Slow Cooker Oriental Beef & Noodles

Carl needed an early dinner, and I had spotted this recipe on Cooking This and That last week. I knew it was the perfect time to try it since it would be ready right when I got home from work. It smelled divine all day long, and tasted just as good! It was really easy and really flavorful. We'll definitely make this again. Oh and it was especially nice since the temp didn't even reach 60 today. A nice warm you up meal!

Oriental Beef and Noodles
adapted from Cook Once, Eat Twice Slow Cooker Recipes
Makes 4-6 servings

1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir fry vegetables
2 - 2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes
1 (12 ounce) bottle stir-fry sauce, any flavor (I used Kikkoman Stir Fry Sauce)
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodles, broken
1/4 cup green onions, chopped

Coat a 4 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Place frozen vegetables in the bottom and top with stew meat. In a medium bowl, stir together stir-fry sauce, water, and red pepper. Pour over stew meat and vegetables in cooker.

Cover and cook on low for 9-10 hours or on high for 4 1/2-5 hours (I recommend low, it will help to break the meat down more).

At the end of cooking time, discard spice packets from ramen noodles. Stir noodles and green onions into meat mixture. Cover and let stand 10 minutes more. Stir before serving. This can be kept on warm for 1-2 hours.

*After I added the noodles, I added another cup of water to cut down on the sauce. I think it needed it, but it just depends how thick and strong you want it to be.

German Coleslaw

My dear friend Monica invited us to her Oktoberfest party this weekend. We were invited to bring our favorite Oktober Brew and enjoy in a feast, but I didn't want to go empty handed food wise. I asked what I could bring and we came to the conclusion of German Coleslaw. Her spread was amazing, and the party was fabulous!

As for the German Slaw, it was a big hit. It had a perfect combination of flavors, and it was REALLY easy. It was a great break from a typical creamy coleslaw. It will definitely make my list of party sides.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium head cabbage, finely shredded (I used half green and half purple)
  
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 c)
  
• 3/4 cup vinegar (I used 1/2 c)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 c)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, combine cabbage and onions. In a saucepan, mix sugar, vinegar, celery seed and salt; bring to a boil. Add oil; return to boiling and cook until sugar dissolves. Pour over cabbage; toss gently. Chill.

Apple Cherry Crisp

I wanted to make something new for dessert on Sunday, and like I said, Everyday Food had tons of ideas! This is actually an apple cranberry crisp, but apparently you can't get fresh or frozen cranberries right now...anywhere! So, I turned it into apple cherry crisp. I assume it was just as good if not better. I'd highly recommend this!

Ingredients

• 2.5-3 lbs Braeburn or Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced into 1/2 inch dice (I just used my apple, corer, peeler, slicer and then cut the sections into sixths)
  
• 1 pound fresh cranberries, rinsed well (I used frozen cherries)
  
• 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts (I omitted)
  
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Vanilla ice cream as accompaniment

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. But a 9x13 inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine the apples, cranberries, walnuts, sugar, orange juice, orange zest, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and toss well to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, remaining 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. Blend the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour the fruit mixture into the dish. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking until bubbly and the apples are tender, 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream on top.

Baked Chicken with Onions, Garlic & Thyme

This month's Everyday Food is chock full of great recipes! This one seemed perfect for a Sunday dinner. So, we invited the in-laws over, and enjoyed a nice Sunday chicken dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (cut into 8 pieces)- I used 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 pound new white potatoes, cut in quarters
• 1 large red onion, cut into eighths
• 1 head garlic cloves, separated and left unpeeled
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1/4 c evoo
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• coarse salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange chicken, potatoes, onion, garlic, thyme and lemon in a 12x16 inch roasting pan. Whisk together oil and vinegar and drizzle over chicken and vegetables. Toss to combine and season with salt and pepper. Turn chicken skin side up. Roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, about 50 minutes.

*If you are going to use boneless, skinless chicken like me, I'd suggest doubling the vinegar and oil and start checking it at 40 minutes instead of 50.

Raisin Challah French Toast

I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful coworker bring me some raisin challah bread. She is celebrating Rosh Hashanah and brought a few of us our own loaves! She highly recommended making french toast with it, so I didn't delay. We enjoyed it this morning!

Not much of a recipe here, but here's what I did:

1. Cut the challah in 1/2 inch slices- I did 4 slices
2. Mix two eggs, 1/4 c milk and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a shallow bowl
3. Heat a pan on med-high and spray a non-stick spray
4. Dip the bread in the egg mixture, flip and dip again
5. Cook the bread on each side for approximately 4 minutes- be sure to check it though of course!
6. Eat it! Mmmm! We sprinkled with powdered sugar, and of course used real maple syrup.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken

I needed a slow cooker meal that would appeal to the masses, especially our one friend with a delicate palette. I knew chicken would be a good choice, so I went to allrecipes.com and used slow cooker and chicken in my recipe search. This one seemed to be simple enough to appease the picky, but flavorful enough to avoid a boring dish. It did just that! Is this like a flavor explosion in your mouth? No. Was it super easy and a great meal for a group of girls? Yes. I served it with a Betty Salad, yum!

INGREDIENTS

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used 5 large chicken breasts)
  
• 2 (11 ounce) cans condensed cream of Cheddar cheese soup (I also added one can of cream of chicken soup)
  
• 1/2 cup milk (I upped this to 3/4c)
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts inside. In a medium bowl mix together soup and milk, and pour mixture over chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garlic powder.
2. Cook on High for about 6 hours. Note: Do not lift lid while cooking!

Broccoli Slaw

When I host a party, I usually like to make at least one new recipe and one reliable recipe. This way, I at least know that I have one good salad, side, whatever, but then I get to try something new out on a whole bunch of guinea pigs! This past Saturday, we had Carl's cousins over for a cookout, so I decided to try this broccoli slaw from Smitten Kitchen.

And the results? Guinea Pigs say- Success! I'll definitely keep this one in the rotation! I tripled the recipe, and had enough for our party on Saturday and then some to take to my parents' house on Sunday...and we still have a little leftover.



*My go to recipe was Spaghetti Salad. ALWAYS a crowd pleaser!


Here is the recipe copied from SK:
Broccoli Slaw
Adapted a little bit from family, a little bit from Apartment Therapy

Makes about six cups of slaw

2 heads of broccoli
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped

Buttermilk Dressing (Adapted from this salad.)
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise (this is more than is in the original, to thicken the dressing further)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (or, you could just use a little extra red onion to simplify it)

Trim broccoli and cut it into large chunks. From here, you can either feed it through your food processor’s slicing blade, use a mandoline to cut it into thin slices, or simply had chop it into smaller pieces. I used the stem and the flowerets, but if you have a broccoli stem aversion you can just use the tops.

Toss the sliced broccoli with the almonds, cranberries and red onion in a large bowl. Meanwhile, whisk the dressing ingredients in a smaller one, with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the broccoli (if you’ve skipped the stems, you might not want it all; I otherwise found this to be the perfect amount) and toss it well. Season well with salt and pepper to taste.

Lindsay's Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken

Lindsay over at Love Deliciousness did a spin off of the Laughing Cow Chicken- which I happen to love. She used Frank's Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese. Need I say more? No. No, I do not need to say more. That is enough.

BLUE CHEESE STUFFED BUFFALO CHICKEN

Ingredients

* 2 chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally 3/4 of the way through (so you can stuff the inside)
* Appx 1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles
* Seasoning to taste (we used "Extra Spicy" Mrs. Dash seasoning)
* 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
* Frank's Red Hot sauce to marinate

Directions

1. Marinate chicken breasts in hot sauce for at least a couple hours - we did ours for about 4 hours.

2. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Open each chicken breast up and sprinkle blue cheese crumbles and seasoning inside the middle. Fold chicken back over to original shape.
4. Dip chicken in bread crumbs to coat. Place on baking sheet.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, and turning half way through