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

Scalloped Apples Dessert (in the slow cooker)

I'm a big fan of the crock pot. It's kind of like having a personal chef - cooks while I'm not around and makes my home smell delicious. Sure, I still have to prep the meal and clean up after, but I haven't met a slow cooker meal that I didn't like, and there's something about making a meal cooking itself while I'm off drinking margaritas by the pool running errands that appeals to me.

I've never made anything dessert-y in my crock pot, though, until this recipe. I loved these apples, and so did my daughter (in fact, this reminds me I need to make this again!). They were good warm or cold, and I actually never even ice cream with them, which sounds A-MAZ-ING (again, another reason to make them soon!).

This recipe was super easy to make and didn't take long, thanks to my trusty peeler and apple corer/slicer. It made a lot, but we enjoyed them for days, including as a topping to waffles ... mmmmm ...

Channeling IHOP at home with waffles,
leftover scalloped apples and whipped cream.

Ingredients
4 Granny Smith apples
4 Golden Delicious apples
1 cup sugar (feel free to cut back)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup butter, sliced
vanilla ice cream and/or sweetened whipped cream (optional, for serving)

Directions
Use a 4-quart slow cooker. If you've only got a 6-quart, that's okay, just check on your apples after 3-4 hours on low.

Peel, core, and slice the apples.

Plop the apples into your slow cooker and toss the slices with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and butter slices.

Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, or until apples have reached desired tenderness. If you cook too long, the apples will turn into applesauce.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

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