Crock pot Honey Sesame Chicken

My crock pot and I are good friends. I rely on dump meals for dinners several times a month. Tim throws everything in the crock pot, I come home, we eat. It's pretty awesome, really.

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes, so when I saw this one on my Facebook feed, I knew I wanted to try it. It was delicious and super easy to make. The only "trick" of this recipe was I made it on a weekend since it really only needed to cook for a few hours.

I'll definitely be making it again - adding rice and some steamed veggies made a quick, complete meal.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 onion, minced

2 1/2 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:

In a small bowl combine the honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Stir well.

Place chicken in the crockpot. Pour the sauce over top. Cook on low for 3-4 hours.

Remove chicken, but leave the sauce, either shred or cut into pieces.

Stir the cornstarch into the sauce and cook on high for 10 minutes. 

Add the chicken back into the sauce. Toss well. Top with sesame seeds.

Source: Stephanie Cooks

Chicken Taco Rice

I have a go-to Mexican recipe (Crock Pot Mexican Chicken), but I wanted to try something a little bit different, sans slow cooker. My husband and I both thought this dish was really yummy, and I thought it was super easy to make. I loved the colorful vegetables - something the crock pot dish doesn't really offer. The only bad thing? It gave me some heartburn. Other than pregnancy, not much gives me heartburn, but it must have been just the right mix of acid and spice and everything nice.

Ingredients:
1 lb. boned chicken breasts, cut in to strips
2 tbsp. oil
1 can (13 3/4 oz.) chicken broth
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 can (12 oz.) corn, drained
1 medium red or green pepper, cut in to small strips
1 1/2 cups Minute Rice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
tortilla trips
sour cream

Directions:

Cook and stir chicken in hot oil until lightly browned. Add broth, tomato sauce and seasoning mix.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer five minutes. Add corn and red or green pepper.

Bring to a full boil. Stir in rice. Cover; remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with fork.

Serve with cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream, if desired.

Why I married my husband...

... because he comes up with seriously yummy, random meals like this:

That is asparagus and cheese-stuffed chicken, with a side of couscous.

We've recently decided you can stuff chicken with just about any kind of veggie and cheese, and it's good.

You can see why I love that man.

Chicken Quesadillas

I've tried a few quesadilla recipes in the last few years, and this one was delicious. My husband even liked them! I used a Weight Watchers recipe, and the only complaint I have is that it made a ton of quesadillas - but they'd be great for a party or if the recipe was halved. The leftovers were yummy, though! I also love that the ingredients are things that I usually have in the house, and these didn't take long at all to prepare.

Ingredients
1 lb boneless chicken breasts
1 (16 ounce) jar salsa
1/2 lb cheddar cheese, Shredded
10 8-inch flour tortillas

Preparation
1. Broil the chicken for about 5 minutes on each side, or until no longer pink inside. Cool and then shred or cube the chicken.

2. Mix chicken, salsa and cheese in a bowl.

3. Place 1/10th of the mixture on half of the tortilla, fold over and press down slightly to “seal”. You can moisten the edges with water to help the edges seal

4. Bake at 400°F for about 5 minutes or until tortillas start to brown.

5. Serve with additional salsa, sour cream, or guacamole for dipping.

6. Goes well with refried beans and/or Spanish Rice.

Makes 10 servings.
WW POINTS per serving: 6
Nutritional information per serving: 291 calories, 12.2g fat, 2.4g fiber

Source: Weight Watchers recipes

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

As Meg mentioned in an earlier post, we're going to expand the focus of the blog a bit. I made this super easy dinner last week and wanted to share it because it is a) simple, b) cheap, c) healthy and d) delish.

I'm not a great cook. I don't particularly enjoy cooking - I'm much more of a baker. But I realize that I can't live off frozen meals forever, and there will be times when it will be nice to have some good go-to recipes for dinner.

I was on Weight Watchers in the months before my wedding, and I've adopted many of the principles in to my every day eating. I had searched for Weight Watcher friendly recipes that were easy and didn't SOUND like Weight Watcher recipes, and this was one of them. Conveniently, it also sounded like something that Tim would like.

And even though he asked that I buy Chipotle for him to eat in the event that he didn't like MY cooking, he finally admitted that it was good and he would enjoy having it again. And since it was so easy, I have enjoyed making it again and again and again.


Ingredients:

1 package frozen skinless chicken breasts (about four breasts)

1 jar corn & black bean salsa

Directions:

Dump into crock pot (chicken must be frozen). Cook all day on low.

Before you're ready to serve your meal (it was about 7 hours later for us), shred chicken and let cook another 10 minutes or so.

Serve in corn tortillas for tacos or in an egg roll wrap or over rice.

Optional: Top with shredded cheese