Fresh Strawberry Birthday Breakfast Smoothie

Strawberries from Hall Family Farm

It is finally strawberry season around Charlotte! I love this time of year and my kids always beg to go strawberry picking. Yesterday was my birthday so I decided to start the day with a strawberry smoothie! In season and delicious... the perfect birthday combination.

You can really put anything into a smoothie but I generally put in a few standard ingredients that I always have in the house - plain yogurt, a banana, and 1 or 2 medjool dates.

For this breakfast smoothie, I added in a handful of fresh strawberries, a tablespoon of chia seeds, honey, a few ice cubes, and I was on my way.  

Happy birthday to me!

Amazing "Smashed" Potatoes with Roasted Garlic Aioli

Amazing "Smashed" Potatoes with Roasted Garlic Aioli

As I gear up to head to Eat Write Retreat (a fabulous food writing conference!) at the end of the month, I must complete two fun challenges. The first challenge involves appetizers and a few secret ingredients... Our group of easily excitable food bloggers was divided into four teams and we were each randomly assigned an ingredient.

Lucky me, I was assigned to Team Potato. (Luck of the Irish, perhaps?)  I admittedly squealed when my four giddy children opened the big FedEx box containing, yup, potatoes! And, surprise, surprise, some OXO tools were tucked in there as well to help spice up my kitchen adventures!

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken Quesadillas

The other night, my husband and I were out to dinner with a few other couples. People I did not know. We were all getting along. We were at an amazing restaurant. The conversation turned to cooking... a favorite topic of mine! I was excited. I was in my element. One of the men asked another couple, what kinds of foods do you like to cook? They had exciting answers - a wide array of food. The couples look toward us, I am ready! And then... my husband chimes in, "Erin loves her slow cooker." Gah! Yes, darling, I do, but let's not start the discussion with the so un-sexy slow cooker.

For me, the beauty of the slow cooker is not that it is its own genre of cooking, but rather the slow cooker allows busy parents (busy people!) the ability to make any type of food, any family favorite, a little bit easier.

My kids will do just about anything for tacos or anything resembling tacos. My husband, on the other hand, can only handle tacos about 6 times a year, so I try to change things up a little bit to keep everybody happy but not create an impossible amount of work for myself. Enter the slow cooker.

For my kids, this is still Taco Tuesday. For my husband, I texted him that we were having shredded chicken quesadillas...

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken broth or water
Taco seasonings - cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper (maybe more!)
Corn tortillas or corn tacos
Shredded cheese or crumbled queso fresco
Diced tomatoes & scallions for toppings

 Directions: 

Shredded chicken

1. Combine chicken breasts (thawed or partly thawed), tomatoes, liquid, and seasonings in a slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. 

2. Shred chicken with 2 forks.

3. Making quesadillas ... melt butter in a hot pan, add one corn tortilla and shredded chicken and cheese. Cover with another corn tortilla. Cook for a few minutes and turn over. Cut into triangles.

4. Serve quesadillas topped with diced tomatoes, scallions, sour cream, and guacamole!

Making a shredded chicken quesadilla ...

Notes about taco seasoning ... You can buy pre-made taco seasoning at a store but be sure to check the labels. Many of them are not gluten free and others contain a lot of stuff you don't want to be eating. It really is super easy to make your own taco seasoning. I don't have a favorite recipe - I just throw a bunch of stuff into the pot, but, if you are looking for a specific recipe, I do like this taco seasoning recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh (Gluten free!)

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh (Gluten-Free!)

Tabbouleh was one of my all time favorite foods before I was diagnosed with celiac disease. For awhile, I stayed away from it because I just did not know how easy it was to re-create a gluten-free version. Tabbouleh is a middle eastern dish traditionally made with bulgur wheat. The simplest way to make a gluten-free version of tabbouleh is to replace the bulgur wheat with quinoa - the texture is very, very similar. I happened to have some leftover red quinoa in the fridge so this recipe came together in about ten minutes. Delicious and easy - win, win!

Garlicky Cranberry Beans in a Slow Cooker (No Soaking!)

Garlicky Cranberry Beans in a Slow Cooker

When I was visiting San Fransisco a few months ago, I stocked up on dried beans from Rancho Gordo - they had a table set up among the farmers outside the Ferry Building. They had some amazing varieties of beans that I just had to try. Rancho Gordo is all about heirloom beans and, truthfully, they just seem kind of cool. (Check out their packaging!)

My kids love to eat beans, as do I, and I often give them beans right out of a can. But, since making them in your slow cooker is so darn easy, I'm really not sure why I don't just do it this way every time!

Making beans in a slow cooker ...

In a small slow cooker, combine: 

1 medium onion, chopped
5 or 6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound of dried beans (rinsed)
Seasoning and a little salt
4 cups (approximately) of water.

Cook on high for about 6 hours.

Check the water level as you cook - you might need a little bit more water after the beans have been cooking for a few hours.

You can serve the beans whole or mash them up a bit and make your own not-fried refried beans! After making beans in a slow cooker, you might never go back to canned...

Rancho Gordo Beans from California ... Delicious.