Crock pot chicken parmesan

This meal was kind of inspired by this recipe.  I'm exhausted from days of getting my house ready to sell, though, so it's super simplified.

I put some frozen chicken breasts in my crock pot and then dumped a jar of Classico Tomato & Basil sauce over it, and just let it go on low for several hours. (um...6?)

When we were ready to eat, I pulled the breasts out, and put them on a platter.  I sprinkled them with thyme, oregano and basil, drizzled some sauce from the crock pot, and then topped them all with liberal amounts of Parmesan cheese.

I served with cooked spaghetti pasta (with more sauce from the crock pot in a 2c glass liquid measuring cup to pour over if desired), green beans and biscuits.

Irish Stew and Soda Bread

Irish Stew

2 tbsp olive oil

3 bay leaves

2 lbs stew meat

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary

2 to 3 tbsp flour

3/4 c. beef stock

1/2 c. guinness stout (I use vernor's ginger ale instead, or you can just increase the beef stock)

1 tbsp parsley

1/2 lbs carrots, sliced

1/2 lbs potatoes, chopped

heat oil in an oven proof pot and add bay leaves. Cook leaves for a moment and add the meat.  Brown meat on both sides on high heat.  Add onion and cook for a few minutes until it is clear.  Reduce the heat to low and add garlic, thyme, rosemary and flour and stir until smooth.  Add the beef stock and stout; simmer, stirring until the stew thickens a bit.  Add the remaining ingredients and cover.  Place the pot in the oven at 275* for about 2 hours, stirring a couple of times. Check for salt and pepper before serving.  (in reality I just put everything except the flour [and oil] into my crock pot and let it cook.  About half an hour before serving, dip out some of the liquid from the stew (1/2 c. or so) and blend in the flour, then mix it in the stew and let it thicken that way)

Irish Soda Bread

4 1/2 to 5 c. flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 c. buttermilk (I dye my milk green and then it makes the bread green)

3 tbsp sugar

Mix dry ingredients. Add buttermilk, stir until it sticks together and forms a dough ball. Knead about 10 times. Put in round cake pan, and press to the edge.  cut and X in the top about 1/2" deep. Bake at 350* for about one hour or until golden. Butter the top & enjoy!

Poulet Basquaise and Salade Niçoise

This pair are actually both considered a main course, but growing up they were always paired together.     I've modified the poulet recipe to be used in the crock pot (because it's just easier).

Poulet Basquaise

4lbs chicken breasts (bone in or boneless)

3/4 c. dry white wine (optional) [I just used chicken stock]

salt, pepper, sugar

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs parsley

1/2 lb each green & red pepper

1 lb each onions and tomatoes ((I never use tomatoes, but if you are going to, add them late in the cooking process so they don't get mushy))

1 clove garlic ((I actually used 3. :p))

1/2 tsp thyme

Put it all in the crock pot until chicken is done cooking

Salade Niçoise

1 lb potatoes
1 can green beans
1 can black olives
1 can chunk light tuna
2 tomates, cut in wedges
2 hard boiled eggs, halved

vinaigrette:
3/4 c. olive oil
3/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper

Blend vinaigrette ingredients, set aside. Peel slice and boil potatoes until soft. Drain and place into large bowl.  Add green beans and olives. Pour vinaigrette over potato mixture.  Cover and refrigerator and marinate for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally.  Place potato mixture (reserving vinaigrette) onto a platter.  Garnish with tuna, tomatoes and eggs, pour reserved vinaigrette over garnishing.

Cashew Chicken

It was this recipe.  I didn't flour the chicken first, because it was frozen, so I just stuck whole breasts into the crock pot with the sauce.  I added some chicken stock to give more liquid, and then when the chicken was cooked, I pulled it out.  I diced it and then added some corn starch in liquid to the sauce to make it thicker.  Served over brown rice.

It was pretty good.

Chili Colorado Burritos

This is try #2 of this recipe.  The first time I used a brand of enchilada sauce that I had never used before (Las Palmas) and it was just too spicy for me (don't get me wrong, I love spicy stuff, but after being SO VERY sick through each of my four pregnancies, my esophagus just can't handle much anymore).  So I used a brand (I can't remember which!) that was milder.  I also added chopped onion and crushed garlic to the crock pot while it was cooking.  Turned out quite yummy when I could actually eat it without being in pain.

Served with Lipton's Mexican Rice side and chips & salsa.

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

This is a favorite of ours.  Everyone loves it except the 5 1/2-year-old, who has to be convinced to retry it every time, and then remembers she likes it.

I use this recipe.

Today it was served over brown rice with green beans and rolls.  Usually I try to match the ethnicity of the sides, but I didn't want to put forth the effort tonight.

BBQ pork sandwiches

I tried out this recipe today.  Normally when I do this type of thing I just put in the pork roast, onions, and a store-bought sauce, but this was SO YUMMY I'm not sure I'm doing that anymore.  I thought I had some apple cider vinegar, so I didn't buy any, but when I got to my pantry today all I had was basalmic vinegar.  And it was delish.  It didn't even really taste like basalmic vinegar either, so I don't think anyone noticed.  I also used pre prepared mustard (spicy brown), too, instead of powdered.

Served it up with some steamed veggies, and it went over really well!

Turkey chili

We've been pretty sick lately, but now that we're all pretty much feeling better (especially me...), I'm back to cooking real food!

I started off with this recipe, except that I added a can of tomato sauce and instead of water I used chicken broth.

I browned my ground turkey with the onions and quite a bit of garlic (all the cloves in the middle are pretty small, but it was still quite a bit more than called for!).  After I drained it of grease, I dumped it and all the other ingredients into the crock pot and let it simmer all day.

Yummy!

Today was also my first try at making soured coconut cream (I've been working on eliminating dairy from my diet as an experiment [long story]), and it turned out pretty good!

Chicken noodle soup

I guess you can say that this is loosely based on this recipe, but I don't actually even look at it anymore.

Today I put some chicken in the bottom of my crock pot, then covered it with chopped onions, celery, and carrots.  I sprinkled it all with garlic powder (I ran out of cloves of garlic), sage, rosemary, thyme and basil.  I didn't measure, just dumped some in.

Then I added a (4c) container of chicken stock, and let it cook all day.

About 20 minutes before I pulled out the chicken and put in egg noodles.  I cut the noodles up in to bite sized pieces (it mostly fell apart) and then put it back in the soup and let it simmer until the noodles were soft.

No picture today. We've been sick and I haven't gotten myself back together quite yet.

Pot roast - in the crock pot

Basically, I started off with this recipe, which claimed to be the BEST pot roast ever  ((it IS pretty good)).

I mixed in the au jus mix instead of just putting it on top, and I used sprite instead of coke or pepsi.  ((from what I understand, the carbonation does something to help make it tender? Don't know if that's actually true.))

I also cooked it with onions, baby carrots, and small yukon gold potatoes.  I served it all up with some rolls with butter & jelly.  Yummy.