Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

This picture does not do it justice... I wish I was a photographer!

I had found this recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs, The Crepes of Wrath, a while ago and made this once before in my pre-blog days. I was immediately attracted to it because, HELLO 40 CLOVES OF GARLIC!! I love garlic, I love chicken, it seemed to me to be a match made in heaven. This recipe was apparently originally made in the oven, not the Crock Pot, but thankfully there are experimental chefs that made it Crock Pot worthy. It was really, really good and surprisingly not that garlic-y. The thyme and rosemary flavors were much more prominent. The gravy you make with the juices and the resulting roasted garlic are so good. I added some of the roasted garlic to mashed potatoes and it was perfect! I also made my tried and true green bean recipe that you can find in this post. 

And I know I have been slacking majorly in updating my blog and I could tell you it was because I have been really busy and doing end of the school year things and travelling the world, but it's mostly because I have been lazy... woops! But I want to get back into the blogging groove. Also, Happy Easter! I am currently making a spinach dip in the crock pot for my families Easter dinner... I hope it turns out! 

First, Here are the ingredients:

40 cloves of garlic= about 3 bulbs. and I guess you are supposed to use cooking white wine?! But I didn't know what/where that was. I would NOT recommend Sea Ridge wine for drinking... not that I am a connoisseur or anything... but it was not... good. It worked for cooking though!

Oh and clearly I forgot to take a picture of the chicken too, wow. I also just wrote "chicken" down on my grocery list and you are supposed to buy a "fryer chicken" (I also didn't know what that was...) I used boneless skinless chicken breasts which worked fine. And if you are wondering a fryer chicken is when all the pieces of a whole chicken are taken apart for you already and packaged nicely. I would buy a fryer chicken next time I made the recipe.

mmmmmm

First you peel all the cloves of garlic. I had some little Crock Hunter minions to help me with this one... Here is an easy video on how to peel garlic cloves. The Crepes of Wrath blogger linked to this youtube video and I found it very helpful. 

Heat up your olive oil and add the garlic cloves to the pan. Cook them for 5-8 minutes until they are golden brown and add the white wine. Stir until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes over medium heat. 

While you are doing this you rub your chicken with salt and pepper and place the pieces in the bottom of the greased crock pot. (I never remember to buy Crock Pot liners! I really want to try them.) 

Pour the liquid over the chicken and sprinkle the thyme and rosemary on top. You are also supposed to add a bay leaf but I didn't have any. Cook the chicken on low for 3-4 hours. After it is done, remove the chicken and cover it with foil while you make the gravy. 

mmm

Pour the juices from the Crock Pot through a sieve (or tiny colander if you are like me and not fancy enough to have a sieve.) Then you press the garlic through the sieve, or tiny colander, into the pot of juices to make sort of a garlic paste.

pretend like this is a really great picture.

Cook the juices/garlic mush mix with butter until thickened. This should take about 5-8 minutes. 

I really need to work on my picture taking skills... where is Sholeh when I need her!

Serve the gravy sauce juices mix over the chicken and mashed potatoes (if you make them!). The gravy was SO GOOD and really made the whole thing delectable. Like I said earlier, I used some of the extra roasted garlic to make garlic mashed potatoes and they were very good! 

This was definitely a hit and I will make it again!

Crock Pot Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

Crepes of Wrath

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2-4 pound fryer chicken (chicken cut into serving pieces)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 40 cloves of garlic, peeled but still whole (about 3 bulbs of garlic)
• 3/4 cup white wine (optional, but highly recommended)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. 1. Spray the inside of your crock pot with non-stick spray. Rub the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Place in the crock pot.
   2. Heat your olive oil in a small skillet and add the peeled, whole garlic. Cook for 5-8 minutes over medium heat until the garlic is golden, then add the white wine and stir until the liquid has mostly evaporated, another 3-5 minutes over medium heat.
   3. Pour the garlic and white wine over the chicken in the crock pot, and sprinkle the thyme and rosemary over everything. Add in the bay leaf. Turn the crock pot to low and cook for 3-4 hours (I did mine for 3 1/2 hours). When ready, remove the chicken and place on a separate platter, then cover with foil to retain its heat. Set aside.
   4. Pour the juices from the pot through a mesh sieve into a pot, then press the garlic through the sieve to form a paste. Cook the gravy with a tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes. Serve over the chicken with potatoes, vegetables, or crusty bread and enjoy! Serves 3-4

Cannellini Minestrone

yum!

I have been SLACKING on my blog postings... and I made this soup when it was really rainy and it was going to be great for people in cold weather like me... but now its beautiful outside and this is irrelevant but I will post it anyways because it was REALLY GOOD. I have had minestrone soup from a can a few times, but never home made or even at a restaurant. This was really yummy and I paired it with a grilled cheese and it made the perfect rainy day meal! oh and once again this was from my Crock Pot Recipe Collection cookbook! 

AND exciting news!! My blog officially has over 1000 views :)

Ingredients:

honestly, I was a bit nervous about all the veggies and kale but it was yummy!

The actual steps are minimal, but there is a lot of chopping which is why I enlisted the help of my little minion clare...

peeling carrots is fun!

Basically all you do is put all the ingredients into the crock pot except the pasta and stir it all up! Cook it on LOW 6-8 hours or HIGH 4-6 hours. I let this go basically all day on "keep warm" and it turned out fine!

The recipe calls for escarole and I have no idea where you buy this/never have heard of it but thankfully to the wonders of technology I was able to google alternatives while in the grocery store and discovered that kale can be used as well! In the recipe it says to cut it into "ribbons" so i just did long strips??? Not sure if this is correct but I just kinda ate around them. By day 2 they sort of crumbled up and were easier to eat. 

after cooking for many hours!

Once it is done, you add the ditalini pasta and stir, cooking for 20 minutes before serving. Sam and I thought that using only 2 ounces of pasta was too little so we may or may not have thrown in half the box... this made it VERY pasta-y and less soupy because the noodles absorbed the water. Overall this was so good and once again, the leftovers were amazing! 

Sam made her world famous grilled cheese and it was a delectable meal! 

isn't this cute?? thanks Lee Price for sponsoring the flowers :) 

Cannellini Minestrone

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (12 ounces) tomato-vegetable juice (um why is this 1) so expensive and 2) not come in individual cans... I had to buy a giant economy sized one since the single v8 cans were like 6 bucks! no thanks.)
• 2 cups escarole, cut into ribbons
• 1 cup chopped green onions
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery 
• 1 cup chopped potatoes
• 1/4 cup dried cannellini beans, sorted and rinsed (I just bought a can of cannellini beans and threw them in... it was fine)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 ounces uncooked ditalini pasta

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients, except pasta, in 5 quart Crock Pot slow cooker. Stir well to combine. Cover, cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIGH 4-6 hours.
2. Add ditalini and stir again. Cover; cook 20 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings

RIBS!!

AMAZING.

Every week I post a link to my blog on Facebook. Last week my cousin Dustin commented telling me about how his wife and him make Crock Pot recipes often and that I should try his rib recipe! I am a HUGE fan of ribs, but I didn't think anyone could beat the way my Dad makes them. But ribs in the Crock Pot are seriously INCREDIBLE. Now I was a bit nervous because I am a BBQ sauce snob and eat Pepper Plant BBQ Sauce pretty much exclusively. If you haven't had it I would HIGHLY recommend it. I buy it in gallon jugs and put it on pretty much everything... yes i am 5 years old. yes i put in vegetables. its good on pasta too... I can't find it up north but I know you can find it SLO county... and apparently on Amazon as well... good to know! This is a tangent. But basically I haven't been home since January and am out of my usual supply so I had to use another brand. Sweet Baby Ray's and I have to admit... it was pretty damn good. DID I MENTION THAT THE MEAT FELL OFF THE BONE, LITERALLY, AND I HAD TO EAT IT WITH A FORK?? unreal.

Ingredients: 

easy peasy.

First you put the ribs on a baking sheet and cook them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cut the ribs in half to fit into the Crock Pot and cover with a jar of BBQ sauce.

I used Sweet Baby Ray's honey BBQ sauce and it was DELISH. 

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. That's it!! The meat literally fell off the bone... I had to eat them with a FORK.

As for side dishes, I decided to fix up some green beans using my favorite recipe from my Dad. These green beans are so good I eat them as dessert... I decided to add that recipe in here too since the ribs were so easy. I don't really measure so you'll just have to eyeball it.

Ingredients:

Garlic and parmesan cheese make these green beans delectable!

Other ingredients: basil, parsley, garlic powder (or real garlic), olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper (which I forgot to take a picture of)

Cook the green beans however you would like (I'm lazy and buy those bags of green beans that you can just microwave) Add some shakes of each ingredient (lol so scientific!) and you have got the best green beans POSSIBLE. 

Here is the completed meal:

I also made some mashed potatoes using the leftover flakes I had from Shepherd's Pie. 

Easiest recipe so far and I think... my favorite one I've made!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

mmmmm.

This is late, I know! I've been slacking on my blog updates. I usually do them on Thursdays but I babysat for 11 hours and just couldn't find the energy. This week we decided to make Tortilla Soup. I had never had it before, but it sounded delicious and Sam said it was good so we made it! It has been really rainy and gross up here lately, so soup was really the perfect choice. We also paired it with chicken tacos to make the meal a bit more substantial. I just made an extra chicken breast in the soup, shredded it, and set it aside. It turned out to be the perfect rainy day meal! It was really good and, like most things, the leftovers were equally good, if not better. Sam says it was the,"BEST CROCK POT MEAL THUS FAR." I'm still waiting to find a Crock Pot recipe I HATE, but so far so good! I did make a stew once that I thought looked AND tasted like dog food, but everyone else seemed to like it... Anyways, here is how I made Chicken Tortilla Soup! It is also from the Crock Pot Collection Cookbook. 

Here are the ingredients:

Nothing too expensive! Plus, I already had the corn tortillas leftover. I'm still trying to figure out why they sell corn tortillas in bags of like, 50 or 100 and never in bags of 20 or 10??

First you place the chicken in the Crock Pot. I always grease my Crock Pot first with Pam. I hear they make Crock Pot liners. I need to invest! Then you combine the undrained tomatoes, 1/2 cup chicken broth, chiles (I left these out, not too into spice!), onion, garlic and cumin in a small bowl. 

Then you pour the mixture over the chicken, cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours or until chicken is tender. 

YUM onions!

When I read the recipe I was a little concerned because I was going to be out of the house for longer then 3 hours. I have class from 2-5:40 (This should be illegal...) so I just hoped for the best. My Crock Pot switches to "Keep Warm" when the time is up, which is very helpful! I came home from class and it had been "keeping warm" for about 2 hours. 

After it has cooked you remove the chicken and shred it with 2 forks. I shredded all the chicken and left out some for the tacos. Return the shredded chicken into the crock pot, adjust seasonings and add more broth if necessary. I added all the broth because it didn't seem very soupy without it. 

yum!

I cooked it for a while longer on low just to heat it up. I didn't keep track of how long though... Just before serving add tortillas and cilantro. Serve with cheese, avocado and a squeeze of lime juice. The only avocado they had at Safeway was not ripe at all so I didn't use it. I also didn't use lime because I don't really like them. 

Here is the finished product with tacos! SUCH a good meal!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Crock Pot Ultimate Recipe Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2-1 cup chicken broth, divided
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped mild green chiles, drained
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 corn tortillas, sliced into 1/4-inch strips
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Directions

1. Place chicken in 4 1/2-quart Crock-Pot slow cooker. Combine tomatoes with juice, 1/4 cup chicken broth, chiles, onion, garlic and cumin in small bowl. Pour mixture over chicken. Cover; cook on HIGH 3 hours or until chicken is tender.
2. Remove chicken from Crock-Pot slow cooker. Shred with 2 forks. Return to cooking liquid. Adjust seasonings, adding more broth if necessary.
3. Just before serving, add tortillas and cilantro to Crock-Pot slow cooker. Stir to blend. Serve in soup bowls, topping each serving with cheese, avocado and a squeeze of lime juice. 

makes 4-6 servings

Sweet and Sour Chicken

so delicious!

Paper due at 2 tomorrow? 30 pages of reading? A quiz? This seems like the perfect time to update my blog... For this weeks Crock Pot Monday, we decided to make something that I have already made prior to starting this blog. I didn't have much time since I had to switch my volunteering from Wednesday to Monday (because I went and visited my sister... I will include some pictures of this too!) so I needed something super quick, easy and delicious to make! I have to say this is one of my favorite Crock Pot meals and by far the easiest one I have ever made. There is no prep work at all, just throw all the ingredients in the pot and leave it for a few hours! I got this recipe from my 101 Things To Do With a Slow Cooker cookbook. 

First, here are the ingredients: 

plus rice, forgot to add that in the picture! 

First you cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Then you combine the chicken, sweet and sour sauce, frozen veggies and salt into your greased Crock Pot. I also added a fresh onion because I LOVE ONIONS. and they make everything taste better.

Now comes the hard part...... STIR IT!

raw chicken... yum!

Cover and cook on HIGH for 2.5- 3 hours or LOW for 5-6 hours. Serve over rice! 

It doesn't look exactly like the sweet and sour chicken you would get at a Chinese restaurant, but it was still DELICIOUS! 

See how ridiculously easy that was??? And it is AMAZING!!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

101 Things To Do With a Slow Cooker

Ingredients: 

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 jar (18 ounces) sweet and sour sauce
• 1 bag (16 ounces) Szechuan vegetables stir fry (I just used Asian Style Stir Fry veggies because they didn't have Szechuan veggies.
• 1 onion, diced (my addition)
• 6 cups cooked rice
• 1/4-1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds. (optional)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

     Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. In greased 3 1/2 to 5-quart slow cooker combine chicken, sweet-and-

     sour sauce, frozen vegetables, and salt. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or on LOW for

     5-6 hours. 

Makes 4-6 servings.

Other then my usual Crock Pot adventures on Monday, my sister Diana and I made heirloom tomato and feta salad on garlic bread and an apple pie when I went to visit her on Wednesday. I documented our fanciness. 

this was seriously heavenly, and i dont even like plain tomatoes usually!

nom nom nom

Here is our pretty apple pie! It has some sort of cheese in the crust (I forget the name..) it was good, and pretty! 

That's all for now! Tomorrow we are making Chicken Tortilla Soup... and hopefully I will update a little quicker this time.

Sara (and Santa) approve!

Shepherd's Pie

Cheese, mashed potatoes, meat and veggies... how could this be bad?!

This week I may or may not have forgotten it was Crock Pot Monday until Sunday night. My friend Sam and I always make the crock meals together so we had to quickly figure something to make at 10 pm Sunday night. This meant going grocery shopping then too and I must say late night grocery shopping is seriously SO much better then day time shopping! I would highly recommend it. Way less obnoxious people. Anyways, I was going through the Crock Pot cookbook my mom got me for Christmas, 101 Things To Do With a Slow Cooker, and found a recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Now I had only had it one time, but it was delicious so I decided to try it out in the Crock Pot! 

After looking over the recipe, I decided I wanted to add a few more veggies and seasonings to it but because I am a little nervous with all things cooking, I looked up another recipe online and did a sort of hybrid take on Shepherd's Pie. I got it from my blog inspiration, Crock Pot 365. This lady made a new year's resolution to use her Crock Pot every single day for a year. She is also very smart and went straight to Rachel Ray with her idea and got on her show and basically the blog is internet famous... which is basically my dream... Anyways she has 2 slow cooker cookbooks for sale on Amazon and I am very jealous. 

This recipe turned out really good and I ate so much of it I felt kind of like dying... but the leftovers were not as great. You win some, you lose some!

Onto the recipe... Here are the ingredients:

So American!

First you brown the meat and onion on the stove and drain any fat. Combine the cooked meat and onions with the spices. You also want to make some mashed potatoes while this is cooking. On the blog it says to use left over mashed potatoes so I guess you could use those if you had them... but I'm not sure why anyone would have EXTRA mashed potatoes. Anyways, I used instant mashed potatoes and they actually turned out delicious! 

mmmm!

Spray your Crock Pot with cooking spray. This step is never included in my Crock Pot Recipe Collection cookbook, but it's good to do because cleaning a Crock Pot is... not fun. Add the meat to the bottom of the crock, stir in frozen veggies, and add a cup of water. I definitely forgot to add the water til after the mashed potatoes were on so I had to scrape them off and add the water underneath.... whoops! 

All mixed up. I'd recommend not getting a frozen veggie mix with carrots because they were weird in it.

Now you add cheese on top of this. This is honestly the best part! When it's cooked its all melty and gooey and YUM. Plus, its a hidden surprise when you add the mashed potatoes on top of that. 

yes please!

Then you are supposed to add paprika but I didn't have any and was too cheap to buy my own, plus I figured it didn't REALLY matter. I added extra cheese on top of the mashed potatoes just for fun. :) Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 6 hours. Then remove the lid and bake for an extra 30 minutes to release condensation and for the potatoes to brown. 

cheesy, melty, goodness!

My mom painted this cupcake plate, isn't it cute?!

Overall, this was really yummy! Not sure if I would make it all the time, but it was definitely a very home made hearty American meal! My friend Clare particularly enjoyed it...

Look, all gone!

Shepherd's Pie

Crock Pot 365

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
• 1 lb ground turkey or beef
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cups frozen vegetables (I used a veggie medley)
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely, or 1 T onion flakes
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp paprika (then a bit more for garnish)
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups shredded cheese

Directions: 

I just copy and pasted this straight from the blog.

Brown the meat and onion on the stove, and drain any fat. Toss the meat with the spices and garlic---I didn't but next time I'd probably put the garlic and spices in with the meat in the frying pan, it would be easier.

Spray the inside of your crockpot with cooking spray. Put the meat in the crockpot and stir in the frozen vegetables, and a cup of water. Add two cups of cheese on top. Press the mashed potatoes down on top of the cheese and meat. Sprinkle with a bit of paprika.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for about 3, then remove the lid and cook on high for 30 minutes to release the condensation and allow the potatoes to brown a bit on top. Everything is cooked already, so you're really just allowing the flavors to meld and the potatoes to crustify.