Thursday, August 25, 2011

Crock Pot Mediterranean Chicken

I have been crock pot-ing it up this past week. We've just been super busy with work, getting ready for school, studying, hanging out with friends before the summer ends...the crock pot has really been a blessing this week.

This recipe is so easy that I'm kind of embarrassed to share it, but it turned out SO well, so I must.

Crock Pot Mediterranean Chicken

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1 jar of drained artichoke hearts
1/2 c. green olives (or whatever olives you prefer)
Pepper

Directions:

Place all ingredients in crock pot. Set to LOW and cook for 7-8 hours. Serve over orzo. We also had a marinated tomato-cucumber salad with ours.

Note: This recipe does NOT need any added salt. The brine from the olives and the artichokes was enough.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

1 tomato, halved and cut into slices
1/2 cucumber, halved and cut into slices
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a Ziploc bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow to marinate in the fridge overnight.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken & Rice

How, how, HOW excited is everyone that The Pioneer Woman premiers this Saturday?!?


What? No one else cares? This isn't rocking anyone's world but mine? No one understands me...

Well, this post is in honor of the premier of my hero's show. It's a modified version of Tasty Kitchen's (the community blog associated with The Pioneer Woman) Jerk Chicken.








Crock Pot Jerk Chicken & Rice


Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 c. chicken stock
1 diced onion
3 diced green onions
3 crushed garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 c. olive oil
3/4 c. white vinegar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tbsp. allspice
1 tbsp. thyme
1 1/2 tsp cayenne
10 turns of black pepper
1 1/2 tsp sage
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp. sugar
2-3 chicken breasts

Mix all ingredients (other than chicken and rice) in a blender. Place a small amount of mixture on the bottom, layer on top rice and chicken, and then cover with the rest of the mixture. Cook in low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Berry Dark Chocolate Smore's

I love my Bible study so much. Ok...this past summer it's really been less studying the Bible and more fellowshipping it up...but we're hitting the books hard next week. Promise.

Anyways, it's super fun to have a house now that they can come over to...and I usually try to have some sort of snack for them (in addition to wine...which we drink in solidarity with Christ-followers across the ages, as well as our fellow Jews, whom we love). One week, John made some really delicious chocolate chip cookies for the girls, and the past two weeks I've made smore's.

At first, they were just your basic, oven smores. But this past week I decided to class them up by making them with dark chocolate and smearing raspberry and strawberry preserves on the graham crackers. I SHOULD have taken a picture...but they were gone so fast that I didn't have time!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place graham crack halves on a baking sheet covered in foil. Smear raspberry or strawberry preserves on the bottom half, topping with a dark chocolate square & a marshmallow. Bake for appx 10 minutes, or until the marshmallow has melted and the chocolate has begun to melt. Top with the second half of the graham cracker.

I think next time I'll try these with homemade marshmallows and drizzle them with a dark chocolate sauce and a raspberry or strawberry sauce.


Friday, August 5, 2011

Breakfast for Dinner

We like to have breakfast for dinner about once a week. I LOVE breakfast food...but I would much rather have it in the evening, when you have a lot of time to dedicate to cooking. So, this past week for breakfast/dinner, we had Squash Nestled Eggs, Maple Pepper Bacon, and the best French Toast recipe in the entire world (from America's Test Kitchen). Here are the recipes for the first two!

Squash Nestled Eggs:

3 summer squash
3 zucchini
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalepeno, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
6 eggs
Sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1) With a box grater, grate squash and zucchini. Place in colander and toss with salt. Allow to drain over sink for 30-40 minutes. Squeeze out the remaining water. Set aside.

2) In a large, ovenproof skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onion and jalepeno, then garlic. Add squash & zucchini and sauté for 7-8 minutes.

3) Preheat oven to 375 F.

4) Make 6 wells in the squash/zucchini. Make sure not to expose the bottom of the pan. Place a drop of olive oil in each well, and then crack 1 egg into each well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with cheese. Cook in the oven to 10-12 minutes, depending on your egg preference (we like over easy).


Maple Pepper Bacon

1 lb. bacon
Good quality maple syrup
Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 F.

2) Place a sheet of aluminum foil over a half sheet pan. Place a baking/cooling rack on top of pan. Lay bacon in a single layer on the rack.

3) Brush with maple syrup and sprinkle with pepper, then bake.

4) Every 5 minutes, flip the bacon and brush with syrup/sprinkle with pepper. Cook until done, about 35 minutes.