Adjusting the posting schedule

So I have been looking in my fridge and freezer

I am realizing that I have quite a few leftovers in there

I am not complaining, but I think I need to adjust my cooking schedule slightly

There are many nights that we could just eat leftovers.. but we don't because I need to post a recipe

So, I have decided that I will post at least 3 recipes a week. 

This way, I have a little leeway if/when we eat out or when we eat leftovers

Or on nights I just don't have time to post a blog .... ;)

If I have time, I will post more .... but 3 is the new goal!

Again, I would love it if you would send me some of your recipes to try out. 

I have gotten a few already and am excited to try them and share with you!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week!

Sweet & Sour Crockpot Chicken

Wow!

I am voting this the BEST crockpot recipe I have made so far!

I really really like this one.

Maybe it's because I have a love for Asian food, but whatever....

It's awesome!

It could also be that it is one of the easiest.

Hmmm!

I hope you will try this and let me know what you think.

Hopefully, you'll be just as excited about it as I am.

It's ok if you're not, I want to know that too!

I'm sure there's bound to be one or two people out there that actually try these recipes

Right?  :)

If you're one of them, please leave me a comment here and there and let me know what you think

Sometimes I feel like I'm writing to myself, ya know?

On with the cooking......................

Ingredients

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup Russian or French salad dressing
• 1 cup apricot preserves or jam
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or basil leaves
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 2 Tbs Corn starch (optional)**

Directions: 

Place chicken pieces in the bottom of your crockpot

Mix remaining ingredients (except corn starch)in a medium bowl and pour over chicken.

Stir to coat.

Cover crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours

**Before you serve it  you can thicken the mixture by combining2 tablespoons cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water or chicken stock and mix until smooth. Add to the crockpot; turn to high for 10-15 minutes until sauce is thickened.

This is definitely not a great picture, but I was in a hurry.  It actually looked much better than this!

***Review:

I think I stated my opinion in the beginning... I am in love.   Hubs was afraid he wouldn't like it because it has apricots in it and he HATES anything peach or that has a peach type flavor. No worries though... he loved it.

It has a great sweet and savory flavor.  Very similar to the sweet and sour chicken you get in a chinese restaurant. My 8 yr old looooved it.... which is saying something.   Only 1 of the other kids didn't like it... so I call that a score! 

**Tips:

Definitely add the corn starch to the mixture if you have it.  It gives it just the right consistency. Also, make sure your chicken is frozen....that is why it was so moist... especially for chicken breast. I don't think I've eaten such a tender piece of chicken breast before.

*Calories:
This recipe makes six servings and has aprox. 350 calories per serving.   Don't forget that the rice or whatever you serve it on is not counted in this number.

Crustless Turkey Pot Pie Topped with Stuffing

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

I had a great time with my family and friends! 

I wish I could have stayed another few weeks! 

Always so much to do and not enough time to fit it all in!

Anyway....

My mom made this great crustless version of a chicken pot pie... turkey style

It actually would be a great dish to serve on Thanksgiving if you didn't have a turkey

It's got all the fixings.... turkey, stuffing... and so on.

But we made it after Thanksgiving with all our leftover turkey. 

We had a lot of leftovers

My mom made a LOT of food

As always

So, she got creative and made this dish.

We ate it with a side of leftover mashed potatoes

And my leftover pumpkin cheesecake

Basically an awesome leftover meal. 

If you want to try it out, check it out below:

Ingredients:
2 C Turkey/chicken, cooked & diced
2 Potatoes, diced
2 Carrots, diced
1/2 C Onion, finely diced
1 Can corn, drained  (or peas, green beans etc.)
2 Cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 C Chicken broth
2 Boxes stove top stuffing (whole wheat turkey)  Any kind would do
1/4 tsp Chicken seasoning
1/8 tsp Pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Boil the potatoes and carrots until they are half done
Drain and set aside
Sautee Onions (or boil them with the other veggies if you don't want to sautee them)
Add veggies to a bowl and add all other ingredients except stove top.
Mix well and place in a greased 9x13 dish
Prepare stovetop according to package directions and add to top of chicken mix
Bake for 45 min or until heated through


Here is a photo taken after we all dove in... I totally forgot to take a pic until after we ate!

***Review:

Hubs and I loved this.  3 of the kiddos ate it and 2 hated it.... I know, shocking!  All the other adults loved it too.  It was a great way to eat up all the leftover turkey!

**Tips:

You can add any veggies you want to this dish... it's up to you.  Don't leave out the potatoes, but pretty much anything you want to add will work.  You could probably even throw all the ingredients in the crockpot (adding the stuffing the last 1/2 hour or so) and it would be great! You might add a little more broth and cook for about 3-4 hours on low. 

Happy Thanksgiving

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US

I have so many blessing in my life and so much to be thankful for!

No, my life is not perfect.... but I thank God every day for everything I have

Imperfections and all!

I am thankful for my family and friends!

I have been blessed with the best of both.

We have lived many places over the years and I love that I have friends all over

We have a great family that I love!

What more could a person ask for! 

You could have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the blessing of sharing your life with others, what good would it do?

I'd like to say Thank you to you for reading my blog

And if I am lucky enough to be able to call you friend (or family)

Thank you for that as well.

As for a recipe today......

there won't be one.

I am taking a blogging break to spend time with my most important people this week

So, I'll see you all next Monday!

Have a great holiday! 

PS  I made another pumpkin cheesecake today to share with my family! 

Sassy Crockpot Chicken BBQ

I haven't posted since Friday.

Sorry!

Normally, I don't post on the weekends anyway.

But this past week has been "off" in the way of posting

Last week I had internet/computer issues

Then yesterday..... oh yesterday

 I made a crockpot meal I have been wanting to make for weeks.

I found it somewhere online and was so excited to try it.

It had artichokes in it.... which I love.

Well, I finally made it and couldn't wait to taste it.

Um.... I never did actually taste it!

Well, not really!

Not like, a full bite or anything.

Lets just say the chicken was GREEN! 

Yes, green.

Very un appetizing to say the least. 

NO ONE LIKED IT! 

Even hubs... who usually likes everything.

I decided not to try it at all.

The smell was enough!

We all get a dinner disaster once in a while.

So I'm not sweating it!

But, that's why I didn't blog... there was nothing to say or show

I won't subject you to the recipe.....and there were no photos allowed!

The End! :)

On to todays cooking!

I keep hearing about McDonald's McRib sandwich.

I don't like fast food....

But I do like BBQ

I almost ordered one today.

Whew... close call.

So, I came home and threw some stuff in the crockpot to quench my cravings

I guess it's called sassy because it has some italian dressing in it.... which is a little different. 

Sometimes different is good.... sometimes not.

We shall see!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Place chicken in a slow cooker.
In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce.
 Pour over the chicken.
Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low

***Review:
These were good!  Very very good!  I loved them and hubs loved them.  Kids say "it's super good"  What more can you ask for?
They were pretty easy to make too... definitely adding it to my favorites list!

**Tips:
Today I served these on hoagie rolls.  Usually, I would serve them on a hard roll or Italian bread.  But these are what I had on hand.  Top them with a little cheddar and they are awesome!  Sometimes in a cuban BBQ sandwich, they will add pickles... this is awesome too!  Gives a little cruch and that sweet/salty flavor I love!
Just and FYI, you definitely want to cook these for a while to get them to shred consistency.  I cooked on high for 4 hours and then gave it another hour  because they weren't quite ready.  They were cooked, but didn't easliy shred.

Also, there seems to be a lot of liquid in the crockpot, I just took the chicken out, shredded it and put it back in to "marinate" for a little while.  You could add more BBQ sauce if you want it more saturated.. but I think it's good just how it is!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Oh my!

That's all I have to say about this!

Not really.

I have been waiting to taste this thing ALL day

Totally worth it.

I have never made a cheesecake before

I thought it would be hard.

Making my little cheesecake minis a few weeks ago showed me that it isn't hard at all

So, I decided that since we're doing all things pumpkin ,and since I do not want to make pumpkin pie,

Well, this would be the perfect dessert.

I was not wrong.

I actually took a few different recipes and sized them up and then came up with my own concoction

I don't think you'll be disappointed

I know I'm not

We'll see what the neighbor/taste tester thinks

This was supposed to be her cheesecake

Payment for babysitting my kids

But since my internet was down yesterday and I couldn't access my recipes, I couldn't make it

Today she is going out of town for the Holiday

She won't get the whole cheesecake... but I will make sure she gets the piece in the picture before she leaves.

I'll make her another dessert soon

Anyway... on to the recipe.

One warning... it IS very easy... but there is a LOT of waiting involved.  This is best made the day before you want to serve it..... trust me! 

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 3/4 C crushed Nilla wafers
1/4 C Brown sugar
1/3 C Butter, melted


Filling:
1 container (24 ounces) nonfat cottage cheese (3 cups)
1 1/2 pkg  (12 ounces) Neufchatel/cream-cheese
1-1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large egg whites
2 large eggs
1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin puree (2 cups)
2 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings:

Carmel:
1 1/2 Stick butter
3/4 C Brown sugar
1/2 C Heavy cream

Candied nuts:
1 C Nuts (walnuts, pecans or almonds)
4 Tbs White sugar


Directions:

Crust:
Lightly grease bottom and sides of 9x3-inch springform pan.

In case you don't know, this is a springform pan.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (only for the crust)
Put the cookies in a food processor and blend until you get small crumbs
OR you can roll then with a rolling pin or crush them in a bag ...get creative
Add the sugar and mix
Add the melted butter and mix until coated
Using the bottom on a greased glass, press the crumb mixture into the bottom and an inch up the sides of a springform pan
Bake at 350 for 6 minutes
Set aside
Turn oven down to 325 degrees and go on to cake filling directions below

Filling:
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. (only for the cheesecake)
Process cottage cheese and cream cheese in a food processor or blender about 2 minutes until thick and smooth.
Add brown sugar, process until sugar dissolves.
Add eggs and egg whites and process just until blended.
Transfer mix to a large bowl.
Stir in pumpkin, cornstarch, spice and vanilla until well blended and smooth.

Pour into crust.

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until top of cake looks set.

Turn oven off.

Cool completely on wire rack in oven

Cover and refrigerate in pan at least 6 hours or up to 4 days.
See?  Here is where all that waiting comes in....grrr!

Toppings:

When ready to serve, you can add this yummy topping:

Nuts:

Spray a fry pan with Pam and add 3 TBS sugar and 1 C nuts

I used walnuts, but pecans or slivered almonds would work too
Cook nuts & Sugar until sugar melts and carmelizes onto nuts

(don't cook too long or the sugar will burn)
Set aside to cool
Place on cake whole or chopped up
Carmel:
Melt butter and sugar in sauce pan
Add heavy cream and bring to boil
Simmer for 3 minutes, stir often
let cool and drizzle over nuts on cake

***Review:
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!  Is that enough?  Everyone but the child allergic to pumpkin LOVED it!  He didn't get to try any.  It's ok, don't feel bad.  He wasn't even home ;)  It actually tastes similar to pumpkin pie (but way better) but I'm not complaining... no one else is either!
UPDATE:  Here is the neighbor's response: "Not to be the bragging neighbor or anything, but YES, YES once again I got to eat this too. My husband thinks pumpkin pie is just OK, but this cheesecake I'm thinking must have rocked to him b/c he ate nearly the whole piece and it was a large piece!!"
**Tips:
I will state the obvious first... you don't have to use any of the toppings.  I just wanted to.  You could just used whipped cream really... or nothing at all.
Using the glass to press the crumb crust into the pan is really the BEST way to go.  I tried it other ways... didn't work.
You have to wait for the cheesecake to be fully cooled before you can take it off the springform base.  Trust me... I tried that too.  Almost a disaster.  I am not the most patient person!

Apple Pumpkin Bisque

Well, in the spirit of "All things Pumpkin" I tried to make a dinner that incorporated pumpkin

I mean, this is a dinner site after all

I know a lot of desserts have pumpkin... so that part is easy

But dinner?  Well, not so much

Soup is about the closest thing I can find

I tried an apple squash bisque a few weeks ago and I liked it

So, since squash and pumpkin are related, I figured I'd search for a similar recipe

I found a few

Most of them call for the same ingredients, so it was easy to just pick one

Since I already had the pumpkin ready, it was very easy to make.

I didn't take long at all.
I did change the recipe up slightly from the original and the recipe reflects my changes

Here we go

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter ( I used salted, because that's what I had on hand)
1/2  small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger root ( I used 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
2 1/2 C pumpkin purée
1 1/2 C  unsweetened applesauce
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) chicken broth
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon apple-cider vinegar

1 cinnamon stick

1 small, dried chile pepper ( I didn't use this)

Pinch ground nutmeg

Salt and ground white pepper, to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream or sour cream ( I used the heavy cream)

Directions:

Melt butter over medium heat in a large, heavy saucepan.

Sauté the onion and ginger until onion is tender, about 4 minutes.

Add all other ingredients (except the cream), and simmer about 15 minutes until flavors are blended.
 Stir in cream just before serving.

This is what the soup looked like after I stirred the cream in

***Review:
I am still not sure what I think about this soup.  I have a major cold/sinus infection and can't taste much.  Probably a bad time to be taste testing new foods huh?  I didn't like it at all until I added the cream at the end, and then I liked it.  (But I can't be trusted since I couldn't even taste the bitter stuff the dentist put in my mouth yesterday)
2 Children ran to the sink to spit it out immediately...lol   I am guessing it's a thumbs down in the kid area.  It is kind of a savory soup and not really kid friendly I guess.  As of this posting, Hubs is working late and hasn't tasted it yet.  I am definitely curious to see what he will think!
UPDATE:  Hubs loves the soup... says it could use some cheese. Baby also loves the soup, although his opinion is questionable since he is also walking around eating a raw onion. 


**Tips:
If I were to have the motivation (which my cold has sucked from me) I would put this soup in the food processor to blend up all the onion bits... I think that would add to the texture.  Obvioulsy, it's not necessary, but definitely would be good.  Also, you might think of adding a bit less of the chicken broth until you get the texture you're looking for.  I personally, thought it needed to be thicker, but I added the broth in the beginning .
Do NOT forget the cream in this soup... trust me.
As for serving, I would most definitely not eat this alone... it's a very light soup and just wouldn't cut the "meal" status at my house.  I added a little cream on top before serving and if I'd had any, a sprinkle of chives would have looked awesome!  But, sick people don't grocery shop....so I didn't have any.