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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken Broth in the Crock Pot

16 Oct
I love being able to extend a meal further and further!

I love being able to extend a meal further and further!

On Monday we went to King Richard’s Faire for the day.

We were going to be gone pretty much the entire day and coming home at dinnertime, so we decided to cook a whole chicken in the crock pot while we were gone.  The recipe we used was sent to me by my crock pot cooking partner in crime, Gina. She’d tried it a week or so ago herself and deemed it a keeper.

It is from the site 100DaysofRealCooking.com, and it looked so easy!

The best part about it though, it gave instructions for putting the bones back into the crock pot and continuing to cook them overnight, creating chicken broth!

I thought that was the greatest thing! A whole chicken dinner is usually at least two dinners for us, but this would give us a third option: chicken broth, which would be put to good use in the future for soups and other recipes.

I use a lot of chicken broth here, so I couldn’t wait to see how this worked out.

We cooked our chicken all day, as instructed. Once we ate, Don cleaned off what was left of the usable meat, and threw the rest in the crock pot with the onions and carrots we’d used for the original cook time. We filled the crock pot up with water to the top and turned it on low.

It cooked all night long. The house smelled so good!

The next morning: Done!

I can't wait to use our homemade broth in our upcoming meals!

I can’t wait to use our homemade broth in our upcoming meals!

I shut the crock pot off and let it cool down a little bit before emptying out as many big pieces of bones as I could and beginning to strain the broth into containers to freeze.

In the end I had four containers of broth for future use: two 4-cup containers and two 2-cup containers.

I put them all into the freezer and can’t wait to use them for an upcoming meal! A lot of our soups call for a chicken broth base even if they’re not a chicken soup themselves.

And the best part of all: there’s still all the leftover chicken in the fridge for a leftovers night this week as well.

I love a budget-friendly meal!

Give this one a try and let me know what you think!

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Fun Friday: Bread and Jam

11 Oct
"Mom, you *have* to share these recipes on your blog!"

“Mom, you *have* to share these recipes on your blog!”

As a reporter and writer, I have a wacky work schedule, I’ll be the first to admit it.

Flexible, but wacky.

It’s different every single day, night and weekend, and I’m often working when a lot of people are off, but at the same time I also have a lot of flexibility to plan around the needs of my family, and that allows me to keep my focus of “family first” a top priority.

This week, after what seemed to be a crazier block of work days and nights than usual, I finally had a day off. I had a whole Wednesday day and night, where I didn’t have to work at all. I had nothing to cover, nothing to type for the newspaper, no place to be while my children were at school. Although my afternoon and evening would be busy bringing the kids to their Wednesday activities, my day was free.

Wide open.

You might think to yourself, “Oh…shopping, lunch, manis and pedis!!”  But no, I didn’t go that route. Instead, I decided that I’d use that day to the best of my ability, to cook ahead as much as I could, in order to be better prepared for the coming days when things were back to normal.

I’m so glad I did.

Focus, focus, focus! Once I got on a roll, I got a lot done!

Focus, focus, focus! Once I got on a roll, I got a lot done!

I got so much accomplished.

In one day, I cooked two banana breads, three batches of strawberry jam, 16 crustless baby quiches, six peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches to freeze ahead for lunches, and a dinner for that evening that was NOT cooked in the crock pot, of Shepherd’s Pie, which I made into seven individual pie tins just for the fun of it.

I rocked it.

I ate one of the sandwiches before it went into the freezer, but it’s okay. I earned it.

When my kids were eating their breakfast the next morning, enjoying their jam, Elizabeth said to me, “Mom you definitely have to share this recipe on your blog, it’s so good!”

And so I will share it with you today.

I can’t lie though: A big part of the secret to my success on Wednesday involved the crock pot…again!

Just when my kids thought I couldn't cook another new thing in the crock pot, I pull out the triple crock, and go to town!

Just when my kids thought I couldn’t cook another new thing in the crock pot, I pull out the triple crock, and go to town!

However, I used something different: our triple crock pot that we normally use for big gatherings–holidays, birthday parties, and big events like that. An anniversary gift from my mother-in-law years back, I never thought to use it “just” to cook in.

I don’t think I even realized that you could cook in it, since we’d always used it as a warmer to keep the food we’d pre-cooked for the parties, warm.

When a friend passed along two recipes to me, one for banana bread in the crock pot and one for strawberry jam in the crock pot, I decided to give it a try, and do it all at once in the triple crock. This would allow me to use my oven and stove top for other things at the same time so that I could get more than one thing going at a time.

I must say, I loved that option! I also have to say my house smelled AMAZING the entire day. I was hungry all day long!!

The recipes were both super-easy and super-fast to prep. My triple crock has two small wells on the sides and a larger well in the middle. For that reason, I opted to make two smaller breads using the sides and do the strawberries in the middle. I could’ve gone either way I suppose. I could also, in the future, make a double batch of breads: one larger one in the middle and two small ones on the sides.

Lots of options.

Using my crock pot freed up my oven and stove so I could cook a non-crock pot meal for dinner that night!

Using my crock pot freed up my oven and stove so I could cook a non-crock pot meal for dinner that night! Individual shepherd’s pies were fun to eat!

And, now that my bread and jam in the crock pot experiment was successful, I know that I could do this as an after school snack in the future, baking all day long while I’m gone, making the house smell warm and welcoming when we return.

The link to the bread recipe is here, from the Crockpot Ladies.com.

The link to the jam recipe is here, from The Lady Wolf.com.

I encourage you to try them both and see what you think!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Weeknight Pulled Pork Sandwiches

9 Oct
I don't usually think of pulled pork sandwiches as a week night meal at our house, but these were a hit!

I don’t usually think of pulled pork sandwiches as a week night meal at our house, but these were a hit!

Are you getting tired of my crock pot adventures yet?

You might be.

But, I’m not done yet! I have a few more coming, including this one.

I am loving finally having a series of crock pot success stories to share, after years of really never having many “keeper” recipes.

Tonight’s is another Who Needs a Cape recipe. Hers have all been winners pretty much, and this one is no different. It was easy and delicious.

Recently, my kids were out and they were asked by another mom what that mom could make for an upcoming event, and they all three suggested this recipe. I wasn’t even in the room when this conversation took place, so I can’t even say I influenced them in any way!

That means that all the ribbing they give me about all the crock pot cooking I’ve been doing, they really are enjoying 1) being able to eat dinner and 2) the variety of great recipes we’ve tried.

Which makes me right, again. This was a great idea, all this crock pot cooking.

Anyway, enough about how right I always am, and back to this great recipe.

We actually make pulled pork in the crock pot for birthday parties here all the time, but I never think of them for weeknight dinners. When I saw this one, it was super-easy and part of her 40 meals that I’ve been plowing through for weeks now, so I figured I’d give it a go.

We cheated and used regular hamburger buns for these because that’s what we had on hand, and served them with a side of veggies.

All thumbs up. Everyone liked the sandwiches and we had no complaints.

Definitely a keeper recipe, again!!

I encourage you to give the recipe a try and see what you think!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Mongolian Beef (Take Two)

2 Oct
This was so good, I almost forgot to take a picture of it!

This was so good, I almost forgot to take a picture of it!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

As you probably know by now, I’ve been making crock pot meals approximately four times a week, as a means of getting us through this fall sports schedule (which ends at the end of October for us).

So far, it’s been working out well, allowing me to “cook” meals that are ready when we get home from whatever we’re at, arriving home in time for dinner even though no one was here to cook dinner. I’m lucky, in that I am usually home from work at lunch time most days, so I set my dinner up at that time and let it go when I go back to work. Depending on when we need to eat, I put it in anywhere between 10 am and noon.

A week or two back, however, we had a crock pot debacle. As I was making the Who Needs a Cape Mongolian Beef, one we were really looking forward to, I licked the spatula before throwing it into the sink (AFTER I’d used it) and realized the Hoison sauce I’d bought was VERY VERY spicy. I was nervous for the outcome. I even watered down the sauce during the cooking time.

I kept my fingers crossed that it’d work out for the best, but it didn’t. It was so spicy. No one really liked it.

I wrote “BLECH” on my recipe sheet and prepared to throw it in recycling.

I was so disappointed. We’d really been looking forward to this one.

However, when I shared the news with my friend Gina, she asked what kind of Hoison sauce I used. When I told her, she looked it up and found that it contained red hot chili peppers.

Just like the band from the 90’s.

Red

Hot

Chili

Peppers

Yikes.

We’re not spicy food lovers here, most of us.

I decided to try the recipe again, because both Gina and another friend of mine, Amy, had both tried it and proclaimed it to be as amazing as we’d thought it would be; a top favorite on their lists of meals.

I went to the store, I turned all the Hoison sauce bottles around so that I could see the ingredients. I found one with chili peppers. That one was definitely out. I found another that said “slightly spicy.” Forget it.

I finally chose one that seemed safe and decided that this week we’d give it another try.

This Monday night, we did.

SUCCESS!!!!

It was sooooooo good. Totally delicious.

And, there was a little bit left, just enough for my lunch on Tuesday, and guess what??

It was even better the second day! The flavor was bursting! I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch.

We served our beef with our usual Chinese Fried Rice, but I also added a batch of quinoa as one of our side dish offerings. Personally, I love mixing the quinoa with the rice, and that’s what I did with the Mongolian Beef. It was fabulous.

So the lesson learned is two-fold: 1) check the ingredient labels when buying a new sauce, and 2) don’t give up!

I’m so glad we tried the Who Needs A Cape Mongolian Beef again, it’s most definitely a keeper!!

I’ve linked to the recipe twice in this post, and I’m putting her recipe below as well. I hope you’ll give it a try, and remember, if you don’t like spicy, CHECK YOUR LABELS!

WHO NEEDS A CAPE
MONGOLIAN BEEF

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. stew meat
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 onion, thickly sliced
  • 1 tbsp. minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. fresh minced ginger
  • 1/2 cup hoisin sauce

Instructions

  1. Freezer directions- dump all ingredients into a labeled freezer bag, seal, mix up, freeze flat. It’s as easy as that!
  2. When you’re ready to cook- take the bag out of the freezer the night before and let it defrost in the fridge. The next morning dump the bag into the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. If you’re going to be longer just add a bit more water so it doesn’t dry out. Serve with fresh slice green onions and rice. Yum!

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Fun Friday: Our new after school snack obsession: Flatbread Pizzas

27 Sep
My impulse purchase earlier this week has led to some fun after school snacks this week!

My impulse purchase earlier this week has led to some fun after school snacks this week!

It all started earlier this week when I went grocery shopping on an empty stomach.

That’s the worst.

In this case though, it benefited us in that it led to the greatest after school snack experimentation!

While I was at Aldi’s, I found flatbread in their “Fit and Active” line of healthier foods. I was intrigued. One was “original” and one was multigrain and contained flaxseed. Both were reasonably priced and I was pretty hungry so even plain flatbread sounded delicious.

Well, as I walked through the store, I saw some good-looking plum tomatoes and I put them into my carriage also. Seeing them, alongside my flatbread, reminded me of an old Pampered Chef pizza recipe we used to make that had ricotta cheese mixed with Parmesan cheese, topped with sliced plum tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

I decided that with my new flatbread and tomatoes, along with the nonfat ricotta and mozzarella cheeses I had at home, I would make a variation of that for my lunch. And I did. I cut up two plum tomatoes, spread a little tomato sauce on my flatbread, and layered on my toppings. About 10 minutes under the broiler on low, and I had my lunch.

This was my lunch that day, and the leftovers were just as good!

This was my lunch that day, and the leftovers were just as good!

When the girls arrived home later on, they asked me what was mysteriously wrapped up in foil in the fridge. When I showed them my leftovers, they wanted a flatbread pizza for their after school snack. So I sliced up some more tomatoes, some olives and used the rest of my sauce and mozzarella cheese to make one for them.  The entire snack took less than 15 minutes to prep and broil and even less than that to eat.

They loved it!

The following day, my wheels were turning. I remembered a dessert pizza that I had at a restaurant a while back and I decided to make a dessert pizza for the kids based on another recipe I’d seen floating around Facebook lately.

With Elizabeth helping me, I took a flatbread,we  spread some peanut butter on it, layered sliced green apples on top of that, and drizzled caramel over them. A sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar over the whole thing, and under the broiler it went.

Our first dessert pizza of the week.

Our first dessert pizza of the week.

DELICIOUS.

Our creative juices were flowing. The next day I made them a peanut butter and Nutella pizza with sliced bananas on top.

As they were eating that one, they came up with the next one: S’Mores flatbread pizzas: Nutella and marshmallows. When I told my friend Gina, she suggested crushing up graham crackers and sprinkling them on the top. What a great idea! For dinner that night, her family was having chicken and broccoli flatbread pizzas.

I was adding that one to my list.

Elizabeth has already requested flatbread pizzas to be added to our lunchbox rotations. As quick as they are to make, I could easily make them up ahead of time and send them in for lunch. Obviously the dessert pizzas would not be our lunchbox pizzas, but they do have their place!

I’m excited for this newest snack option. It gives us some fun and some variety in our choices, and that’s always a good thing! I encourage you to see how many different variations you could come up with!

Another keeper!

Another keeper!

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Asian Lettuce Wraps…in the crock pot

25 Sep
This was by far, one of my favorite crock pot meals from the first week. Every single one of us loved them.

This was by far, one of my favorite crock pot meals from the first week. Every single one of us loved them.

I’ve been keeping you all up to date with our ongoing crock pot meals experiment as the school year goes on.

I must say, so far so good.

The one I’m sharing today, however, was by far my personal favorite meal of all the ones we have tried thus far.

It is a recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps and it’s the meat that you cook all day in the crock pot.

My house smelled absolutely amazing on this day, thanks in part to the sesame oil that is used in the recipe.

This was one I could not wait for even the next day, so that I could use the leftovers for my lunch. In a way, it was almost like our DIY taco night, but with an Asian flair instead.

Serving everything "on the side" allows people do customize their wraps, adding as much or as little of whatever the want to each of their wraps.

Serving everything “on the side” allows people do customize their wraps, adding as much or as little of whatever the want to each of their wraps.

I served everything a la carte, with Chinese Fried Rice as our side dish, and I let everyone build their own wraps. I wasn’t sure if everyone would try their food in the lettuce or not, but I encouraged them to at least give it a try. I ended up having to put out even more lettuce as each of us had two or three wraps that night.

The wrap that is pictured above (before being rolled up and eaten) actually has the rice on the bottom, followed by the meat and then the Chinese noodles, chopped cashews and the sauce.

DELICIOUS.

I saved the sauce as leftovers as well, and the next day I used it to make my leftover wraps for lunch, but the following day I just had the leftover rice and used the sauce on top of that. Perfect.

Although most of my crock pot recipes have been coming from the Who Needs a Cape website, this one actually didn’t. It was sent to me by my friend Gina, who is doing this crock pot recipe experiment along with me, far away in another state. But we’re trying out some of the same recipes and then some different ones, and letting each other know how they are. This is one she tried out first and loved it, passing it along to us. We loved it too. She found it at Today’s Creative Blog and I’ve linked to it above. The recipe is below, as well.

So today, I am passing it along to you as well. It was very different for a crock pot meal, and you’d never know it was made in the crock pot. It was fun and unique and tasty. I encourage you to try it out, and if you’re up for it, give the Chinese Fried Rice a try too. We use that as a side dish often and it always goes over well.

*In the recipe below, my modifications were: ground turkey instead of chicken, I used apple juice not wine, dried ginger not fresh, cumin instead of coriander, and cashews instead of peanuts. *

Crock Pot Asian Lettuce Wraps from Today’s Creative Blog

  • 2 chicken breasts – cut into really small pieces. (most recipes call for ground chicken or turkey)
  • 2 cloves garlic – chopped really small
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup white wine or apple juice – I used apple juice because I didn’t have wine
  • 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (you can also use what you have in your spice cabinet)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (same as rice vinegar)
  • 1 head Romaine lettuce,washed. Trim lettuce leaves to the size you want to use
  • Peanuts for garnish
  • Dipping Sauce
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon red chile paste
The fried rice was great with the dipping sauce right on top, and some of the wraps had the rice right inside!

The fried rice was great with the dipping sauce right on top, and some of the wraps had the rice right inside!

Instructions

  1. Cut your chicken into very small pieces and place inside your crockpot.
  2. Combine all other ingredients into your crock and stir.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or low for 4-6 hours.
  4. Prep your lettuce leaves by washing, patting dry and trimming. I used Romaine, but butter lettuce would also work. Place your chicken directly onto the lettuce.
  5. Dipping Sauce
  6. Combine all ingredients together before your chicken is done. I like to let mine sit a bit before serving.
  7. Drizzle a small amount onto your chicken filled lettuce, garnish with peanuts, wrap it together and enjoy!

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Fun Friday: Is it a cupcake or a muffin? You decide!

20 Sep

Looks like a muffin, tastes like a cupcake. What was I serving my family for breakfast?

ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 26, 2012:

This summer, one thing I wanted to do was try out some of the recipes I’d pinned on Pinterest. Today’s recipe post is one of those. I figured that if it was good, I’d post it for one of my fall/pumpkin themed posts.

Which I am, today.

But I don’t know what it is.

A muffin maybe.

Or a cupcake possibly.

Pumpkin, for sure.

I’ve seen this recipe all over the internet and Pinterest, and it’s touted as being fast, easy, tasty and a good Weight Watchers snack even.

Two ingredients for today’s muffins. Cupcakes. Whatever they are.

This recipe has two ingredients:

Cake Mix
15 ounces of pumpkin

Mix, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
Try them and let me know what you think! Are they a cupcake or a muffin? Are they truly healthy? No eggs, no oil or butter.

Do you sprinkle them with powdered sugar like a muffin or do you put frosting on them like a cupcake?

Muffin?

Cupcake?

Breakfast?

Or dessert?

You try them and let me know what you think!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken tacos…the dinner that kept on giving

18 Sep
Chicken Tacos in the crock pot was one of our favorite meals last week!

Chicken Tacos in the crock pot was one of our favorite meals last week!

Just the other day I talked in my post about how I love meals that I can cook enough of to last more than one day or night.

Well, last Thursday’s dinner, a crock pot meal of Chicken Tacos was amazing in every department: It was fast and easy, delicious, everyone loved it, and I got four people’s lunches plus another whole dinner out of it.

“That’s amazing!” You must be saying.

“I wonder how she did that!!” You’re probably wondering.

Well here’s how it all went down:

As you know, we’ve been in need of some heavy duty crock pot cooking with the advent of the new school year. I figured that if I can do crock pot recipes four nights a week, we will be in good shape with our dinners. My friend Gina sent me this link with more than a dozen recipes for crock pot cooking. I talked about it last week in my What’s for Dinner Wednesday post as well.

So far we’re up to six crock pot meals and we’re pretty much six for six. Everyone’s liked everything.

I made due with what I had to make the fresh Pico de Gallo and it was amazing.

I made due with what I had to make the fresh Pico de Gallo and it was amazing.

Last Thursday I tried the Chicken Taco recipe, which you can find here. It called for Pico de Gallo, which I didn’t have but I had two large tomatoes and a regular onion so I adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.com to make my own, fresh batch, and I threw it on there.

Amazing.

We served it with a choice of hard or soft taco shells and we had toppings of nonfat refried beans, nonfat sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Those toppings are an important detail.

The reason they matter is that forever, Elizabeth has been asking for a seven layer dip type of recipe that she saw in her lunchbox cookbook, as her lunch. I had actually seen something similar, called Burrito in a Jar on Skinnyms.com and I thought she’d like that. I kept saying that the next time we had tacos I’d do the dip for her lunch the next day.

The lunches following the Chicken Taco dinner were a big hit the next day!

The lunches following the Chicken Taco dinner were a big hit the next day!

Additionally, Alex had been asking for a Taco Salad ever since we had it at our annual Labor Day cookout. Someone brings it every year, and Alex declared it to be so fabulous that she wanted it for lunch asap. I had been giving her the same answer; next taco meal, she’d have Taco Salad for lunch.

Well, the leftovers for this meal provided all the fixings for both the dip and the salad. I prepped everything for everyone’s lunches as I cleaned up from dinner, basically using the leftover toppings from the tacos to make the dips and salad. I put some multigrain tortilla chips into ziploc bags and four lunches went into the fridge, all made for the next morning, when dinner was cleaned up. Done and done.

You’d think that there was no place else to go with this meal, that we’d used it and used it again, so it was done, but it wasn’t! I actually had not yet used the leftover chicken and Pico de Gallo that had cooked for the hot portion of the tacos. I’d only used the leftover toppings. So I saved them, on the advice of my friend Gina, who said that I should consider making Tortilla Soup with the leftovers, on another night. Coincidentally, my other friend, Paula, just happened to post a recipe for Tortilla Soup on her soup blog, My Soup For You, the very next day. Gotta love friends like that! They work together and don’t even know it. One’s in Florida, one’s in Maryland, and I’m here! But we all got my dinner for Monday night, prepped and planned!!

Tortilla soup preparation was fast and easy and it simmered in the crock pot all day long on Monday.

Tortilla soup preparation was fast and easy and it simmered in the crock pot all day long on Monday.

To make my own Tortilla soup, I used Paula’s recipe as a guide. I threw in the leftover chicken and pico, with a 32 oz. container of chicken broth plus two cups of water with two boullion cubes dissolved in it (I had run out of the containers of broth, but would’ve just used two if I had them.)

In addition, I threw in a can of black beans (rinsed), about a half bag of frozen corn, and at the last minute I decided to saute half a green and half a red pepper and throw that in near the end of the cooking time.

I served the soup with nonfat sour cream, nonfat shredded cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips that you could crush up and put into the soup if you wanted to.

It was amazing. I loved it, Liz loved it, Don loved it. Alex and Caroline did not love it. But they are the pickiest of the five of us, so I wasn’t surprised at all that it wasn’t up their alley.

I’d totally make it again.

And the best part…..there was leftover soup.

For my lunch for my lunch the next day.

This was by far the furthest I have ever stretched a meal of ours. It was inexpensive to make too. Nothing in it cost very much and every part of it was delicious.

If you’re looking to stretch your budget and your meals, I highly recommend you try this out!

I got two dinners and two lunches out of one crock pot meal!

I got two dinners and two lunches out of one crock pot meal!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Anything I can crock pot

11 Sep
On the table and ready to eat!

On the table and ready to eat!

It’s back to school time.

Back to sports time.

Back to scouts time.

And of course, back to work time.

That makes cooking dinner time quite complicated.

This fall, for the first time, everyone’s every thing is on every night, with pick ups and drop offs in and around dinner time.

Most nights we can eat together but most nights there is going to be no one home to cook.

As I looked at my schedule for the next eight weeks, I knew I had to come up with a solution, and fast. If I could figure out how to get everyone everywhere and home again, I needed to have a meal waiting when we got here. Eating together is really important to us, and so is eating a home-cooked, healthy meal.

Around the same time I was contemplating my fall schedule dilemma, a friend of mine, Gina, forwarded me a link to the blog whoneedsacape.com, Specifically, to the 40 Meals/Four Hours recipe collection.

I was sold. It looked like exactly what I needed–the ability to prep meals way ahead of time and cook them while I was gone on the days that I needed them. It almost sounded too good to be true.

Very rarely have I found a crock pot meal that we all like, that I’d want to make again. But, with so many options to choose from–more than a dozen recipes, all of which could be prepped ahead, it was worth a try.

I decided that rather than prepping several sets of any one recipe, I’d instead go through the list, see what sounded like things my family might like, and try each one just once. If they were successful, then I’d prep more of the ones we liked for the future.

Elizabeth happened to be around when I first received the link. We clicked through and looked at every photo, every recipe. We came up with a list of those we wanted to try. It seemed doable.

This week alone, I’ve got several of these recipes on my list to try out. The very first one, made on Monday night, was a keeper, according to my family. As I try each one, they’ll appear on future “What’s For Dinner Wednesday” posts if they’re deemed worthy by my family.

Maple Dijon Chicken was the one I chose to try out first. I opted to switch out the chicken thighs that it called for, switching in boneless, skinless breasts instead.

The recipe was simple and quick to prep, which I liked. I could have prepped it ahead and froze it, but this time I didn’t need to. I had some time in the morning to do it. The house smelled great all day long! I love that about crock pot cooking!

Here is the recipe as found on Who Needs A Cape.com, with my few modifications. Give it a try and see what you think! I served ours with brown rice and veggies on the side. Thumbs up all around!

Throw it all in the crock pot and turn it on!

Throw it all in the crock pot and turn it on!

MAPLE DIJON CHICKEN

Ingredients

  • 6-8 Chicken thighs  (I used boneless, skinless breasts, thawed.)
  • 1/2 C Dijon Mustard
  • 1/4 C Maple Syrup
  • 1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 1 can of Sliced Mushrooms, drained* (I used fresh mushrooms.)
  • 1 onion sliced*  (I used half an onion.)

Instructions

  1. Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray
  2. Place chicken in crock pot
  3. Mix together mustard, syrup, vinegar and pour over chicken
  4. Top with mushrooms and sliced onion
  5. Cook on low for 6 hours

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A Once-a-Year Dessert: Plum Crunch

9 Sep

I try to convince myself that if I could have this dessert more than once a year, it would not be as special. I’m not quite convinced yet.

Originally Posted September 14, 2012.

Reposting this recipe today, September 9, 2013, in honor of my mom’s birthday!

Happy Birthday Mom!

You know how little kids say they wish it were Christmas every day, or their birthday every day? Isn’t our answer that if it were every day, then it wouldn’t be special when we had it, that it has to be once a year or it wouldn’t mean as much?

Right.

I wish I could have Plum Crunch every day.

Well, if not every day, then at least more than the once-a-year that I do have it.

I know, then it wouldn’t be special, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah…

I get it.

Sigh…..

Why, you ask, do we only have this once a year?

I’m sure you were asking. Somewhere, someone is asking right now.

It’s because it uses a particular kind of plum, not just any plum, an Italian Prune Plum, these little half-sized plums that are available in our stores just in the fall. Really, just in September.

As a kid, I remember having them for my school lunch snacks in the fall. They’re just so cute. Cuter than the plums you get all the rest of the time. And they make this recipe SO delicious. My mom made it every fall and she and I love it more than anyone in our family, hands down.

I actually had a little thrill when I gave my kids these plums for the first time, as it brought back memories of eating them myself as a kid. I love passing those types of memories and traditions down to my own kids as well.

Top it with ice cream….even more deliciousness…

Now I will say, I’ve never tried this Plum Crunch with any other kind of plum, but I just assume it won’t be the same because otherwise the recipe would say you could use any plums and eat it any time.

So before the window has shut for you to try this recipe I am sharing it with you today.

Quick, run out and get your plums so you can try it this weekend!

PLUM CRUNCH
INGREDIENTS

3 cups halved and pitted Italian Prune Plums (about 18 but I always buy extra in case one is bad or in case my kids want to eat some out of the dish.)

3 TBL brown sugar
3 TBL sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Topping:

1 egg well beaten
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup oatmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup melted margarine

This recipe is so simple, we always have everything in the house to make it, except for the plums.

DIRECTIONS

Spray 9×13 baking dish with no stick spray.

Put prepared plums cut side up on the bottom of the pan.

Mix the two sugars and the nutmeg together and sprinkle over fruit.

Beat the egg in a bowl, then add the dry ingredients together.

Mix til crumbly. Sprinkle over plums.

Pour melted butter over all.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 35 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.

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