Archive for the ‘Recipe Reviews’ Category

Here is the sweet n tangy chicken I made last night.

I’m now at a point in mommyhood where my two oldest go to two different schools and my daughter is in all day school. With sports/activities starting next week I’m going to be using my crock pot A LOT. I’ll share my favorite crock pot recipes along the way. I’m also meeting with a publisher to get a cookbook started…all about fast & easy recipes for families on the go. Just because the day is jam packed doesn’t mean you have to eat unhealthy fast food.

Today I am making sweet n tangy chicken, compliments of Allrecipes.com. I usually end up making a few revisions to every recipe I cook, so it is not exact.  Enjoy!

Please leave a comment below, what are you making for dinner tonight?

Sweet n Tangy Chicken

4-6- boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1- bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
1- can crushed pineapple
1- sweet onion sliced
1- red pepper sliced

Place chicken breasts at bottom of crock pot. Pour sliced onions over top. Pour pineapple and BBQ sauce in. Use spoon to lightly mix together.   Cook on low for 6 hours and during the last hour add your peppers. I add them last or else they will be too mushy.  If this cooks longer than 6 hours the sauce will burn onto your crock pot, but it is okay, just tougher clean up. Serve over white rice and enjoy.

I came about this recipe from one of the favorite mommy bloggers I follow, Fesity Frugal & Fabulous.  It is simple and they were gone in a flash. My hubby specifically loved them. I made a couple of changes from the original recipe.  This will be great for busy school nights when there is not a lot of time. Enjoy!

This recipe will serve 4-5 people

2 pkgs of crescent rolls

4- small chicken breasts cubed

5- pieces of bacon (cooked crispy and chopped)

12 oz ( 1 and 1/2 blocks) cream cheese

3- green onion sprigs diced

2- garlic cloves put through a garlic press

salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon to crispy, set aside. Pour most bacon grease out of the skillet, leave enough in the pan to coat the bottom of the pan. Place chicken pieces in skillet on medium high heat with garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook chicken 3-5 minutes or until fully cooked.

Add cream cheese and green onion, mix well.

Crescent rolls have 8 triangles or 4 rectangle shapes. Leave the 2 triangles together and use the rectangular shape. This means with 2 packages of rolls you will have 8 chicken squares.

Place spoonful of mixture into rectangular dough and pull corners together to enclose the mixture.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

They look like happy little presents of chicken, bacon, creamy goodness when they are done

This recipe is courtesy of my favorite cookbook that came out last year The Essential New York Times Cookbook This recipe is the ONLY way I make short ribs/pot roast now. I prefer the use of a crock pot over the oven.  I can start this at 9am and it’s perfect by dinner time and I don’t have to touch it all day I do add a few tablespoons of brown sugar, but that is the only change I make. The sauce/gravy this dish makes is amazing SUPER delicious.

4 lbs beef short ribs OR a 4 lb chuck roast works great too

1/2 cup cracked fennel seeds

salt & fresh ground black pepper

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 med or 1 large red onion sliced into very thin rounds

1/4 cup minced garlic

1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup dry red wine

1 cup beef broth

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

1/2 cup coarsely chopped oregano

1. Heat oven to 350. Rub ribs/pot roast with fennel seeds and salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large dutch oven on high heat without smoking.  Add ribs/roast and brown well on all sides. Remove and set aside.

2. For me at this point I simply combine all other ingredients into my crock pot and place roast on top and cook on high for 2 hours, then low for 6-7 hours. If you would prefer to use the oven method follow further instructions.

3. After removing roast from dutch oven, keep oil inside, add thinly sliced red onion. Saute for 7 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes stirring frequently for 2 minutes.  Add wine, broth, orange juice, and balsamic vinegar and bring just to a boil. Scrape any brown bits from bottom of pan. Add ribs/roast into dutch oven along with ketchup, mustard, oregano, and salt and pepper. Return to a boil. Skim any fat from surface of pot.

4. Cover the pot and place in oven and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is fork tender. Remove ribs from pot, skim any fat and place pot back on stove top on high heat to thicken the sauce. Return ribs to sauce and serve.

the smell this exudes is amazing

To my amazing luck, I ended up on a 3 day business trip (per se) for my blog in June.  I was staying in West Hollywood at the most amazing hotel known to man (Thanks Dole).  I got to eat TONS of delicious food and drink lots of yummy alcoholic drinks.  It really was a weekend to splurge and by the time Sunday rolled around I was SUPER hungover and looking for something relaxing to do before my plane left for Arizona Sunday evening.  My ever faithful friend “Foodie Bear” told me I really needed to hit up the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.  It was only 2 miles from my hotel and he told me I would love it.  His recommendations have never failed me so I typed the address into my handy Garmin and off I went!

Living in Arizona, I’m always singing praises about our all year round farmer’s markets here, but Hollywood Farmer’s market was the coolest market I have ever been to. I toured the whole market which was about four different aisle ways of  fresh produce, flowers, food, and gourmet goodies.

On my way back to the car port I saw the cutest little orange bicycle with a freezer cooler hooked to the front.  Two people were passing out mysteriously wrapped packages out of this cart and there was a line…I was curious.

I get closer and I see that it’s a popsicle bike/cart!!! “OMG, how freaking cool;” is what I’m thinking in my head.  Also cursing myself because I had just had a mint chocolate cacao chip ice cream sandwich from the Carmela Ice Cream stand.  I really couldn’t eat anything else, my stomach was in a bad place already, being hungover, but I still wanted to get the scoop on this awesome popsicle making duo!

Chef Michelle Sallah has been in the food arena her whole life having parents who owned a diner. She’s worked in the restaurant world since she was 12 years old,  so culinary school and fine dining was the next logical step.  After awhile she decided to become a freelance chef to have more freedom to work on her own projects and this is how Popcycle Treats came about!

The “legs” of this project is John.  He rides the bike around everywhere toting these delicious handmade gourmet pops. He even designed and constructed the whole bike himself which I believe is quite an amazing feat!

Michelle makes the pops and she offers many different flavors, depending on what fruits and veggies are in season in their area.  When I spotted them they were carrying salty cucumber lime, peach ginger, and lemon mint blueberry organic popsicles.  I really wish I would have found them before I found Carmela, but now I have something to look forward to next time I am in L.A.  Even as I was  speaking to them they quickly sold out, as they do on every trip out.  I know they frequent the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, Silverlake Farmer’s Market and the  Cinespia screenings in L.A.   Just like a food truck, if you want to know where you can find them simply follow them on twitter or fan them on facebook. 

salty cucumber lime, orange blackberry

coconut milk chocolate, raspberry Arnold Palmer

I really wanted to show you guys this unique foodie find, I just thought it was the coolest thing EVER…wish we had one at the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market…hmmmmm???