken

Here is the recipe again:

http://www.food.com/recipe/sesame-chicken-44321 

 

It was delicious!  In fact Tom didn't even add hot sauce or anything to it (which is rare when I make chicken).  We had it with egg noodles.  Delicious.  Definitely going into the dinner rotation more often.

 

 

 

Forgot to take an after picture when we were eating it, but trust me it looked and tasted delicious.