Nanny Arrives!

My Mom arrived this afternoon! She is staying with us for the next week because my Dad is out of town for business. We haven't seen my Mom since our family beach trip a couple weeks ago, so I was very excited & happy to catch up with her! I decided I wanted to make something special for her. Pumpkin pie is her absolute favorite dessert! I found a recipe online for Pumpkin Crisp & decided, we had to try it & it would be a fun surprise for her when she arrives!

Pumpkin Crisp
**I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It turned out so good! It tastes like pumpkin pie with a crumble topping! So Yummy!! It was really easy to make!**

1 package yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (29oz) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Set aside 1 cup cake mix for the topping. Combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter or margarine. Pat into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, spices, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cake mix crust.
4. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup cake mix and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup softened butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

For dinner, I tried a new recipe called Taco Chicken Bowls. This is served over rice instead of on tortillas. This interested me. It turned out really good & everyone said they would like to have it again. :)

Taco Chicken Bowls
**I found this recipe on budgetbytes.blogspot.com. It turned out really yummy & everyone liked it. I left out the chili powder & cilantro. We are not big fans of cilantro & I bought medium salsa. We are not big fans of spicy food so the medium salsa made it plenty spicy for us.**

1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts
1 (16oz) jar salsa
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained
1/2lb (8oz) frozen corn
1T chili powder
1/2T cumin
1/2T minced garlic
1/2tsp dried oregano
1/4tsp cayenne pepper
1/4tsp salt
cracked pepper, to taste
2 cups dry rice
8oz shredded cheese
1/2 bunch cilantro (optional)

1. Add everything except the rice, cheese & cilantro to the slow cooker along with 1/4 cup of water. Give everything a good stir and make sure the chicken is covered in the mixture.
2. Secure the lid of your slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
3. Near the end of the cooking time, cook the 2 cups of rice according to the package directions.
4. After 8 hours of cooking, carefully remove the lid of the slow cooker. Stir with a fork to shred the chicken. Build the taco bowls by placing rice on the bottom, then the taco chicken mix, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro.