Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Pinterest is my new addiction. It is a great way to organize and save things you find on the web. However it is also a great way to end up with 100’s of pins and no intention of doing anything with them. I am trying really hard to make or cook some of the great things I am finding on Pinterest and this recipe is a great example of that.

This recipe is from Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen and her picture along with the fact that this was made in the crockpot and I had all the ingredients in my kitchen made this a no brainier for dinner the other night. It was super simple and easy to make. I really liked the taste of the Teriyaki sauce which is another reason why this recipe will become something we make regularly in our house.

By the way if you haven’t check out pinterest you must do so and if you would like to see what I am pinning go ahead and follow me (http://pinterest.com/cpeat/). If you need an invite to start using pinterest let me know your email and I will send you and invite.

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

~ 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

~ 3/4 cup sugar

~ 3/4 cup soy sauce

~ 6 Tbs. cider vinegar

~ 3/4 tsp. ground ginger

~ 3/4 tsp. minced garlic

~ 1/4 tsp. pepper

~ 4 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

~ 4 1/2 tsp. cold water

~ Cooked rice

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, soy sauce, cider vinegar, ginger, garlic and pepper. Mix well and then pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until chicken is tender.

2. Remove chicken to a serving platter and keep warm. Skim fat from cooking liquid. Place liquid in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into liquid and stir until sauce is thickened. Serve with chicken and rice.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower

You have heard me say it many times on this blog that I love Cauliflower and I have ever since I can remember. But every now and then you need to do something different with your favorite veggies and this time it was the cauliflower. We have had cauliflower with white sauce several times and it was time to try something new.

So I began checking out some of my favorite food blogs like Our Best Bites and I found Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower. Well if there is one thing that I have learned about cooking recently is that now matter how much you hate a veggie if you roast it and put cheese on it you will probably end up loving it and this recipe is a great example of that. Super simple to make and a great addition to my collection of cauliflower recipes.

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower

~ 3-4 Tbs. Olive Oil

~ 3-4 cloves garlic, minced

~ 1 head cauliflower

~ salt and pepper

~ 2-3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place olive oil and garlic in a small bowl and heat in microwave for about 20 seconds. Remove from microwave and set aside.

2. Remove stem and leaves from cauliflower head and trim into large florets. Slice each floret into 1/4 inch slices and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and garlic mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use clean hands to toss to coat. Add more olive oil if needed.

3. Bake for 15 minutes and then toss with spatula. Bake 10 more minutes and then toss with Parmesan Cheese. Continue for 5-10 minutes or until slightly golden brown on edges.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower

What was in those baskets on January 28th

Wow, where do I begin! Today was a crazy morning. The wind here was blowing pretty strong and quite chilly but even with that and a late truck our awesome volunteers moved quickly to get things sorted. Thanks to all of the volunteers and I hope everyone enjoys their wonderful produce this week.

The picture above is similar to what we got in our basket with a few differences, I wasn’t unable to get a picture so I borrowed this one from Inspired RD. This weeks basket had asparagus, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, blueberries, apples, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, potatoes, onions, oranges, and grapefruit.

I was super excited to get green beans because my two favorite recipes are Bacon Wrapped Green Beans and Oven Roasted Green Beans with Garlic. Both of these recipes are amazing and you wont be disappointed.

Asparagus is another favorite of mine and I like to make Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus, Balsamic Asparagus or Oven Roasted Asparagus. All are family favorites.

For those cute little red potatoes try making Bacon, Cheese and Potato soup or Smashed Hot Potatoes with them. My family is also a fan of Onion-Roasted Potatoes and Parmesan Roasted Potatoes.

At our site we got a lot of tomatoes. This last week we took our tomatoes and mad Tomato and Basil Bruschetta on the Italian Olive Oil Bread we got. It was great and I plan on doing it again this week since we froze a few loves.

If you have a lot of apples trying making Baked Apple Crisps. My apples disappeared a lot faster when I made these!

If you got the Tropical Pack and ended up with a coconut and aren’t sure what to do like I was the first time. Check out my post on how to get the coconut meat out of a coconut. Once you have that meat out grate it up and you can freeze it to use in later recipes or you could make my favorite sweet bread, Coconut Almond Bread! It will seriously change your life!

Please feel free to let me know what you think of my recipes and share what you plan to do with your produce this week!

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters

I am not sure why but I have had the biggest sweet tooth lately. It has been hard to curb but every once in awhile you just have to give in and have a bit of something sweet. My friend over at I Think I Can Moms made this over the holidays and my husband said we had to make it at home. The great thing about this recipe is you make it in the crock pot.

If you use Crock Pot liners then the clean up is a breeze as well. I swear by this liners, the make cleaning up your crock pot a million times easier! You must try them if you haven’t, it will change your life!

The other great thing about this recipe is you just dump all the ingredients in and let the crock pot do the rest. Super simple and super delicious

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters

~ 1 can unsalted peanuts

~ 1 can salted peanuts

~ 1 chocolate almond bark

~ 1 vanilla almond bark

~ 2 12 oz. bags semi sweet chocolate chips

Place the peanuts in the crock-pot. Then place the chocolate and vanilla almond bark on top. Dump chocolate chips on top. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or until chocolate is melted.

* Make sure to put peanuts on the bottom of your crock pot and not chocolate or it will burn.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters

Salad in a Jar

Over the last few weeks I have seen this whole salad in a jar idea and I was a bit skeptical. First of all the salad dressing is at the bottom of the jar with all the other salad ingredients layered on top and this scared me a bit. I was defiantly intrigued and had to give it a try. Anything that I can prep on the weekend so that I have lunch all week sounds like a great idea, not to mention it is portable and healthy depending on what you put in it.

As it turns out this is a great idea and works wonderfully!! I made mine in mason jars since I would be eating at home. I made my husbands in Ziploc plastic containers so that he wouldn’t break the glass jars.

Start off by placing 1-3 Tbsp. of your favorite dressing at the bottom. Then layer on your salad ingredients making sure that the lettuce doesn’t touch the dressing because it will become not so appetizing. Then store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Everything stayed crisp and all you do is just shake it up and enjoy when you are ready.

For the salads you see above I used carrots, olives, cucumbers, baby corn, mushrooms, bacon on my husbands, and lettuce. I added avocado to mine once I was ready to eat it since avocado browns quickly. But the possibilities are endless and a great way to have a healthy lunch on a busy weekday!

What was in those baskets on January 21st

What a crazy day! We had a storm coming in and the wind was blowing pretty hard even for Kingman. We even had a late truck today but that didn’t stop the amazing volunteers from working hard to get all the produce unloaded and distributed. It was all worth it because we had a very large basket this week!

This weeks basket had bananas, kiwi, pomegranate, oranges, apples, lettuce, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, and cauliflower.

This week my family is going to be working on eating meals out of our freezer to clean things out a bit. Of course we will be eating all of our produce as sides to our meals. I plan on making Corn Chowder, Baked Parmesan Tomatoes, and Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries with some of our produce. The Brussels Spouts were a huge hit in my house and I was thinking about substituting pomegranate in place of the dried cranberries.

I hope everyone had a great week and enjoys the basket. What are your plans with your produce this week?

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls

There was a restaurant in Utah that we enjoyed going to, it was a Brazilian place that served meat and veggies that had been cooked on skewers. Once of the things my husband enjoyed most was these Brazilian cheese rolls that they served. They were very light and full of lots of cheese flavor. As I was cruising through a favorite blog of mine Our Best Bites I found a recipe that claimed to be the best and very similar to these rolls that we liked so much. I knew that I had to give these a try!

The only problem that I had was they were very specific that you had to use Tapioca flour and it could not be substituted with anything else. Well this became a problem for me since I live in a little town with only a Wal-Mart. I looked all over my local store hoping that they had Tapioca flour and finally I had to resort to the internet. Luckily I found it and waited for it to arrive. These were super simple to make and tasted just like the Brazilian Cheese rolls from a favorite restaurant of ours. Defiantly give it a try!

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls

~ 1 egg

~ 1/2 cup milk

~ 1/4 cup oil

~ 1 cup Tapioca Flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch) no substitutions

~ 1/2 tsp. salt

~ 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese, medium or sharp

~ 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a mini muffin tin with non stick spray.

2. Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth. Add cheeses and pulse 2 times. Immediately pour batter into mini muffin tin, filling each about 3/4 full. If desired, sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese on top and a tiny sprinkle of salt.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan. Serve warm. These don’t reheat well so eating fresh is best!

Click Below to Print Recipe

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

I am going to be completely honest, up until now I have disliked Brussels Sprouts. Maybe it was because the only way I remember eating them growing up was boiled and dipped in either mayo or butter. My dad loves these little things and I always remember going out into the garden with my sisters and picking them and throwing them over the fence. So to be honest I was a bit scared when they came in our Bountiful Basket this last weekend.

But I figured I would find a recipe and give them a second chance since everyone or thing deserves a second chance. Much to my amazement I feel in love with this recipe. Although lets be honest it was from The Pioneer Woman and I have not ever found one of her recipes that I didn’t like. So I had one thing going for me. The sweet Balsamic reduction that you make really complemented the sometimes bitter tasting Brussels Sprouts. This was such a great recipe that my four year old gobbled them up and asked for more before she ate anything else off of her plate. I hope you enjoy Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries as much as my family did.

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

~ 1-2 pounds Brussels Sprouts

~ 1/2 cup olive oil

~ salt and pepper

~ 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar

~ 1/2 cup sugar

~ 1/2 cup dried cranberries or more to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Trim and clean Brussels sprouts, then cut them in half if desired. Arrange on baking sheet and toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with plenty of salt and pepper and roast at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until brown.

2. Combine balsamic vinegar and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and reduce until very thick, about 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Drizzle the balsamic reduction over the roasted Brussels Sprouts to taste. Then sprinkle on dried cranberries. Toss and serve immediately.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

ABC Bingo

So as most of you parents of preschoolers have learned there are two things that preschoolers start off learning right away, numbers and letters. My daughter has mastered her letters pretty well and now we are starting to think about my son. While my daughter knows her letters she still does need to keep practicing them because she can lose them so fast. A found this cute game of ABC Bingo over at Sassy Sanctuary. This blog has some great freebies so if you have some time check it out.

After I printed the ABC Bingo cards I cut them out and glued them on cardstock. One of the things I did when I was a teacher was place things on cardstock and laminate everything because we all know how hard kids are on things. I wanted to try and get as much use out of my handmade games and manipulative as I could since they took some work. Doing these two things will help out a lot!

Now I am sure most of you out there are saying yeah right laminate, that machine has to be expensive. Wrong, I was walking through Costco and found this one by Purple Cows for $20 and it came with 100 laminating sheets. It is really simple to use and did a great job. I found the same one I got on Amazon so check it out if you are in the market to get one.

Back to ABC Bingo, we took turns calling letters which was great for my daughter to recall the letters out of order. Once someone got a Bingo they had to read the letters that made that Bingo back. Again recalling the letters as well as recognizing them printed as well. My son isn’t quite there yet but he had a fun time helping call the letters as well.

The other great thing about this game is that it not only has the uppercase letters but the lowercase ones as well. That was a big problem for my daughter in the beginning, she was confused that there was more than one way to represent the letter. Below are the links to the ABC Bingo cards. I hope your family has as much fun as ours did playing ABC Bingo.

ABC Bingo card 1

ABC Bingo card 2

ABC Bingo card 3

ABC Bingo card 4

ABC Bingo card 5

ABC Bingo card 6

ABC Bingo card 7

ABC Bingo card 8

ABC Bingo Letters

What was in those baskets on January 14th?

Another great week at the Kingman site and a great group of volunteers. I know I say it every week but we really do have the best volunteers and we really couldn’t do it with out all of them.

This weeks basket had broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, pineapple, oranges, tomatoes, avocado, lettuce, bananas, mushrooms, watermelon, and kiwi.

My 2 favorite recipes for the tomatoes are Baked Parmesan Tomatoes and Tomato and Basil Bruschetta. If your tomatoes aren’t as ripe as you like remember to set them on your counter until the desired ripeness.

For the pineapple try Grilled Pineapple, it really brings out the flavor in the pineapple and is a great side dish. Or make Teriyaki Pineapple Turkey Burgers. If you are in the mood for some sorbet in the middle of winter try making Tropical Fruit Sorbet with your bananas, pineapple, and oranges.

Last week I was not able to make any of my banana breads because my kids decided that their favorite fruit for the week was the banana’s. This week I hope they have slowed down a bit so I can make Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread or Pineapple, Banana, Coconut, and White Chocolate Chip Bread.

Last week I used my broccoli to make Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce, but this week I am planning on making Broccoli with Cashews. But this Broccoli and Tortellini Salad is also a great addition to a meal.

Cauliflower is a favorite of mine and my favorite way to enjoy it is Cauliflower with White Sauce. We also like Cauliflower Fritters and Oven Roasted Cauliflower. You can also boil your cauliflower with potatoes and mash them together to make mashed potatoes. Your kids won’t even know there is cauliflower in them, especially if you add cheese to them!

I haven’t decided what to use the mushrooms for yet but a few of my favorites are Chicken with Prosciutto, Fontina, and Mushroom Suace, Creamy Chicken Spaghetti Casserole, Salisbury Steak, or Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms.

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys their great basket. Let me know what you plan on making and keep checking back for new recipes.