Meatball subs, yum!

Well, I have six weeks of my undergrad left, after that I'll be able to keep up with posting pretty regularly (I hope).  I also hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day and drank lots of green beer!  I got to explain to my mom what an Irish Car Bomb was, she said she'd have to put that on the drink list for next year.  I sported my green and frolicked around some of the local bars with my friends, it was an eventful day to say the least.

Anywho, last week I made Italian style meatballs and sauce.  They turned out quite delicious, if I do say so myself.  I combined a couple of different recipes I found online.  My biggest fear was that since I didn't pre-cook the meatballs (like one recipe called for) I would open the crockpot at the end to a meat sauce and none of my meatballs would have stayed together.  Thankfully this did not happen.  Also, as I mentioned earlier Nick and I try hard to make the healthiest choices at the grocery store.  Instead of ground beef we usually use ground turkey, but we discovered something new: ground chicken breast.  It's not only cheaper than ground turkey but it's less fat and calories.  That's what I used in this recipe, but it can be replaced with ground beef, ground turkey, or a combination depending on personal preference.

Here's the breakdown.

What you need:

For the meatballs

1lb. ground chicken

1 egg

1/2 tea. salt

1/2 tea. Italian seasoning

1/4 tea. red pepper flakes

1/4 c. seasoned bread crumbs

1/8 c. parmesan cheese

1/4 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

For the sauce

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tea. Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 garlic gloves, minced 

Salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

In a medium bowl combine egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Add the remaining ingredients for the meatballs and mix well with your hands.

Shape into 1 inch-1 1/2 inch balls and place in bottom of crock pot, leaving some space in-between and staggering on top if you need to stack them (like I did).

Next pour the cans of sauce on top and add the remaining spices and garlic.

Stir gently, making sure not to disturb the meatballs on the bottom.

Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours (low 6-8).

Stir, separate the meatballs, and serve.

It's a pretty easy recipe.  1 pound of meat makes about 14 meatballs.  We made meatball sandwiches first and used the leftovers the next day on spaghetti, because it yields a lot of sauce (the can of crushed tomatoes was huge).  I was really happy with this recipe and would definitely make it again. 

Here are some pics, enjoy!

Ingredients

Subs!

Sub

Left overs for spaghetti 

Easy Chicken Lo Mein

Two whole recipes in one day!  It must be Christmas...or the end of my spring break.

This next recipe is not as dated as my Super Bowl pork.  I made this one for Nick and myself the last week of February.  I got distracted with preparing for my Spring Break in Key West and failed to post in a timely fashion.  So here it is.

Crockpot Chicken Lo Mein

What you need:

2 Tbl Butter (or oil for cooking chicken)

1 lb chicken tenders (or you can use thighs or breast, as long as they're skinless and boneless)

1 cup stir-fry sauce

1 onion, chopped

1 can water chestnuts

1 16 oz. package frozen stir-fry veggies (Publix has a Japanese blend)

8oz. box spaghetti

What you do:

Melt butter in a 10-ich skillet. 

Cut chicken into small strips and toss in skillet on medium-high heat.  

Cook until brown, stirring occasionally (about 5-7 minutes)

Place in crockpot.

Add stir-fry seasoning, onion, and water chestnuts.

Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.

For the last 30 minutes of cooking turn to high and stir in the veggies.

Cook pasta as directed.

Stir in with chicken and veggies before serving.

We thought this turned out really well, much better than our first Chinese crockpot attempt of General's chicken.  Nick loved it and claimed the left overs.

That's all for now, I am officially caught up on recipes.  I do have a yummy dish planned for this Wednesday and my goal is to have it posted by this time next week...we'll see how that goes.

Better late than never, right?

Let's pretend for a second that it isn't March and I'll tee you what I made for the Super Bowl.

(The sad part is this is probably the easiest thing with the least amount of ingredients and it's taken me a MONTH to post it.  Procrastination is a skill I learned in college, I'm a pro.)

Easy Pulled Pork

What you need:

Pork Butt (1-3 lbs depending on how many you're feeding.  I used 3 for about 8 people)

1/2 bottle BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays for me)

1 can cola (The recipie called for diet Pepsi, I used diet Dr. Pepper since that's what we had on hand aka: Nick's favorite drink)

Lawry's Seasoning salt

What you do:

Coat pork with seasoning salt (I had to remove some extra fatty pieces of my pork before doing this).

Put in slow cooker with soda and BBQ sauce.

Cook for 4 hours on low.

Use two forks to shred meat while still in slow cooker (this is a very warm task, I was sweating by the end of it lol).

Let cook one more hour to soak up juices.

Serve on buns :)

I was very happy with the results and everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well (unless all of my friends are liars).  It was super easy and fed a lot people, half of which were boys.

Enjoy! 

Still alive and cooking...

Worst. Updater. Ever.

SO I haven't posted in weeks, BUT I have been cooking!  On February 1st Nick made his requested dish and then I used my crockpot on Super Bowl Sunday.  I just fail at posting the results.  So here goes:

February 1st: Lasagno

Nope, not a typo, we made what Nick so affectionately called, Lasagno.  He was so impressed with the slow cooker lasagna that he decided he wanted to make a version of his own.  Which I have to give him all the credit for, he was the brains and did most of the work.  And I have been instructed to inform everyone this particular recipe is patent pending.

Nick's two favorite food types are Mexican and Italian, he also loves to combine the two, he's made pizza quesadillas as well as quesadilla pizza.  He really has quite the talent with these food groups.  Anyway, he wanted to make a taco lasagna, hence Lasagno.

Here's how it came about-

What you need:

1 lb. ground turkey (or beef)

16 oz. bottle picante salsa (we went medium)

1 packet taco seasoning

Lasagna noodles (I had lots left over from my original 13 oz. box-whole wheat)

4 cups Mexican cheese

What you do:

Brown meat and drain. 

Add taco seasoning and water (amount on packet) and cook as requested on the seasoning. 

Stir in the entire jar of salsa. 

Then you layer just like for lasagna: 1/4 meat on bottom, noodles (we used about two noodles per layer this time, breaking them up to fit), 1/4 cheese, the repeat twice and top with remaining meat.

Cook on low four hours, or high for two.

Remove lid and add the remaining cheese after four (or two) hours.

Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

We were both really impressed with this recipe, and enjoyed the left overs soon after.  It's really easy and very delicious.  And I must give all the credit to Nick, I just provided the kitchen and the crockpot...and the loving support of course :)

Nick, working on the taco meat

Lasagno ready to be served

Yum.

Super bowl recipe coming up soon! 

General's Chicken

I'm such a procrastinator--I made my last recipe on 1-25 and still haven't typed it up...I've been watching the minutes tick by on Pinterest and then I realized I need to post!

So here I am, trying not to think about the test that I have at 4:30 and feeling confident that I have studied (almost) enough.  I hope. 

Anyway, last week Nick and I were craving something different and we settled on Chinese!  His favorite is General Tso's Chicken, so I looked up some recipes for the crockpot.  What I learned, after the meal was made, was that General Tso's is not a good chicken for the crockpot, it was more of a stir-fry chicken than anything else.  We actually made real General Tso's yesterday.  The main thing this recipe was missing was the fried aspect.  The crockpot version was still yummy, just not what we were hoping for.

What you need:

1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
2 Tbl. lite soy sauce
3 Tbl. brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

16 oz package frozen stir fry veggies

What you do:

Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces and place in bottom of crockpot.

In a bowl mix soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes.

Pour over chicken, stir to coat.

I cooked mine on high for 3 hours but you can do low 5-6.  After 3 (or 5 on low) hours add veggies and cook another half hour, or until veggies are thawed and warm.

Serve over rice :)

If I were to make this again I would probably do a second batch of sauce to add in with the veggies, we ended up using a lot of soy sauce on the final product because there wasn't much left in the pot.

Here's a pic:

Tomorrow we're actually tackling an original recipe of Nick's...he has a knack for creating interesting food combos.  More to come soon! 

Getting a little Italian...

Whoa, the whole blogger format changed on me and I'm slightly confused...anyway!

After three trips to the grocery store in less than a week I finally gathered all of the ingredients for my recipe this week....slow cooker lasagna!  I didn't even know this was possible (thank you Pinterest), but then again I'm learning all kinds of new things that can be prepared in the crock pot. 

Before I get into the recipe I need to mention a few things.  There are different variations of this recipe, I tried to make mine as healthy as possible (I think all of the cheese I used may have counteracted that however), using ground turkey instead of beef, and whole wheat noodles.  Also, Nick doesn't like cottage/ricotta cheese so I only used mozzarella cheese in my version, but I will post the alternative.

What you need:

1 lb. ground turkey (or ground beef)

24 oz. tomato sauce (I could only find 3 8 oz. cans)

8-13 oz package lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat and they only came in 13 oz, but I didn't use even half of the package)

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

(1 & 1/2 cups cottage or ricotta cheese)

What to do:

1. Spray crock pot with cooking spray.

2. Chop onion and garlic, place in skillet with ground meat.

3. Brown meat.  Drain.

4. Turn off heat and add tomato sauce.

5. Use a quarter of the meat/sauce and spread in bottom of crock pot. 

6. Next add a layer of noodles.  You will need to break up the noodles to fit.  I was able to fit maybe half of one straight across with another, smaller half, next to it.  After that I used pieces to fill in the sides.  It is okay to overlap the noodles slightly. (My crock pot is about 5 quarts, so it's on the smaller side, I didn't use very many noodles.)

7. Spread about 1/4 of the cheese (If using cottage cheese combine both cheeses in a bowl and use 1/3)

8. Repeat layers twice, ending with the remaining meat sauce. 

(I originally topped mine with the remaining mozzarella before cooking, but I would recommend waiting until cooking is almost done to add mozzarella.)

9. Cook on low 4 hours.  Or (what I did), cook on high for the first hour then turn to low for two hours.  15 minutes before serving turn off and remove lid, top with mozzarella and let stand until serving.

Pretty simple, and quite delicious.  Nick and I had the left overs for dinner a couple days later and it still tasted delicious.  I got quite the compliment from him after we ate, which was, "Okay, I'm on board for the crock pot now, you've made two really good things."  He was hesitant when I first mentioned attempting my blog again, apparently he's had bad crock pot experiences.  Sounds like I'm successfully turning that all around.

I'm contemplating a few different things for next week, I'm finding so many good looking recipes it's hard to choose! 

Until next time!

Quick and uncomplicated

First week of the new year and my resolution is going strong.  As I mentioned before, I went to my parents house this week to house sit for them.  I seem to be much more inclined to cook when I'm there, mostly because things are much more readily available.

I must preface this recipe by telling you that I am a HUGE Chipotle fan.  I could eat a burrito bowl from Chipotle any day of the week.  However, because my boyfriend, Nick, and I are on a "no eating out and eating healthier" kick, I cannot even tell you the last time I had Chipotle :(

This brings us back to house sitting.  So we got to my house and the first thing we did was assess the food situation so we could grocery shop.  To my delight there was a ripe avocado, tons of fresh veggies (peppers, onions, jalapenos, lettuce etc.) among other things.  Before our shopping, Nick and I decided that we would make Chipotle at home, and I could cook the chicken in the crockpot as my first recipe!

And this is precisely what we did.

What you need:

Chicken-I've had bad experience with chicken breasts drying out in crockpot recipes, but I prefer white meat, so this time I used two chicken breasts that were still on the bone and had skin.

1 Onion, chopped

1 Bell Pepper, chopped

Marinade-now Chipotle meats have that good spicy kick to them, so I looked for a marinade that would harbor some similar flavors.  What I found was a KC Masterpiece Chipotle & Lime 30 minute marinade.

How to prepare and cook:

Marinate Chicken-use a fork and poke numerous holes in the chicken so that the marinade will soak up.  Place chicken in a gallon zip lock bag and pour in about half the bottle of marinade.  Now, I used a 30 minute marinade, but I actually marinated for about an hour for added flavor.

Chop pepper and onion and put in bottom of crockpot.

Add chicken and half the marinade from the bag so it has a little something to cook in.

Cook 4-6 hours on low.  This amount of time is typical for chicken so it doesn't dry out, I've learned.  What I did was cooked it for 3 hours on low then turned it up to high for the 4th hour.

Remove chicken, discard skin and bones, shred, put back in crockpot on warm for half an hour, or until ready to eat.

Serve with slotted spoon :)

I made mine into my own version of a burrito bowl with rice, salsa, cheese, lettuce, and guacamole.  Nick had his in burrito form. 

We used the left overs on sandwiches the next day.  I think this is a very versatile recipe and will be trying it with different marinades in the future.

Enjoy! 

Burrito Bowl

Chicken, ready to serve

So much for resolutions...

New year, new attempt.

This is a blog project I wanted to start a year ago...I've scraped all of my old (9) entries and decided to try again.  I'm not going to require myself to use my crockpot every week, but I'm going to try to use it regularly, schedule permitting.

I'm going home to house sit for my parents tomorrow so I think I'll start my New Years resolution in the next few days using their kitchen and mom's crockpot.

My boyfriend and I are on a health kick right now, (this started before the new year) so I'll be working on mostly healthy recipes, a mixture of meals, side dishes, and soups most likely.

I'm determined to make this one stick, so here goes, I think 2012 is my year...