Recipe: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

I am a member of a cooking group on Facebook and when I saw this recipe I was skeptical. (Cream of chicken soup and salsa? Really?) But everyone was raving about it so I tried it. It is VERY band friendly (I have been having issues lately with being tight...and this is after I was SURE I needed a fill a couple of weeks ago), tasty, and perfect for lunch.

Next time I make it (and there will be a next time), I will use half the chicken and add a can of black beans and a can of corn to add some fiber. Otherwise...perfect.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup salsa

1 package taco seasoning

1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed) or cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

Add chicken to slow cooker. Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken. Mix salsa and soup; pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours OR high for 3 to 4 hours. Shred chicken with a fork. Stir in sour cream until heated, then serve over rice or tortillas. (Or just in a bowl or with a few tortilla chips if you're a bandster.)

Exhausted

I'm exhausted. What dumbass thought it would be a good idea for me to work 40 hours at one job and 16 at the other one, all in one week?

(Oh yeah. That would be me. Ahem.)

New job is good. I no longer feel like a TOTAL idiot. Just a semi-idiot.

I'm still figuring out food. Breakfast has been a tiny serving of homemade ham and cheese quiche at 7:30. (I don't really love the way it came out. I need to keep working on it.) Atkins protein shake around 10:30. Lunch around 1:00, with half of my lunch saved for a snack before the afternoon rush around 5:00.  Today I made a pasta and tuna salad made with Barilla Plus pasta over lettuce and spinach. Wasn't bad. Tomorrow I'm bringing chicken salad and Triscuits. I have to learn to eat faster - no food allowed at the front desk and that's where I am all week.

Oh, thanks for the awesome ideas. I'm going to try some of them out next week. I liked the other Stephanie's idea about the avocado & chicken...that sounds fab. I don't like egg salad or meat roll ups but I have some good ideas now.

I have run out of thinking. G'night.

New Job and Need Lunch Ideas

The new job is great, mostly. I hate sitting in a classroom for hours on end but when I got out on the floor and started talking to patients, I loved it. Next week I have on the job training for 3 days at my home location where I'll be working the majority of the time (6 miles from my house), and then the following week I'm back in the corporate office for more classroom time. One more week of on the job training the following week, and then I start for real. 4 week training to be basically a receptionist - crazy, but there is SO much to learn. Insurance regulations, what to do with a person having chest pains, workers comp, etc. Everyone is super nice and everyone seems to love their jobs, and not in a Disney, "Oh god I'd better smile because I'm going to get fired if I don't," but in a real, honest, friendly way. People were making plans together for the weekend and bringing each other lunch and teasing each other in a fun way. I don't know if my home office will be the same way, but I sure hope so and I'll find out Monday.

It is SO FREAKIN' WEIRD to work with almost ALL women. Most of the receptionists and medical assistants and billing people are women, including management, and about half the doctors too...very strange for me since I've been in tech for so long that is more evenly divided, but mostly men.

I need some advice on lunch ideas. The break schedule is a 30 minute lunch break, with shorter breaks throughout the day. My usual (leftovers from dinner or Amy's Organic frozen meals) aren't working great for me. There's usually a line for the microwave and by the time I get my food heated up and sit down, I might only have 15 minutes to eat. I can eat pretty much anything if I take my time, but I feel rushed and was getting stuck most days. The food needs to sustain me for hours so I'm thinking soup won't work because it doesn't stick with me. So I'm looking for ideas of things that are either easy to eat without being sliders OR things that don't need to be heated up so I can start my lunch break right away without waiting for the microwave. So far I've come up with...

Chicken or tuna salad with Triscuits and a piece of fruit or a small yogurt.

Ground turkey & white bean chili with a few baked chips (needs to be heated but easy enough to eat and will keep me satisfied for awhile).

Tossed salad topped with protein and a small yogurt.

Any other ideas?

Oh...I don't like to use protein shakes or bars for my meals, so those are out. 

Not Telling

I started my new job yesterday. It went pretty well. There are a whole lot of new things for me to learn. It's a big leap going from working in technology for the last 16 years in to medical, which works totally differently. I'm cool with that. I'm a fast learner and I'm sure I'll be figuring out the various forms and med-speak and how to verify insurance in no time. I was so booooooored with tech and I'm excited that I'll actually be doing something other than telling people when to press buttons. I think this is a job I can excel at and this company has a lot of room for growth. The people are super nice and the company is committed to keeping employees happy. The schedule is very flexible. Yes, they're open 7 days a week so I WILL be working some weekends and holidays, but I'll be on three 12 hour shifts per week so I can easily work around doctor appointments, errands, and I could even work 3 solid days and then go see my sister for 4 days without having to take time off. I'm going to keep working at the old company 1-2 days per week too, at least until they hire someone full time to take over for me.

The other thing they do for their employees to keep them happy is that they buy lunch every Monday. Yesterday was my first day and was also Monday. They brought in pizza. Not the lovely thin crust kind that I normally eat, but the big, thick, gloppy chain kind. I don't usually eat that.

I'm trying an experiment. I'm not telling anyone there about my band. I've told EVERYONE about my band for the last couple of years and this time, I'm keeping it to myself. I'm not saying the name of the company here and not talking about my blog when I'm there. When I needed to hand my driver's license with the old picture to the coordinator when she was taking my badge picture, she said it looked like I lost some weight. I just said...yup, I did.

But I thought I was busted when I saw that thick pizza and no other choices. I was very hungry and I am pretty sure I need a fill anyway.

I s-l-o-w-l-y made my way through a slice and a half, avoiding part of the crust and chewing very carefully. No problem. Now I know I need a fill. That thick, doughy stuff usually doesn't work great for me. I like regular hand tossed or extra thin pizza.

I'm sick of this silly plateau and between the thick pizza and the hot dog I ate the other day with the bun, and the fact that I'm basically always hungry, I'm sure I need a fill.

I talked to Gwen the band nurse (we went to dinner after support group last night) and she said she would get me in for a fill as soon as I am ready (in other words...have a day off). So...today or tomorrow I'll have my schedule for the next month and schedule away.

Day 2 of the new job today. I have prepared my own lunch today (Italian turkey sausage, broccollini, garlic, hot pepper, and a little whole wheat tortellini). Yummy.

BYOC...It's Been Awhile

BYOC - Bring Your Own Crazy!

I haven't done one of these in ages, but...why not? I have nothing else to talk about.

It’s Friday (ok so I'm a day late) – so it’s time for BYOC – Bring Your Own Crazy! We answer 5 questions to get to know each other better and to give our blogging brains a break! Copy to your own blog and enjoy!


1. Do you have any siblings? What is your relationship with them? Good, bad, ugly?

I have one little sister. She is amazing and makes me so proud and I admire the heck out of her. She's a pediatrician, and an amazing mom, and just a very good person. Not to mention that she's awfully cute. We've pretty much always gotten along really well.

2. Let’s talk pizza. Do you prefer homemade or restaurant? What toppings are your fave?

I love pizza, but it's a very slidery food for me so I need to be careful about it. I can eat too much of it. I like interesting (weird) vegetarian pizzas - recently I had one called the "Green Goat" which was goat cheese, pesto, and tomatoes. Delish! 


3. When is the last time you cried – in sadness and in joy?

Last time I really, really cried was the night my little nephew was born. I was so overwhelmingly happy that he had arrived but sad that I wasn't there to meet him right away.

4. Do you own a gun – one that is specifically yours? Do you know how to use it?

Yep. When Scott and I first moved in together, I knew that guns would be in my home. (He's ex-army, and a hunter.) I wanted to know that if there was ever a need, I could safely pick one up and make sure it was unloaded and move it without hurting myself or others, so I took a gun safety class. Long story short, I LOVED shooting! It was so much fun. So I got into competitive shooting and had a really good time with it. The guns that are ALL mine are a .40 caliber Walther P99, a .40 caliber Glock and two 9 mm Glocks (one large frame and one small frame - these are my competition guns that I used for the Glock Sports Shooters competitions), a Walther .22 caliber just for fun because it's super cheap to shoot (.22 bullets are very inexpensive), and an AR-15 rifle. I have NEVER shot at a living thing and don't intend to, but I know that if the zombies come, I'm covered. ;-)

5. Repeat question. Summarize your week!

It's been a crazy week. Yesterday was my last day as a full time employee at my old job and Monday is my first day at my new job, I'm going to be working 3 days a week (12 hour shifts) at the urgent care place and 1-2 days at the old job, so I'm going to be very, very busy.

All Better!

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words on my post about the new job and my tummy issues. My stomach is 100% better! No pain, no gas, no bloating. I ate my breakfast (egg whites and cheese on 1/2 an English muffin), lunch (burrito bowl), and dinner (chicken thighs stir fried with broccoli slaw) with no pain at all. I think it was just the oat bran and/or stress. Thank goodness!

Big News

You know how when you have something on your mind and it's pretty much all you can think about so you don't really have anything else to say because the one thing takes over all your thoughts? Well, that's why I haven't been blogging much.

I have some big news that I can FINALLY share...I got a new job! I didn't want to say anything before it was finalized and I had told my current boss, but now it's official. I'll be working as an office person/front desk at a local urgent care facility. I have been interested in the medical field for a long time but have been working in technology for so long that I had no idea how to even get in the door in another industry. So I made a decision...I would apply for an entry level position just to get in the door and go from there.

I'll be working three 12 hour shifts per week so I asked my current boss if I can move to part time (1-2 days per week) and he said he would look into it. If so, that will be great. If not, my last day there will be on 4/20. I am nervous about making a huge career shift but hey...nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

So...I'm desperate for some office-type clothes. I got nothin'. I've worn jeans and t-shirts to work for years. I hate shopping but I'm afraid it's going to have to happen. (If anyone has anything in 16 or large that they want to get rid of, let me know!)

In other news...I have been having some stomach pain for the last few days and I'm worried that there might be something wrong. I'm hoping not, but eating is uncomfortable. I have a couple of theories...

1. Gas pain. I've been eating a lot of raw oat bran for cholesterol and maybe I'm not reacting well to it. I cut it out today so I'll see how I feel in the next few days and add it back in s-l-o-w-l-y.

2. Stress. Career shift and all. It's good stress, but still stress. I know that can mess with my stomach.

3. Gall bladder. The pain is always after I eat and then eases up.

Or...something is really wrong. I don't want to think about that right now. I'm going to do liquids/mushies for a couple of days and see how I feel. If I'm not WAY better in a couple of days, I'll call my doctor.