Creole Chicken (crock-pot)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 small can (4-6 oz) tomato sauce
2 green onions, chopped
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 TBS garlic powder (we use Tone's salt-free garlic & herb blend)
2 dashes of hot sauce (or 3 or 4 if you’re brave)
2 cups water
16 oz smoked sausage or kielbasa, sliced diagonally
**1 cup of uncooked rice, prepared as directed to be added prior to serving**





Combine all ingredients in the crock except for smoked sausage and rice, to cook on low for 6-8 hours.

One hour prior to serving, add smoked sausage.






Immediately prior to serving, add prepared rice.

Sourdough Garlic Croutons

The sourdough bread I baked last Saturday needed to be used up.

Instead of letting it go to waste, I decided to use it to make croutons.



After for looking online for crouton recipes, we finally decided to kind of use bits and pieces of each recipe to make our own.

We started by preheating the oven to 300 degrees F.

So we sliced the remaining loaf of bread into 1-inch slices.

Next, we gathered the ingredients to finish the croutons:

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup butter (or margarine) melted
1/2 cup minced garlic
Italian seasoning mix*



Mmmmmmm, garlic!



In one small sauce pan we combined the olive oil and garlic and simmered for approximately 10 minutes.

Next we added the melted butter and mixed it until it was completely combined.

While I was mixing, Jon diced the slices of bread.

He did a really good job. Knowing my track record in the kitchen today I probably would have cut my fingers. Or something.




In a big mixing bowl, we tossed the bread cubes in the oil/butter/garlic mixture.

Then spread the drowned bread cubes were dumped onto the cooking stone. Once on the baking stone I sprinkled them with Italian seasoning mix. More or less according to your tastes. Ours were pretty strong.

After I cooked them for 5 minutes in the oven, I decided to switch them over to a wire rack over a metal baking sheet. That would allow the excess oil and butter to drain.

My advice - go straight to the wire rack over the metal baking sheet or baking stone.

I should have.



In the end, they cooked in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees F.

Within 2 hours they were half gone.

I'm afraid to go see if there are any left now.

The boys are on fall break right now and no food is safe in our home.

At 10:30 this morning I caught the middle one making himself a cup of coffee.

At least now I know why I'm out of coffee...I'm really just glad it wasn't me that drank it all!!

O. M. Goodness Grilled Peaches

I've never grilled peaches before, and I really really wanted to try them.

Lucky me, my local store that sells everything had some beautiful peaches, right there by the cash registers yesterday.

It was fate!

With Jon's help, the peaches were cut in half, and then again in quarters...but that was mostly because I couldn't get them apart.

Oops.




Then we dipped the cut sides of the fruit in brown sugar and wiped off the excess.



On to the hot grill pan they went. About medium heat. Not too hot, that brown sugar and the natural sugars of the peach could get ugly real fast if the heat was too high.



I grilled both sides of the peach quarter that hard brown sugar. I let them cook 3-4 minutes on each side. That's a lot longer than it sounds!

I knew they were ready when the peach began to soften and the sugar had caramelized on the peach.

Success!! These were absolutely wonderful! My 12 year old thought he would refuse to try one. He was wrong. He went back and got 2 more.

These boys!!

Ham & Cheese Waffles

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 large egg
4 TBS butter or margarine, melted & cooled
4 oz thinly sliced ham, chopped
1 cup shredded *orange* cheese (we used colby-jack mix, cheddar works well also)
2 green onions, chopped

*mustard for dipping*

Begin by combining the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl with a whisk.

Next, add the milk, egg, and melted butter. Combine thoroughly.



For this recipe we used deli style ham. To get it the right size (quickly) Jon used the pizza cutter to dice it all up. Fast and efficient.



The ham, cheese, and chopped green onion are added to the batter without over mixing.



Using a waffle press the batter is cooked. These waffles are not as crunchy as other waffles, so be prepared for the texture to be softer.

Don't be fooled though, they are super filling!



I like a little bit of mustard to dip my waffles in - but of the 5 people here - I am the only one. They don't know what they are missing!

If you are lucky enough to have leftovers, they make great snacks and would work well for a quick lunch.

We weren't so lucky this time...but next time that just means a double-batch!

Stewed UP Spaghetti Sauce

I vaguely remember being asked what meat I wanted taken out of the freezer for today's dinner last night before I fell asleep.

Vaguely.

When I got up this morning I decided that spaghetti sounded really good - and we should have it for dinner. I love it when a plan comes together!

But when I went to get meat out of the freezer, I found that this package of stew beef was already thawing.



The only sensible thing to do was to plan on using it in the spaghetti sauce. And I could cook it in the crock-pot! Now we're talking!!

Time to assemble...




Ingredients:

1 1/2-2 lbs stew beef
1 14 1/2 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 26 1/2 oz can of prepared spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1 packet, dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 TBS Italian seasoning
1 TBS minced garlic
1 can of water (use the diced tomato can)

Mix well.

1 tsp sugar sprinkled over the combined ingredients.

(Mom always said to do that, and her advice has always been pretty darn good.)

Cook on low 6-7 hours.

With our Stewed UP Spaghetti sauce we served spaghetti noodles, garlic bread, and a fresh salad.

Long after the noodles were gone, the sauce was a welcome dipping sauce for the remaining garlic bread.



Now the garlic bread is gone too.

Success!!

BBQ'd Country Style Ribs

I got a text this morning that said, "You like to cook. I've got some ribs...any suggestions?"

Yes!

We tried this out a couple of weeks ago and it was a really good variation on the same ole same ole we usually have with country style ribs.



BBQ'd Country Style Ribs:

up to 4.5 or 5 lbs. boneless country-style pork ribs
1 1/2 cups bottled BBQ sauce
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 TBS yellow mustard
1 TBS packed brown sugar
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp dried Thyme

**using a blender, mix BBQ sauce - onion - (celery) - mustard - brown sugar - worchestershire sauce - garlic & thyme**

place ribs in crock-pot, cover with sauce from blender....cook on low 8-10 hours or high 5-6 hours

-> we had a communication error so the celery didn't make it to the blender, instead we put it in on top of the sauce

Another Potato Soup Recipe for the Crock-Pot

At some point during the night last night, someone turned the heat off.

That wasn't very nice.

Then the weather man has to go and tell me that it's gonna be a cooler day.

All day.

There's really only one way to deal with that...a nice warm bowl of Potato Soup.

The only thing better than that bowl of Potato Soup is not having to rush around cooking it at the end of the day. It's in the crock NOW so when those hungry boys come home from school, we can shower them with parental attention.

Win! Win!!



The rule of thumb in our house is 1 potato per person. Not small potatoes, not super enormous potatoes, just regular size potatoes. If it is bigger than my fist it is too big.

Into the crock:

5 potatoes, cleaned - peeled - and diced
1 large white onion diced



2 large stalks of celery, chopped
3-4 TBS chicken bouillon
1 10 3/4 oz can cheddar cheese soup
6 soup cans hot water
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic (we tend to lean on the theory more garlic = better)



YUMMMMM!

Mix well and cook on low 6-8 hours...or until the kids come home.




Then add the protein of choice about 1 hour before serving.

Today we will be adding:

1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese
1 1/2 cups diced turkey ham

Toppings? Sure!!

Green onions & bacon crumbles.

Maybe more cheese.

If you dare!

Fortunately we still have some sourdough bread to add to this feast.

Is it dinner time yet??

Crock-Pot Beer Meatballs

Beer Meatballs

1 package frozen meatballs, (we prefer Schwans Italian style)
1 beer
1 onion, diced
1 onion soup mix packet
1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar

*combine in crock-pot, cook on low 4-5 hours*



We enjoy serving this with mashed potatoes. We also enjoy this served over egg noodles, or on sandwiches topped with Swiss cheese slices. The possibilities are endless!