Aloha!

If you read my other blog, then you know it's been a crazy month.  Cooking has not been at the top of my list.  But on Wednesday, I needed a good super easy meal, because that afternoon, we took the Daisies on their long-awaited field trip to learn about horses at Red Gate Farm, and I knew there would be no time to cook.  So, it was the perfect time to try a new recipe that has been going around Pinterest.  This recipe can be found on so many different sites that I don't know the original source.  All you have to do is Google "Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken," and you'll find many many links.  Maybe even a link to this blog!

Three ingredients.  That's it.  Five minutes, and you're done.

In your slow cooker, put some chicken breasts (I used 6 Wegman's Organic boneless/skinless chicken breasts), one bottle of BBQ sauce (The original recipe calls for Archer Farms Hawaiian Barbecue Sauce from Target, but I used Wegman's Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce), and one can of pineapple chunks (without the juice) (I just cut up some fresh pineapple into chunks and used that).  Cook it all on low for 6 hours.

While you're waiting, you can go ride a horse:

And when you get home, shred the chicken with a fork and serve it with some rice, like this:

Now, this chicken was very sweet.  Daphne loved it.  Kevin and I liked it, but thought it needed something.  Kev thought it needed some kind of vegetable. Meh.  Personally, I was thinking something more like  BACON might be just the thing to compliment all that sweetness and add some crunch.  The bottom line is, this is not the VERY best thing you will ever eat, but it is easy and pretty good, and if your kids are anything like ours, they will probably love you more for letting them eat this for dinner.

Food to Make You Feel Better

Mirepoix

Yesterday was Mardi Gras, and I had big plans for some shrimp and grits.  But Daphne woke up with a low fever, and plans were changed.  Since she was sick, she couldn't go to school (or piano lessons or Daisies), and I couldn't go to the grocery store to get my Cajun Dinner supplies.  Fortunately, I had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge that didn't get used over the weekend, so I was able to make chicken soup.

Daphne's favorite soup EVER is Daddy's Famous Chicken and Dumplings Soup.  This is delicious soup, but it involves roasting a chicken, making homemade broth, and making dumplings from scratch.  I did not make Daddy's Famous Chicken and Dumplings Soup.  I made Mommy's Cheater Chicken and Noodle Soup.  Much easier, and almost (but not quite) as good.  I highly recommend making this next time someone in your family is sick.  It will make them feel better.  It made me feel better, and I wasn't even sick.

Mommy's Cheater Chicken and Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 or 3 stalks of celery, chopped*
4 or 5 carrots, chopped*
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced*
salt
pepper
dried thyme
48oz box of chicken stock, plus 2 cups water
Meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed, shredded into large pieces
About half a large bag of extra wide egg noodles

Directions:

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large dutch oven.
Add the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots, add a little salt, and cook until softened, about 8-10 minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, and thyme to taste.
Add chicken stock and water, bring to a simmer, cover and simmer for an hour or so.
Add more liquid if needed, taste, and adjust seasoning.
Add chicken pieces and noodles to simmering soup, and cook for 8-10 more minutes until noodles are done.
Serve with your favorite crackers and a little black pepper if you want.

* these amounts are approximated.  Use as much or as little as you like.

Derby Day Dinner

Sunday was Daphne's girl scout pinewood derby, and I knew I would not feel like cooking when we got home.  So, we found a Chicken Korma recipe for the slow cooker on line and got that going before we headed for the race.

Daphne helped a lot with this one.  I taught her how to peel garlic with the genius garlic tube gadget, she peeled and grated some ginger, and helped measure out the Indian spices.  She did a lot of pouring and stirring, and basically made the whole sauce.  I prepped the chicken, and that was that.

This is another really easy meal with lots of flavor. The prep takes a little time, but it's not complicated.   I followed the recipe exactly, except I only added half the cayenne it called for, and I used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, because I everything I read says the thighs are just better for slow-cooking.  They are pretty gross to work with, honestly, but the meat was just falling apart tender when it was cooked, so the results were worth the yuck factor.

We served it with rice and naan, and Kevin and Daphne made a nice side salad.  And guess who got another Star Wars point?  Daphne loved it.

Sunday dinner.  Yum.  And we get to have the left-overs tomorrow night.  Maybe we'll have some kale chips on the side!

Original recipe below:

Slow Cooker Chicken Korma
 

Ingredients
• 1⁄4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) canola oil
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-inch (5-cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2-inch (5-cm) piece cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 11⁄2 cups (12 fl oz/375 ml) chicken broth
• 1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) canned tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Salt
• 2 lb (1 kg) skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips 1⁄2 inch (12 mm) wide(I used thighs)
• 1⁄2 cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) buttermilk
• 1⁄2 cup (3 oz/90 g) roasted cashew nuts
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (fresh coriander)

Directions
In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the canola oil. Add the onion and sauté until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, bay leaves, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, and cumin and sauté until the spices are fragrant and evenly coat the chopped onion, about 1 minute. Stir in the broth, tomato sauce, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt and deglaze the pan, stirring and scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil.
STOVE TOP: Transfer the broth-spice mixture to a large Dutch oven. Add the chicken strips and stir to coat. Partially cover and cook over low heat until the chicken is very tender and the sauce is thickened, about 1 hour.
SLOW COOKER: Transfer the broth-spice mixture to a slow cooker. Add the chicken strips and stir to coat. Cover and cook until the chicken is very tender and the sauce is thickened, 3 hours on the high-heat setting or 6 hours on the low-heat setting.
About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, combine the buttermilk and cashews in a blender or food processor. Blend or process until the nuts are finely puréed and combined with the buttermilk. Add to the chicken and stir to blend with the chicken and sauce. Continue cooking until the sauce is completely heated through and thick, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.
Divide the chicken and sauce among warmed bowls, garnish with the cilantro, and serve at once.

From:  Williams Sonoma Essentials of Slow Cooking

I Love My Slow Cooker

Yesterday was Tuesday.  Tuesday is my Crazy Day.  Daphne has piano and art in the morning, school in the afternoon, and every other week, Daisies after school.  On Daisy Tuesdays especially, I need an easy meal.

Since I got my slow cooker for Christmas, I have been scouring the internet for recipes, and one search that has yielded a lot of results is Pinterest.  Pinterest is a sort of virtual bulletin board where you can keep track of Things You Love on the Internet and store them in an organized fashion.  So anyway, I went on Pinterest and typed "slow cooker" in the search box, and up came all these beautiful pictures of food people have made in their own slow cookers.  I followed one of these pictures to a recipe for Butter Chicken, my favorite Indian dish, and decided that yesterday was the perfect day to give it a try.  I got Daphne on the bus, ran to Wegman's for ingredients, and got the whole thing in the crock pot by about 1:30.  I cooked it on high for about 4 hours, and then on low for another hour, and it was ready when we got home from the Daisy meeting.  You should have smelled my house!  A very happy thing to come home to.  All I had to do then was steam some broccoli and throw a couple pieces of Naan in the oven.  I already had rice from the day before, so I just nuked it, and dinner was served.

This recipe is EASY and really really good.  The hardest part is probably finding all the ingredients.  Wegman's had everything I needed, and I'm sure you could find them also easily at Whole Foods, Central Market, and any good grocery store with an international aisle.  I kept it mild for Daphne, who ate it up and got a Star Wars point for trying something new.  Next time I might kick up the heat a little, and I will definitely double the recipe since it barely made enough for left-overs.  When I make Big Pots of Things, I like to have enough for at least two family meals and a lunch for Kev to take to work.  Anyway, I highly recommend this.  It was really as good as going to an Indian restaurant.  Not bad for a Tuesday.

Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

original recipe below by Lisa Kremer found via Pinterest at Meal Planning 101.

4-6 boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp oil

Stir fry chicken, onion and garlic in frying pan on medium heat until the chicken has some color and the onion is translucent. Then pour entire contents of pan into crock pot. Then add:

15 green cardamom pods (can be strung together with needle and thread - I always do it this way, and then a friend informed me putting it in some cheesecloth would be easier...good thinkin')
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp curry paste (like Patak’s mild curry paste)
1 tsp cayenne powder (optional) It’s really hot if you add this
2 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp garam masala
1 can coconut milk
1 cup plain yogurt
1 5.5 fl oz can of tomato paste
Salt to taste

Mix gently and cook on high heat 4-6 hours or low heat 6-8 hours.
Serve with Basmati rice and Naan.