Crockpot General Tso's Chicken

Hey everyone! I have missed you lately! The hubby and I are now semi-moved in.... well, we have the kitchen, dinning room, and master bedroom unpacked. Hey, those are the important things right? I just don't have time to unpack with summer school going on.... one more week left! WOO HOO!

Anyways, today I have an awesome little recipe for you. I love Chinese food and one of my favorite dishes is general tso's chicken! It's got an awesome flavor and just enough spicy-ness to be AMAZING! The only thing I hate about making it is having to bread the chicken. It takes foreverrrrrrrr and it's not exactly the easiest thing in the world so I had a thought, crockpot! This is one of those recipes that you throw everything in and then leave it to cook for 8 hours (no cooking things ahead) so its extra awesome!

Ingredients:
-General Tso's Chicken seasoning mix (you can get this in the Asian section of your grocery store for about 85 cents! See picture below)

-4 Frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast
-2-3 Tbsp. Soy sauce
-1/4 cup Sugar
-1/2 cup water (use less if you want a thicker sauce)
Optional:
-2-3 Tbsp. Chili Garlic sauce*

*This stuff is amazing! It's made by the same people that make sriracha and can be found right next to it. I use it in almost everything I cook and would definitely recommend it! It really takes this recipe over the edge!

Ok, to make this dish throw everything into the crockpot and mix together. Seriously, its that easy! Set your crockpot to cook for 6-8 hours and leave it be. I usually try and stir mine every couple hours to keep the chicken coated but this is optional.

When your chicken is done you can either eat the breast whole or cut it into smaller pieces. I wanted our to be more authentic so I cut it up. It ended up being more shredded because the chicken was so tender but that's ok!

I also let the chicken stay warm in the crockpot for 30 more minutes after I cut it up so it could soak up some more flavoring! Here is a picture of the final product served over rice!

 

Happy cooking!!

10 Cinco de Mayo Recipes

Hey everyone! With Cinco de Mayo coming up I thought I'd share a bunch of recipes in 1 place! I hope this lists helps you with your Cinco de Mayo party planning!! Click on the name of each recipe (not the picture) to get the directions!

Breakfast:

Breakfast Quesadillas:

 

Migas:

Appetizers/Snacks/Soups:

Guacamole:

Queso:

Chicken Tortilla Soup (Crockpot):

Main Dishes:

White Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde Sour Cream Sauce:

Chicken for Burritos & Tacos (Crockpot):

Sides:

Spanish Rice:

Dessert:

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pinwheels:

Honey Bananas:

I hope you have a great Cinco de Mayo this weekend and make yourself lots of treats!

2 Ingredient Roast (Crockpot)

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I can't wait to share this recipe with you that my mom gave me. It's really good and we have it at out house fairly often because it is so easy to make!

Ingredients:
-Roast (you can get either beef or pork but we always get beef), any size
-2 cans cream of mushroom soup

TIP: You can also add your favorite seasonings.... but this will make it more than 2 ingredients! I have added seasons before and other times I have left them out... to me, it tasted about the same.

To make this dish, place your roast in your crock pot (fat side down) and cover it with any seasons you may want to use. The only trick here is to not put any type of salt (sea salt, regular salt, garlic salt, etc.) in at the beginning or you will dry your roast out.

Here you can see I added some garlic and minced onion, but like I said, I couldn't tell a difference when I left them out.

Next pour both your cans of soup into the crock pot and cover your roast on all sides. Cook on high for about 6 hours. With about an hour left I always turn my roast over. You can also add some veggies (carrots, potatoes, onions) in with about an hour left if you want to have your veggies in with your roast gravy but I usually don't like to do this.

When you turn your roast over, you may want to add in some water to make your gravy go a little further.

That's it! Pretty easy and makes a nice meal. Your roast will literally crumble apart, it's delicious! I always serve mine with some Mashed Potatoes and it's awesome!! Here is a picture of a piece of your final product:

Happy Cooking!!

Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki

Hey everyone, I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

Today I am going to share a crockpot recipe with you. I love crockpot recipes, especially on Wednesdays because I don't get off of work until 6 and the hubby doesn't get off until 7. It's great to not have to cook when you get home!

I have tried a couple chicken teriyaki recipes before and they have never turned out so I was somewhat skeptical when I saw this one on Pinterest. I'm glad I tried it because this one is great!!

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts (still frozen)
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
Optional: 3 cloves minced garlic

Tip: If you want your sauce to be thicker, reduce your chicken broth by half. I will probably do this next time.

To make this dish, throw all your ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Once everything has cooked, shred your chicken and place back into the crockpot for another 30 min-1 hour to soak up the juice. Pretty easy huh? I served my chicken over white rice and the official taste tester LOVED it. AND this was enough for us to have for dinner that night, and then a couple more days after that. Trust me, you won't mind eating this for leftovers.

Happy Cooking!!

2 Meals in 1: Crockpot Pesto Ranch Chicken and Pesto Chicken Spaghetti

Hey Everyone,

Today I thought I'd share a recipe with you that I have really enjoyed. I'm sure all of you have heard of Crockpot Pesto Ranch Chicken and many of you probably have the recipe for it. It's on so many blogs, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to credit everyone and I have no idea who the original source it so I'll just give you a link to Pinterest with many different blog links.

So, why am I talking about this if it's available all over the place. Two reasons:
1. If you haven't tried it, you should because it's really good.
2. If you have never put it in Spaghetti, you are missing out.

Prior to trying this I was just OK with Spaghetti. It was something we had when I didn't feel like cooking because it's so easy. Now after having these two dishes together I love spaghetti! The great thing about this is, you can have the pesto ranch chicken for one meal and then turn around the next night and have it in spaghetti with very little effort.

This recipe happened on a whim one night when I was trying to get creative with leftovers and it turned out really nicely. Olive Garden, take note!

Ingredients:
4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken breasts (still frozen)
6 oz. jar of Basil Pesto
1 packet ranch seasoning
1/2 cup chicken broth
Pasta Sauce or a store bought jar
Spaghetti noodles

To start off, throw your chicken, pesto, ranch seasoning, and chicken broth into the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Once your chicken is done, have some of it by itself for one meal and save the rest for your spaghetti. Of course you can do this all in one day, but who doesn't love getting two meals out of 1? If you have a bigger family, you might need to double the recipe.

OK, now, boil your noodles and cook your spaghetti sauce like normal. Shred your remaining chicken and throw it into your pasta sauce. There you have it, two meals for the effort of one (an easy one at that)!

Here are the pictures of my finished chicken and my spaghetti. Trust me, you want to try this.

YUM!!

Happy Cooking!

Crockpot Chicken for Burritos or Tacos

Hey everyone! I have missed you so far this year! :) I had a request to have more crock pot recipes on the blog, so I thought I'd start out with one today. This recipe is easy and makes for a great Mexican food night (Mexican food is pretty much our favorite.... we have it all the time)!

Ingredients:
2 cups Picante Sauce (16 oz. jar)
1 packet taco seasoning
4-5 frozen chicken breasts

TIP: You can make your own taco seasoning by combining 1 Tablespoon of each of the following ingredients: Cumin, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, and Onion Powder. Optional: Add in 1/4 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper to give it some spice.

To make this recipe, throw all the ingredients into the crock pot and mix it together to coat the chicken. Then set your crock pot to low and let the chicken cook 6-8 hours.

Once the chicken is done, shred it between two forks and mix everything together to evenly coat the chicken shreds and you are ready to go!

Chicken before shredding:

Shredded Chicken

We used ours to make Burritos and Tacos but it can be used for anything from Enchiladas to Taco Salad. It's a really versatile dish and very easy to make.

TIP: Once you assemble your burrito, "grill" it in a panini grill for a few minutes, it makes your tortilla crispy! :)

Here is a picture of my burrito, very yummy!!!

Happy Cooking

& Enjoy!

Mesquite BBQ Chicken (Crockpot)

As you all may have noticed, I have been quite the busy little bee with grad school lately. When you are busy, who doesn't like a really quick recipe?! Seriously, this recipe take about 1 minute to put together, and then about 10 minutes or less in prep time right before you eat... AND you can put the meat in still frozen. This is my kind of meal! Another great part, there are only 3 ingredients (4 if you are making a sandwich or baked potato)! :) Grab your crockpots and lets make some food!

This makes about 6 servings, but if you are by yourself, just use less chicken, sauce, etc. I usually put this on when I leave for work and school in the morning and it is ready when I get home.

Ingredients:
3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or 6 small), still frozen
18 oz. bottle Mesquite BBQ Sauce
1 packet dry ranch dressing

To make this, pour your BBQ sauce and dry ranch into the crockpot and mix together (I usually put a little water in my BBQ sauce bottle after I pour it in to get the remaining sauce out and add some moisture, it comes out to about 1/4 cup). Next throw your chicken in there and coat it in your sauce. Put your lid on and set your chicken to cook on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 3-4 hours). Here is what your chicken should look like before cooking:

Once your chicken is done, take two forks, shred it, and then throw it back into the sauce. Since it's cooked in the crockpot it will literally just fall apart. Here is what your finished product looks like:

YUM!!! I usually put it on sandwiches the first night we have it and then the next night cook some baked potatoes and have it on top with some sour cream. This time I splurged and I bought some of those nice Hawaiian bread buns, they were good!

 

Happy Cooking

& Enjoy!!

Crockpot Apple Crisp

Happy Tuesday everyone!! It's officially Fall here in TX (well as fall as it gets) and so I thought I'd give you an awesome fall recipe to start the week. This recipe will make your whole house smell like fall and it tastes awesome!!

Ingredients:
6 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced (about 12 small apples)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup & 1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. Cinnamon (divided in half)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsp. lemon juice (optional)

TIP: The lemon juice keeps the apples from turning brown and make the apples more moist while cooking. You can substitute in lime juice or water if you don't have lemon juice.

To start off, peel core and dice your apples until you have 6 cups (about 12 small apples). I admit, this part takes awhile but it's worth it. Also if you have an apple corer the process go 20x faster. Once you have all your apples cut up, throw them in your crockpot. It should look something like this:

Next, in a separate bowl, mix together 1/3 cup sugar, cornstarch, ginger and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Add this mixture to your apples and toss to coat. Next add in your lemon juice (or lime juice or water). and toss your apples to coat. Your apples should look like this:

In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together your flour, brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Next, add in your butter. You want to mix the butter together with the flour mixture until it is crumbly. You can do this with a fork, but I found it easier just to mash it together with my fingers. Then, add your walnuts into your flour mixture and mix together. Pour your flour/walnut mixture over the top of your apples but DO NOT mix together. You want the flour mixture to sit on top while your apples cook. This is what your recipe should look like at this point:

Cook your apple crisp on low for 4 hours or on high for 2 hours (cooking on low is better!). When there is about an hour left in cooking, partially uncover the top of your crockpot so some air can escape and the top of the apple crisp will harden some. After the 4 hours are over, enjoy!! Here is a picture of the final product (sorry it's so dark, my lighting wasn't very good)

 

 

Happy Cooking

& Enjoy!

 

 

This recipe was adapted from here

 

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

I hope everyone had an awesome Labor Day weekend! To kick off your week, I thought I'd give you a simple crockpot recipe that the men (and women!) in your life will LOVE. I was first given this recipe by my sister, and now I make it quite often. This recipe is EASY, only has 2 ingredients, AND the ribs are so tender that they literally fall off the bone.

Ingredients:
1/2 rack of ribs (or however many you can fit in your crockpot)
Bottle of BBQ sauce

To make these ribs, place them in your crockpot, and pour the BBQ sauce over them. Cook them on low for 6-8 hours (depending upon the number of ribs you have) and then enjoy! Here is a picture of my finished product:

Happy Cooking
& Enjoy!

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

 

 

WOOO HOOOO, It's Friday! I thought I'd give you a great crock pot meal to try this weekend. This is one of the simplest recipes I have ever seen and tastes awesome. You can see the original recipe here.

 

Ingredients:



2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, can still be frozen (I used the 2 biggest breasts in the bag)
2 cans Ro-Tel
1 can Black Beans, drained
1 can Kidney Beans, drained
1 can of corn
1 onion, diced
4 cups chicken broth (or 2 cans)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp. Dried Cilantro
1 Tbsp. Chile Powder
1 Tbsp. Cumin
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese (I like to use Fiesta blend but it really doesn't matter)
Sour Cream

Tip: Instead of buying tons of chicken broth cans, you can buy bullion cubes. They are cheaper, take up a lot less space in your pantry, and are just as good! To make chicken broth out of a bullion cube, boil 1 cup of water per cube. Once the water is boiling, add bullion cube and stir until incorporated. If you are making 4 cups of broth, you can boil all 4 cups of water at one time.

Tip: Instead of spices you can use a packet of taco seasoning. I like to use the original spices, but a taco packet would get the job done.

Tip: You will need a large crock pot for this recipe. If you only have a medium sized crock pot, half the recipe.

To start off, add your Ro-Tel, black beans, kidney beans, corn, onion, chicken broth, water, garlic powder, cilantro, chile powder, and cumin into your crock pot and stir until incorporated. Next, place your two chicken breasts on top of the mixture. The chicken breasts should sink slightly but still be mostly on top. As long as they as somewhat submerged you should be fine. Here is what mine looked like:

 

Next, set your crock pot to cook on low for 8 hours. Before serving your soup, take your chicken breasts out and shred them. This can be done by pulling the breast apart between two forks. I like to do this step with about 1 hour left to cook so the shredded chicken has time to soak up some spices and flavor, but this is just a personal preference.

Once your soup is ready, crumble some chips into the bottom of your bowl, ladle in some soup, and then top with your cheese and a dollop of sour cream. The official taste tester doesn't like sour cream, so he omitted that part (blasphemous, I know). Here is what your finished product looks like:

 

Next step, chow down and go to town! I hope you enjoy your weekend and happy cooking!

Cheesy Crock Pot Chicken Spaghetti

We all know I love cheese....seriously, its an addiction. I also love crock pot recipes because, lets face it, sometimes I get really lazy when it comes to cooking. SO, when I stumbled upon this little beauty on Pinterest I was delighted. You can read the original post here. I love getting on Pinterest, finding recipes and tweaking them to perfection, and that's exactly what I did with this little gem. This recipe takes about 15 minutes to prepare and then 2-3 hours to cook. It's also slightly spicy, but in my opinion, it was just enough to give it a little kick.

Ingredients:
-16 oz. Dry Spaghetti Noodles
-1 lb. Velveeta Cheese
-2 cups cooked chicken**
-1 can cream of mushroom soup
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1 can Rotel
-4 oz. can mushrooms (stems & pieces, drained)
-1/2 cup water
-1 small onion diced
-pepper to taste

**I used chicken breasts and shredded them, but you can also cube the chicken. To make this recipe even faster you can buy pre-cooked canned chicken at the grocery store.

To start off, I sprayed my crock pot with non-stick cooking spray to prevent sticking. Then, I cut my Velveeta cheese into 1 inch cubes and threw them in the crock pot This doesn't have to be exact by any means! Next, I added the cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and water. Stir this mixture and set the crock pot to low.

While the cheese mixture is starting to melt together, place your chicken breasts in a pan of water and boil for about ten minutes. In order to get 2 cups of cooked chicken, I used 4 chicken breasts (2 of which were tiny), but this also doesn't have to be exact. Use however much chicken your heart desires! This is also a good time to get your noodles cooking. Cook them according to package directions (generally this means to boil them for 8-10 minutes). While your chicken and noodles are cooking, cut up your onion and throw it in the crock pot. At this time you can also add your Rotel and mushrooms.
Once you chicken is done cooking, shred it by using two forks to pull the meat apart. If you are having a hard time shredding your chicken, it needs to boil longer. When it is done, the meat should easily come apart. I like to use shredded chicken because then there is meat in every bite. If you are pressed for time, you can cube the chicken. Once you have your chicken shredded (or cubed) toss it in the crock pot. Stir everything together and add some pepper. I put enough pepper in to cover the top and then stirred everything together. Next, drain your noodles and then stir them in. Let the crock pot cook for 2-3 hours on low and ENJOY!!! We got a little hungry and started eating after it had been cooking an hour and a half... we just couldn't wait :).

Here is a picture of your final product:







This recipe keeps excellently in the fridge and can be taken for lunch the next day or eaten as leftovers for a few nights.

Tip: To make this recipe healthy healthier, use whole wheat noodles, 2% Velveeta, and reduced fat or fat free cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups.

Tip #2: To make this recipe REALLY spicy, use "hot" Rotel.