June 20: Asian-Spiced Chicken Wings

I am still on vacation, so I'm not making this recipe either.

June 19: Shrimp Creole

I am not making this recipe because I am on vacation. I'm so excited! Yay! No cooking!

June 18: Apple and Granola Breakfast Cobbler

I made this recipe on Monday to take to a cookout at our friend's house. It made a really great summer dessert! Here are the ingredients:

I peeled and sliced some Granny Smith apples and put them in the Crock Pot:

Then I sprinkled 1/2 c. brown sugar, a tsp. cinnamon, and a tbsp. lemon juice over the apples:

I stirred in 2 tbsp. cut up butter and 2 cups granola. Then I cooked it on high for 2 or 3 hours. I forgot to take pictures of it done, and I didn't take the camera to our friend's house. But she had vanilla ice cream, and it was really good with it. I would make this one again. On a side note, I thought it was interesting how the granola turned into an oatmeal texture. I should have expected that, but I didn't. It was still really good.

June 17: Chicken in Honey Sauce

We made this chicken for dinner tonight. It was pretty easy. I gathered up these ingredients at about 2pm:

I put some chicken breasts in the Crock Pot and seasoned them with salt and pepper:

In a bowl, I mixed up some honey, soy sauce, ketchup, vegetable oil, and garlic:

I poured that over the chicken and cooked it on high for about 3 hours:

I served it with rice and sesame seeds:

This recipe called for 2 cups of honey. I didn't use even 1 cup, and it made an enormous amount of sauce. I really liked how it turned out though. The kids liked the sweet sauce. It tasted really good soaked up into the rice.

June 16: Braised Fruited Lamb

This is one of those recipes that I'm glad I don't have to make. Lamb is very expensive, that is if you can find it. We went to a cookout at a friend's house, so I chose not to cook this recipe. Not sure if I ever will, but you never know.

June 15: Mexican Chili Chicken

Today was Father's Day. We went out to Hardee's for breakfast, and we had a potluck at church for lunch, so I made this recipe for dinner. It was about 2:00 when I gathered up these ingredients:

I sliced up an onion and a couple green peppers and put them in the bottom of the Crock Pot:

Then I put 4 chicken thighs and 4 chicken drumsticks on top and sprinkled a tbsp. chili powder and 2 tsp. oregano on the chicken:

I put a jar of salsa over that and cooked it on high for 3 hours:

I removed the chicken, stirred 1/2 c. ketchup, 2 tsp. cumin, and 1/2 tsp. salt into the sauce:

Then I put the chicken back in the sauce and cooked it for another 15 minutes or so:

I was supposed to serve it with noodles, but I didn't make them:

I really love this. I would have called it Mexican Cacciatore. I really loved how the sauce just soaked into the chicken while you were eating it. Everyone ate it except Reuben. I think he might be getting sick or something.

June 14: Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Here is the sweet potato recipe that I made to go along with last night's dinner:

I peeled and chopped 2 pounds of sweet potatoes, and put them in the Crock Pot with 1/4 c. brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp. salt:

I cooked it on high for 4 hours, then added 2 tbsp. butter, and 1 tsp. vanilla:

I served it with our grilled hamburgers and hot dogs:

These sweet potatoes were pretty good. I may have cooked them a little too long because they were mushy. The kids thought they tasted like candy!

June 13: Blueberry Cobbler

I made this yesterday, but I didn't cook it in the Crock Pot (it was being used for the Spiced Sweet Potatoes). I ended up cooking it in the oven on 350 for an hour. First, I gathered up these ingredients:

In a bowl I combined 3/4 cup of baking mix with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup white sugar:

Then I added 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1/2 tsp. almond extract:

I mixed in 5 oz. evaporated milk and 2 tsp. melted butter. Then I poured 1/4 of that mixture into a greased baking dish:

Three cups of blueberries were put on top of the batter:

And the rest of the batter was poured over the blueberries:

I baked it on 350 for one hour (the crockpot directions say to cook it on low for 5 to 6 hours):

I served it warm with vanilla ice cream:

This cobbler had a strange consistency that I wasn't expecting, sort of gummy, like tapioca pudding, but it tasted really good, especially with the ice cream. I liked the crusty edges the best. Of course, the kids and DH really loved it.

June 12: Butternut Squash-Apple Soup

Hubby wanted to cook out tonight, so we had this soup as an appetizer. I gathered up these ingredients at about 1:00pm:

Meanwhile, I baked a butternut squash in the oven and mashed it up:

In the Crock Pot, I combined the squash with a quart of chicken broth, a peeled and chopped golden delicious apple, 2 tbsp. chopped onion, a tbsp. brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. sage, and 1/4 tsp. ginger:

I cooked it on high for 3 hours, then pureed it with my hand blender:

I served it with a little whipping cream:

The soup was pretty good. I think it would be better on a cold fall day, but it wasn't too hot today, so it was still good. The kids liked it too (except Reuben, but he hasn't been eating much lately, so that's to be expected).

June 11: Baked Beans

I've been making a lot of beans lately! I was gone all day today, dentists appointments for me and the kids, grocery shopping, and shopping for other stuff. It was tiring, and I didn't even get to start dinner until 4:00. These beans were supposed to cook in the Crock Pot for 8 to 12 hours! I attempted them in the oven. I gathered up these ingredients:

So I used a Corningware dish instead of the Crock Pot. In it I put a big can of baked beans, a cup of ketchup, a half cup each of barbecue sauce and brown sugar, 5 chopped slices of bacon, 1/2 chopped bell pepper, 1/2 chopped onion, and 1 1/2 tsp. mustard:

I stirred it up and cooked it in the oven on 350 for about an hour.

I served it with chopped parsley:

I didn't cook this long enough the first time. We ate our servings, but then I put it back in the oven because the bacon was soft and the onions and peppers were still crunchy. After I cooked it for another hour, it was much better. I tried looking at other recipes to see how long I should cook it. But it really needed longer. This was good, but it was way too sweet. Next time I might only put a tbsp. of brown sugar in instead of 1/2 cup. Especially if I use brown sugar barbecue sauce. Otherwise, this would make a really great dish for a potluck or side dish at a barbecue.

June 10: Five-Bean Casserole

Our house smelled heavenly all day with this casserole cooking. I started it at about 9:30 or 10 this morning. I gathered up these ingredients:

I chopped up a couple onions, a couple cloves of garlic, and a half pound of bacon, then cooked them in a pan until the onions were soft:

While that was cooking, I put 5 kinds of canned beans in the Crock Pot: kidney (2 cans), Great Northern, chick peas, butter beans, and baked beans:

To the onions, I added 1/2 c. brown sugar, 1/2 c. cider vinegar, a tsp. dry mustard, a tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. I let that simmer for 15 minutes:

Then I spooned the onion mixture evenly over the beans and cooked it on low for about 8 hours:

I served it sprinkled with chopped green onions:

These beans had a deliciously sweet flavor, and they were perfectly cooked. I thought it was better than the soup from yesterday. I didn't used to like beans, but I do tolerate them now. These I can say were actually good!

June 9: Arizona Ranch Beans

I attempted to make these for dinner tonight, but I didn't get them started until 10:30, so they weren't even done until after the kids went to bed. Here are the ingredients:

I put them all in the crock pot, except the limes: 1 pound soaked pinto beans, 8 cups water, 1/2 pound cooked crumbled bacon, 2 tbsp. of the bacon drippings, a can of coarsely chopped tomatoes, 2 chopped onions, 2 minced garlic cloves, a can of diced green chilies, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. oregano, and 1/4 tsp. cumin:

I cooked it on low for 10 hours and served it seasoned with salt and lime juice:

We ended up having pizza for dinner, so this was our bedtime snack. These beans had a very comfort-food flavor, very homey. I liked them. It was a really big batch, and we have bean recipes for the next two days, so I hope we'll be able to eat them all. I really hope the kids like them!

June 8: Cape Cod Stew

I was supposed to make this recipe yesterday, but I had some setbacks, so I made it today. I'm a day behind now, so I wonder how I'll get caught up. We'll see. Here are the ingredients for tonight's recipe:

In the Crock Pot, I put 2 cans chopped tomatoes, 4 cups beef broth, 1/2 cup chopped onions, 1/2 cup chopped carrots, (I left out the 1/2 c. cilantro for my husband's sake), a tbsp. sea salt (I thought 2 would be a bit excessive), 2 tsp. minced garlic, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 4 bay leaves, and 1 tsp. thyme ( I left out the 1/2 tsp. saffron, since it was over $17 for the jar... more than I paid for 2 lobsters!):

I cooked it on high for 6 hours, then I added 2 pounds of shrimp, 2 pounds cubed white fish, 2 lobsters (was supposed to be 3, but I couldn't afford it), and a pound of mussels:

I cooked it for another hour, but I had to switch pots and cook it some more on the stove since the Crock Pot was too full. When the seafood was cooked through, I served it with a hammer:

Wow, this soup was excessive! We did not need that much meat! And we may be eating this for days. It really tasted good. I couldn't find raw lobster or mussels, so they came pre-cooked. I think they were a little over-done. Other than that, the soup was excellent, and even DH, who wasn't looking forward to it, had fun using his new Cutco knife to break open the lobster's shell to get the meat out. Everyone but Susanna finished their soup, and I even had seconds.