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!!

7 Breakfast Recipes

 

Hey everyone! Sorry I have been MIA lately, the hubby & I moved so most of my cooking and craft stuff has been packed away in boxes. Don't worry, the new house has given me lots of ideas for new projects! I haven't had time to cook anything lately so today I thought I'd share my 7 favorite breakfast items with you. These are all delish and are perfect for a brunch or just everyday at home.

LET'S GET READY FOR SOME BREAKFASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!

Sorry, that football theme song popped in my head and it seemed to fit. Come on, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout! Ok, back to it. Here are my 7 favorites!

1. Breakfast Ring

This is one of the most requested breakfast items by the official taste tester. He LOVES it. AND it's great because there are so many possibilities for combinations!


2. Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Um, can you say yum? These muffins will not disappoint! Plus, these things are made with healthy-ish ingredients! :) I like to make them very un-healthy by spreading some butter on them.


3. Cinnamon Sugar Grapefruit

Say whaaaat? Cinnamon & Sugar on grapefruits? Yes, this is true. I don't know about you guys but the tart-ness (is that even a word? tart-ness?) of grapefruits makes them hard for me to eat. They are especially distasteful with your morning cup of coffee. This recipe solves those problems and gives them a hint of sweetness that is perfect!


4. Kolaches/Pigs in the Blanket

Who can forget an all time favorite/classic in their breakfast menu? Not me that's for sure. Now what these things are called depends on where you live. Up in my mom's home town (Dallas/Fort Worth area) these are called pigs in the blanket and here is the Houston area, these are called Kolaches. Don't you Houstonians know a kolache is a Czechoslovakian fruit pastry? Duuuuuuuh. No amount of blabbering by me has convinced anyone of this so if you live anywhere else in the world, please weigh in below in the comments.


5. Breakfast Quesadilla

This item is one of my personal favs. My mom always made this for my sisters and me when I was younger and having it always brings back good memories. This is also great because like the Breakfast Ring above, it has many options for combinations!


6. Sausage Balls

Unless you are a vegetarian, you CANNOT tell me you don't like sausage balls. They are SO GOOD. I love these at breakfast time but I, of course, could eat them at any time of the day. These are great to make the night before and then just heat up in the a.m. when you are in a hurry.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

7. Migas

I love Mexican food and can eat it at anytime, even the morning. Daniel complains because anytime we go out to eat I want Mexican. If you have not ever had Migas, you should try them. They are easy to make and taste great! Not to mention, these also have quite a few possibilities for combinations!

And there ya have it! These are some of my favorite breakfast items! Who would drive through Sonic for a breakfast burrito when they have these possibilities? Not me that's for sure! I hope you guys enjoyed!

Blog Love

Hey Everyone!

Today I wanted to do a short post for you introducing you to one of my friends! I have known my friend Sarah since elementary school. She is currently working on a master's degree from Texas Women's University  in Nutrition and has been doing some wonderful things!

Sarah started a blog that is full of recipes and great tips for a healthy lifestyle. I love following along and know you will too! You can check out her blog here and you can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

I hope you enjoy!

Healthy Cauliflower Alfredo

Hey everyone! I hope you are having an awesome Friday! I have been asked about the recipe I'm sharing today by quite a few different people... they can't believe that I made anything out of cauliflower that was even remotely edible. I guess my friends don't like cauliflower very much! Keep the faith and read on!

I posted a regular Alfredo Recipe about 8 months ago that I LOVED but the calories in it kill me. Seriously, that recipe probably has about 3500 calories or more in it.... yikes! This recipe has about 1000 in the whole dish (mostly from the pasta) so I can eat it guilt free! Not to mention, cauliflower is packed full of vitamins and minerals so it's really good for you!

This recipe is awesome, but it may take some convincing to get your guests to eat it. When I told the official taste tester what we were having for dinner he gave me a weird look and said, "Can I have a cheeseburger instead?" What a man of little faith! It's probably because of the time I told him we were having hamburgers and instead of meat I used a portabella mushroom. He was really grossed out and I think we ended up having Taco Bell that night. Whoops!

I can't take credit for this recipe, I got it from a blog called Pinch of Yum. The girl that runs this blog is a SAINT and her and her husband are working at an orphanage in the Philippines. Let's all try to be a little more altruistic in her honor shall we? I tweaked the recipe slightly because some of the ingredients in the Philippines are a little different than the ones here. I hope you enjoy (don't worry, you will)!

Ingredients:
-1 head of cauliflower
-6 cups vegetable broth
-minced garlic (I LOVE garlic so I used A LOT... original recipe calls for 6 cloves)
-1 Tbsp. Butter
-1 tsp. Salt (or you can eyeball it like I did)
-pinch of nutmeg
-pinch of black powder
-1 Tbsp. Olive oil
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-1 cup of starchy water from the water you use to boil your pasta
-package of linguine noodles (or your favorite kind!)

To start this recipe, cut your cauliflower up into pieces and boil in the vegetable broth for 20 minutes. The size of the cauliflower doesn't really matter to much, I just made my pieces the size of the cauliflower you see on veggie trays.

Next, put your boiled cauliflower in your blender with about 3 cups of the broth you boiled it in. The rest you can throw away (or give it to your dogs like I did). Blend your cauliflower and broth until the cauliflower is creamy just like Alfredo sauce. This took me about a minute because we have a really nice blender (Thanks Will & Kaci for the awesome wedding gift!), but it could take up to 5 minutes. When in doubt, blend a little longer because you don't want your sauce to be chunky.

Also, let me warn you, blended cauliflower smells ODD.... and by odd I mean bad. This further caused my hubby to turn up his nose, but trust me, once you move to the next step, the smell mostly goes away!

I forgot to take a picture of the cauliflower in the blender, but you can see a picture of it in the pan in a bit. It looks exactly the same.

After your cauliflower is blended, get your pasta boiling so it will be ready when you are done. While that's going, get a medium-large sauce pan, melt your butter, and saute your minced garlic for 3-4 minutes. Once your garlic is done, scrape it into your blender (keep your pan, you will be using it in a sec!) and add in your salt, nutmeg, black pepper, and olive oil. Blend it a little more to make sure everything is mixed.

Once smooth, add your cauliflower mixture back into the pan you used for your butter/garlic and cook over low heat (it still should be hot from boiling it). Add in your heavy cream and your starchy water from your pasta and cook over low heat until hot enough to serve.

 

This sauce may be a little darker than regular Alfredo, but it tastes just as good! Here are some pictures of the final product:

 

 

YUMMY! But now for the real test.... did the hubby like it?

Before trying it:

After trying it:

Isn't that face cute? I don't know why (eventhough I kinda do) he even doubted me! He actually said that he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if he hadn't already known AND that he likes this recipe better than the other alfredo recipe I have. TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!

I hope you enjoy this awesome and healthy recipe!



DIY iPhone Cover

Hey guys! Today I have a post for you that I have been very excited to share! I made this for my mom for Mother's Day so I have been sitting on this post for a while with my lips sealed shut! This craft is really easy to make and is so cute!

Supplies:
-Cute craft paper OR a color printer
-Microsoft Word (or Paint)
-Scissors
-Clear iPhone case
-Optional: Exacto Knife
-Optional: Laminator or sealing paper

Ok, to start off, I would buy your iPhone case. There isn't really a point in doing the other parts if you can't get the case to protect your phone. I got mine at Wal-Mart for about $18 (I think it was the Skin it brand). After I bought it, I saw that Wal-Mart had a generic brand in their photo section for $14.... DANG!!! You can also get them on Amazon here if you are patient enough to wait on the shipping for about $2... DOUBLE DANG!! Here is a picture of the one I got:

Once you have your case, the rest of it is pretty easy!

At first, I just was printing black letters and designs out of Microsoft Word onto colored scrapbook paper. These looked OK, but I thought I could do a lot better.

Next, I tried just making different colored designs in Microsoft Word and then printing them on a  color printer. This worked perfectly! Really, you can use any designs you want, but I will post mine if you just want to use those. I also added some personalization to mine to make them special for my mom. :) She seemed to really like them!

Once you print out your designs, cut them out in the shape of your iPhone. To make this easier, I got a clear hard piece of plastic and made a stencil/pattern to use when cutting out my designs, it made things MUCH easier. Here is a picture of my stencil and some of the covers:

 

Also, the part where your camera is on the case is hard to cut out with regular scissors. I eventually got an exacto knife and it worked SO MUCH better and was a lot easier. I would definitely recommend it.

Once you are done cutting out your designs, you can laminate them for a little extra protection. If you don't have a laminator, Wal-Mart sells at home laminating paper. Basically you just stick whatever you want to laminate between two pieces of clear plastic that are sticky on the inside and then just cut off the excess.

Once you have everything finished, just stick your designed cover inside your case and pop your iPhone in. My sister got my mom a wallet and it went perfectly with one of the cases I made. Here are some pictures!

Aren't they cute!!! My favorite one is the chevron one! My mom finally decided on the leopard one as the one she was going to use first. It was fun testing them all out!

 

Here is the all of them templates I used. You can just copy and paste them into word and add any personalization you want. Also feel free to come up with your own!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least, a few pictures of our gang from Mother's Day. :)

  

Banana Ice Cream

Hey Everyone! Over here in my world it's finals week which means I am going CRAZY. :) I can't believe I have survived my 5th semester of graduate school... time flys when you are being tortured having fun.

How do you deal when you feel like your life is going 50 miles an hour? I personally love sweets. There is something about candy and ice cream that just makes me a little less stressed. :)

A reader suggested this recipe after she read my Honey Bananas recipe so I thought I'd try it out during this "trying" time in my life. It's really easy (1 ingredient!) and healthy so you don't end up being stressed and depressed over consuming a whole tub of Blue Bell. Thanks Shawnna for the suggestion!

Ingredients:
-Frozen bananas

TIP: Here are some possible suggested ingredients you can add in as you see fit:
-Honey
-Any other favorite frozen fruit
-peanut butter
-coco powder

To make this ice cream, freeze your bananas. You can use however many bananas you have since there is only one ingredient! I had four so I stuck them in the freezer. They will get a little brown but that's ok. Mine also got a little freezer burn but whatev, it still tasted good!

To make your ice cream, put your frozen bananas in the blender and blend until smooth. This took about 3 minutes and I had to stop a few time to scrape off the edges. After the bananas are smooth you can add in any other ingredients you want. Really the possibilities are endless here. I really liked just the plain banana ice cream, but I'm also excited to try other varieties. Next time I think I'll throw some strawberries in for a strawberry banana ice cream!

 

Here is a picture in my ice cream dish!

 

YUM! I hope you enjoy this healthy delicious treat!