Crock Pot Roasted Chicken That Wont Cook to Pieces

Crock Pot Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 Whole Chicken

Chopped Celery and Onion

Seasoning of Choice

Olive Oil

6- 8 Aluminum Foil Balls

Directions:

                Roll up balls with the aluminum foil. Put them in the bottom of the crock pot, and add the onions and celery in the bottom.  This will give your chicken lots of extra flavor.  Place the chicken on the foil balls and drizzle with the olive oil and coat with your favorite seasonings.  Cook on high for 1 hour and then change the setting to low for 5-7 hours until the juices run clear.   Serve with mashed potatoes and a veggie and enjoy!

This chicken will be tender and juicy but will not cook to a mush of bones and meat.   I make this about once every other week and use the left overs for chicken salad, or any other recipe that requires shredded or chopped chicken.

Recipe Review: crescent roll chicken casserole

This is another Pinterest find.  I was looking for some sinful comfort food and this recipe hit the spot! You can find it here.  Make a lot, it is just as good the next day as left overs.

Here is the cheesy bubbly goodness that came out of my oven:

 

This recipe will definitly be on my repeat list, and is hubby approved!

Baked Spaghetti

This is a variation on a recipe my law school roomie used to make.  The other day I was craving spaghetti, but I wanted something different than just regular spaghetti and I thought of her recipe. You can find it here.  Like my friend, I wanted to try to lighten up this recipe and use what I had in my pantry.  I hope you enjoy!

Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients:

 

1 16oz package of spaghetti (I used brown rice spaghetti because it is gluten free)

1 pound ground turkey

1 jar/can of spaghetti sauce

2 eggs

5 tbs butter melted

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups low fat small curd cottage cheese

4 cups part skim mozzarella cheese shredded

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Boil Past according to package directions.

Brown Turkey in skillet.

(Tip: Add a touch beef bullion and Worcestershire sauce to give it beef flavor and brown color)

 

After meat is brown drain and add sauce and bring to simmer.

 

Mix together: Egg, cottage cheese, 2 cups of shredded cheese, a little salt, butter.

 

Once combined, stir in cooked pasta.

 

Layer sauce and pasta mixture in a 9x13 baking dish.

 

Top with remaining 2 cups of cheese.

 

Cover in foil and bake for 45 mins.

 

Remove foil and bake for 15 mins or until golden brown.

 

Serve and enjoy!

 

Just as good for lunch the next day.

 

 

 

 

Fajitas!

We had a little get together on cinco de mayo this year.  I wanted to make something with a Mexican flare to go along with our margaritas.  I decided instead of just the usual taco night, I would kick it up a notch and make fajitas.  They turned out great! Hope you enjoy.

Beer Marinated Fajitas

Whisk a packet of fajita seasoning and 1 beer of your choice together in a bowl.

Divide it into 3rds

Pour each 3rd into a ziploc bag.

One with flank steak, one with chicken, and one with...

sliced mushrooms!

Let it all marinate in your fridge for a couple of hours.

Throw it all on the grill with some onions.

Slice the meat (steak needs to be cut against the grain)

Serve with tortillas and your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Easy Marinated Steak

I was looking for a quick and easy steak marinade recipe that I could add to my week night cooking mix.  I searched all over until I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  I chose it because I just happened to have all the ingredients needed in my pantry.  I LOVED it, and you will too.

The Best Steak Marinade

Ingredients:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Add ingredients to a mixing bowl.

Wisk ingredients together.

Place steaks in a ziploc bag and pour in marinade. 

Let it sit in the fridge for atleast 8 hours.

I was planning on grilling my steak, and to me steak always grills

better if its dry and at room temperature.

I rinsed the marinade off the steaks (because after 8 hours the flavors had been

 absorbed into the steaks) and let them sit out for about 30 mins before I grilled them.

I grilled my steaks until medium rare (the best way to eat a steak) and served them with mixed veggies and scalloped potatoes. Enjoy!

Zesty BBQ Chicken

This recipe is a great go to for week night cooking.  The sauce has a nice kick to it that is different than regular bbq sauce.  You will love it!

Zesty BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

• frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients.

Place chicken in your crock pot and cover with sauce.

Cook for 7 hours on low and enjoy!

Chicken Paprika

This is a recipe that my dad used to make for my brother and me a lot when we would stay at his house.  I haven't had it in almost 10 years, but for some reason, I just started craving it last week.  So I texted my dad for his recipe and did some research online and came up with my own version of one of my childhood favorites.

Chicken Paprika

Ingredients: (sorry I forgot to take an ingredients picture)

•  1 whole chicken boiled and shredded.
•  1 box of shells pasta
•  2 cans of cream of chicken soup (I used fat free)
•  1 cup of sour cream (I used fat free)
•  3 tbs of paprika
•  1/2 cup of pasta water

Boil, cool, and shred chicken.

(I boiled mine with garlic, onions, celery,

and carrots and kept the broth for soup later)

Boil pasta according to package instructions.

In a large saute pan, combine the soup and sour cream.

Heat on med heat and stir until smooth and creamy

Add pasta water to the soup mixture

(use more than 1/2 cup if mixture looks really thick)

Add chicken and simmer for 10 mins.

Keep stirring so mixture doesn't burn.

Add paprika.

(it is supposed to have a nice orange color and subtle taste of paprika

so if it still looks pale yellow or you don't think the taste is right,

add more paprika if desired)

Drain pasta.

Return pasta to pot and pour the soup mixture over the pasta.

Stir and serve.

Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika and enjoy!

Italian Chicken with "Almost Homemade" Red Sauce

This is one of those recipes that combines several things I LOVE to eat.  Probably my favorite dish in the entire world is chicken Parmesan.  This recipe is sort of a take on that, and another of my favorites pasta stuffed with cheese i.e ravioli or tortellini.  I have developed a super simple and tasty red sauce to serve over the chicken/pasta combination.  I am pretty picky about my tomato sauces.  I don't like sauces made with sugar that have a sweet taste.  I prefer a garlicky (is that a word?) and savory tomato sauce.  I hope you enjoy this combination of two of my favorites.

 

Italian Chicken Served with Cheese Ravioli

Ingredients:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast ( I used 2)
• Italian Dressing
• Bread Crumbs
• 2 cans of tomato sauce ( I used 1 because I was make a smaller serving and if you like a chunkier sauce use 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can of sauce)
• 1 packet of Zesty Spaghetti Sauce Mix (I only used half because I only used 1 can of sauce)
• 1 tbs of Chopped Garlic
• Slices of provolone or mozzarella cheese (1 for each piece of chicken)
• 1 Bag of Frozen Cheese Ravioli

Dredge chicken in Italian dressing.

Coat chicken in breadcrumbs and place in a greased baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 40 mins for thicker breasts 30 mins for thinner breasts.

Saute garlic and a small drizzle of olive oil in a small sauce pot.

Add tomato sauce and stir in the zesty spaghetti sauce mix.

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low heat to simmer while everything else cooks.

The longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce will become.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

When the chicken only has 5 mins left to cook, cover each piece with a slice of cheese.

Remove chicken once the cheese has melted and the chicken is cooked through.

Plate chicken and pasta and cover with sauce.

Serve with a caesar salad and enjoy!

Chicken and Rice

        First of all let me start by saying that this is one of my favorite recipes because my grammy made it all the time when I was little.  It is so simple and delicious and it takes me back to elementary school when we still lived at my grandparent's house.  Needless to say, when I started first started cooking for myself I made this a lot, because it was almost foolproof and it always reminded me of home.  So of course this is the recipe that I made for our first study group, before the very first day of law school.  Don't you love how we attach food to a memory or occasion?  Or maybe that is just the foodie in me.

         Anyways back to the recipe.  It makes the kitchen smell so good when it cooks that everyone will think you slaved all day, and I promise, it tastes just as good.  Through the years I have changed my recipe just a bit from my grammy's.  She makes hers with dry min rice.  I make mine with cooked rice.  It doesn't make much of a difference, but to me the rice mixture is creamier at the end.  Try it both ways and see how you like it? 

Gram Trudy's Chicken and Rice

Ingredients:

2 bags of boil in a bag rice already cooked (I use uncle ben's)

As much chicken as you want to use  (I used 2 large breasts and cut them into smaller pieces)

1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups of chicken broth

That's it! So simple and delicious!

Place the chicken into a casserole dish and season liberally

(again, I used Lawry's season all, another thing I picked up from my grammy)

(Does anyone know why the pictures keep coming into my blog sideways?)

Empty the rice into a large mixing bowl.

Add the can of soup and the broth.

Start with one cup of the broth, you may not need it all if it looks

 soupy enough your good to go, but if you want more sauce

or it doesn't look soupy enough add more

Pour the rice mixture over your chicken.

Bake at 350 for 40 mins.

Serve with whatever vegetable side you choose.

I promise it will be a hit!

Thanks Gram Trudy!