Recipe: Chicken Puffs

Hubby and I went over a friend's house to watch the NFL playoffs game a couple of weeks ago and I made these. They were a huge hit and were gone faster than you can say touchdown! Just kidding that is pretty fast, but they did go quickly. I was not surprised, of course, because they contain three of my favorite foods: cream cheese, garlic, and crescent rolls! I've seen similar recipes floating around on Pinterest and I'm sure they're all delicious, this is just what I whipped up.

 

Ingredients:

 

2 boneless skinless breast halves, cooked & shredded (or 2 small cans of chicken, drained)

2 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese

2-3 cans crescent roll dough or crescent rounds

1 tbsp chopped fresh green onions

1 tsp garlic powder

pinch of salt & pepper

1/8 tsp chicken bouillon granules, optional

 

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In a skillet over med heat combine chicken, garlic, salt, pepper, and bouillon. Stir and cook until chicken is heated through.

3. Reduce heat to med-low and add cream cheese. I find it best to cut the blocks of cream cheese into small chunks before adding it. Stir frequently until fully melted (if you step away too long it can burn and stick to the pan!) Mix in the green onion and remove from heat.

4. Unroll crescent roll dough onto counter (or cutting board, parchment paper, etc.) and pinch seams shut. With a rolling pin, roll dough to seal seams further and thin the dough slightly.

5. Using a pizza cutter, cut three vertical lines into dough and two horizontal lines, creating 12 semi-even squares.

6. Spoon a bit of chicken mixture into each square.
 

 

7. Fold all four corners in toward the middle to cover chicken mixture. Pinch corners to seal.

8. Bake for approx. 12 minutes or until puffs are golden brown.

 

 

DIY: Fancy up an old woven basket!

 

I use baskets all the time, for both storage and decoration. Sometimes I end up with baskets that I can't even remember where they came from! This is one of those baskets. I wanted to jazz it up a bit and this idea came to mind. Hope you like! 

 

 

All you'll need for this project: 

• Woven basket (not too tightly woven)
• Strips of fabric or ribbon

What to do:

Step 1: Using your fingers, separate the weaves in the basket and get a good look at the pattern. This will help you to determine your own pattern for your fabric and how you want to weave it around the basket. To keep an even pattern all the way around I counted the weaves (technical term) both across and up and down. I'll explain this a little further in a minute.

Step 2: Starting INSIDE the basket, pull your fabric through one of the openings in the weave at whatever point you want to start.

Step 3: Begin weaving in and out (inside to outside) of your basket in your desired pattern. To keep it really simple, you could just go horizontally all the way around the basket in several rows. This would be a great way to practice and get a feel for what you're doing. However, the design possibilities are endless!

Example: My first weave went down 4 weaves and over 3, diagonally. I did this all the way around the basket. Using a new strip of fabric I did the opposite, coming up 4 weaves and over 3, ending each weave in the same place the first set ended. This is how I created the chevron pattern. For my last row I only did the first step without completing the chevron. No reason really, just the way I wanted to do it :)

Step 4: Make sure your woven fabric strips all end INSIDE the basket. You don't want any funky pieces sticking out around the outside. Just tie off each end into a knot and that's it! Don't worry if your strips aren't long enough to reach all the way around the basket, just tie a knot where it left off and start a new strip.

Ta-da!

 

I was thinking, this would be a great way to customize storage for the holidays (red & green for Christmas, maybe), or for gifts (blue fabric for a boy baby shower??).

xoxo

Rachel