Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie with homemade biscuits.

This was one of the best homemade chicken pot pie recipes I have used in a long time, besides Paula Dean's recipe but let's face it on weight watchers her butter to actual food ratio does not work! It is damn tasty, but really doesn't work with weight watchers. Not that this recipe was a lot better, but still... so tasty, and with colder weather this is exactly the ticket. So when this recipe came up in the rotation on my favorite meal planning website (click here for Relish), and the fact that it was a slow cooker recipe, I was hooked! I did have to adjust it a bit, but overall it was very tasty!

Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie

WW 10 pts (new points plus calculation)
2 Chicken Breasts, chopped to tiny pieces
1/2 white onion , chopped
1 bay leaf
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 packet of turkey gravy, made
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
Rue
2 tbsp butter
2  tbsp flour
1 tsp chicken stock base
milk, whisk in to your desired thickness
[1] Place the onion, celery, chicken, bay leaf, salt and pepper and gravy in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.
[2] Thirty minutes before serving, make and bake the biscuits. (recipe below)
[3] Gently stir the frozen vegetables into the chicken mixture and increase the heat setting to high. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.
[4] If you need more "juice" I made a quick "white" sauce. Melt butter in a pan, whisk in flour and soup base -cook for a minute or two, then whisk in milk to desired thickness. Then transfer this mixture to the slow cooker and stir to incorporate evenly.
[5] For each serving, split a biscuit and place in a soup bowl. Spoon ¾ cup of the chicken mixture on top of the biscuit, top with the other biscuit and serve.

Easy Biscuits
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
Preheat 450 degrees
1. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt evenly.
2. Cut in butter, use a pastry cutter, till the butter is the size of peas.
3. Add milk till biscuits come together, don't over mix.
4. Flour flat surface and quickly roll out to 1.5 inches and cut with biscuit cutter (or a somewhat straight edged drinking glass, this is what I used).
5. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes until nicely golden brown.
*So easy, you have all the ingredients on hand and look at how beautiful they look!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos #2

Refer back to this post, this was the scrumptious slow cooker chicken taco meat from Saturday we then ate them as hard tacos on Monday. They were still very delicious! Just another way to have this delicious meat, next time I make this meat I will have to try enchiladas as my leftover makeover.

BEST EVER! Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken Tacos

At one of our local farmers markets our local Mexican Grocery store, and it is a big super market, has a little stall where they sell the most delicious tacos. These reminded me of those tacos! So good! And oddly very filling, we could only eat three a piece (and they are the traditional small corn tortillas). And even if you don't particularly care for soft corn tortillas you have to at least try them here it just really can't compare. And this makes a lot so we will have having them over the next week! So fresh and tasty with different textures and spices.. mmm..YUM!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: On high, 3 hours (or on low, 6-7 hours)
4 Chicken Breasts, boneless skinless
1 white onion, chopped divided in half
4 garlic clove(s), thinly sliced
1 cup prepared chunky salsa, plus more for serving
2 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
12 small white corn tortillas
 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 lime cut into wedges
 [1] In slow cooker, combine chicken, 1/2 chopped onion, garlic, salsa, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Cover; cook on high, 4 hours (or on low, 8 hours).
[2] Transfer chicken to a serving bowl, and shred, using two forks; moisten with cooking juices. Heat the tortillas in a dry pan on stove top about ten seconds per side and then pop into a tent of tin foil to keep warm and pliable.
[3] Top the tortillas with shredded chicken, pieces of raw chopped onion, sprinkle with cilantro, and use the juice from one wedge of lime per serving.
Linked to Family Food Fridays.

*Adapted from a Relish recipe.

Homemade Pappardelle with Slow Cooker Ragu

Miss Molly's lunch today! I used the lock and lock box which I really liked. She had PB&J sandwich swirls (just use a rolling pin and flatten the bread make the sandwich like always and then roll it up and cut it with a serrated knife, a simple but fun way to jazz it up) A handful of almonds, some Sunchips packed in there, carrot sticks, and a Babybell cheese. According to her daycare provider when she asked if she liked the cheese Molly just said, "Mmmmmmm."  :-)

One of the key's to bento is packing everything in just so, and TIGHT, so that stuff doesn't move around where you don't want it!

I made a slow cooker Italian Meat Sauce or Ragu last night and left it in the fridge over night so it was easy to pop into the slow cooker in the morning. I love the feeling of coming home, breathing deep just as you walk in the door, and getting all the smells wafting from the slow cooker. I was originally going to make pre-made tortellini but then decided to make homemade noodles. There is nothing like homemade noodles. And this is a GREAT recipe, if you have a food processor.

Homemade Noodles

2 cups flour

3 eggs

2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp water
1 tsp salt
1. Put all ingredients into the food processor and pulse until it comes together (if it looks a little meally and doesn't come together into a ball, pull it out  and if it comes together like dough in your hand  it is fine. Or if it isn't coming together vary small amounts of more oil and water until you get the consistency you want/need) On a floured surface kneed it a bit until it comes together.
2. Divide the dough into 4 equal sizes, work one at a time and keep the rest under wrap until you are ready for them.
3. Bust out the pasta maker and on the lowest setting (#1) roll the pasta through and fold it in on itself a couple of times to get the right rectangular shape and to kneed the dough just a bit more. Then working through the settings until you get to about the #7 (thin but not too thin) then I used my pizza cutter and very "rustically" cut out about 1 inch strips. Then say out loud, "Ta-Da!" because we don't say that enough and it makes you feel special, you are done (just repeat this last step three more time to get through the rest of the dough and you are golden to move on to cooking!
4. In a pot of salted boiling water, drop the fresh noodles in carefully so they don't stick (since they aren't dry they don't cook as long, think 4 minutes instead of 8-10) Then toss with your sauce and you have fresh, easy, and very "Trendy" right now pappardelle noodles!

Ragu

(Night Before put together so all you have to do is pull it from fridge, plop into crock pot, and turn on!)

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 lb ground beef

2 28oz cans of whole stewed tomatoes

1/2 cup beef broth

1 1/4 cup of red wine

salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute onion, carrots and celery for a few minutes to soften. Then add meat and cook until done.

2. In crock pot dump the rest of the ingredients, when meat mixture is done include that too and then put in fridge. (If you want the wine a little toned down you could cook the wine in the meat on the stove prior to dumping it into the crock pot, I didn't do this step and I loved the sauce, and my daughter LOVED the noodles so win win!)

3. In the morning put in crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Before serving use a wooden spoon and break up the big chunks of tomatoes and taste the salt content, add more till it is to your liking.

This Ragu recipe is based off another Relish meal!

Anniversary Dinner and Successful Ribs

So yesterday was not my anniversary (it was actually on Saturday but I couldn't get a babysitter) so we celebrated last night. We left Molly at home and headed into Portland for a "fancy" meal. I say that with quotations around it because it was a nice place, with great plates, but the atmosphere was relaxed and fantastic. We went to Three Doors Down Cafe, you live in PDX or you are visiting for whatever reason you should definitely make a stop.

We started with an antipasti of Italian cured meats and cheese, then had an appetizer of heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and 30 year old balsamic vinegar. Then we each had a salad, mine was bib lettuce with pancetta and a garlicky aioli and Brian had the classic romaine Cesar salad. For our entrees Brian got the hangar steak -cooked to perfection medium rare- some caramelized peppers with what Brian thought were currants and potatoes au gratin. I got the orecchiette pasta with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, corn, smoked bacon, and scallion sauce. It was also very good, and topped off with a few classes of their house white wine. It was a great date with my husband. We don't do presents for our anniversary or for valentines because -I probably more than my husband- request that we go to a nice restaurant, spend time together, enjoy the food and spend the money there. It was a great night. I thought about taking pictures but I didn't have the balls to do it, sorry!

Then today I tried ribs in the slow cooker, I have attempted ribs only ONCE before and they were not good. My husband really likes ribs and will frequently when we go to a gastropub order them so I actually do have an invested interest in trying to find something that will work. When I found the recipe as an option on my favorite meal planning site Relish, and saw that they used the slow cooker I thought BRILLIANT! Of course! Why didn't I think of that! Fool proof fall off the bone easy-peezey ribs. Here is the recipe, but again I got it from Relish so I am not taking credit for it.

Saucy BBQ Ribs
2 slabs of baby back pork ribs
(I couldn't find this at my store when I went so I got St. Louis style... now I am not a fan of eating meat off the bone, and I hate fatty meat and this was very fatty does anyone know if St. Lois style ribs are just more fatty??)
2 tsp coarse salt
1 yellow onion chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Cut ribs apart to fit in cooker, coat with salt set aside.
2. In a bowl mix sauce ingredients together, put some of the sauce on the bottom of the crock pot, layer the ribs and the sauce into the crock pot make sure to pour some sauce on top of the ribs before putting on the lid and turning to high to cook for 6-7 hours.
3. Towards the end I took the lid off to try and cook off some of the sauce, and I must say the tips and pieces that were above the sauce and got more of a "burnt" look to them were the best parts in my opinion!

** Served with regular ol' baked beans and corn on the cob.

It was a success and if my husband requests ribs again this is the way I will cook them, no more messin' with the oven and then the BBQ and what not. Slow cooker is the only way for me, and if people think that is lazy well I just don't really care, ribs are hard for me and this was foolproof.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork and Nectarine Coleslaw

I have done inexpensive pork shoulders in the slow cooker before for pulled pork, if you haven't tried it you MUST! Easiest is the Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork, literally a 3-4 lb pork roast (1) can of Dr Pepper, and (1) 16-18oz bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (throw it all in the slow cooker set on low for 8 hours, shred and put on a toasted bun ~couldn't be simpler I have even done it while camping a few times) This recipe has a few more ingredients, my husband said he liked this one a bit better -little less sweet I think. We used it for dinner one day, lunch and dinner the next so it really gives you a bit of meat (we had it just as is the first time on buns, the second time on whole wheat bread in my sandwich press, and then for dinner on a grilled BBQ pizza).
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

1 yellow onion , chopped

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 3-4 pound shoulder pork roast

1. Throw all ingredients into the slow cooker, make sure you flip the pork roast over a few times so it is really coated with the sauce turn on low and let go for 8 hours.
2. Once done, pull roast out and put in a big bowl, using a fork and tongs (it will be hot) shred the pork, turn the slow cooker on hot to reduce the remaining sauce, once pork is shredded put the pork back in and coat with sauce and serve on toasted buns with Hawaiian Sweet Onion chips, and dill pickles

Nectarine Coleslaw
1 head of smaller head of cabbage, shredded
1 nectarine, chopped
1/2 cup of mayo
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp celery salt
Pepper to taste
1. Mix together in a medium size bowl and let sit for 30 minutes in the fridge for ingredients to meld and serve, the nectarine is so good it adds a nice sweet/sour element.

We have been given a huge amount of cabbage this summer from our CSA so I am trying some things to shake it up a bit. This is another nod to Relish, I really can't say enough about the site I know around my family and friends when I first became a user it was all I could talk about. I have since calmed down around them-them being my family and friends, not because I like it any less but because I believed they had gotten tired of hearing me rant and rave. But know this, I am every bit as in love with this site as I have ever been. They are constantly giving me new things to cook, that I never would have tried on my own. It is helpful, yes in planning meals with its shopping lists and ease of use, but it also has a chef behind all of the recipes so even though they might sound odd; and most of the time I only make a few changes, for the most part I have gotten to the point that I completely trust their judgement. I have had enough of their meals to say, "Ok, put that in, sure!" And would you know it, it is always fantastic.

The pizza at the back in the BBQ pizza with the left over pulled pork, don't know about you but those are some good leftovers!