YUM! Baked Chicken Ranchero

Played with my food this afternoon, and came up with a new recipe that was really yummy, so I'm going to share it. Here's the finished dish:


Not very instructive, since you can't tell what's under all that sauce and cheese, but doesn't it look absolutely good enough to eat?

Here's what you'll need:

• Four nice pieces of skinless chicken (I used thighs; boneless breasts would be nice, too.)
• Four whole chili peppers, split lengthwise
• One 4-oz can sliced mushrooms
• One 24-oz jar of really good spaghetti sauce (more on that later)
• About 1 1/2cup uncooked rice
• Enough grated cheese to look nice when it's melted over the top

Start by spreading the rice in a 9"x13" baking dish. Lay the four pieces of chicken atop the rice, and spread a split chili over the top of each one. Drain the can of mushrooms and sprinkle evenly over that. Pour the spaghetti sauce over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, until the rice is done and the chicken juices run clear. (I'm vague here because mine had been baking for about half an hour when the DH called to say he'd be home in about an hour. That was later than I'd anticipated, so I lowered the oven to 200 degrees and let it cook until DH was home and everything else was ready.)

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and return to the oven just long enough to melt.

We had tossed salad, apple slices, and a glass of sangria with this. SO good.

Now, about that spaghetti sauce. I wouldn't normally name names, but this was a new (to me) brand that I picked up the other day at The Grocery Outlet. It was amazing--all natural, and full of sliced mushrooms, thick tomato sauce, red and green bell peppers, garlic, fresh basil, and even white wine. The brand was Rao's Homemade Southern Italian Pepper and Mushroom Sauce. If you can find it, it's definitely worth picking up!

Other news: Still working on that organization thing, and actually beginning to think I'll succeed.

I've spent the last two mornings working with paper, doing the 4th quarter report, totalling up my business sales for 2009, and revamping my filing system. In the process of that, I went through every paper in the files, and got rid of anything that wasn't something I needed or wanted. There was one moment that was kind of funny, too. The last file folder I labeled said "Financial/Quarterly Reports", and when I'd finished writing that, I picked up the file and looked at it, and dang, if I didn't all of a sudden feel official!

Then I started working on the calendar, filling in the dates of shows I know I'll be doing, and beginning to schedule the steps that would lead up to each one.

You know what's nice? I'm starting to feel like things are under control, and my stress levels have gone WAY down. And it feels so good to see my craft room looking tidy(er), that I actually am enjoying going down just to see what else I can do!