Slow Cooker, Day 4

Sometimes, you just want to throw things in a slow cooker, walk away and come back a few hours later and eat.

Is that too much to ask?

And sometimes, you don't want to go to the store and buy unique ingredients or dirty six bowls and pans before your slow cooker meal even starts to cook.

Here I am, saving the day. Here are five of my favorite ways to get dinner on the table without utilizing one brain cell to prepare. Lovely visual.



(background image via)

1. Throw in however many chicken breasts you need for your crowd at dinner that night, a packet of taco seasoning (or any Mexican inspired spices you have!), 4-8 oz. cream cheese (based on the chicken breasts amount) and a jar of salsa. As a bonus, if you have a can of corn or any beans on hand, feel free to throw those in, as well. Cook on low for 4-6 hours and shred to use in tacos, fajitas, taco salad or quesadillas.

2. Line the bottom of the slow cooker with sliced red apples, top with boneless pork chops, sprinkle with cinnamon and more sliced apples. Pour in 1/4 c. water for moisture. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with stuffing.

3. Same as #1, throw in however many chicken breasts your need for dinner that night. Pour one can Coke/Dr. Pepper/Pepsi/Root Beer (your choice!) and enough BBQ sauce over chicken until covered. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes or shred for sandwiches, salad or chicken salad!

4. Line the bottom of your slow cooker with sliced bell peppers and a sliced onion. Pour about 1/2 cup-1 c. Italian salad dressing over the veggies. Once again, throw in those chicken breasts! (Can you tell we always have a bag or two of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer?) Sprinkle salt, pepper and cumin over the chicken. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve as fajitas or in quesadillas! This is one of my favorites!

5. A twist on Thanksgiving! Dump a bag of frozen veggies in the slow cooker (peas and carrots are good), top with 4 chicken breasts, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a box of stuffing, prepared. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. A meal in itself! Maybe get some pie for dessert!

Let me know if you try any of these recipes! I think you'll find yourself rekindling your love affair with the slow cooker.

Enjoy!
Laura

Slow Cooker Week, Day 3

Get ready- another super simple, slow cooker recipe comin' at ya!

In my resolution to try more of the recipes I pin on Pinterest, I found this little gem and loved it!

And it's only FOUR ingredients. Be still, my heart.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken.

via

 

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Recipe from The Frugal Girls

Yield: 4 servings

 

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce (buy 2 so you can have it on hand to use the other half of the dressing and soup mix!)

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

8 oz. Catalina salad dressing

 

Directions:

Cook chicken in slow cooker for 3 hours on high. Drain juices from slow cooker.

Mix together last three ingredients and pour over top of chicken. Cook on high for 30 minutes.

 

Serve with stuffing, over rice, quinoa or on a salad!

 

Enjoy!

Laura



Baked Chicken Chimichangas

Remember that time I posted about a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas and said the word "chimichanga" about 18 times? Well, get ready because here we go again.

My bestie kept raving about a recipe she found for baked chimichangas and said she had been making them almost weekly because they were so simple and delicious.

I gave it a try one night and, not that I doubted her, but I was reminded why we are best friends. She was so right on about these chimichangas.

She suggested a few tweaks and the recipe made 10 chimichangas! So, if you know me very well, you'll know that "freezer meal" immediately popped into my head. I cooked 6 that night for dinner and lunches the rest of the week for me and the hub and froze the other four. I wrapped the uncooked chimichangas in foil and threw them all in a freezer bag! Perfect for once Charlotte arrives and we can pull out one or all 4 of them for dinner.

This is a new favorite of mine for our own house and I think it'd be perfect to take to neighbors and friends when they have a new baby or other life changes!



Baked Chicken Chimichangas

Yield: 10 chimichangas

Prep Time: 30 min. (including cooking chicken) Total Time: 1 hr. 

Adapted from The Other Side of Fifty

 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I cooked a few chicken breasts for multiple meals and shredded 2 in the food processor)

1 pkg. Mexican style rice, prepared

1 can Ro-tel
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
6-8 ounces of shredded cheese (I used a Mexican mix)
10 burrito-size tortillas

Canola Oil for brushing

 

Directions:

Puree Ro-tel in food processor or blender and pour into medium mixing bowl. Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Stir in the shredded chicken, rice and taste, then season with salt and pepper if needed. You can refrigerate the mixture here for a few hours or days, if need be, to make dinner prep simple!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Wrap tortillas with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30-60 seconds to soften.

To build the chimichangas place a handful of cheese on the tortilla and top it with about a 1/2 c. of the chicken mixture. Fold the bottom of the tortilla over the mixture, fold up the sides and roll the chimichanga on top of itself. (See here for a visual of rolling up the chimichanga). Place seam side down on the baking sheet and brush with canola oil. If freezing, wrap in foil and place in labeled freezer bag.

 

Bake for 17-20 min. or until golden brown. Serve with sour cream, salsa and chopped avocado for topping!

 

Enjoy!

Laura

Football Menu

As if it even needs to be said, we spent last Saturday at home watching football!

There were 7 of us here for all the night games and I thought I'd share our menu to make your decision easier this upcoming weekend with all the options out there!

This menu was perfect for this amount of people and even had leftovers of the chicken which I have been using for tacos and salads for leftovers this week. Gotta love that.

We started out with chips and Skinny Taco Dip from Skinnytaste...
(although the hub doesn't like olives and I forgot to buy shredded lettuce so it was slightly different yet still delicious!)



Then I cooked a 3 lb. bag of chicken tenderloins at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, flipped them for about 10 minutes more.  I had coated them in a mixture of oil, water and buffalo chicken seasoning from the grocery store. (You could use any marinade or Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce would be good, too!) And- voila!- boneless buffalo chicken tenders!

...all served with a side of Oven Fried Pickles from The Culinary Couple that were super yummy and so easy! I will definitely be making these again.

 

And we finished the night off with Pumpkin Spice Kisses, of course!

 

 

I loved that I didn't spend all day/night in the kitchen prepping food and actually got to enjoy football and our company! I made the cookies before Saturday and made the dip and prepped the chicken in the morning.

 

Also, it was great that I didn't do my typical overboard spread and had the perfect amount of food. Hope this makes your Saturday menu planning a little easier.

 

Now to decide what to make this weekend...

Laura



What's for Dinner?

How about...

Cornflake Chicken

 

Parmesan Pork

 

Pretzel Chicken

 

 

Split Pea and Ham Soup

 

Creamy Tomato Soup

 

Christmas in July Orzo Salad

 

Root Beer BBQ Pulled Pork

 

Take your pick!

Laura

 

Cornflake Chicken

How have I not blogged about this before?!

I talk a lot about simple recipes that are "go-to" for me. This dinner hits the nail on the head for that.

It is one our favorite summer dinners and is perfect to take to lunch in the park, a picnic dinner or a casual night at home!

Cornflake Chicken!



I've tried multiple versions but the best one is found here by Kellogg's. The only modifications I make is using boneless, skinless chicken tenders instead of chicken pieces (as called for in the recipe) so they only take about 15 minutes in the oven.

Next time you're at the grocery store, look for the boneless, skinless thin chicken tenders to be on sale and stock up in your freezer! You can also pick up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and ask the grocery store butcher to slice them into thin strips for you (free of charge!). They really are better as little chicken fingers because you get a lot of crunch from the coating that way!

We always have a box of cornflakes on hand for when I'm in a dinner rut. This is great because you probably have all the ingredients, except the cornflakes, at home so you can pick up one ingredient at the store and- voila!- dinner is served.

Click here for the original recipe!

Enjoy!

Laura



Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Chicken

I've said it before, and I'll say it again- Skinnytaste strikes again!

I'm trying to come out of my recipe rut and man, oh, man, did I ever. I made these Skinny Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Chicken breasts last week and they were a hit! I used 3 chicken breasts sliced in half, so that's 6 pieces for you non mathematicians, and we enjoyed them for leftovers all week long!



It's the perfect combination of everything you love about jalapeno poppers- cream cheese, cheddar cheese, bacon and a kick from the jalapeno- in dinner form! A winning summer dinner!

These will definitely be making an appearance around this house soon!

Here is the link to the original recipe: Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Chicken.

Enjoy!
Laura

Pretzel Chicken

2 things I love:

1. Recipes that are easy to memorize and don't take a lot of prep time.
2. Quick ways to make chicken fancy.

I love more things than just that...and that might be three things...but that's all that applies to this recipe...anyways!

I saw this recipe a year or so ago in Martha Stewart Living magazine and it is one of those yummy, quick dishes that is now a go-to for us!

It's only 3 ingredients (plus more for the sauce if you want that!): pretzels, chicken and Dijon mustard. Sold.

P.S. I know this picture looks nasty...but it's really good...

Pretzel Chicken

Recipe from: Martha Stewart Living

Yield: 4 chicken breasts

Prep Time: 5 min. Total Time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

4 c. pretzels, crushed

Whole Grain Dijon Mustard (regular works fine, too)

4 chicken breasts, thawed (pork chops or chicken tenders would be good, too!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil sprayed with cooking spray.

2. Pour crushed pretzels into a shallow bowl. Coat both sides of chicken with Dijon mustard and then dredge in pretzels and place on baking sheet.

3. Bake for 25 min. or until chicken is no longer pink (or pork reaches 160 degrees).

This is great served with veggies or on top of a salad!

It's even better when dipped in this sauce...

1/4 c. Dijon mustard

1/2 c. mayo

1 tsp. honey

1 tbsp. dried dill (or 2 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped)

1/8 tsp. black pepper

Mix all ingredients together and set aside until ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Laura