Slow Cooking Chicken Margherita Pasta

In the past couple of weeks, we've had high temperatures upwards of 120F! It's been so hot around here, I can't even draw a bath for my kids in the evenings without adding about 6 cups of ice to the "Cold" water.  I love being able to cook dinner in my Crock Pot without heating up my house. I'm running the A/C enough already!

One of my favorite quick lunches is a Healthy Choice Café Steamers, especially their Chicken Margherita with Balsamic, with chicken, diced tomatoes, garlic, angel hair pasta and a balsamic sauce. Since I love this frozen meal so much, I decided to try and make a Copy Cat recipe that I could cook up for dinner in my crock pot. (I was surprised that I couldn't find one online!)

For my first attempt, I decided to go simple, using Lawry's Balsamic Herb Marinade for the basis of my sauce and just thickening it up with a corn starch slurry if it got too diluted in the crock pot. Also, I decided to just cook my pasta the old-fashioned way -- on the stove. However, OneDishDinners.com makes it sound so easy to add pasta to the slow cooker. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to do so soon.

I put my frozen chicken in a lined crock pot with about 1 c of Lawry's Balsamic Herb Marinade, and cooked it on low for about 3 hours. (I did not pre-marinade the chicken.) Then, I added a can of petite diced tomatoes (drained) for the last hour of cooking. I boiled about 1/2 lb of thin spaghetti on my stove top while waiting for my chicken mixture to finish cooking. I decided that my sauce was a little too thin, so I thickened up the sauce with a corn starch slurry. I could have added more marinade to thicken it up, but I like a light balsamic flavor, and was worried that adding more marinade might have been overwhelming, but to each their own. I diced the chicken and mixed it with the pasta, tomatoes and thickened sauce in a big bowl and served it up.

My whole family loved this meal, including my toddler and preschooler. Everyone went back for seconds! I'd like to make a more "from scratch" version sometime, where I'm not dependent on the Lawry's marinade for the sauce, but I'm happy for now because this is so simple to throw together and it turned out really good!

The Recipe

Slow Cooker Chicken Margherita Pasta

5 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs (or 3 Chicken Breasts)
1 cup Lawry's Balsamic Herb Marinade
1 - 14oz can of Petite Diced Tomatoes, Drained
1/2 lb Thin Spaghetti
1/2 Tbsp Corn Starch
1 Tbsp Cold Water

In a lined crock pot, cook the chicken in the marinade for 3 hours on low. Add the drained can of petite diced tomatoes to the chicken and marinade in the crock pot. Slow cook for an additional hour, or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Remove chicken from crock pot and dice. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. If desired, combine the corn starch and cold water to make a slurry. In a small pan on the stove top, bring the corn starch slurry and about 1 or 2 cups of the tomato-marinade mixture to a boil, continuously stirring, until thickened. Combine the tomatoes, thickened sauce, chicken and pasta in a large bowl. Serve and Enjoy!

Making Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

At Christmas time, I had a lot of extra peanut butter to use up before it reached its Best By date.  This was one recipe I experimented with to use up that delicious peanut butter and it turned out wonderful!  I've never tried making fudge the traditional way, and to be honest, it sounds kinda hard.  This recipe was so easy and turns out very rich -- a little goes a long way -- making it a perfect treat to share with friends, family and neighbors!

Next time I make it, I will use a candy thermometer (which I got for Christmas) so I will stress less about whether or not it will come out right.  Also, I will make sure to sift all the powdered sugar well, so I won't get any lumps in an otherwise smooth confection.

 

The Recipe

Easy PB Fudge

(based on "Easiest Peanut Butter Fudge" by AngieH on allrecipes.com)

1/2 c butter
2  c brown sugar
1/2 c milk
1 c peanut butter
1 t vanilla extract
3 c powdered sugar, sifted

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in brown sugar and milk.  Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, heating to the soft-ball stage at 235 - 240 F (if using a candy thermometer).  Remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter and vanilla.  Pour over powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until smooth. Pour into an 8x8 pan.  Chill until firm and cut into squares.

Baking Apple Pie from Scratch

I love this Apple Pie.  I actually never liked Apple Pie, or any baked fruit, until I tried this pie my mother in law made.  Now, I like to make it for my Hubby as a special treat.  I make the crust, filling and topping all in an hour (including being distracted by my small children) and then it bakes for 40 minutes.  Easy as Pie!

I use a super-simple, oil pie crust recipe. Why? Because I hate cutting cold butter.  And then, after all that work, I don't like waiting while my pie crust chills in the fridge before rolling it out.  I'm just too lazy.  This recipe comes from the Betty Crocker cookbook.  I like a thick crust, so I use the whole recipe for the one pie shell.  I mix it up in my kitchen aid and then I usually just press the dough into my deep dish pie pan, instead of rolling it out. 

For the Apple Pie Filling, I slice, peel and core my apples with an Apple Peeler I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (link).  I mix the apples in the sugar/flour/cinnamon mixture as I peel them.  When done, I dump them into the crust.

For the topping, I throw all the ingredients in my kitchen aid or Ninja mini food processor and then sprinkle on top.  That way, again, I don't have to worry about cutting cold butter. See... I'm lazy.

Before I throw it in the oven, I use an adjustable crust shield (link) to keep my crust edges from overcooking.  I just remove it for the last 5 minutes of baking.

The Recipes

Oil Pastry Pie Shell (from the Betty Crocker Cookbook)

1 3/4 c flour
1 t salt
1/2 c canola oil
4 T cold water

Mix flour, salt, and canola oil until it forms lumps the size of small peas.  Add cold water 1 Tbsp at a time until mixing almost cleans the sides of the bowl.  If the mixture still seems dry after adding 4 Tbsp of water, do not add more water.  Continue adding 1 Tbsp of oil until the appropriate consistency is reached.  Then, gather the dough and press it into a ball.  (Optional: Roll out dough to fit your pie pan.)  Press into pie pan and trim off excess.

Apple Pie

Pie Filling:
7-8 apples, peeled and sliced
3/4 c sugar
2 T flour
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg (optional)

Topping:
1/3 c sugar
3/4 c flour
6 T firm butter

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Mix the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Pour into pie shell.  Combine the topping ingredients until crumbs are the size of small peas.  Sprinkle topping evenly across the pie.  Bake at 400 F for 40 minutes.  The topping should be golden brown.

Slow Cooking Mashed Potatoes

With Thanksgiving almost here, I thought that this would be a perfect recipe to try. Thank you FirstADream.blogspot.com!  When I saw their recipe for Mashed Potatoes in a Crockpot, I had to try it!  Anything to make Thanksgiving dinner less hectic.

I hate making mashed potatoes the traditional way.  You have to boil your potatoes in a big pot with a lot of water, make sure it doesn't boil over, and then drain off the water (and the nutrients that seeped out during cooking) without burning yourself.  If you overcook them in all that water, you might end up with a whole lot of glue.  Call me lazy, but it's just too much work for such a simple side dish.

Their recipe calls for very little water and you don't drain it off! Mash it, whip it and serve it all from the crock, if you wish. So easy!  You could use the Reynold's liners to make clean up super easy (if only cooking in the crockpot). Dump the food in the crock and cook without having to babysit it.  It's practically foolproof! 

The Recipe

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup water or broth
1 cup butter, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/3 cups milk

Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover, and cook on High for 2-3 hours, or until tender. (Large potato pieces may need more cooking time.)  Do not drain.  Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding milk and seasonings for desired texture. 

Freezing Homemade Biscuits

First of all, I want to give full credit for this project to Favorite Freezer Foods.com for their Easy Homemade Biscuits Recipe.

The recipe is a standard, simple biscuit recipe -- nothing to write home about... or blog about... but I thought the recipe's instructions were definitely worth sharing. 

The recipe tells you how to freeze the biscuits individually before baking them, so that you can throw them in a freezer bag for storage.  Then you can have hot, fresh biscuits anytime with minimal prep, and no pressurized cans to open.

Also, the directions tell you how to prepare your dough in a food processor (my Ninja mini food processor was barely big enough for a single batch). Pushing a button to cut the shortening into the flour was so much easier, in my opinion, than cutting it in with my pastry cutter. 

Once rolled and cut, I baked half of the biscuits right away and froze the other half.  Once fully frozen, I baked them up according to the recipe's baking-without-thawing instructions.

Whether baked right away or frozen first, these biscuits came out the same (which I find very good to know).  They turned out light and fluffy, and tasted just like the small can refrigerator biscuits that you pick up for about $0.50 to $0.75 a can.  The kind of stuff best reserved for Monkey Bread (aka Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread) or Semi-homemade Donuts. 

I'm thrilled to know how to use my food processor to make prepping my dough easier and I'm excited to freeze ready-to-bake biscuits in the future.  Now, all I have to do is find a biscuit recipe that I love.

Making a Chocolate - Peanut Butter - Banana Smoothie

I'm sure I had you at Chocolate and Peanut butter.  I might have lost you at Banana Smoothie. But before you go judging this one, I want to say that if done right, it is down right delicious and completely curbs my milkshake cravings.

Now, I can easily make a delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake by combining Ice Cream, Peanut Butter, Milk and possibly chocolate syrup in the blending, but it's not a very healthy thing to eat multiple times a week.

So, I went in search of a healthier alternative, since I am making a concentrated effort to eat healthier.  Not to find the magic number on the scale, but simply to live a healthier lifestyle, so that I can teach my girls to have a healthy body image. When I step on the scale every morning, they copy me and want to see how much they weigh, just like Mommy. To me, nothing is sadder than seeing a toddler on a bathroom scale.

I was very skeptical of using frozen bananas to replace ice cream. I usually only eat the occasional banana, but once again, Pinterest convinced me to give frozen bananas a try.

Chiquita Bananas has a great website where you can look up recipes based on banana ripeness levels using their Banana Ripeness to Recipe Tool. (Check it out, it's pretty cool!) I based my recipe on their Best Creamy Peanut Butter Chiquita Banana Smoothie Recipe.

My recipe calls for blending frozen banana, milk, peanut butter and chocolate milk flavoring. The result is a deceptively Milkshake-like smoothie.

Recommendations:

Expect to still taste the banana.  You will mask it in chocolate, peanut butter goodness, but it will still be there.  Don't set yourself up for disappointment thinking it will be completely gone, because it won't.

For the thickest smoothie/shake, use banana that has been frozen solid. The softer the banana, the thinner the smoothie/shake.

If your banana is too green to eat by its self, then it is too green for a smoothie/shake. As bananas ripen, their starch turns to sugar, making it taste better and easier for your body to digest. I haven't tried using overripe bananas for this smoothie/shake, so I don't know how good it would be. If I have a banana at the perfect stage for eating, I freeze that for my smoothies.

You can throw a whole banana in the freezer, peel and all. The peel will come off easy if you slice the banana in chunks right before use in a smoothie.  However, Chiquita recommends you peel and slice your bananas before freezing. Either way works for me.

If you have a food processor, use it! I think the milkshake illusion is better completed when made with a food processor. Most kitchen blenders don't have the processing power to thoroughly puree the frozen banana to a perfectly smooth texture. That being said, I have make larger batches in my blender, and I just had some tiny banana pieces in my smoothie.

I have used both Hershey's chocolate syrup and Nesquik chocolate milk flavoring powder to make these smoothies/shakes. I like them both. Per serving, Nesquik powder has fewer calories than Hershey's syrup, for those of you who are calorie counting.

The Recipe:

1 banana, sliced and frozen
1/2 c milk
2 tsp peanut butter
2 tbsp chocolate milk flavoring

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Blend until well combined and smooth. Enjoy!

Select Nutrition Facts (based on 2% milk, Nesquik Chocolate Milk Mix, and Skippy Smooth PB):  Calories 290, Total Fat 8.5g, Cholesterol 10mg, Sodium 140mg, Total Carbs 50g, Dietary Fiber 4g, Sugars 35g, Protein 8g

Baking Low-Fat Brownies with Zucchini, Applesauce AND Banana?

I found a great pin on Pinterest for 10 New Uses for Zucchini, which included a picture of  delicious looking brownies and a link to a low-fat brownie recipe on Spark Recipes (Low Fat Zucchini Brownies).  I was excited to try making brownies from scratch using zucchini, applesauce and banana, with no eggs or oil. 
I even read a lot of the comments on the recipe, which really got my hopes up, because this recipe was supposed to make amazing brownies.  With 20 reviews, this recipe has 4.2 stars! 

I was a little skeptical when I was pouring the batter into the pan... the banana aroma was standing out a little more than I expected... and I only used 1 banana, instead of the two the recipe called for... but I was still very optimistic!  Some healthy brownies sounded really good to a Momma still working off some baby weight.

When they came out of the oven, they looked pretty good for homemade brownies.  Of course, they looked nothing like the picture on the "10 New Uses..." page, but I still couldn't wait to try them!!!

When I cut out a big piece from the middle to try it, I thought it looks sooo good!  I sink my teeth into this beautiful, homemade creation, so excited for some hot, fresh, chocolate-y goodness... and I can't even bring myself to swallow the bite... it tastes THAT bad.  I'm thinking... no, that can't be right... this recipe had 4.2 stars and all those rave reviews... I made those muffins using pumpkin, I have a killer zucchini bread recipe, I've substituted oil with applesauce before... no, these have to taste good... maybe I had a conflicting flavor in my mouth from eating something else...

So, I try them again... yeah, I couldn't swallow that bite either.  They were just so sour! And kinda bitter!  It tasted like someone snuck sour cream into my batter when I wasn't looking... lots of it!  A little banana flavor popped through the chocolate flavor, which was kind of an off flavor in a brownie.  And, I'm guessing that there wasn't enough sugar in these "low-fat brownies" to compensate for the bitter cocoa powder.  I don't know.  All I know is that I was so disappointed.  When I'm in the kitchen, the mothering side of me comes out and I want to be so proud of anything I make, just like I want to be so proud of anything my children do, that I have a tendency to be extra-fond of food that I make, simply because I made it.  Plus, they looked so good in the pan...  They HAD to taste good, right?

So, I tried them again.  Nope.  Still disappointed.  Still so unpalatable that I can't even swallow it.  At this point, these deceptive brownies are so offensive, I do something that I rarely ever do... I just throw them out.  I'd already tried them 3 times, hoping against hope that they would magically taste better with time... after all, some baked goods taste their best after completely cooling... so maybe these would?  No.  Still disappointing.  Back to the drawing board... or, rather, the Pin board.