With no end to be seen of winter, Brenden and I are glad we found the crock pot. I cannot stand the cold, and when I say cold I mean below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so you can imagine how thrilled I am with these single digit temperatures and below zero wind chills. Burr; I am cold thinking about it. All I want to do when I get home from work is run and bundle up under my four, yes four, layers of comforters and blankets with my heater turned on high and only my eyes peeking out enough to see the television or computer or book I am reading. This mindset does not promise much for a delicious meal. Luckily, Brenden is a little tougher then I am, and he somewhat enjoys the colder weather (though I don't think he meant this cold when he said he, "loves the cold.") which leaves him to prep the crock pot while I try to regain feeling in my toes...just kidding...
Luckily there wasn't much prep to be done for the meal this week. We decided to go with a crock pot barbecue chicken which turned out to be super easy and super delicious. Besides trimming the fat off the chicken pieces, you pretty much throw a bunch of ingredients into the crock pot, stir and wait six hours to enjoy. I have been itching to try a barbecue chicken ever since idea of crock potting came about this season. When I go out I always see pulled pork bbq, which I love, except for the fact I don't eat pork. So the thought of substituting it with chicken at home makes my mouth water. I don't understand why it is so hard for restaurants to do the same. Any-who, as usual, we ponder recipes online, searching for the perfect one, and, I really think we nailed it this time. The instructions required making a rub out of seasonings to cover the chicken pre-barbacue sauce and it was a brilliant idea. The rub added a nice layer of depth to the chicken and the sauce, making the flavor pop that much more in your mouth. Each bite was a sensation of joy and goodness.
The fact that we used one of our favorite sauces,
Sweet Baby Ray's didn't hurt matters either. Although I eventually want to build up our skills to making our own barbecue sauce, for a truly homemade meal, I chickened out this time and left the flavor up to Baby Ray. Plus, in this weather, the level of difficulty for the alternative was a win. After all, all we had to do was open a bottle and pour, how much easier does it get?! And it required less time running in and out to buy ingredients since we always have some BBQ sauce in stock.
Don't worry though, we still gave the meal a twist. Instead of the traditional sandwich bun, we decide to pair the pulled barbecue chicken with a corn bread casserole of sorts. Brenden's dad made a an amazing cornbread casserole on Christmas and I have been dying for that taste to be in my mouth again ever since. Seriously, could have eaten the whole pan myself! We figured barbecue was the perfect night to try out our own attempt at the dish. We decided to combine a few recipes we found online to make it as simple as possible and to our tastes as possible. Here is what we needed: 1 box cornbread mix, 1 can of corn (drained), 1 can of creamed corn, 1/2 cup butter (melted), 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded). Now here is what you do: Mix all of the ingredients together, place in a greased casserole dish, and bake on 350 for 50-60 minutes. Simple, I know, and so worth the wait! You have to wait about 6 hours for your chicken anyway, so it is not like you will have to rush to have everything finish at once.
Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1.5 cups barbecue sauce (We used Sweet Baby Ray's)
Directions
- Place the chicken in the crock pot.
- Mix together the chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
- Rub spice mixture all over the chicken, covering all pieces.
- Pour 1 cup of barbecue sauce over the chicken and mix to coat all pieces.
- Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.
- After 6 hours, or once chicken is fully cooked, remove piece and shred on a plate.
- Return shredded chicken to crock pot.
- Pour the remainder of the barbecue sauce in the crock pot.
- Stir to combine and coat all of the chicken well.
- Continue to cook on low for another 30 minutes (this should help absorb the liquid as well as really let the chicken soak up the barbecue flavor so it is in every bite).
- Remove and serve as desired. It is great plain, but you can also serve it as a sandwich, with a salad or whatever your imagination can think of. We went with corn casserole this time around.
It is finally starting to feel like fall: the morning dew; the cool, crisp air; the colorful leaves slowly falling from their branches. But with any positive comes a negative (or at least something to keep the cosmic balance in line...or something like that). And for me, that is the beginning of another (and hopefully my last for a while) fall semester. Now don't get me wrong, I like school; I like seeing my friends; I like the classes I am taking (especially now that I am in grad school and can cater my classes around my own interests), and I like the challenges and knowledge I get from each class. School gives me purpose and pride. But come on, after 19 years of school, yes I am in 19th grade - my final year of grad school...if I pass ;) - not including pre-k of course, parts of the whole education thing get a little old. I won't miss the stress or homework, and the countless hours of sleep I lose fretting about the minor details of each project. Oh the life of a graphic design major - is this sentence kerned correctly?
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A designer "haha," sorry if you are only
reading for the food part of this post...
Source: Tumblr |
Anywho, with that in mind I have been inspired to start a new series of posts (yes I am making more work for myself, woe is me). Because I work a full-time day job, and go to class at night , both which are at least half an hour from where I live, I have this awkward block of time in between the transition of the two. Luckily, my boyfriend lives right by my job, so assuming he is not working I can just pop on over to waste those couple hours before class.
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Looks soo yummy right?!
Too many to choose from:
dinners, appetizers,
desserts, oh my! |
This time is usually spent thinking about what to eat, preparing what we will eat, and eating what we have made for dinner - time well spent I'd say, I love food. So, with both of us having fairly busy and conflicting schedules, this has become our weekly date night. And, because money is tight we usually eat in and try new recipes, so I can check them off my list of 1,000+ "yumm! pins." With that said, I will be sharing with you our "Date Night Dinners" every Friday.
Here is our first Date Night Dinner, and can I just say, it was quite delicious.
Chili Bake
recipe adapted from cozi.com, Fiesta Biscuit Casserole.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs ground beef
- 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies
- 2 cans (15 oz) kidney beans
- 1.5 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 red bell pepper, diced
- .5 yellow onion, diced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- .5 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- Spray oil
- 1 box cornbread mix
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Cook on medium high, ground beef and tomatoes in large skillet until beef is browned.
- Mix in beans, half cup cheese, red bell pepper, yellow onion, and seasonings.
- Stir until everything is well blended, about 3 minutes.
- Spray a casserole dish with baking oil.
- Pour mixture into casserole dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine cornbread mix with water (following instructions on box).
- Pour bread mixture over the meat combination in veggie dish (it helps to dollop scoops of bread and then spread rather then pouring it all in the center).
- Top with remaining cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until cornbread is cooked through.
- Remove from oven and enjoy.
Note: Picture of dish added December 1 (our 3rd time making it). This time we experimented with pancake mix on top rather then corn bread because we were out. I prefer the cornbread, but Brenden greatly enjoyed the pancakes (they were like denser biscuits). Try out different version yourself and let me know what you discover to work well!
