Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I actually have made some new, yummy things the last couple months, but with the lack of natural light at dinner time, pictures are just about non-existent right now.

Exhibit A:

But even with no natural light and a crappy photo, this was worth blogging and when spring rolls around I'll update the post with a picture more worthy of this recipe. It's easy. Stupidly easy. It's so tasty. It will easily become a weekly meal for us. Much thanks to Mama G over at Growing Up Geeky for pointing me in the recipe's direction! I took that one and jazzed it up a bit, like the other Buffalo Chicken Wraps I've made in the past. But these ones are a bit healthier as there is no breading and it's not fried.

Ingredietns:
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1/2 c chicken broth
3/4 c buffalo sauce (I use Frank's Buffalo Sauce- you could easily use your favorite Buffalo Wild Wings sauce too!)
3/4 c ranch dressing
4 green onions, diced
1/4c cilantro, chopped finely
2 cups lettuce of your choosing, chopped
Blue Cheese Crumbles

Place chicken in a slow cooker and cover with broth. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Remove the chicken, and shred with a fork. Discard the excess liquid. Put the chicken back in the slow cooker. Combine the buffalo sauce and 1/4c of the ranch dressing, stir into the chicken. Combine the green onions and cilantro in a small bowl.

Lastly , assemble the wraps- chicken, cheese, onion/cilantro mix, lettuce, and top with ranch dressing. You can also fry up the tortillas a bit. Heat a frying pan on med-high, spray with a bit of non-stick cooking spray and fry the tortillas one at a time for approximately 30 seconds a side.

adapted from Betty Crocker

Fall Apart Slow Cooker Cube Steak with Gravy

I have said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I am a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I had bought some cube steak at the market this weekend, and made this recipe. I was pretty disappointed in the outcome to say the least. So when I realized I had about twice the amount I actually needed for that recipe, I knew I would have to try something else this week with the remainder. I decided to go with a classic cube steak recipe, however when I was searching around the Internet, I was consistently missing one key ingredient from each one. So, I decided to make up my own thing.

Ingredients:

1lb or so cube steak cut into individual portions
1/2 packet of onion mushroom mix (or whatever mix you prefer)
1 packet of gravy mix (I used Au Jus)
4 cups water, divided
Flour for dredging
Canola oil

Directions:

Heat 2-3Tbsp oil in a skillet on medium-high. Dredge the steaks in flour and let sit for a few minutes. Brown the steaks for 1-2 minutes per side. Place in a slow cooker on low. Mix 2 cups of water with the onion mushroom mix and pour over the steaks. Cook for approximately 7 hours. Mix the remaining 2 cups of water with the gravy mix and pour into the slow cooker. Allow to cook for another 30 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes.

*I made my mashed potatoes with buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper- ah ma goodness. Highly recommend that!

Creamy Fiesta Salsa Chicken

This was recommended as a delicious slow cooker dinner. I am very skeptical on chicken in the crock. For whatever reason it never turns out good. I'm not sure if it's what happens to the texture of the chicken or what, but they always seem kind of blah to me. Last night's though was a real winner! It doesn't look pretty, but don't let that fool you!


Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 jar salsa
1 can black beans
1 block cream cheese
1 can or bag of corn
Put chicken in with salsa - make sure salsa covers the chicken. Cook all day on low, then, 45 minutes before serving put in the black beans (drained and rinsed), corn and cream cheese.

*my notes: When I got home from work, I just used a wooden spoon to shred the chicken and blend with the salsa. The chicken had been cooking for about 8 hours and fell apart quite nicely. I just made some boxed Spanish Rice with diced tomatoes and served the chicken mix over it. So yummy!

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.

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!

Molly's Chicken

I had some extra tomato sauce from the chicken cacciatore we had last week, so I went to the trusty allrecipes.com and searched for things including chicken and tomato sauce under the healthy tab. What a great resource! Well, when I saw something titled "Molly's Chicken" I knew I couldn't pass it up! This is made in the crock pot and seeing as I swapped in boneless chicken breast for the chicken legs, I should have brought the time down significantly, but I wasn't thinking. I had it on low for 7 hours, and it easily could have been done around 5 hours (I'm estimating). You can see in my photo my sauce was a little dry, as was the chicken- but still not bad. So if you make this with boneless skinless chicken, bring the time down. (I also partially blame my slow cooker...I think it cooks things too fast, even on low, but enough pointing fingers.) Otherwise, the flavor was great and I served it over a bed of veggie fried rice. But how can a meal go wrong with veggie fried rice? I'll answer for you, it can't. It just can't.

INGREDIENTS

* 3 1/2 pounds chicken drumsticks, skin removed (I used 1 lb chicken breast)
* 1/2 cup soy sauce
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce


DIRECTIONS

1. Place drumsticks in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and tomato sauce. Pour sauce over chicken.
2. Cover, and cook on Low heat 8 hours.

Zesty Roasted Chicken

I bought two full chickens at Sam's for less than $8, how can you beat that? I wanted to use my crock pot so it could cook while we were at my nephew's brunch birthday party. I just searched through a few websites and found this one. It didn't require me to go to the store and it had great reviews- woo hoo! It ended up being quite the Sunday dinner, you'll see the rest of the menu above.

The chicken literally fell off the bone as I was trying to get it out of the crock pot. My only issue is I think my crock pot cooks things too fast. It was definitely done after 4 hours, but since I was at the party, I couldn't test it beforehand. It might have been done sooner. It still tasted really good and the juices the chicken made were awesome!

Ingredients

* 4 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons paprika
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* 1 teaspoon thyme
* 1 teaspoon white pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 large roasting chicken (with pop-up timer if possible)
* 1 cup onion, chopped (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the spices.
2.Remove any giblets from chicken and clean chicken.
3.Rub spice mixture onto the chicken.
4.Place in resealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight. (I usually skip this step because I'm always in a hurry).
5.When ready to cook, put chopped onion in bottom of crock pot.
6.Add chicken. No liquid is needed, the chicken will make it's own juices.
7.Cook on low 4-8 hours.