Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches

Happy 4th of July! I know most people grill on days like today, but if you don't have a grill or outside space (like me), then a slow cooker is a wonderful thing to use instead. Hawaiian chicken sandwiches are a popular sandwich going around one of the cooking message boards where I belong. I have always enjoyed the savory sweet combination and these sandwiches were no exception. I love pulled meats and being able to use my slow cooker on super hot days like the ones we've been having so I decided to adapt this recipe to do just that. I also added some BBQ sauce to the mix. These sandwiches were fantastic and something that I will definitely be making again. If you want you can grill up your pineapple slices or brown them a little in a skillet, but I just added them as is because I got a little lazy. 

Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches

Source: Adapted from So Tasty, So Yummy 

Ingredients:
1.5 pounds chicken breasts
1 can pineapple rings 
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons dijon mustard1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
Hamburger buns

Directions:
1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray and add chicken.

2. Mix together the juice from the pineapple rings, soy sauce, brown sugar, dijon mustard and BBQ sauce, then pour over the chicken.

3. Cook on low heat for 4-5 hours.

4. When finished cooking, remove chicken and shred on a plate. Turn slow cooker to the warm setting.

5. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Take liquid from slow cooker and pour into a medium-sized saucepan, then add the cornstarch mixture. Boil over high heat and mix until thickened.

6. Put chicken back into slow cooker and pour the sauce over top. Mix well.

7. Serve on toasted hamburger buns and add a slice of pineapple to the top, if desired. Pin It

Overnight Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats

I woke up this morning to a hot breakfast, courtesy of my slow cooker. I love a good oatmeal, and especially like baked versions, but I wanted to try steel cut oats in the slow cooker this time. Steel cut oats are healthier than traditional oats because they have not been processed as much. I like this recipe because it only takes about 10 minutes of prep work before heading to bed for the night. Otherwise, steel cut oats take 30 or so minutes to prepare in the morning. The apples and cinnamon actually make this feel like a fall breakfast, so I will definitely  need to try this again in the cooler months. And I might even add in some pumpkin. I enjoyed this breakfast, although it's not as sweet as I'm used to when it comes to oatmeal. Of course, I don't want to eat straight up sugar for breakfast either so I did not add any additional sugar to my bowl, but you are welcome to if you find it's not sweet enough for you.

A side note: I started a Facebook page for the blog. Head over here to "like" it! If you prefer Twitter, you can follow me here!

Overnight Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats
Adapted from The Yummy Life

Ingredients:

2 apples, peeled and chopped
1-1/2 cups non-fat milk
1-1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked steel cut oats
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional garnishes - chopped nuts, raisins, maple syrup, additional milk or butter

Directions:

1. Spray the inside of a 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Add in all ingredients except the optional garnishes, stir well, then cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Be sure not to go too long over 7 hours or the oatmeal will start to burn slightly and stick to the slow cooker!

2. Spoon into bowls. Serve with optional garnishes as desired. Enjoy!Pin It

Crock Pot Applesauce

I had an unfortunate incident happen over the weekend. Our refrigerator door was accidentally left open while we were gone over the weekend, resulting in temperatures below 40 degrees. Food is not safe if it rises above 40 degrees for over 2 hours. See the Food & Drug Administration website for further information. Therefore, I had to throw out all of our perishable food, even though I had just gone grocery shopping on Friday (which was really irritating). However, it also gave me a good chance to throw away leftovers and other things that had already spoiled. Speaking of leftovers, I had some apples leftover from a kids program I helped run. I also suddenly had a craving for applesauce. Now, I know it is not fall-time yet, but this applesauce was delicious and will definitely be made again during the appropriate season!

Crock Pot Applesauce
Source: A Year of Slow Cooking


Ingredients:
4 large apples, peeled and cut into slices (I used granny smith)
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 T brown sugar
1/4 cup H20

Directions:
Skin, core, and cut your apples into quarters and put them in the crock pot. Add the lemon juice, water, vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar.

Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. (Mine only took 3 hours so check every so often!) When the apples are super tender, mash with a potato masher or fork. (I used a fork & it worked perfectly). I also added a little bit of brown sugar to each individual dish.

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Pot Roast & Vegetables

Can you believe I've never made a pot roast? Personally, I've never been a huge fan but I also haven't had it in a really long time. I have also grown to like beef more than I did when I was younger. So I decided to make it for 3 reasons: 1) I got the chuck roast on sale, 2) It's super easy to make and 3) I wanted to give Jon a nice manly meal!

Pot Roast with Vegetables
Source: Stef's Kitchen!



Ingredients:
1 pound chuck roast, sprinkled with salt & pepper
2 medium potatoes & 2 small potatoes, cut into chunks
3 carrots, cut into chunks
1 large onion, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups beef broth

Put vegetables into the bottom of a crock pot. Place roast on top of vegetables. Pour beef broth into the crock pot and dot the tomato paste around the roast. Cook on low heat for 6 hours (but check to make sure you don't overcook the roast!).Pin It

Orange Roast Pork

Our grocery store always has a periodic sale on meat - buy 5 for $19.95 and get a 6th package free with your advantage card. I usually only buy meat during this sale and try to extend it until the next meat sale! I've gotten pretty good at this by cutting down on meat in some of our dishes or only using part of the package and freezing the rest. Chicken is the only thing I buy whenever there is a good deal on a bag of it since we go through more of it. I bought a pork shoulder roast at the last meat sale and wanted to do something with it in the crock pot when I found this recipe. The verdict - I will definitely make this again! The gravy was so good, especially if you like citrus flavors.

Orange Roast Pork
Source: About.com

Ugh, sorry about the blurriness!

Ingredients:
1 (3-1/2 lb.) pork shoulder roast
1 onion, chopped
6-oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. cold water

Directions:
Trim roast of visible fat. Place onions in bottom of 3-4 quart crockpot. Sprinkle salt and pepper over roast and place in crockpot on top of onions. In small bowl, mix together thawed orange juice concentrate and brown sugar, and salt and pepper, and pour over roast. Cover crockpot and cook on high for 3 hours, then reduce heat to low and cook for another 3 hours.

Remove roast and onions from crockpot, cover, and set in low oven to keep warm. Skim fat from juices in crockpot. Then pour into large heavy pan. Blend flour and cold water in small bowl and add to juices in pan. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring frequently with wire whisk, until thickened. Serve gravy with roast and onions.

*I served this with some mashed potatoes!Pin It

Apple Cider Beef Stew

When I first saw this recipe, I thought it sounded great. Then I tasted it. I hated it. I couldn't even eat a whole bowl of it. I basically took a few bites and that was it. Then I got angry that I wasted all of those ingredients. Until Jon tried it. He loved it. He ate a huge bowl and then ate the leftovers a couple of days later. So, I guess you can try it and see if you like it like my husband, or hate it like I did!

Apple Cider Beef Stew
Adapted from Crock-Pot.com

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stew meat

8 carrots, sliced

6 potatoes, sliced

2 apples, diced

2 tsp salt

½ tsp thyme

2 Tbs onion, minced

3 c. apple cider

1 c. celery (I omitted)

2 Tbs cider vinegar

Directions:
Place all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover; cook on Low 10-12 hours or High 5-6 hours.Pin It

Chicken Tortilla Soup

It's a crock pot recipe! It's been a week since I used my crock pot so it definitely needed to be used again...because, well, I love my crock pot! When I made my menu on Sunday, I fully intended to go to class tonight & not have my car in the shop. A crock pot seemed the way to go. However, life happens & I'm home early tonight but my soup was already done so I got to enjoy it 3 hours early! I have made similar tasting meals over pasta & rice, but these flavors tasted great as a soup too. And since the cold front is still hanging on in Ohio, it was a perfect night for soup.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Just 2 Good

Ingredients:
2 skinless chicken breasts, thawed or frozen
1 10 oz package frozen corn
1 large onion, chopped (I didn't have an onion on hand so I just threw in some dried chopped onion)
2 garlic cloves, pressed
24 oz chicken broth (I used two 14.5 oz cans)
10 oz tomato sauce (I used an 8 oz can)
10 oz diced tomatoes with green chiles (I used 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can green chilies)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 bay leaf
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken before serving.

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Perfect day for soup

I once again used my trusty crock pot and recipe book for dinner tonight. This is another recipe that I've never made before, but thought it sounded pretty good. It did turn out great - hearty and a perfect mix of flavors. I also made some Harry & David cornbread muffins to go with it. A perfect meal for a rainy day!

Fall Harvest Chowder
Adapted from 101 More Things to do with a Slow Cooker by Stephanie Ashcraft


Ingredients:
1/2 pound ground beef, browned and drained (I used ground turkey)
1/2 cup chopped onion (I used a little under 1/4 cup minced)
4 cups water
1 cup diced carrots (I eyeballed it)
1 cup diced celery (I eyeballed it)
1 cup potatoes, peeled and cubed (I eyeballed it)
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes (I used 1 smaller can because that's all I had - and it had plenty of tomatoes)
1 can (8 ounces) tomato puree
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

Combine all ingredients in greased 4 1/2- 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or on high heat 3-4 hours.





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A different recipe...

I really didn't know what to expect from this dish. I found it in my favorite crock pot book and I had some boneless pork chops so I thought I'd give it a try. I actually thought it didn't sound that great, but what the heck! The last time I made boneless pork chops I basically ruined them and they were as hard as a rock. So - I didn't want this to happen again for obvious reasons! Consensus - this actually turned out pretty good and it's super easy.

Pork Chop Stroganoff
*Adapted from 101 More Things to do with a Slow Cooker by Stephanie Ashcraft

Ingredients:
4 boneless pork chops
1 can (4 ounces) mushrooms, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream (I used light)
1 bag (8 ounces) pasta (I used wide egg noodles)

Place pork chops in greased slow cooker. Layer mushrooms over meat. Spread soup over top, then cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours. Using a knife and fork, cut pork chops into bite-sized pieces. (When I had to cut the meat up, I didn't even need a knife because it was SO tender and I just used my fork to break the pieces up.) Stir sour cream into meat sauce. Cover and leave on low heat while preparing pasta according to package directions. Stir hot cooked noodles into the sauce and serve.

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Vegetable Beef Stew

Since today will be busy with watching Notre Dame football (my husband is obsessed!), I decided to throw some beef stew into the crock pot so we don't have to worry about cooking. I've made this recipe multiple times and have never been disappointed!

Vegetable Beef Stew

*Adapted from 101 More Things to do with a Slow Cooker by Stephanie Ashcraft

Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stew meat, cubed (I only used 1 pound)
1 bag (8 ounces) baby carrots, cut into thirds
2 cups diced potatoes (I used 2 large and 1 small)
1 can (15.25 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained (I had some frozen corn that I used instead)
1 can (14.5 ounces) green beans, drained (Again...I used frozen)
2 jars (12 ounces each) beef gravy
1 can (11.5 ounces) v8 juice

Combine all ingredients in greased 4 1/2 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours or on high heat 4 hours.

Stew is ready to be cooked.

And now ready to be eaten!

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Jumping on the bandwagon...

and lovin' it! So everyone over on the Nest message board motivated me to start my own food blog. If anything, it will help me to cook a little bit more so I keep this thing updated! Anyways, I started with a really simple recipe that I threw in my crock pot tonight during dinner for a snack later.

Cherry Dump Cake

Ingredients:
2 cans cherry pie filling (or any flavor of your choice)
2 boxes Jiffy cake mix (I chose yellow)
1 stick of butter, cut into pieces

1. Dump the pie filling into the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Dump the cake mix over the pie filling.
3. Put the butter on top of the cake mix.

All ready to go!

Cook on high heat for 2 hours. Then ENJOY!

The finished product in the crock pot.

I know it looks a little like mush - but it's delicious!

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