3 Super Wonderful Crock Pot Recipes!

Who doesn't love crock pot recipes? 

As far as I'm concerned, they're pretty much the best invention ever. I love being able to throw a bunch of stuff together, leave for the day, and come home knowing that is all cooked to perfection with the least amount of effort possible.

 These are a few of my favorite recipes:

BBQ Chicken Drumsticks:

I know I had the exact measurements for a recipe like this, but I've come to find that it doesn't really matter. You can pretty much throw anything in this pot with chicken and it will come out delicious.

Step 1: Get chicken drumsticks (or whatever cut you prefer) and stack in the crock pot. I usually do about 6 at a time (mine is smaller) so you don't want them to be too packed in. 

Step 2: Take about a cup of ketchup (or bbq sauce of your choice) 1/4 c. Brown sugar and a couple tablespoons of soy sauce and mix together in a bowl. Pour over the chicken- if it doesn't cover  a lot of it go ahead and add more. I would rather have too much sauce then not enough so the chicken doesn't burn and gets nicely marinated.

Step 3: Cook on low for about 8 hours. At about 4 hours check the chicken and stir the mixture, making sure that all of the pieces are coated.

And boom. Delicious bbq chicken!

BBQ  Pulled Pork:

I made this recently when we had the division from the boat over for dinner. It is super simple and tastes delicious- plus it makes a ton of food.

Pick up one of these little packets from the grocery store. It has the recipe on the back so you can find everything you need while you're shopping- I love these seasonings.








The recipe calls for about 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, plus the seasoning mix. Mix this together as a sauce and pour over the pork.

The best pork to use is 3 lbs of pork shoulder. I had to improvise because the smallest shoulder at the commissary was 9.5 lbs (so huge..) so instead I got 3 lbs of pork loin. It worked fine, but I had to start shredding it a little earlier and it was a lot more tough to shred (normally it starts falling apart by itself) and the meat itself is more dry. Still turned out pretty delicious though!

Serve on a bun with a couple of delicious sides- like home baked beans and sweet potato edamame hash!
















Turkey Picatta:

This one requires a tiny bit more effort but is still very simple and is very low calorie! Only about 200 calories per serving and has 27 g of protein. 

Step 1: Combine 2.5 tbs of flour and a dash of salt and pepper into a bowl (or big ziplock bag) and coat your strips of turkey breast. (Get about 1 lb of turkey breast and slice into pieces)

Step 2: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and add turkey. Cook about 3-5 min until it is browned on all sides.

           

Step 3: Put in crock pot and add 1/2 cup of fat free chicken broth and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. I like to throw a couple slices of lemon in there with it for added flavor. Cook on low for 2 hours and serve over rice! 

(add parsley for garrnishing)

Most Expensive Cup of Coffee Ever.....

There are parts about Hawaii that I absolutely love. The beaches, warm weather, beautiful mountains, etc.

But I absolutely hate the traffic and the people that are in it.
I decided to venture out to a new coffee shop (instead of walking to starbucks that is close by) and I checked traffic on my phone before I made the drive. I was please to find green lines!

Well I suddenly hit a wall of traffic, because of course, there was a lane merge. (there is always construction here. but no construction actually actively occurring.) So I checked my phone again to see how close I was. Looks like the coffee shop is just around the corner! Sweet...Don't have to sit here much longer.

Then I see there are a few cops standing at the lane merge and directing a few people into the gas station. I get directed in and I'm told that they are doing a mobile device screening....Apparently I was caught looking at my phone (checking my gps to see how bad traffic was) and now I'm being given a $300 ticket.

God damn it. When I explained I was checking my gps the officer told me an easier way to get to the coffee shop and that I could have just cut through the parking lot- had I done that earlier I would have avoided my stupid ticket.

UGH. Husband is underway right now so I'm sure he will be so pleased to find out about this when he gets back ;)

Anyway! This was a quick project that I made today. A friend of mine inspired this because she made a calendar just like it and I loved it.

1.Get a picture frame so that you can use the glass as a dry erase surface.
2.Pick up some paint sample cards (this is where you can have fun with colors and designs) Mine were a little too big so I had to cut them down to size.
3.Using a handy glue stick, or another glue like option, glue your squares down onto the back part of the picture frame.
4.I decided to paint the words "month" on there as well as my days. I also found some fun chalkboard stickers to help dress it up. You could get really creative with this in the scrapbooking section of craft stores!

And now you have a fun dry erase calendar that took maybe an hour to put together.

Taste of Home: Light and Tasty Basic Meat Loaf

Let me start with saying that meatloaf is not one of my favorite dishes. It's hardly ever something I'm like "man...I could really go for some meat loaf."

However, husband is this type of person and he was in the mood for it. I looked up the section of my Taste of Home Cookbook that was Light and Tasty and was pleased to find this for only 228 calories per serving. I may have even brought that down a bit by using almond milk and Sara Lee 45 calorie whole wheat bread.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-meat-loaf

The best part is that it is so easy to make- most of it is in the cooking time. Like I said I used almond milk and low calorie wheat bread for this.

I think that the biggest secret to making this low calorie is that you just use the egg whites instead of the yolk. Milk, egg yolk, and shredded pieces of bread and let soak for about 5 min.

Add a bunch of the seasonings as well as the lean ground beef enjoy mixing that all up into a heaping loaf.

Here it is looking loafy in a glass baking dish!
Let it bake for about 60 min.













After it has baked, take out the loaf (and drain) and lather it in ketchup or bbq sauce (bbq sauce is pictured below but I actually prefer ketchup on this)  then put it back in the oven for about ten more minutes.













And voila! A meat loaf. The most surprising part, other than being low calorie, is it is actually really delicious and goes very well with mashed potatoes =)

Taste of Home: Honey Garlic Ribs

These ribs were fantastic!

I'm already a huge fan of ribs (I absolutely love them) but these were a delicious sweet spin. Mashed potatoes, corn, or sweet potato fries make an excellent pairing with these.

They are super easy- put them in the marinade in the morning or night before and toss them in the oven for about an hour. 

Here's the link to the original recipe:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/honey-garlic-pork-ribs

Marinade mixed together in a bowl.....

I drizzled into a foil pan and refrigerated for the day. I had some very large ribs and had to make extra so that I could have any reserve for later. These ribs had a lot of meat on them and were delicious!

One tip that I hadn't considered is to bring the reserve marinade out of the refrigerator a little early....

because the honey gets very gloppy and hard to spread over the ribs! I would suggest taking it out and letting it warm up while the ribs are in the oven for the first hour.

Also.. remember to cover them! (Haha. I struggle with that I guess.) Otherwise they come out a little dry in texture.

Delicious and sweet! 

These are fantastic and easy to make.