Rondi's Recipes: Nacho Cheese Chicken Chowder

Mandi and I have been doing really well with cooking fun meals almost nightly, we just haven't been very good at reviewing them and posting for Rondi's Recipes. We had to bring it back though for a special dish we made last night. We had my lil' brother over for dinner, so we knew we'd have to make something that would fill up a "growing boy". We love to explore new recipes and try our hand at stuff that seems unique. We started with a recipe for Nacho Cheese Chicken Chowder and then added some stuff to make it our own. If you'd like to see the original recipe, click here.

Ingredients: Chicken breast, Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes, Nacho Cheese Condensed Soup, Corn, Cheese -- Not pictured because we added in on the fly: Green Chilies, Pinto beans, Taco Seasoning, Cumin, Chile Powder

Cut chicken into bite size pieces and threw into slow cooker.

Added all ingredients in recipe and then added our own.

Finished product all stirred together and cooked.

Serve it up!

Prep Time: About 10 minutes

Cook Time: About 5 hours in slow cooker on low heat

Total Time: About 5 hours

What we liked:

I loved the hint of cheesiness from the condensed nacho cheese soup.

I really liked the addition of the beans and the green chilies - it added some great flavor and who doesn't like beans?

I liked the big chunks of tomato.

I loved the fact that everything (besides the chicken) called for in this recipe came out of a can. Even the stuff we decided to add came in a can. Talk about easy. This was one of the easiest meals in the world to prepare.

I LOVE chicken tortilla soup and this reminded me a lot of it.

You can pretty much count on me liking anything made in the slow cooker as chicken and nacho cheese soup as it's base.

The broth to this chowder tasted absolutely amazing. I could have sipped on it all night.

What we'd change:

I would cut the chicken into smaller pieces and/or do shredded chicken.

I would use dark meat instead of white meat, but that's just because I always think white meat is dry!

I wouldn't mind adding a some jalapenos or something spicy to give it a bit more kick.

I would find a way to add more liquid next time. This definitely had a chowder type of a feel to it and I wouldn't mind making it more of a soup.

I think this could also be really good thickened up, subbing beef for chicken and making a chip dip.

I'm not sure how I would go about it, but this could have used just a bit more of a kick.

Next time, I will try to make the chicken pieces a bit smaller

Here's our overall rating (with 1 being the worst meal we've ever had and 10 being the best):

Mandi's Rating: 9.0

Ronnie's Rating: 8.5

Again, if you guys have any suggestions on how this is laid out or what you guys would like to see answered/done differently, please let us know :)

Rondi's Recipes: Blackened Chicken w/Avocado Salsa

I think one of the things that I'm most excited about is the fact that Mandi and I are going to be home for 4 consecutive nights! Why am I so excited? Because it means we can get back into our cooking groove. We love to explore new recipes and try our hand at stuff that seems unique. This was our attempt at Blackened Chicken with Avocado Salsa with a review to follow. If you'd like to see the original recipe, click here.

Ingredients: Chicken, Papaya, Salt, Red Bell Peppers, Cilantro, Avocado, Rice Vinegar, Olive Oil, Salt, Cumin, Blackened Seasoning

Lightly seasoned chicken thrown into hot pan with oil

Sliced and diced avocado

Never purchased a papaya before

Rice Vinegar, Oil, Avocado, Bell Pepper and Papaya

Baked chicken

Serve and enjoy!

Prep Time: About 15 minutes (with two people)

Cook Time: About 15 minutes (not including searing chicken)

Total Time: About 25 minutes

What we liked:

I LOVED the salsa. I was a little worried I wouldn't because I'm on the fence about avocado (I keep trying it because it's pretty good, but it's not a home run for me every time). I also didn't know how I felt about papaya. So I was a little nervous if I'd like something that was avocado and papaya together - with a whole bunch of other stuff that I didn't know how the flavors would be. But it was a slam dunk. The flavors were so yummy together. I ate more salsa than I did chicken.

Which brings me to the chicken. The flavor was great. And usually I'm not a fan of chicken breast (but that's all we get because it's all Ronnie will eat - I prefer dark meat), but the way it was cooked (thanks to chef Ronnie) it was moist and not dry (my biggest beef with white meat) and because it was paired with the salsa it was even less dry.

I loved this as a spring/summer meal. It would be just perfect on a hot summer night sitting outside on the patio. It was light and refreshing.

This meal seemed very light, fresh and clean. The three things I love finding in a meal.

The salsa, if broken down into individual ingredients, I probably wouldn't be fond of, but when they were thrown all together it really worked.

For all that it had going on, it was really easy to prepare and put together.

I loved that I was able to go back for seconds and still not feel stuffed.

What we'd change:

I'm actually having a tough time coming up with what I'd change, but:

I'd have a different side. We had it with canned green beans, but I think a corn on the cob or something else summery could be yummy.

I'd consider adding something to the salsa with a bit of a spicy kick. As I said, the salsa was amazing, but I think it could also be good with a little spice to it.

I wish I had more, but this was just too yummy!!

I would probably add another component to the salsa to try and make it even better.

Our avocado wasn't quite as ripe as it could have been and it would have been nice to try with proper avocado.

I would season the chicken just a pinch more than I did.

I had green beans for a side, but would like one that complimented the meal more.

Here's our overall rating (with 1 being the worst meal we've ever had and 10 being the best):

Mandi's Rating:

9.5 - Best meal we've made at home in a long time!! I can't wait to have leftovers for lunch today!!!

Ronnie's Rating: 8.0

Again, if you guys have any suggestions on how this is laid out or what you guys would like to see answered/done differently, please let us know :)

Rondi's Recipes: Slow Cooker Beef Curry

In our quest to become better cooks and pushing ourselves to new levels in the kitchen, Mandi and I will attempt to do a food blog once a week with pictures and reviews included. We realize that we did miss last week, not because we didn't cook, but because we forgot to take pictures. We'll also be posting pictures of our hamburger cake shortly :)

So here it is, week 2:

Slow Cooker Beef Curry

The ingredients: Curry, Jalapeno, Ginger, Onion, Stewed Tomato, Garlic, Beef Broth, Stew Meat, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

Mandi chopping up the jalapeno and ginger root.

Browning the beef in olive oil.

Chopped onion goes in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Browned beef goes on top of the onion.

Check on Jezzabel to make sure she's comfortable on the burlap sacks used to cover plants, while laying 2 feet away from her bed.

Combine juice from browned beef, garlic, jalapeno and ginger.

Add in stewed tomatoes and curry powder.

Smell...

...and serve. Oh yeah, we served it on top of rice.

Prep Time: About 15 minutes (with two people)

Cook Time: 6-8 hours on low heat in slow cooker

What we liked:

I like that it was only about a 15 minute prep time.

It was relatively idiot proof - you can't really screw up browning meat and pouring ingredients into a slow cooker.

It's a great meal for when it's cold outside, the heat of the meal really warms you up, without being an overly heavy meal, like most winter meals

You can put it all together and let it sit all day. Great for dinners when you're busy right up until meal time.

I loved smelling the different spices while this meal was being prepped. I think I could walk around with a ginger root tied to my neck.

For me, it had the perfect "heat". I could feel that heat in my mouth, but it didn't make me sweat like spicy things often do.

Brown, chop, mix, dump, turn on slow cooker. Not even I could mess this up.

The meal felt really light to me and had a fresh taste all of the way through.

What we'd change:

I would add more of each of the key spices: more garlic, ginger, and curry. I would mind more jalapeno, but it still had a pretty good kick to it with just 1.

This isn't something you can change, but something that is a bit of a con. It takes 8 hours in the slow cooker, so it's a meal that you need to think about the day before.

I would increase the curry, ginger and garlic. It had some good flavors, but I wanted more.

I would think about adding some chopped potato.

I'd love to have some naan bread with this meal.

Here's our overall rating (with 1 being the worst meal we've ever had and 10 being the best):

Mandi's Rating: 8.5

Ronnie's Rating: 8

Again, if you guys have any suggestions on how this is laid out or what you guys would like to see answered/done differently, please let us know :)

Where Should We Go on Our Honeymoon?

*Post written by Mandi - Mandi Monday has bled into Top Ten Tuesday.

The wedding planning is coming along, but we are really down to the wire when it comes to booking a honeymoon. We are all over the place when it comes to what we want. We know we want to go somewhere beachy because we'd like to just be able to relax and lay around. We wouldn't mind doing a few "off-campus" adventures, so it would be nice to go somewhere that had little excursions, like zip-lining or snorkeling also. Also, we would like somewhere that the flight from AZ is relatively short and inexpensive. So that's what we know, but when it comes to how much we want to spend, we fluctuate. Do we go really cheap and figure it's just a week? Or do we go nicer since we only get one honeymoon? Do we go all inclusive or do we not? Do we go to Mexico, the Caribbean, or somewhere totally different?

This is where you all come in. We would LOVE some input. We've wanted to to book our honeymoon for weeks and just can't pull the trigger because we're too indecisive. But we have to book it THIS WEEK. So please please please tell us about the good and bad trips you've gone on, resorts you've stayed in, etc. We have had some GREAT suggestions thus far, but want a little more insight before taking the plunge.

So let us have it. WHERE SHOULD WE GO ON OUR HONEYMOON??