Apricot Chicken

Super simple recipe for today's meal - Apricot Chicken. You only need 3 ingredients! Yes, that's right, only 3!

You will need:

3 lbs. chicken

Spray crockpot with cooking spray.

Add chicken.

Add one package dry onion soup mix.

 

Add 2 jars of apricot preserves.

I used what I consider to be normal jar sizes. I believe they were 18oz. each.

USE SMALLER JARS!!!

The chicken was a bit too sweet. Smaller jars, and one with no sugar added, would help a lot.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Serve over rice.

I used white, but wild grain or brown would taste good. Possibly even jasmine rice.

I think he enjoyed the meal!

Honey Wheat Bread

I love this recipe so much that I actually shared the link to it before I made my blog post about it!

I made this Honey Wheat Bread for Easter and took it to a friend's home for Easter dinner. They were just as amazed as we were that bread can be made in the crockpot. Even better, they really liked it!

 

Mix together 2/3 c. powdered milk with 2 c. warm water.

Don't make the water too warm or you will kill the yeast.

Add the following to the milk mixture:

1/4 c. honey

3/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. oil

1 pkg. active dry yeast

2 Tbsp. flax seed (optional, but I added them)

and 1/2 of the flour (You will need 3 c. wheat flour and 1 c. white flour)

I added 2 c. wheat flour.

Mix together the ingredients in the bowl.

Add the remaining flour, in my case 1 c. wheat flour and 1 c. white flour.

I had to knead it together a little at the end, but Brent didn't on Sunday when he made it.

Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray.

Add the dough to the crockpot.

I pressed mine in a bit to make it more even on top.

Cook on High for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

I would say 2 hours and 10 minutes is perfect.

Mine cooked the full 2 1/2 hours today and one section was very hard.

Here is the final bread loaf!

It's normal bread, not like a banana bread texture.

Doesn't it look tasty?

I also had some with raspberry jam and that was fabulous.

I LOVE this recipe! I never would have imagined you could make bread in a crockpot. When I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it out. I'm glad I did. I think this will forever be a staple in our home :)

Day 5: Juicy Pot Roast

First off, my Grandpa Gifford passed away this morning. I do not have time to post all about him right now as I am rushing to pack and leave for the airport in a few hours. I will write about him more later. He will be missed and I love him. I know he is in a better place and is no longer in pain.

Life does go on though, so I feel like I should continue writing my blog post on recipes. I will be gone a week and miss doing it, but I will resume when I get home.

Today we had Pot Roast. I am not a fan of pot roast but I gave it a shot!

You will need:

3-4 medium onions, sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

3-4 lbs. beef chuck roast (I used shoulder)

1 1/2 c. brewed coffee (I used 1 c. apple juice and 1/2 c. water)

1/4 c. soy sauce

Layer half of the onions and garlic into the crockpot.

Add the meat.

Pour the liquid mixture over the meat.

Cover with remaining onions and garlic.

Cook on low 9-10 hours.

Ours cooked for 10 hours, and I felt it was too chewy.

Brent said it was perfect.

So...trial and error for the correct time.

This is the final product!

Separate the meat and onions from the liquid.

Looks yummy right?!

Add the juices to a saucepan and whisk in cornstarch.

I used 1/4 c., and then another 1/8 c. to make it more thick.

Next time I do it, I'll mix the cornstarch separately in a container with some cold water.

The gravy had chunks of cornstarch since I just added it to the hot liquid.

Final product!

I didn't care for it since roast just isn't my thing.

Brent grew up having roast every Sunday and hated it.

He told me he loved this recipe though!

So, I would say it was a success!

Day 4: Apple Crisp

Dessert time! Today's Apple Crisp was pretty tasty. I've never been a fan of crisps, crumbles, or cobblers. I think it's a texture thing for me - it's too soft and squishy. But, I actually really enjoyed this recipe :)

You will need:

2 cans apple pie filling

1 c. chopped pecans

1/4 c. old fashioned oats (I used 1/2 c. because I wanted more crumble)

3/4 c. melted butter

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. cinnamon 

After spraying the crockpot with cooking spray, put all the ingredients into the crockpot.

Stir everything together in the crockpot until it looks like this.

Cook on High for 2-3 hours.

Mine cooked about 2 1/2 hours, all of Priesthood Session!

Top with vanilla ice cream and voila!

The pecans in this recipe gave the crisp a crunch and the texture didn't bother me at all. Yay!

Day 3: Baked Ravioli

I forgot to take pictures of the prep, so I only have pics of what it looked like after. And I got distracted because the Sister Missionaries were over at our house for dinner, so I forgot to take close up pics when it was on my plate. Sorry!

I really enjoyed dinner tonight. It was very tasty! I'm going to keep this recipe and make it again in the future. Yummy!

To make the Baked Ravioli, you will need the following ingredients:

1 lb. Italian sausage

1/2 c. onion, diced

2 cans Italian diced tomatoes

3 c. spaghetti sauce (I used 1 jar and it was plenty)

2, 9 oz. packages frozen ravioli (I used beef)
2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Brown the sausage and the onion together on the stove. You can choose to drain the fat, but mine didn't have much so I left it.
2. Add the diced tomatoes and spaghetti sauce to the pan with the meat and onion, stir together.
3. Spray the crockpot with cooking spray. Then layer the following: meat sauce, ravioli, 1 c. cheese, meat sauce, ravioli, meat sauce.
4. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
5. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, uncover the crockpot and sprinkle with remaining cheese. 





Day 2: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Today's recipe was Chicken Tortilla Soup. I put everything into the crockpot around 11 this morning and we had dinner at 5:30. This recipe is a keeper!!!

You will need the following ingredients:

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can mild enchilada sauce

1 can pinto or black beans (I used black)

1 can diced green chilies

1 bag frozen corn

1 qt. chicken broth

1 medium onion

1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

dash of pepper

Put everything straight into the crockpot.

After you open all the cans and packages of course!

Cover and cook on low heat.

This is what it looked like after 6 hours.

Take out the chicken and set it on a plate.

Then, shred the chicken.

I've found that using two forks is the easiest way to do that.

Put all the chicken back into the crockpot and stir it all together.

Enjoy your soup!

We added sour cream, shredded cheese, and tortilla chips to our bowls.

We had enough left over to put in a gallon sized Ziploc.

I put it in the freezer to save for another day.



This recipe was very quick and simple to make. I had all of the ingredients at home except for the frozen corn and fresh cilantro. Paired with a fresh salad and homemade bread (thanks to a friend!), this meal was very filling.

If I make this again, I plan to change the following:

• Use only 1/2 an onion and caramelize it in a pan before putting it in the crockpot. The onions were too crunchy for my liking.
• We didn't care for how much liquid was in the soup, it was a little thin. Next time I will either reduce the chicken broth amount or add cornstarch at the end to thicken it up.

April Meal Plan + Day 1: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

So...I'm weird when it comes to cooking. There are weeks that I cook daily and have fun with it followed by weeks of not cooking much of anything and doing simple meals instead (if you can call them meals). I want to change that!

I've been reading a lot about freezer meals and crockpot cooking lately. I found a monthly meal plan online and just decided to go for it! So for the month of April, I will be making all our dinner meals in the crockpot. You can find the meal plan for the month if you go to the following website:



I did miss doing yesterday's meal because I didn't have a chance to go grocery shopping until today. But I was able to make it today, even though we didn't get home until 2 and the food didn't get in the crockpot until 3. We ate dinner at 7. That's great timing for a crockpot meal!

Tonight's meal was Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches. It was very quick to put together and I had most of the ingredients already.

Set your crockpot on low and then add 3 lbs. of deli ham.

I found some for $1.97/lb.

Mix together the following:

2 cups apple juice

2/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. relish

2 tsp. yellow mustard

1 tsp. paprika

Pour the mixture over the ham and stir it all together.

Cover the crockpot and let it cook for 4 hours.

This is what it looks like after 4 hours!

Voila! Here's our lovely hot ham and cheese sandwiches we had for dinner.

We used Kaiser rolls and swiss cheese and toasted them in the toaster oven.



Now, what did we think of the recipe?

Overall, it was good. It was warm, filling, and had a good flavor (and I HATE relish!) to it. It paired nicely with chips and potato salad.

There are a lot of leftovers and we now have a meal in the freezer to enjoy another day. That makes me happy!

However, I don't think I will make this again. Not for a dinner. It would be great for a potluck though - cut up the ham and take smaller rolls. That's actually what we are going to take to the church potluck on Sunday in between sessions of General Conference.