Kitchen Tip

Do you know that the very fastest way to shred cooked chicken is in your KitchenAid Mixer?  I used to hate spending all that time shredding chicken with two forks or cutting into cubes for recipes and soup.  Now I just throw my chicken into the mixer and voila!  I keep tons of roasted, shredded chicken in the freezer, and it is a lifesaver.  Seriously.

(I am thinking that you may have some leftover turkey that you'll want to use up later this week.  This tip would absolutely work for that turkey breast as well.)

Here's my exact method:

Preheat your oven to 450.  Place your chicken breasts on sheet pan with olive oil and good amount of salt.  Don't crowd them too much, or they'll steam, not roast.  I usually can fit five or six on one pan.  Roast them at 450 for about 35-40 minutes.  (You can do this with chicken that you've boiled too I suppose.  I just think roasting tastes the best!)  Let cool to room temp.

Post-cooking,  Not looking that delish, but they are.

Put several whole chicken breasts in your mixer with the paddle attachment (I have the professional size mixer, and I can safely do five breasts at a time without overflow), and mix on the lowest speed until the chicken breaks up.  As the chicken shreds itself, I turn the mixer up a little bit to get it as shredded as I'd like.  Put the shredded chicken into containers and use immediately in any recipe that calls for cooked chicken, or freeze.

Awful picture, but you get the idea.  Just toss them in there.

I use this chicken for an untold number of things, including easy lunches, chicken salad, quesadillas, enchiladas, casseroles, soup, tacos, fajitas, pasta dishes....the list goes on and on.  Basically, having shredded chicken in the freezer means you can throw together a real meal in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza.  Hallelujah!

Finished product.  Amazing, no?!

Go visit Tammy's Recipes for a link-up of Kitchen Tips every Tuesday!  (And some really good tried and true recipes as well).

Snow Day

The first snow is one of my favorite days of the year.  The kids' faces remind me of all the wonder and joy of  a childhood winter.

Poor Charlotte was positive that she was going to love it until she got outside.

Bath Night

There is beauty in the small things, even things that feel very common.

It's so easy for me to forget that it's not just work, that these are the things that make up my life.  That's why I love photography.  It is another reminder to see your life instead of just powering through it.

Let's be real here...on bath nights, my floor can resemble the ocean.  But it's a small price to pay to hold sweet smelling, pajama-ed babies with damp hair.