Day 90: Crockpot Orange Chicken

Original Source: Team T Adventures

Looks good, doesn't it? Well, wait till you see MY pictures. Not so much. I don't know if the cooking time was off or what, but my sauce was so burnt, it was inedible. We ordered pizza and tossed good money down the drain. I cooked on low, as per instructions, but I guess my crockpot cooks faster because it didn't take long for the stank of burnt orange to clog up my house.

Look how pretty it started out....

And look at what it became.... (Frowny face)

If you still want the recipe (first time a crockpot recipe has ever burned in this house!!) get it HERE

Day 75: Crock Pot Chicken

Original Source: Food.com

I'm getting really bad about this. Forgetting to take pictures because the smell of food in my house makes it impossible to wait long enough to find willpower to snap a photo. So, all I have to say about that, is thank goodness some recipes look just like the original photo when you're done. I can totally say that about this one.

I love roasted chicken. I used to make one every weekend. I even love a whole bird on the grill (check out Beer in the Rear chicken for a nice treat). But putting one in the crockpot? What???? Okay, I gave it a go.

Place chicken in crockpot, season with seasonings in recipe.. don't add water??? That was the first thing I noticed. And I panicked, because everything in the crockpot requires liquid. Doesn't it? The recipe says that the chicken will produce enough juices that no other liquid is required. Well, I don't know if it's because I bought organic, free range, small birds or what, but by about hour 3, my crock pot was still bone dry. My house smell great, but I don't know enough about the science of crockery cooking to chance it. I added about 1/2 a cup of water just as a precaution.

What resulted was a FANTASTICALLY tender, yummy bird. Granted, the skin wasn't that crisp, but that's probably because I added the water. This is definitely not leaving my recipe app!!!

HOWEVER, a word of precaution, though I know it's a matter of taste. . . . I did NOT like the left over version of this. I didn't like the smell when I heated it up for lunch, and the yummy, melt in your mouth quality it had the night before had vanished. Regardless, it probably would have been fine for a chicken salad or something.

TRY THIS!!!!! So freaking fast and easy. Set it and forget it!!

Get the recipe here

Day 66: Baked Potato Soup - Slow Cooker Style

Original Source: Mama Loves Soup

I love soup! I prefer them thick and creamy and rich, but even a broth based noodle soup makes me salivate. Sadly, I don't get it often because it's always hot here in Florida. But on a rainy, gray day this week, I decided to make one -- and what's better than one you can just throw in a crockpot in the morning so that it's ready for you at night, no slaving over a hot stove at all?

Fantaastic!!! Sorry my "done" picture isn't all that appealing, but I was so eager to dive in, I forgot to snap one with all the sexy toppings!

A note: This is great as leftovers, but extremely thick. Basically, it turns into a big bowl of mashed potatoes. So you will have to add water or milk, something to reduce it back to its soupy form.

Enjoy!

GET THE RECIPE HERE!

Day 45: Better Butter Chicken

Original Source: Dinner with Julie

I love trying new "ethnic" foods. Not that this was really, but the abundance of curry made me want to try it since I've never had the pleasure of trying Indian food before. So why not?

Let me warn you, it looks like roadkill when you throw it all in the crockpot. Literally. The onions look like rib bones, the tomatoes like innards. But, aside from that, my house smelled amazing all day!

The taste? Well, the bites I stole before adding the yogurt and cream were really good. Heck, even the bites I stole AFTER adding that stuff was really good. But once I put in on rice, I didn't care for it as much, which was the consensus among the teens and My Guy. The rice took something away from it. But without the rice, it's kind of just a weird soup that wouldn't have been good either. Maybe draining the sauce off the chicken and just eating the chicken as a meat might be better? Regardless, this is yet another one I'm removing from my cookbook. It just wasn't good enough that any of us would ever crave it again.

GET THE RECIPE HERE

Day 22: Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

Original Source : C&C Marriage Factory

Winner! The meat was so tender it was melt-in-your-mouth great. I didn't get the nice dark crust that the picture above shows, but that's okay. It was great without it. I did take a couple of pictures of the process, but everything I managed to capture looked um, unappealing. Only the final product was worth anything and the one from C&C Marriage Factory was way better so I'm leaving it at that. Seriously, try this one. Few ingredients, just a few minutes of time. It's well worth it. Shove it in your slow cooker in the morning, go about your day and enjoy a hot dinner when you get home. LOVE.

GET THE RECIPE HERE

Day 21: Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

Original Source: Becoming Betty

GET THE RECIPE HERE

I surprisingly had everything in my kitchen for this, so I decided to give it a try and make dinner easy and quick. (Quick meaning prep work, not actual cook time since this is a crock pot recipe so yeah, takes at least 4 hours to cook.) Served it over rice so I doubled the sauce recipe because my guys like the extra juice to flavor the rice. It was a win.

This was so simple and really tasty. Adults and teens all liked it and it was fast and cheap enough that I'm sure I'll make it often.

Day 11 : Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole

Original Source: The Country Cook

FIND RECIPE HERE

Let me say, this was a pain in my $##. Not the recipe itself, but because of the number of days I tried to make it and kept forgetting to start the crock pot! 2 or 3:00 would roll around and I'd remember and.. yeah, new plans for dinner. I'm not used to using a crockpot outside of weekends, unless it's for beans.

Ok, onward and upward!

My thoughts:
Tasty. My guy agreed, as did my Teen Boy. Teen Daugher (As usual) wasn't around.

However, we all agreed that this dish would be far better served as a breakfast dish. Take out the chicken, use sausage instead, and this would get 4 stars instead of the 3 we gave it. Also, I don't use fake bacon for anything. So I used real bacon, slightly cooked, and cut into pieces. Next time, I'll cook the bacon more, because it never developed a nice, crunchy texture.

1 problem with the recipe. Granted, I could be blind and I'm known for not being able to see what's right in front of me, but the recipe layers everything out yet forgets the first layer of cheese. By the time you get to the second layer, it's tell you it's the third. Not so. So my bottom layer had no cheese :( It wasn't missed, however, so carry on.  The tater tots throughout take on a rice-y texture and is quite lovely, while the top layer keeps its tater tot shape. Seriously, as a breakfast, this would be far better. The chicken was an unneeded distraction that I ended up pushing aside.