APRICOT CHICKEN

Since starting this blog my family has come to realize that dinner can be sort of a surprise sometimes. But rather than cook dinner themselves they are left to try my creations or eat sandwiches. So I feel that I have helped somewhat to broadened their culinary horizons and at the same time advanced my knowledge of the social network.So I am good with that. So I feel I have to redeem myself after last week’s posting. I tried several new recipes this week like bleu cheese stuffed steak which didn't go over to well, probably because of the strong taste of bleu cheese. Then I toned it down with beef and broccoli which was really good and them my favorite was the apricot chicken. I had tried apricot chicken before at Olive Garden and it was wonderful. The waiter there said it was so easy to make that I thought I would give it a try. At first my daughter fussed but after several bites she agreed it was really good.That was great for her because unfortunately there were plenty of leftovers for the next day. Sometimes I will cut a recipe back if I don’t think it will be a keeper.  Although I never found a knockoff recipe for Olive Garden’s version I did happen to find this one on crockpot365.blogspot.com. This can be served with rice, potatoes, or noodles, and a veggie. We had ours over noodles and actually it was even better the second day when the noodles soaked up all the juices.  So I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

INGREDIENTS:

4-6  thin chicken breast or 6 chicken thighs

1- 11 oz. jar of apricot preserves

1 tbs. of soy sauce

1 tbs. of Dijon mustard

1 tsp. of minced onion flakes

¼ tsp. of ground ginger

¼ - ½ tsp. of red chili flakes

DIRECTIONS:     

Spray you crock pot with PAM. Then dump in your chicken. Next mix all your other ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. How easy is that? The chicken comes out so tender and juicy and the sauce is warm and tastes a little sweet and spicy.

                                           

CROCK POT CHEESECAKE IN A JAR

I wanted to try something different this week so I went for the cheesecake in a jar in the crock pot. Now the only cheesecake I have ever made was a no bake one with cool whip and cream cheese which is awfully good! It took only 5 minutes to make and 4 hours to set up in the refrigerator.  So the recipe I used came from crockpotrecipeexchange.com. It seemed simple enough and I happened to have 6  8 oz canning jars that actually fit in my oval 6.5 quart crock pot. So I followed the directions to a tee, even measuring out exactly how much to put in each jar. I also took pictures at every step in case I wanted to post them. Everything was going along well until about an hour into the cooking process when something went terribly wrong. My cheesecakes no longer matched the cheesecakes in the pictures posted on the website. So I went back to the recipe and still couldn't figure out what went wrong. I finally turned off my crock pot after an hour and thirty minutes. I let them cool for a little while, and then removed them from the crock pot to finish cooling. They still didn't look like the pictures. I finally gave up and put them in the refrigerator overnight. Then the next day I showed my pictures to some friends of mine and they burst out laughing they looked so bad. But later after dinner they were all willing to try them. So it goes that the flavor was good, the crust was great, and the texture was thick and creamy like a New York cheesecake. They all agreed that it would be worth trying again maybe with different canning jars or less filling in each one. I still haven’t figured it out yet. So they weren't a total failure! I will go ahead and post the ingredients but please go to the crockpotrecipeexchange.com for the pictures. I will go ahead just for a good laugh post my picture.

Ok here is their picture.

Here is my picture.

INGREDIENTS:

6   8 oz. heat proof canning jars

For the crust

 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup of butter

4 tablespoons of melted butter

Mix ingredients together and distribute evenly in the 6 jars. Then take a spoon and press the mixture firmly in the bottom and sides of the jar.

The filling

2   8 oz. packages of cream cheese at room temperature

1     14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

2   eggs, at room temperature

1   ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Zest of one lemon

Then  heat  2 -4 cups of water in the microwave. Turn your crock pot on high to preheat. In a large bowl mix the cream cheese with a mixer until fluffy. Slowly add the condensed milk. Then add the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and stir well. Now here is where the recipe stressed filling the jars with the same amount of filling so they would all cook evenly. Place the jars in the crock pot and then carefully pour in the hot water until it reaches ½ to ¾ way up the jars. Cover and cook on high for 1-2 hours.You want to look for the filling to be firm and not jiggly in the center.This is where crock pots cook at a different rate. Sometimes it will only take 60 - 75 minutes to cook. Then let them cool. As they cool they should pull away from the side of the jar, unlike mine which poured over the jar. Then when they are completely cooled put the lids on and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Don’t get in a hurry to eat them. The 4 hours gives the flavors a chance to come through and mix together. Hope your turns out prettier than mine. I will be trying this again soon.

SOUR CREAM AND BACON CHICKEN

Happy Mother’s Day! The month of May for the past few years has always been a busy month for me. I have already had several birthdays with more to come, Nurse’s day, Mother’s day, a pinning ceremony, and one of two graduation ceremonies and a retirement party coming up. So yesterday morning when I woke up I decided I needed something quick and easy to put in the crock pot for dinner before heading out to a graduation ceremony. I really hadn't planned anything until I found this recipe from momswithcrockpots.com on pinterest.  This looked very interesting, easy and I had everything on hand. The only change I made was to cut the recipe in half and use real bacon bits instead of bacon because I was short on time to fry bacon. I think it turned out wonderful. My family really enjoyed it. The cream of mushroom soup and sour cream blended well and the bacon bits gave it a smoky flavor. We like a thicker gravy so I added a little cornstarch and water to make it thicker and served it with rice and a side salad. I am sure they will be asking for this chicken again soon. Here is the recipe that serves 8.

INGREDIENTS:

8 slices of half cooked bacon (I used 2 oz. of real bacon bits)

8 boneless chicken breasts

2 10 oz. cans of cream of mushroom soup

1 cup of sour cream

½ cup of flour

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Spray the crock pot with PAM. Then if using bacon fry it half way so it is still pliable and can be wrapped around a chicken breast.Place the bacon wrapped chicken breast in the bottom of the crock pot. Next mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour on chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Then remove the chicken and stir the gravy. If you like it thicker add either an extra tablespoon of flour or a tablespoon of cornstarch in water and whisk well until it thickens. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

BEEF FAJITAS

Well it’s Cinco de Mayo today so I thought we should celebrate with some homemade beef fajitas and of course Margaritas. So I got out my recipe book and found an old recipe from the original Rival crock pot company that had this recipe in it.Over the years I have made my own improvements on this dish mainly by getting the marinated skirt steaks from the grocery store and adding a can of Rotel tomatoes.It cuts down on the spices and makes it quicker and easier to put together. Now I really love the fajitas done on the grill but after being in the park all day for a birthday party I do love the idea of coming home to dinner cooked. It allows me more time to make the important things like the margaritas. These fajitas taste awesome, very tender and juicy and the left over juice can be saved and used for taco soup later. They are definitely worth a try. These fajitas are a lot easier to cook than standing over a hot grill in the heat of summer when I could be in the swimming pool with everyone else.
  

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs of marinated beef skirt steak

1 sliced onion

2 sliced peppers, (I use green, red and yellow)

1   8 oz. can of Rotel tomatoes

Here are the ingredients if you can’t find marinated skirt steaks. Both ways work really well, I just use whichever piece of meat is on sale at the grocery store.

2 lbs. of flank steak

1  jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 bellpeppers sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. ofchili powder

1 tsp.ground cumin

1 tsp. of coriander

¼ tsp. salt

8 oz. can of chopped tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

Spray the crock pot with PAM. Next put the peppers and onions in the bottom. Then put the meat in and pour on the Rotel tomatoes with the juice. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. Serve with warm tortillas, pico degallo , and guacamole.