Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

Ok so last night was sweet and sour chicken on pg 81. It turned out ok....there are 2 things you need to consider with this recipe...the first is that you don't have to use the specific type of frozen vegetables she asks for. I used frozen broccoli and california vegetable medley and it was fine. The 2nd thing to realize is the amount of sweet and sour sauce it calls for. Usually in this book when she says to use one container of something, you go to the store buy one container of it and it's the right amount, like a standard amount....however that's not the case with sweet and sour sauce. I went to wal-mart and bought a container of the sauce and when I looked at the recipe again it said 18 oz of sauce....my bottle only had 10 oz......so the sweet and sour flavor wasn't as strong as it should have been. So be careful when going to the store to buy the ingredients make sure that the package has the amount she calls for the recipe. I'll have to make this one again with the right amount of sauce but for now I give this recipe a 3 because I have to do it again......darn that sweet and sour sauce!

Ingredients

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar (18 oz) sweet and sour sauce
1 bag (16 oz) frozen stir fry vegetables
6 cups cooked rice
1/4 to 1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds, optional
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. In greased slow cooker, combine
chicken, sweet and sour sauce, frozen vegetables and salt. Cover and cook
on high heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or on low heat for 5-6 hours.

Serve over cooked rice and sprinkle with almonds. Makes 4-6
servings

Favorite Barbecue Chicken?

Well over the weekend I played with the Favorite Barbecue Chicken recipe. It's on page 73. Instead of using chicken I used a tri tip roast (2 to be exact). We had people over for dinner. So I figure this recipe can really be used with any type/cut of meat. It's really easy: meat and a bottle of BBQ sauce and then cook for 4 hours. Simple.....the only drawback....it had a BBQ taste just a generic one, it didn't really taste like the good BBQ sauce that I used so my advice just get some plain old BBQ sauce for the recipe and then dip it in the good BBQ sauce after it's done. I give this recipe a 4 because it's pretty versatile with the meat you can use.

Ingredients

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle (16 oz) barbecue sauce

Directions

Put chicken in greased slow cooker. Pour favorite barbecue sauce over the top.
Cover and cook on high heat 4-6 hours or on low heat 8-10 hours. Makes 4-6
servings.

Simple Chili and Breadbowls!

Ok so tonights dish was chili found on pg 37. I found a bread bowl recipe online that is really easy and it turned out great. I'll put that at the bottom. So my husband always says he doesn't like chili, but since I do, I made it. It turned out great! In my 5 qt crock pot I cooked it for 3 hours on high. I actually didn't even have to change anything in this recipe (first time!). I give this recipe a 5 because I LOVE chili!

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 cup dried minced onion or 1 large onion, chopped
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, with liquid
2 cans (8oz each) tomato puree
1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, with liquid
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles, with liquid
1 cup water
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on
high heat 2-3 hours or on low heat 4-6 hours. Serve in bread bowls.
Makes 6-8 servings.

Ok now here's the recipe to make easy bread bowls:

One 1 lb., 13 oz. can of Pillsbury Grands Biscuits (Golden Corn, Wheat, etc.)

1.Heat oven to 350°. Make four 5" balls of foil by crushing four 50"x12" pieces of foil. Flatten tops slightly. Place foil balls on large cookie sheet.

2. Separate dough into eight biscuits. Combine two of the biscuits together and roll into a 6-8" circle. Place dough over a foil ball, shaping gently to fit and make a bowl shape. (Dough should not touch cookie sheet.) Repeat with remaining dough. If you only have the smaller biscuits that make 10 biscuits use 4 or 5 of those biscuits to make the circle.

3. Bake at 350° for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Carefully remove bread bowls from foil so they do not tear.

4. Place ½ cup of soup or chili in each bread bowl. Top with cheese if desired.

PS: Just to let you know, you'll have chili coming out of your nose after you make this if you're only making it for 2 people. So be prepared to love chili for a while or freeze it for later.

Tri Tip Roast

I had to use this recipe (found on page 62) for Tri Tip roast because that cut of meat is my favorite. If you've ever had a tri tip steak, it's one of the juciest and most tender steaks you'll have. That is, if you don't over cook it. So the tri tip roast is just a bigger cut of that meat. This was a great recipe, the only thing I changed was I only cooked it for 3 1/2 hours instead of 4-5 since I'm using a 5 qt. crock pot and most of her recipes call for too much time cooking. Great recipe! I just added mashed potatoes and some vegetables on the side and there you have it. Oh and of course I dipped it in some Famous Dave's barbeque sauce. Now that's good barbeque sauce. If you've never been to a Famous Dave's steak house, you really need to go! The best!

I give this recipe a 5 I just love this cut of meat!

Ingredients

3-4 lb Tri-Tip Roast
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of celery soup, condensed
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup, condensed
1 can (14 oz) beef broth
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Salt and pepper the roast. Place in greased slow cooker. Mix
soups and broth and pour over roast. Cover and cook on high heat 4-6 hours
or low heat 8-10 hours. Makes 4-6 servings.

Lasagna

Ok so tonight was Lasagna! Did you know you could make lasagna in a crock pot? I didn't. It's on pg 56 and it turned out pretty good and I have to say I liked that I didn't have to cook the noodles. The only change I made to this one was that I cooked it on low for 3.5 hours instead of 4-5 like she said. I could tell it wanted to burn....but I wouldn't let it. So it actually turned out nice! I give this recipe a 4 ....it wasn't holy crap this is the best thing in the world, but believe me it was good.

Now what to make tomorrow?

Ingredients

12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 jar (28 oz) spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup water
1 carton (16 oz) cottage cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated

Directions

Break noodles in half. Place half of the noodles in bottom of greased
slow cooker. Stir Italian seasoning into meat and spread half over the
noodles already in slow cooker. Then layer half of the sauce and water,
half of the cottage cheese, and half of the mozzarella cheese over beef.
Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low heat 3.5-4 hours. Do not cook
more than 5 hours. Makes 6-8 servings.

Easy Taco Soup

Tonights recipe was Easy Taco Soup on pg 43. It actually was really easy. And it turned out great! I served it with quesadillas and put sour cream on the soup and it was great! I used salsa instead of the tomato soup it called for (cause I was all out) and I think it was better this way (even though I haven't had it the other way). The recipe said to cook on low for 6-8 hours ok it was 1pm when I decided to make it who wants to eat at 7 at night? Yeah right, so I cooked it on high for 3 hours and stirred every hour so it wouldn't stick (I forgot to grease the crock pot).

Did you know you're supposed to grease a crock pot? I'd never even heard of that before. But it works wonders with clean up. So I thought the soup was going to stick if I didn't stir it since I forgot to grease it. It turned out just fine. My husband wants to have people over for dinner now because I keep making good food and that's only from 2 recipes!

I give this recipe a 5 I will make this one again!

Ingredients

1 can (15 oz) chili with beans and meat
1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, with liquid
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 can (8oz) tomato sauce (I used salsa)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, with liquid
1 1/2 to 3 Tbsp dry taco seasoning mix

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a greased slow cooker. cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours. Makes 4-6 servings.

Italian Chicken with Mushrooms

Ok here's my 3rd recipe....It's Italian Chicken with Mushrooms on pg 84 and I have to tell you if this one didn't turn out I was going to throw that book in the garbage. Everyone just raves about these books by Ms. Ashcraft, she's got a ton of them but if they don't taste good or they burn then what's the point?

Well the point is this one turned out to be fantastic! I even drew a star at the top of this page so I knew to make it again. I didn't have mushrooms so I used green beans instead (you will want to drain that juice as well, if you know anything about green bean juice it takes over the flavor of whatever you're cooking). This time instead of following the recipe to a T I tweaked it a bit. I guess this cookbook needs a warning label that says, may need some tweaking or your food might be crappy. You're supposed to cook the chicken by itself for 3 hours and then add the extra stuff and cook another 2 hours. No way was I going to have burnt chicken for dinner so I only cooked it for an extra hour and it was perfect! My husband even took the leftovers to law school the next day for lunch. I didn't notice until after that it said to serve over hot noodles, we didn't do that and it was fine.

Well I guess 3rd times a charm....I will keep the book! I give this recipe a 5 PERFECTO!

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1/4 cup water
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of chicken or mushroom soup, condensed
1 can (4 oz) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

Directions

Place chicken in a greased 3 1/2 to 5 qt slo cooker. Combine salad dressing mix
and water; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high heat 3 hours. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and soup until blended. Stir in mushrooms, Pour over chicken. Cook 1 hour longer on high heat, o runtil chicken juices run clear. Makes 4 servings.

Cherry Biscuit Cobbler

Now onto the 2nd recipe....this is a Cherry Biscuit Cobbler on pg 119...now how many people actually knew they could make a dessert in their crock pot? I didn't....but one of my favorite things is cherry pie filling. I could eat that stuff right out of the can, it's so good (and don't think I haven't) and that's what this dessert called for so I definitely wanted to make it.

So after the 2 1/2 hours went by I looked at my Cherry Biscuit Cobbler and was less than pleased to see that one side of it had burned. Now I followed this recipe to a T as well and part of it burned. Are you kidding me?! Who wants some burned dessert? Not me! I was able to salvage most of it and it was actually pretty good, might have been better if I'd had some vanilla ice cream or something. But because it burned I wasn't too happy. I guess don't cook it for 2 1/2 hours and maybe it won't burn on one side. I'll try that next time. Well my husband gobbled it down anyway and I've since cleaned out the burned crap out of my crock pot. Onto recipe number 3....I give this recipe a 4 only because the non burnt part tasted pretty good.

Ingredients

2 packages (8oz each) refrigerator biscuits, seperated and quartered
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

Directions

Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in a small bowl. Mixture will be lumpy. Grease a 3 1/2 to 5 qt slow cooker, then layer 1 package bisuits, half the cinnamon and sugar mixture, and then half the pie filling. Add the 2nd package of biscuits; cover with the remaining half of the cinnamon and sugar mixture and top with the remaining half of the pie filling. Cover and cook on high heat 2 1/2- 3 hours, or until biscuits are done in the center.
Makes 6-8 servings.

Orange Chicken

So my first choice of recipe was Orange Chicken on pg 86. So I followed the instructions to a T and when it came time to eat....well lets just say the chicken really didn't taste much like an orange...not really much orange flavor to it at all. Now when I think about Orange Chicken I'm thinking of the awesome stuff that Panda Express makes and any other American Chinese restaurant makes. Now I knew it wouldn't be exactly the same thing but I thought maybe it would at least taste like it. I mean for crying out loud it called for orange juice, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and hot pepper sauce so you'd think it'd have some sort of flavor.....did I mention it didn't have much flavor?! Of course my husband said it was good and ate it anyway even if he was humoring me...but come on.....all those ingredients and a little tiny bit of flavor?

Anyway, it called for 6 chicken breasts! We're 2 people, we had better not be eating 6 pieces of chicken in one sitting! So the other 4 pieces of chicken were used throughout the week for other dinners. I have to say it's nice to have already cooked chicken at your disposal, especially if that chicken doesn't have much flavor, that way you can make any kind of dish you want and change the flavor of the magnificent "Orange Chicken"....can you sense the sarcasm? Well that's one recipe down and I guess about 100 more to go? Out of 5 stars I'll give this recipe a 3 it's just average.

Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8-1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce, optional

Directions

Place chicken in greased 4 1/2 to 6 qt slow cooker. Combine molasses, vinegar, orange juice, Worcestershire, mustard, and hot sauce if using. Pour sauce over the top of chicken. Cover and cook on high heat 3-4 hours or on low heat 7-9 hours. Makes 6 servings.

First recipe post

Ok here goes for my first blog entry ever.... I decided to start this space because of 2 books. One my sister gave me for Christmas : "101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker" by Stephanie Ashcraft and Janet Eyring and the other was "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell. If you don't know anything about the 2nd book, it's about Julie who decides to make every recipe that Julia Child made in the coobook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So since I'm trying to master the art of Crock Pot cooking I thought it might be interesting to jot down my adventures here. It's a 5 quart crock pot, if anyone cares. It might be a yawn but it's more for me so that I know what recipes I've used and how they turned out.

So I'm a stay at home mom for the first time and I love it! But that also means I'm the one who does most of the cooking so I wanted to do something different than macaroni and cheese and pizza ordered out. I'm glad my sister gave me the slow cooker book, it gives me something new to try. Oh and I chose the background to my MSN space because it reminds me of driving in Pennsylvania in the fall and fall happens to be my favorite time of the year. And it's true when you're a stay at home mom, little things DO bring you great joy! Like this little cookbook. Now onto my first recipe!