Recipe: Chicken in the Slow Cooker

This is probably the easiest thing you could ever make... but it tastes so good! Quick--make sure you have a pen and paper ready, because these directions are super-hard.

Ready?

Ok. (do I sound like a cheerleader? ack!)

Put 3-4 frozen chicken breasts in the slow cooker.
Pour in a can (or jar) of pre-made spaghetti sauce.
Turn the slow cooker on.
Walk away.

Shwew! Sweating, aren't you? Not up to the challenge?? Sure you are.

I guess I should include a few other, um, hints? Cook your chicken (It doesn't HAVE to be frozen--that's just what I keep on hand.) on the low heat setting for around eight hours. High setting, four-ish hours. Shred the chicken with two forks before serving--and the pasta is optional, of course.

Oh--but that bread in the background? the piece slathered in butter?? It is most certainly not optional. Especially if it's a loaf of rosemary-olive oil bread... *gulp* (and I wonder why I'm not losing those last few pounds...)

One more thing! If you're feeling over-the-top creative, you can omit the spaghetti sauce, pour in a jar of salsa, and serve your chicken on tortillas with taco-like toppings.

It's about time...

...for me to get this posted. Here are your suggestions from a few weeks ago regarding the content of my blog, along with my thoughts and feelings about each idea. In italics. Fancy, right?

Recipes. Slow cooker recipes, more specifically. I can do this. When I make dinner in the slow cooker, I'll make it a point to post about it. If you're lucky, I'll post photos!

Try Plinky. I'm all signed up! ...but I always forget it's there...

More pictures of little man. How am I doing? I'm trying!

Post a weekly photo, write a story or title, how the photo makes me feel. Or something like that. Hmm... I like this idea. I need to chew on it some more... and certainly, it might not be a weekly thing. Maybe just... when a photo strikes me in the right way?

How I met Ryan. Our mushy-gushy love story. Ok, I think I can do this. Emphasis on think. I want to write quite a bit of it BEFORE I begin posting though, because I'm just anal retentive like that. So give me a while.

More pictures. This time, modified camera settings and a narration of WHAT is taking place. I'll be honest. This one intimidates me a bit. I secretly have no idea what I'm doing. I just take pictures. BUT! I can try, and I can learn so that you can learn. Deal?

So... my point in posting this? Um. Motivation? Yea--let's call it motivation. I'll start working on that story, and maybe I'll come up with a crockpot recipe before the end of the week.

Maybe. That's if my baby decides to act like himself, and not the sleep-refusing, crabby whiner he was today. Oy.

Jambalaya

On his way home from work today, Ryan called. I could tell he was squirming in the driver's seat, because he knew what he was going to get for dinner. Simple pleasures, yes??

Here's what we had... give it a try!!



Ingredients:

8 oz. chicken (I just used two breast pieces)
1 16 0z. package frozen peppers (red, green & yellow mix)
1 cup frozen, chopped onion
8 oz. smoked sausage, cut into bite-size pieces (I use andouille)
2 cups water
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1 8 oz. package jambalaya mix (I use Zatarain's)

Directions:

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Put pepper strips and onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with chicken and sausage. Add water, undrained tomatoes and the seasoning packet from your rice mix, if present. (Zatarain's is an all-in-one mix, so my seasonings went in at the end, it works either way.)

Cook on low heat for about six hours, or on high for about three hours. (I cooked ours on high for the first time today, and I've got to say, the flavor is slightly better when it cooks all day long on low.)

Turn your slow cooker to high and stir in the rice mix. Put the lid back on and let it cook for an additional 45 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Meal Planning...

I've decided to put a little, um, twist? ...on my meal planning for Tuesday through Saturday (Ryan's work week). I'm going to make every dinner in the slow cooker. I've used my new crock more and more in the last couple of weeks, and it's been *so* nice to have everything done ahead of time. Between getting Camden to bed early and Ryan getting home late, timing isn't so crucial when dinner has been cooking all day.

So here we go... my first meal plan. (and by first, I mean the first time I'm going to attempt putting a time and a place on each meal, instead of just haphazardly buying ingredients for a few meals I might have time to throw together...)

Tuesday: Jambalaya (This is a recipe from my slow cooker book. I'll post it tomorrow, hopefully with photos.) UPDATE: recipe posted!

Wednesday: Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken, veggies from the freezer, fresh potato bread from the bread machine.

Thursday: Pulled Pork (a big chunk of pork and a can of soda... seriously, that's all. a trained monkey could make this.) sandwiches, salad.

Friday: Brown Sugar Chicken, rice and salad.

Saturday: Corned beef (wait until Ryan reads this! He'll be elated. overjoyed. thrilled. pleased as punch.) with potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

Oh--and speaking Ryan. He's also going to be thrilled at the presentation of his menu for the week. We play this little game, you see, (ok, I play a game. he's an unwilling participant.) where I cook dinner and he doesn't get to find out what it us until he gets home. Every night, when he calls to say he's coming home, he asks what is for dinner. I never tell him. So, given that it's all written here for the world to see, he's going to KNOW what he's having for dinner. I wonder how he'll feel about this??

Success!

Ok... so perhaps the gapartment isn't the best place to use the crockpot over night. Or should I at least say, not MY particular crockpot?? The lid builds up condensation and then it makes a hideous ker-plunk-a-thunk-a-wunk sound. NOT good... and even less 'good' at two AM!

Anyway, the potatoes and sausage, despite their sound effects, were yummy!! Ryan was so pleased to have something other than cereal to eat in the morning, and I was equally pleased at how quietly he fished a plate from the cupboard and gobbled up his breakfast.

We switched the crockpot over to the 'warm' setting and let it be for an extra hour while I tried to get some more sleep. My results probably weren't *as* good as Ryan's--the potatoes in the bottom of the mixture were a bit soggy, but I just avoided those and all was well in the world.

So overall? Yay! Success!

Trying something new tonight...

Overnight cooking? Hmm... surely this sounds like something I might enjoy!

I read a blog called A Year of CrockPotting, and I just love some of the stuff she comes up with. I also love that she reviews each recipe--because for some reason (call me crazy!) a recipe without a review makes me nervous.

Anyway, she has everything broken down by category, if you so choose to search her blog that way, and I discovered the other day that there are a few breakfast recipes that can be made overnight! yay! This will work out perfectly for us, as Ryan gets up ever-so-early on Friday mornings for work, and I'm just not competent at that time of morning.

So tomorrow we will try Overnight Breakfast Potatoes with Sausage.

I wonder how early the yummy smell of breakfast will wake me up? I wonder if we can remember to set the coffee maker ahead too--leaving us with a perfectly orchestrated and ready-to-eat early morning breakfast? I wonder if Ryan will wake to find his very pregnant wife in the corner with a fork and the crockpot, noshing on potatoes at three AM?

Only time will tell!! I'll report back in the morning.