Orange Chicken

I'd like to try to get this blog going again. Sorry for the long hiatus - my work schedule has changed and I've been making a lot of old favorites for dinner, rather than trying new things. But with the change in the weather, and a renewed interest in eating healthy meals and avoiding take out, I'm going to try cooking new meals and documenting them. I'm also hoping to do a better job of keeping the fridge, freezer, and pantry stocked, so I have food on hand to heat up after work when I'm feeling lazy.

This afternoon I made an Asian-inspired orange chicken. It took about 3 minutes to prepare before throwing in the slow cooker, and it's all ingredients I usually have on hand.

The Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (just under 1 lb), cut into chunks
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce (This isn't the photo, since I realized the sauce needed something else after tasting it)
1 cup frozen green beans

The Directions:
- Combine chicken, flour and salt in ziplock bag and toss to dredge the chicken pieces. Shake off excess flour and put chicken pieces in bottom of slow cooker. (I used my 4 quart slow cooker, but this would fit in a 2 quart)
-Whisk together orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin, and chili garlic sauce in small bowl, and pour over the chicken. Cook on high for 4 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and tender.
-Add beans to slow cooker for last hour of cooking time. (I think I cooked the beans too long - next time I'll just throw them in for 20 minutes or so.)

This was DELICIOUS! It was so easy to prepare, and cheap! I splurged on organic frozen green beans and organic 100% tangerine juice, but it would be just as good with any frozen veggie and any orange juice. I served this over brown rice, which soaked up all the extra sauce. It was excellent - a perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and a bit spicy. I think this is going to become a super easy regular dinner in our house!

Slow Cooker Chicken "Lo Mein"

I haven't cooked for a couple of weekends, so I decided this weekend will be full of home cooking. I didn't start thinking about dinner until pretty late, so I needed something that didn't take all day, but I am still obsessed with my new slow cooker. I went through my cookbooks looking for a quick cooking slow cooker recipe, and found a Cashew Chicken Lo Mein recipe in Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two cookbook. I didn't think the cashews would go over well with Boyfriend, and I also wanted to try to use stuff I had around the house instead of buying a bunch of new ingredients. So I modified the recipe quite a bit.

The Ingredients:
-1 – 1 ½ boneless, skinless chicken breast halves per person (I bought a package with 3 chicken breast halves, and used them all)
-1 tbsp canola oil
-½ medium onion, thinly sliced
-1 inch peeled ginger, grated*
-1 garlic clove, grated
-zest of ½ lime
-1 tbsp hoisin sauce
-3 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tsp chili garlic sauce
-1 splash of sesame oil
-2 cups frozen stir-fry vegetable blend, thawed (I found one with broccoli, carrots, and water chestnuts)
-6-8 ounces ramen noodles (or udon noodles, or whole wheat spaghetti)
-juice of 1 lime
-2 tbsp sliced green onions


*I buy a big piece of fresh ginger, peel the whole thing, and cut it into 1-2 inch pieces. I then freeze it, and grate it with a microplane when a recipe calls for ginger. The ginger lasts for months, and is much easier to grate when frozen. Here's a photo of my ginger all peeled and cut up, before I froze it.




The Directions:
1. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil (or other light colored oil) in sauté pan. Cut chicken breasts into bite sized pieces. Sauté over medium heat until browned. They do not need to be cooked through.
2. Put chicken in bottom of 2 or 3 quart slow cooker. Cover with sliced onions, grated garlic, grated ginger, lime zest.
3. Combine hoisin, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and sesame oil. Add to slow cooker, stir to coat chicken. Cook on LOW for 2 hours, or until chicken is cooked through.
4. When chicken is cooked through, add veggies to slow cooker, stir to combine, and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.
5. Once veggies are added to slow cooker, prepare noodles according to package directions.
6. When veggies are cooked, add noodles and lime juice to slow cooker, and stir gently to combine. Garnish with green onions and serve.

This was really tasty! I thought it was a bit too spicy, that maybe I should have used a bit less ginger and a bit less chili garlic sauce. But it wasn't overwhelmingly too spicy. Boyfriend really liked it, and didn't think it was to spicy at all. So maybe next time I'll find a way to tone it down, but just a little. It was really easy, and the chicken was nice and tender, since they were slow cooked. When I told my mom what I was making, she asked why I didn't cook the same thing on the stovetop - it would probably only take 30 minutes or so. She's right that the stovetop would take way less time, but I like to think that using the slow cooker lets the flavors combine more and makes the chicken more tender.

Slow Cooker Chili Casserole

So I'm still breaking in the slow cooker, and thought I'd try a traditional slow cooker meal: chili. I decided to put a twist on it by topping it with cornbread and cheese, because what could be better than chili with cornbread and cheese?! This is another super easy one, and perfect with a green salad or other simple vegetable.


The Ingredients:



-1 ½ lbs ground beef
-1 large (2-3 small) onion, small dice (I could only find tiny onions at the store, so I used 3)
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1 red bell pepper, medium dice (any color would be fine)
-1 tbsp chili powder
-1 tsp ground cumin
-1 chipotle in adobo (depends on how spicy you like this. Next time, I might add 2)
-½ cup low sodium vegetable stock (chicken or beef stock would be fine, too. This is what I had on hand.)
-1 can black beans, strained (I had black beans in my pantry, but kidney beans would great here, too.)
-1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
-1 box cornbread mix
-1 egg (or whatever the package directions are for the cornbread)
-1/3 cup canola oil (or whatever the package directions are for the cornbread)
-1 ¼ cup milk (or whatever the package directions are for the cornbread)
-1 cup grated cheddar cheese
-1-2 tbsp minced cilantro

The Directions:

1. Brown beef over medium heat. Drain fat from beef and return to heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and chipotle, and sauté until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add stock and bring to boil, about 2 minutes.
4. Put meat mixture in 4 quart slow cooker. Top with can of black beans and can of tomatoes. Cook over low heat, 3-4 hours.
5. Prepare cornbread batter according to package directions. Stir ¾ cup of grated cheddar into batter. Spoon batter over chili, cover and cook on high another hour. (I think this had too much cornbread for the amount of chili. Next time, I'll use half the batter on the casserole, and bake off the other half in muffins.)
6. Top bread with remaining ¼ cup of cheese, cover, and cook until cheese melts, about 5-10 minutes. Top with cilantro and serve.



This was great! I was worried that Boyfriend wouldn't like it, but he really loved it and had seconds. He usually complains that chili isn't a particularly satisfying meal, but the addition of the cornbread made it heartier, and he thought it was perfect. I liked it too, although thought there was too much cornbread. And next time, I'll add more chipotles and chili powder - it could use a bit more kick. I think this would also be great with ground turkey, rather than ground beef.

Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs with Sausage and Artichokes

I've been on a cooking hiatus - the holidays have made my weekends more crazy, and then I got a bad cold which has made me even less motivated to cook. But today I decided to break in the awesome slow cooker I received for Christmas. Boyfriend's family also gave me a couple of great slow cooker cookbooks, and this dinner was inspired by Saucy Italian Chicken Thighs from the Cooking Light Slow Cooker cookbook. I modified the recipe only slightly, adding sausage (which I knew would be a winner with Boyfriend) and artichokes (for me).

The Ingredients:

3 lbs chicken thighs (skin removed)
2 skinless chicken sausages (I used Fire Roasted Red Pepper flavor)
1 small onion, medium diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 9oz box frozen artichoke hearts
1 500g box chopped tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 tsp Italian Seasoning

The Directions:

1. Place chicken thighs in bottom of 4 quart slow cooker.
2. Slice 2 chicken sausages into bite-sized pieces, and layer over chicken thighs.
3. Cover with diced onion, minced garlic, box of artichoke hearts, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning. (After about an hour of cooking, I realized that the original recipe recommends combining all of these ingredients and then topping the chicken. I didn't do that, just dumped each ingredient in one on top of another, and it turned out just fine.)
4. Cook on High setting for 1 hour, then cook on Low for 5-6 hours, until chicken is fully cooked and tender.

This was super easy. I picked it because it had very little prep, just dump stuff in the slow cooker and turn it on. After a few hours, the apartment smelled great! I served it over some "instant" brown rice that I cooked in chicken stock. It was a huge hit! The chicken was incredibly tender and fell right off the bone. The chicken also gave off a lot of juices, which combined with the tomatoes to make everything very saucy. I think the addition of sausage and artichokes really boosted the flavor of the dish, and worked with the chicken. I plan to reheat the leftovers tomorrow for lunch and serve over spinach pasta. This is definitely a keeper, although in the future, I might add some dark greens, like kale or spinach, for the last hour of cooking.