Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

Again another easy and yummy slow cooker recipe!  This one does take a little longer to prep for the slow cooker so not one to use if you are in a hurry that morning but worth the little bit of extra work.  I may forgo the browning of the chicken next time entirely, and then cook longer in the slow cooker.  I felt the browning was mostly for color but with the dark sauce I don't know if it was necessary.  But until I try it differently here is the current recipe as prepared.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Your choice of chicken (I used 6 boneless skinless breast; org recipe calls for 10 boneless skinless thighs)
• 3/4 cup honey
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (or 2 tablespoons pre-minced garlic)
• 1 tablespoon ginger 
• 1 20 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained with juice reserved
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

1. In the slow cooker mix honey, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, ginger, and reserved pineapple juice-not the pineapple just the juice.  
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook chicken just until evenly browned on all sides.  Place chicken in a slow cooker.
3. Cover, and cook 4 hours on high.  Stir in pineapple tidbits just before serving.
4. Mix the cornstarch and water in a small bowl.  Remove chicken from slow cooker.  Blend the cornstarch mixture into remaining sauce in the slow cooker to thicken.  Serve sauce over chicken.

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

From the freezer, to the crock pot, to the plate with ease.   This dinner was simple and delicious!!

Ingredients:

• 5-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen; if you don't use frozen you may want to reduce the cooking time in the first step or add more dressing, so that it doesn't dry out)
• Double batch of Good Seasonings Italian Dressing (or 1 bottle pre-made Italian Dressing)
• 1 8oz. package of cream cheese-I used reduced fat
• 1 can cream of chicken soup-I used Campbell's Healthy Choice
• 1 can chicken broth-I used Swanson's Natural Goodness~100% fat free, 33% less sodium
• 1 teaspoon Basil
• 1 teaspoon Parsley
  
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place frozen chicken and Italian Dressing in crock pot on low, cook for 6-8 hours
2. Pull chicken out and drain remaining dressing/juices, set chicken aside
3. In empty crock pot combine remaining ingredients and whisk together until creamy, turn crock pot up to high 
4. Shred or chunk chicken-Mine pretty much fell apart
5. Put chicken in crock pot with sauce and leave on high for 45 minutes to an hour

Serve over egg noodles, other pasta, or rice.  We used egg noodles and it was very very yummy!! Dustin, Taylor & I all loved it.  It was a quite meal because everyone was too busy eating to talk.  

By using The reduced fat cream cheese, Healthy Request Soup and Natural Goodness Broth this was a very healthy meal too.  I could have even used fat free Italian dressing if I had used pre-made dressing.  You can feel good about serving this to your family! (and eating it too)

London Broil oopsy!!

So as I said on the previous post, when I typed it I was marinating this recipe for a second time. I thought that it didn't look the same when I had bagged it, but I thought maybe it was just because I had two steaks in the same bad but once I typed out the ingredients I realized that I had made a boo boo. I was multiplying the marinade ingredients by 1 1/2 so I should have put 1 1/2 TEASPOONS of Oregano but when I was putting it in I thought "I really like Oregano, I will go ahead and double it, rather than 1 1/2 times normal". Well that would have been no problem but I had the TABLESPOON not the TEASPOON, so it didn't look the same because it had TONS more Oregano. I was worried that I had ruined all that meat, but I just hoped for the best. I was so thankful when everyone still loved it. So I guess the point is put as much Oregano in as you want, it will still be good.

London Broil

So first of all --no this meat has not been marinading for a week, but as previously told we are busy moms.  Plus I have been deeply engrossed in two books this past week so I am sorry that I have neglected you.  Thankfully my sister has made up for my inadequacies.  

Secondly, since I just fished bagging this recipe to marinade AGAIN for tomorrows dinner, I figured I better get on here and post it.  Needless to say EVERYONE loved it!!  Even my super picky son!!  That is a miracle in itself.  I came home from church today and was told by Nana that she had bought two flank steaks and they were in the fridge for me to marinade the same way.  I took that as a huge compliment. 

Flank steak is typically a very though meat but is also very inexpensive and goes on really great sales.  This recipe is perfect for this meat!!  It was super flavorful and tender!!  The ingredients are easy to keep on hand so you won't ever have to pass by a great sale on flank steak again because you don't have a recipe for it.

Marinading (learning how to taste yummy) and then two of the plated 

London Broil with one piece sliced off.

London Broil

Ingredients

• 3 cloves (or 2 tablespoons) garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (2 pound) flank steak or round steak

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, soy sauce, oil, ketchup, oregano, and black pepper.  Score meat about two inches apart on both sides.  Place meat and marinade in a large resealable plastic bag.  Refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.  (I have marinaded mine for 24 hours both times)
2. Preheat oven to broil.  (Or see alternate BBQ directions below)
3. Spray broil pay with non-stick cooking spray.  Place steak on the broiling pan, and discard marinade.  Cook for 10 +/- minutes per side, depending on the thickness.  Do not overcook as it is better on the rare side.  (And I normally am even a well-done girl and this was even true for me)
4. Slice across the grain and serve.  (goes great with red potatoes :)

for the BBQ grill (I have not cooked it this way but this was the original recipe)

1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, soy sauce, oil, ketchup, oregano, and black pepper.  Score meat about two inches apart on both sides.  Place meat and marinade in a large resealable plastic bag.  Refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.  (I have marinaded mine for 24 hours both times)
   
2. Preheat grill for medium-high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate.  Place steak on the grill, and discard marinade.  Cook for 5-8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness.  Do not overcook as it is better on the rare side.
4. Slice across the grain and serve.  (goes great with red potatoes :)
   

STICKY CROCK POT CHICKEN...

STICKY CROCK POT CHICKEN...

1 bottle Catalina dressing
1 small jar Apricot Preserves
1 envelope Knorr Onion soup mix
chicken
put chicken in crockpot and pour all ingridients over chicken. cook on low all day. serve with rice.

(I know it's not my picture, I stole the picture for eye appeal :-) I left my chicken whole when serving it on the plate, and poured a lot more sauce for yummy wet rice)

So, this is the recipe I used for our dinner tonight, and I felt like I cheated! :-) It was super easy!! And the best part, everybody loved it!! I left it in all day, and it was great! I used a whole bottle of Catalina dressing, and a regular jar of apricot preserves - I could have put more chicken in, we had a lot of sauce left over... but now I know I could easily make this dinner for 6 or 8 people, just by adding more chicken. Hope you try this... it's sweet, sticky, tangy, I don't know but the taste is perfect!! Plus REALLY EASY!!

HERB-CRUSTED PORK TENDERLOIN

HERB-CRUSTED PORK TENDERLOIN

1 (4 pound) boneless pork loin
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. store bought pre-minced garlic
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried rosemary

-Preheat oven to 350*F
-Place the pork loin on a rack in a roasting pan. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. With your fingers, massage the mixture onto the pork loin, covering all the meat. Or if you are like me and don't like to touch the meat, then use a spatula and spread into the pork.
-Cook pork in middle rack in oven for one and a half to two hours (1 hour 45 min. in my oven).
-Test for doneness using a meat thermometer. When the internal temp. reaches 155 degrees F, remove from oven. Or when there is NO pink in the meat, remove from oven.
- Allow to sit for about 15 minutes, as it will continue to cook while it rests.

I also served gravy over the top of my tenderloin. I just used one of those gravy packets. It made it DELICIOUS!

I made this dinner and it is definitely a favorite!! It was absolutely delicious!! It does have a long cook time, but it's one of those -put it in the oven and forget it- dinners!! Everybody loved it, and it was super tasty! We had never even made pork tenderloin before, but it is a favorite now! I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did!!

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