Crock Pot Dinner AND Dessert!

 It has been a while since I have updated this blog. Although I have made other new recipes... I have just been lazy and not blogged them. In the same breath I am NO where near my year goal of 100 new recipes tried. There is always next year though!

 Recently my mom gave me a crock pot that is 2 crocks in one. The bowl is oval and separated in half. Super cool. I have recently found that you can make SO many desserts in the crock pot, as well as dinners, and in this crock pot you can do BOTH!

 Tonight's dinner was:

 Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie

 Ingredients: 
 1/2 cup dry white wine
 2 TBS flour
 4 Medium carrots cut into 1 inch peices
 1 onion, chopped
 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 2 inch peices
 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry sheets- cut into 8 rectangles
 1 egg, beaten
 1 cup frozen peas
 3TBS fresh dill sprigs

 1. In your slow cooker whisk together the wine, flour, 1/2 cup water and salt and pepper.
 2. Add the carrots, celery, onion and the chicken and toss to combine. cook, covered until chicken easily falls apart and is cooked through 6-7 hours on low, 4-5 hours on high.
 3. when the chicken has 30 min left to cook heat oven to 400 and place pastry on well greased cookie sheet. Brush them with egg and bake until puffed, and golden brown (20-25 min)
 4. Gently fold the peas and dill into the chicken and vegetables and cook, covered, until heated through, about 3 min. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with additional dill if desired. Top with puff pastry.

I did not use the fresh dill. Did not have any. Other than that I followed the recipe to the letter. It was good, but I think the dill would have given it a little something more. Garlic would have been nice, and next time, I will add some for sure. Other than that nice and fast. Something easy to do with left over chicken too, could cook much faster if chicken and veggies were already cooked. The kids loved the puffed pastry.

Dessert was:

 Pumpkin Pudding in the Crock Pot

 Ingredients:

 1 can of pumpkin 
 12oz evaporated milk
 3/4 cup sugar
 1/2 cup bis mix (I used almost a 1/2 cup flour and about 1/2 tsp baking powder and a touch of salt)
 2 eggs beaten
 2 TBS butter melted
 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used cin. nutmeg and cloves)
 2 tsp vanilla 

 This is simple. Add everything together in a bowl Mix well. Put into oiled crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours (I did mine on high for 3 hours)

 this was super good. We had it warm with our meal. It tastes like pumpkin pie! It would have been good cold with some cool whip, of course.

Together this made a super simple, and pretty cost effective meal. I will be making both again and I will certainly be trying other puddings out in the crock pot!

Recipe 5, Eggplant Parmesan

 I wanted to try something I had never had before. So I found a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan, it was low fat, and sounded easy so I tried it.

 http://www.food.com/recipe/no-harm-eggplant-parm-ww-261296

 I don't think I cut my eggplant as thick as it should have been cut and so it did not need to be cooked nearly as long. I overcooked a few of them, in fact. This kind of gave it an overcooked taste. The eggplant was also dry, because of having been so very thin, and then overcooked. I would like to try this again, using a thicker cut eggplant for sure.

Recipe-4 White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

 I recently offered to bake cookies for someone who had done me a favor. He requested white chocolate macadamia nut kind. I had never made that kind, so I looked up a recipe, which would be my forth new recipe of the year so far!

 I would have to say this is not my favorite type of cookie. The recipe was good, but I would rather have a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts. Its just more my kind of cookie. The kids, husband, and friend did enjoy these though, and even though I say they are not my favorite, I ate way too many tonight myself.

Ingredients:

Yield:
6 6

6

Servings Size

• dozen
  

dozen

• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups chopped dry roasted macadamia nuts
Change Measurements: US | Metric

Directions:

Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 27 mins

1. 1 Preheat oven to 350.
2. 2 Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3. 3 Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
4. 4 Blend in flour, baking soda and salt.
5. 5 Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia pieces.
6. 6 Drop by teasponfuls onto ungreased baking pans.
7. 7 Bake for 10-12 minutes.

 Thanks to www.food.com for the recipe.

Recipe 3, Third day of the year!

 Okay, this is going just a little to smoothly. I think having competition from my friend, is helping drive me to want to do this resolution. Then of course it is only the third day of the year, pretty much EVERYONE is still doing well with their resolutions so far!

 So tonight, I made a simple dinner. PorkChop Casserole. I thought I would make a dessert to go after it. The other day when looking at a pudding box I found a recipe for "Angel Lush" and it sounded good. So I got the few things I needed to make it, and its in the fridge for dinner, this evening!

 Its a very simple recipe. You could probably make it a bit more labor intensive if your into that kind of thing by making your own angel food cake... Which I have done, and its not very hard either! For this recipe though, I bought a store bought angel food cake.

 1box vanilla pudding mix
 1 tub cool whip
 1 20oz can crushed pineapple
 1 angel food cake cut into 3 layers (this was the hardest part)
 10 or so strawberries cut in halves

 In a bowl, mix the dry pudding mix, pineapple and cool whip together. Spread this mixture on all 3 layers of the cake, and over the top. Put in the fridge for an hour, then top with strawberries and serve.

 

the kids were impressed with the way it looked. You MADE that mama?

100 New recipes!

 This year. It's my goal. To make, and write about, and take pictures and blog 100 new recipes I have not made for my family before. My friend is doing the same thing, and if she ever starts a blog about it I will link to it. Anyway. Until then here is my side of it.

 1.1.11

 Garlic breadsticks:

 I did not save the recipe, but here is a photo of what I made. They did not look the best but they tasted okay. I will however, be looking for another recipe the next time rather than making this one again. I think I can find something better.

1.2.11

Today however, I made a big ole' pot of beef stew. My hopes this year are to make more breads with dinner to stretch the meal a bit farther and fill up my four hungry kid tummies. So along with my beef stew I wanted to make some biscuits. I had made garlic cheddar biscuits before, but lost the recipe. So I had to look up a new one. New recipe means #2 for the year, and its only day 2... I am rockin' this goal!

  I got the recipe searching on google. I came across THIS BLOG which has a copy cat recipe of sorts for Red Lobsters biscuits. So with an hour left with my stew, I started some biscuits! I added some mozzarella along with the cheddar because I did not have enough cheddar, and well, I had some mozzarella that needed used up!

 Turned out pretty good, I am not quite sure I made the recipe quite right as mine were very dry and I had to add in more milk just to get them the right consistency. Either way they turned out tasty!

Fresh and hot out of the oven

 Not bad, not bad at all!

Spinach Mannocotti

 

 Yesterdays Dinner So good

Its a new year!

 I really really really really want to get on track this year with my eating and workout routine. I want to be healthier, feel healthier and fit into smaller size clothing!

 So New Years Eve upon me. I wanted to take pictures of what I ate for my blog I recently renammed "did I eat that" Then pretty much never posted in!

 Breakfast started out healthy. Bowl of instant oatmeal made with water, and a coffee with sugar free creamer

Lunch took a backslide. I just ate what I made the kids. I had just gotten back from shopping, and I was hungry. I never eat hot dogs. Ick. I did try to make it look pretty though. Note the mustard!

Ordered pizza for dinner. Only had 2 kids home. It was New Years Eve. Heck everyone else was doing it!!! My favorite Papa Johns, spinach deluxe. Yummers.

 Oh and of course, since it was New Years Eve....

A bottle of cheap champagne. Happy New Year!!! I hope to update this blog with many good, healthy foods I have eaten, and also a progress of my weight related goals!