Sweet-n-Spicy Slow Cooker Chicken

My sister recommended this recipe. She found it on My Kitchen Cafe who found it on Prudence Pennywise! Wherever you find the recipe, it's delicious! We had this for dinner tonight, and the hubby said it's a definite do-over. We served it in flour tortillas with shredded cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream. We also had some seasoned black beans and sweet rice on the side. Delicious!

INGREDIENTS:


1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (14 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


DIRECTIONS:

1. Coat inside of crock pot with no stick cooking spray.
   
2. Place all ingredients in crock pot.
   
3. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours, or until chicken shreds very easily with a fork.
   
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Chicken will absorb liquid after it is shredded.)
   
5. Serve in tacos.

Cheree's Beef Stew

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1-2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
5 medium carrots, sliced
1, 14 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth or 2 cups water and 2 beef bullion cubes
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary


DIRECTIONS:

1. Place flour, garlic powder, thyme, basil, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add meat pieces, a few at a time, shaking to coat. In a large skillet, brown meat, half at a time in hot oil; drain fat.
   
2. In a 5 quart crockery cooker layer meat, onion, potatoes, and carrots. Add garlic, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beef broth, and rosemary.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10-12 hours or on high heat setting for 5-6 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.
   

Michelle's Corn Bread

This is yummo! I made up my own corn bread recipe a while back, but this beats it hands down. My old recipe tastes more like yellow cake, and this recipe tastes like the corn bread I remember being served at Frontier Pies (they've since gone out of business where I live). It's sweet, dense, and delicious! It also worked well with my substitutes for my allergic kid.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, melted
1 1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten (I used the Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk (for my allergic kid, I used 2 cups goat milk + 2 tablespoons lemon juice, let it sit for 5 minutes before incorporating into the recipe)
2 cups yellow corn meal
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt butter.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt. Stir well.
   
3. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter and sugar.
4. In a 4 cup glass measuring cup, combine the 2 cups of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Set aside.
5. Add eggs to the butter and sugar mixture. Stir. Add buttermilk mixture to egg and sugar mixture. Stir.
   
6. With a wooden spoon add flour/cornmeal/salt to wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. The mixture should be lumpy.
7. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 30-40 minutes.
   

Quick Chickpea Curry

I got this out of the Everyday Food Magazine this month (thanks, Angela for the AWESOME Christmas gift again!). I wanted to try it for 2 reasons. 1. I love Indian food, and 2. It was allergy-kid friendly. It was delicious and very filling! My husband said this is a definite do-over. The other reason I like this meal is because it's inexpensive. You can buy the two cans of chickpeas for roughly $1.40. Add that plus an onion, rice, and what you use of your spices and you can feed your entire family for under $3.00! I served this over rice (1 and 1/2 -2 cups rice to 3-4 cups water). I also buttered and sprinkled garlic salt over pita bread and warmed that in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes. The pita bread is a nice side to use for scooping the curry!

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced small
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 cinnamon stick, 3 inches (I substituted this with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
1 pinch of ground cloves
2 cans (15 ounces each) no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon course salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 cups water
chopped cilantro and lemon wedges (optional), for serving

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large straight-sided skillet, heat oil over medium0high. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark brown around edges, about 6 minutes.
2. Add garlic, curry, cinnamon, and pinch of cloves and cook, stirring until fragrant, 30 seconds.
3. Add chickpeas, ketchup, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2 cups of water.
4. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes.
   
5. Uncover and increase heat to medium0high; cook until sauce is slightly reduced, 5 minutes.
6. Serve topped with cilantro, with lemon wedges along side if desired.
   

Roberta's Rolls

Thanks to my friend Jody of Something Good for writing this all down for me :-). Roberta is my mother and she makes the best rolls. Due to my kiddo's egg allergies, it may be a while before I make these (like when I'm totally bored and have nothing else to do OR he's on his mission or something). Anyhow, I had to copy Jody's post to put in my blog for posterity. The photo is from Jody :-). Thanks, again, Jody!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup really warm water
1 Tb sugar
2 Tb active dry yeast

Mix this together in small bowl--set aside for at least 5 min. or until nice and foamy.

2 cups scalded milk
1 cube butter-cut into pieces
1/2 cup
3 beaten eggs
2 tsp salt
7 1/4 cups flour (give or take)

In microwave scald milk for 3 to 5 min. Pour hot milk in your mixer attached with dough hook and add cut up butter. Allow butter to melt. Add beaten eggs and 2 cups flour, mix then add yeast mixture scraping the sides. Add 1 cup flour and salt mix, then gradually add additional flour. Total cups of flour about 7 1/2 cups. Beat until well incorporated. The dough will be pretty sticky. That's normal. If it looks a too soupy, sticky you can add no more than 1/2 cup to 1 cup more flour especially if you live in an area with high humidity.

Remove dough and place in a large well oiled bowl, cover and let rise 2 hours. If you have the time, you can add an extra hour.

Punch down dough and dump onto lightly floured counter. Prepare into desired roll shape. Lightly dust with flour when needed. Be careful not to add to much flour or your rolls won't turn out as light and fluffy as they should be.

Let rolls rise on pans until double in size. A good hour.

Bake at 420 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Or until they are nice and brown on top. The most important step is to brush each roll with melted butter after they are baked. Don't hold back!*