Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

This recipe has been floating around on social media lately. I jotted it down to give it a try and on Monday I decided to give it a whirl!

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken
 2lbs chicken, cubed
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce

1. Put all ingredients into crockpot and cook for 6-8hrs.

Easy right?!

I was "eh" about this recipe. I expected it to be a sweeter, thicker sauce like you see on the photo that pops up on your news feed. Not at all. I cooked mine on low and after about 4hrs, I could tell that the sauce was like water. So, I added some cornstarch to the sauce (maybe 3tbs?) and cranked it up to high for 2hrs to thicken it. That did the trick, but the sauce was not sweet to me at all.  All I could taste was the soy sauce, so I was a little disappointed in that. My chicken was pretty dry too so I think the cooking time is a little too long. I think next time I'll cut the soy sauce in half and keep the rest the same to see how that works out. We had it over brown rice, and I would do that again. It wasn't a total loss, but needs some tweaking for sure! And of course I forgot to get a picture of it!

Beef Stew

I have never made beef stew before, but it's something I've been wanting to try. I actually made this awhile ago, but never got to posting it!

This was super easy thanks to this stuff:

All I did was put stew beef, carrots, potatoes and onion in a crockpot with this packet and added some water. Turn that baby on for about 6hrs and voila....

beef stew! (ignore the not-so-glamorous crockpot photo!) YUM!

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

If you've been on any sort of social media lately, I'm sure you've seen this recipe pop up on someone's page. I saw it and decided to give it a try last night!

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

1 small bag of frozen cheese tortellini
1 small bag fresh baby spinach
1 box vegetable broth
2 cans Italian diced tomatoes
1 block cream cheese

Throw everything into the crockpot, making sure you cut up the block of cream cheese first. Turn crockpot on low and cook for 5-6 hours. Done!

(Notes: I used 1.5 bags of tortellini. One bag was 4 servings and to be honest, it didn't look like much for the 4 of us to eat. So I added half of a second bag. I also used fat free cream cheese. I did find that I had to stir this up a few times while it cooked-the cream cheese just sort of sat there unless you stirred it. So I don't know how this would work if you were gone all day. I cooked mine for 5 hours and it was more than enough-the tortellini were falling apart they were so soft!)

This turned out pretty good! Avery tried one bite and said it was gross (big shock)...Cassandra ate two bowls of it!  It made enough for us for dinner for two nights which was great! I really liked the sauce it created-we're thinking of doing the sauce over regular pasta sometime for something different.

Sorry I didn't snap a pic of this-totally forgot!

Pulled Pork

I've never made pulled pork before. I love eating it, but I always thought it was difficult to make.

Ladies and gentlemen....it is the EASIEST.MEAL.EVER!

A friend of mine told me how to do it and I made it yesterday. OMG-it is SO good! Why did I wait so long to try it?!

Here's what you need:
1 can of gingerale (I had 7up in the house so I used that)
1 pork shoulder/pork butt roast (mine was a 6lb-er)
BBQ sauce of your choice

Put the roast in your crock pot with the fatty side facing up.  Pour the gingerale over the roast. Put that baby on low for about 9-10hrs.
Carefully remove the meat from the crockpot and drain out the juice. Pull/shred the meat. Mix  meat with BBQ sauce until it's saucy enough for you. EAT!

(Notes: When I took the meat out, I put it on a cookie sheet and shredded it. Once shredded, I returned it to the crock pot with the BBQ sauce to heat it all up for a few minutes. And I used roughly 3 cups of BBQ sauce for our 6lb roast.)

Thanks Kristin for the awesome recipe-we'll be making this a lot!!

Peanut Butter Crockpot Chicken

I've professed my love for peanut butter quite a few times on here before, so of course this recipe piqued my interest!  And it's another one to try in the crockpot-yay!

Peanut Butter Chicken

1 1/2 lb chicken
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp cumin
juice of 1 lime (~2tbsp)
1/2 cup chicken broth

1. Put all ingredients into crockpot and cook on low 6-8hrs or high for 4hrs.

(Notes: I used boneless/skinless chicken breasts and cut them in half. The recipe wasn't clear on exactly what type of chicken to use!  I also used creamy peanut butter, but I'm sure you could try crunchy if you desire!)

We served this over some simple brown rice.

Honestly this wasn't one of my favorite recipes as of late. Out of the 3 crockpot chicken dishes I've made in the past month, this was probably my least favorite. It was good, but not fantastic.  Gabe thought it was too "nutty" tasting-to me I couldn't really pick out the peanut taste. Would I make it again?  Probably, but it wouldn't be first on my list!

Salsa Chicken

I pulled out the crock pot again  yesterday to try another dinner out....and it was a winner! 

Super easy too, which adds bonus points to any recipe!

Salsa Chicken
3 chicken breasts (I cut them in half)
1 1/2 cups salsa
1 can black beans-drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn

1. Put all ingredients into crockpot and cook on low 6-9hrs or high 4-6hrs

(Notes: the only thing I changed was I put in an extra cup of corn, making it 2 cups. I cooked mine on low for 6hrs and the chicken was done perfectly....any longer and I think it would have been too long!)

This was very tasty and we served it with some spanish rice on the side. It would also be good served over plain rice as well.

We'll definitely be making this again!

Brown Sugar Chicken

I can't remember the last time I used  my crock pot...I know, I know-sue me!  Seriously I think it was when I lived in my apartment which was just a mere 8 YEARS ago! Yeah...that long.

I decided it was time to bust it out and dust it off!

See, the crock pot is a good idea....throw stuff in it and a few hours later-boom! Dinner is done. However most recipes only need to cook around 6 hours which just doesn't jive when you work/are gone from the house for 10+ hours. Unless you have one you can program (do they even make those?), which of course I don't.  And of course who the hell wants to get all of the stuff ready at 6am before work and have it sitting out for hours even if you could program it?!  So unfortunately I don't think this will work on my working days (which would be the most beneficial days to do it)...bummer.

Yesterday I didn't work and was going to be home most of the day (I'm sort of paranoid about leaving the thing running for 6+ hours with no one home!) so I decided to try out a new recipe I found.

Brown Sugar Chicken
6 chicken breast halves (boneless/skinless)
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup 7up

1. Put all ingredients into crock pot and cook on low for 6-9hrs or high for 4-6hrs

Can it get any easier? 

Yes, yes it can!

The chicken? Yep, put it in frozen! That my friends is e.a.s.y!

I cooked up some Arborio rice and for the last hour in the crock pot I threw in some fresh (not frozen) broccoli with the chicken.  Served the chicken and broccoli over the rice and it was delish!

I will say that I did mine on low for 6hrs and I would not have cooked it any longer. It was very tender, but I could tell it was starting to dry out a little bit. I might even cook it a little less next time. But it was good....very good!

Try this one for sure!  And I apologize that I didn't get a photo of it!