Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki.

Another slow cooker meal! This recipe came about one day when I went home for lunch and decided I needed to throw something in the slow cooker for dinner. That night at dinner, my husband raved about the chicken and requested to have it again, soon. Since then, we’ve had this several times and it has become a family favorite.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken. 

2 lbs. frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs

1 bottle teriyaki sauce

½ onion, sliced

1 small can pineapple tidbits 

Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low six hours. Using two forks, shred the chicken and let it simmer in sauce another 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Panfried Kale.

We’ve gotten into a bit of a rut with our vegetables at dinner time. So I’m trying to incorporate some new vegetables or vegetables in different ways. This was an instant hit and will be added into our regular rotation.

 

If you need a new vegetable for your dinner table, this recipe is worth a try! I’m anxious to try this with spinach too.

Enjoy!

Panfried Kale.

Slightly modified from Pioneer Woman 

1 bunch of kale, rinsed and torn into manageable pieces

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Salt And Pepper, to taste 

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and quickly sauté. Throw in the kale and use tongs to toss the kale in the skillet. Sprinkle in salt and pepper and continue cooking until slightly wilted but still crisp, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Posted by Ree on June 24 2013

 

Chocolate Gravy.

One of my favorite breakfast meals is chocolate gravy and biscuits with a side of bacon. My mom made this for me and my brother all the time when we were growing up.  I’m pretty sure there was a period of time when we had it almost every weekend. Now I’m carrying on the tradition with my son. Needless to say, he’s a huge fan of having chocolate for breakfast!

When I make chocolate gravy, I prefer to use frozen biscuits instead of making homemade biscuits since the chocolate gravy is really the star of the show. I also like to add butter to my biscuits before I pour on the gravy. That’s just my personal preference.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Gravy.

Slightly modified from Paula Deen 

• 1/3 stick butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 2 cups 2 percent milk

Heat butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Mix in sugar, flour and cocoa. Slowly pour 1 cup of milk into the skillet and whisk well to remove lumps. Whisk in remaining milk, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick, being careful not to scorch. Serve hot over biscuits.

Six Ingredient Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.

One dreary rainy day, not so long ago, I decided that I wanted to make cookies with my 2 ¾ year old. He loves to be my helper right now, especially when it involves food. So while he finished his nap, I did some googling and came upon this Martha Stewart recipe for Emeril's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe requires no flour and no butter.

These  were a big hit at our house and we have made them 3 more times since we first tried them. The cookies taste great and you don’t even notice that the cookies don’t have flour and butter. If you have kids helping you in the kitchen this really is a great cookie recipe because the cookie dough comes together quick and easy. Slade particularly liked smooshing the cookies with a fork on the baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Six Ingredient Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.

From Martha Stewart

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Roll about 1 heaping tablespoon in your hands to form a smooth ball. Place dough balls on baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Then use a fork to press dough in two directions to form a crosshatch pattern. 

Bake cookies about 10 to 12 minutes. Makes approximately 24 cookies.

BLTA: Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Avocado Sandwich.

Is there really anything else that I need to say? BLTs are amazing. Add avocado to that and it gets even better.

My son is on a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich kick. Don’t get me wrong, I love a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich but I don’t want them every day. So while my little man had his beloved sandwich for dinner, my husband and I had BLTAs.

These are really simple. Prepare your bacon of choice (ours was applewood smoked bacon this night). Toast your bread of choice (whole wheat sandwich bread). Slice your lettuce, tomatoes and avocado. Then assemble your sandwich. I don’t like condiments on my sandwiches, but my husband added mayo to his.

Enjoy!

Favors for pink baby shower.

My dear friend Amanda just had a baby girl a few weeks ago! A few months ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for her. This was my first time hosting a shower for a baby girl and I was so excited.

I really wanted to have a favor that would be cute and useful. After many hours of research, I decided to do small bottles of hand sanitizer with a cute tag. As luck would have it, Bath and Body Works had their hand sanitizer on sale that week so I was able to get their cute, good-smelling version instead of just a regular, unscented bottle of hand sanitizer. I opted for only scents that were pink or came in pink bottles, of course.

For the tags, I used this tag template and cut the tags out of hot pink cardstock. I printed the message on plain white paper and then cut the notes into smaller rectangles that would fit on the tags. I attached the messages to the tags with a glue stick. I cut holes in the tag with a hole punch and then attached the tags to the bottles using pink ribbon.

They were a huge hit!
 

 

Homemade Croutons.

Hello again! It’s been awhile since my last post. Here in the south, we are experiencing the usual end of summer sweltering temperatures. At our house, that means we are enjoying meals that do not require the oven, which often includes a salad. And what goes perfectly with a salad? Croutons!

I’m pretty sure that croutons are my son’s favorite part of the salad. Let me just say that homemade croutons taste so much better than store-bought croutons. Store-bought croutons are just so dry and boring. Once you make your own croutons, it will be hard to eat the store-bought ones again!

I make my croutons in the skillet and they are ready to go in about 5 minutes. Many people make their croutons in the oven. I’ve tried that method and it works great. But again, I am trying to avoid the oven. Also, the oven method takes 20-30 minutes. When I’m trying to throw together a quick weeknight meal, I don’t have that sort of time.  Any leftover croutons can be stored in an airtight container; however, I enjoy them most when they are prepared right before I intend to serve them.

I really like the versatility of making my own croutons because I can flavor them to complement the other flavors in my salad.  On this particular night, I had some leftover romaine lettuce and a rotisserie chicken so we had caesar salad. I had about half a loaf of cheddar cheese bread from the grocery store bakery leftover from making cheesy garlic bread the night before (to go with spaghetti) so that’s what I used. Since the bread already had so much flavor by itself, I just added salt and pepper. But you can use any bread which makes this a great way to use up leftover bread. You can use any combination of dried herbs and/or garlic that you like. Sometimes I even like to add freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano right at the end of the cooking process.

Homemade Croutons

• 3 – 4 slices of bread diced into cubes
• 1- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried herb of choice or 1 clove garlic diced finely (optional)

Add butter and olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the bread cubes, salt, pepper and any seasonings to the skillet and toss to coat. Cook 3-5 minutes, turning at least once, until croutons have reached desired level of browness/crispiness.

Store in an airtight container.