Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

YUM!

In crock pot or ziplock:
- 3lbs boneless skinless chicken
- 1 tablespoon paprika (I just sprinkled in a bit)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder (I just sprinkled in a bit.  Could use minced cloves)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 bottle favorite BBQ sauce

Day of cooking:
- add 1 cup of beer

Cook time: 6 to 8 hours LOW

Serving suggestion: Shred chicken and serve on kaiser rolls.  Great topped with cole slaw

Optional: If sauce too soupy (mine was), strain sauce into a small pan, add thickener (such as corn starch) and boil till the sauce reaches desired consistency.

Baby approved!

Crock Pot Sloppy Joes

Leftover buns plus a busy Monday scheduled had me looking for something quick to stick in the crock pot.  I found this recipe here and thought I'd give it a go.  I'm not always a fan of sloppy joes, but not only did the boys LOVE this, I actually liked it!!  SCORE!  Not a drop left, and I made more than just 1 recipe. 

2lbs ground beef (I did about 3lbs and should have done more!)
1/2 cup ketchup (I did 3/4 cup since I'd increased the meat)
1/2 cup prepared yellow mustard (I did 1/3 cup since I'd increased the meat)
1 can pork and beans (I did 2 cans and really liked the fact that it was heavy on the beans)
Hamburger buns or hard rolls of some kind

Brown beef and drain.  I did this the night before when browning meat for redneck nachos and just refrigerated it overnight.  Made prep super quick the next day.

Mix browned beef, ketchup, mustard, and pork and beans well in the crock pot.  Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. 

Serve!

The original recipe says it makes 6 servings, but I barely fed the 6 of us with the increased amount.  Granted, I was feeding a lot of hungry boys, but still I think I'd at least double it next time. 

Egg Salad Sandwich

So simple.

Hard Boil some eggs.
Chop em up.
Add some mayo.
A couple of
blubs.
Add a large-ish squirt
of American
mustard.
Stir.
Put on your fave
fresh bread.
In my
case
the bread
will be Helga's
and it will
have
lots of seeds.

Eat.

Reuben - with Crock Pot Ham

So, I made this ham in the crock pot the other day.
It made A LOT! 
I didn't really like the ham ... but there's no way I was throwing it out.
I put it in the freezer and have been thinking of creative ways to use it.  I didn't like it
because it tasted more like corned beef than ham.  I don't care for
corned beef.  But, I thought since that's what it tasted like,
maybe we could use the ham in a Reuben sandwich.
I did.  And it worked.  But not the
first time.




The first time, I did it like a regular sandwich.  You know, between two pieces of bread.  And toasted.
It didn't have much flavor.

The second time I did it as an open melt and drizzled the dressing on the top.
It was MUCH BETTER ... quick tasty ... that way!

Here's how I made it ..

Leftover crock pot ham that tastes like corned beef ... or you could use actual corned beef.
Saurkraut, out of a can
Jarlsburg cheese
Homemade Russian Dressing (recipe to follow)

Pile the first three ingredients onto the bread (I used a light Rye) and toast in the sandwich press, or under the griller (broiler).

Once cheese is melted, drizzle with dressing ...

Russian Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon (or a little more, I didn't measure) diced onion
salt and pepper to taste
Mix ingredients together.

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese

 

I had a bit of leftover chicken the other day. 
I mixed it with a bit of butter and franks hot sauce, threw in a few diced onions, added a bit of mozarella cheese between two pieces of bread ... into the sandwich press and 

voila ... buffalo chicken grilled cheese.

yum. yum. yum.

Cheats Philly Cheesesteak Grilled Cheese

These were simple and delicious and the whole family liked them.

 I found this recipe through pinterest.  I mostly followed the recipe ...

I doubled their recipe to make 4 sandwiches but we ended up being able to make more than that.

Olive oil

1 green bell pepper (capsicum)

1 small onion

Bread, 8 slices

Roast Beef from the deli, 450g

Cheese, I used tasty (white cheddar) and mozzarella

Thinly slice pepper and onion.  Sautee in a bit of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Remove from heat. 

Pre-heat sandwich press (or frying pan if doing the old fashioned way!) 

They buttered the bread, I never do when making sandwiches in the the sandwich press.  You can do what you like. 

Chop up the roast beef into long thin strips. 

Layer sandwich like this ... bread, cheese, pepper/onions/ roast beef, cheese, bread. 

Toast until cheese is melted.

fancy egg sandwiches

 

my word, these are good! 

we had them for dinner, not breakfast.  i love breakfast for dinner!

i saw the recipe on pinterest and there was no question in my mind that they would be good.

i took a few short cuts and didn't really use the same measurements.

oh and the grocery store substituted bake at home rolls for the 

ciabatta i ordered but they were delicious! and i used

a different cheese.  two cheeses actually.

i used more garlic.  i forgot

the parsley.

 

bag of baby spinach, 160g

mozarella and gruyere cheese, 200g total

8 eggs

2 tablespoons thickened cream

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

8 bread rolls, i used bake at home ones

preheat oven to 400F/200C.

ppray a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  

cover the bottom of the baking dish with the spinach.  grate both cheeses over the spinach (only about 1/2 the cheese at this point).  crack the eggs over the top of the cheese, spacing them out evenly.  salt and pepper next.  then drizzle the cream.  grate the rest of the cheese.  bake 15-25 minutes til yokes are as runny or not runny as you like them. 

while the eggs are in the oven, melt the butter in a small sauce pan over a medium heat.  whisk constantly.  the butter will start to brown.  don't let it go too brown, or black ... that is burned.  (ask me how i know) the good news is that if you burn it, you have time to start over.  (again, ask me how i know!) the butter will be pretty hot at this point, turn off the heat and throw in the minced garlic.  keep stirring!  let the garlic brown a little bit and then stir in the panko into this garlicy buttery deliciousness.  

if you are using bake at home bread rolls, throw them in the oven according to the instructions on the pack.  mine took like 6 minutes.  

once the eggs are just about done, spoon the breadcrumb mixture over the top and pop back in the oven for a couple minutes.  they will crisp up a little bit.

cut the finished product into eight 'rectangles' and scoop one onto each bun.  

delicious!

French Dip Sandwiches

I found this recipe on Pinterest. 
I love French Dip sandwiches and I love crock pot recipes so this seemed like a win win. 
I will make a few modifications next time I make it. (as shown below)
I don't know why but my meat was a little dry and there wasn't a whole lot of juice
and the juice, while flavorful and delicious was a bit strong.
So, I will add water next time and see
if that helps that ...

2kg beef roast, boneless
1 cup beef stock
1 cup water
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, minced

So, basically, you just pull the fat off of the meat.  Discard the fat and put the meat in the crock pot.  Stir together remaining ingredients and add to crock pot.  Cook on high 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

When it's finished cooking, put the roast into a big bowl and shred it with two forks.  Reserve the liquid that you are using for the 'french dip' part of the meal and then put meat back into the crock pot to soak up the remaining juice.

To make the sandwiches, scoop shredded meat into hot dog buns, top with shredded tasty (white cheddar) cheese and toast under the griller (broiler) til cheese is melted.

I served these delicious sandwiches with the dipping sauce, raw carrots with ranch, and steamed broccoli.  A yummy and easy dinner. 

We had them for lunch the next day as well and my 11 year old took it to school - toasted and with ketchup since we had used all the 'french dip' the night before ... He said that way was delicious as well.

Add Some Proscuitto to That !

Remember the Silverbeet, Pink Lady and Gruyere Toasted Sandwich recipe I posted a a couple of months ago ?  Have you tried it yet ?  Well, if not ... you should try this one instead !! 

It's basically the same as the other one with some additions ... (prosciutto, shredded carrot, mushrooms and provolone cheese)

Here's what I did ...

Silverbeet, a whole big bunch (any green would be suitable!)
Shallots, finely diced
Shredded Carrot (I probably won't do this again, but it needed to be used up so I threw it in)
Mushrooms, sliced
3 or 4 slices of Prosciutto, chopped
Fuji apple, thinly sliced
Wholegrain mustard
Gruyere cheese, grated
Provolone cheese, grated
Wholewheat, grain bread

I used a whole big bunch of silverbeet.  This will seem like heaps !  It's ok.  It wilts so much !

Heat up your sandwich press.

Cut out the stems of the silverbeet and chop it up.  Sautee shallots and silverbeet (and carrots if using) in a bit of olive oil. Add prosciutto, cook to your desired crispness. 

To assemble the sandwich ... Bread, mustard, cheese, apple, mushrooms silverbeet, cheese, mustard and bread.  (The last recipe had a drizzle of olive oil and salt on the outside of the bread. I didn't bother with that last time and there was no difference in taste !)

Put in sandwich press and cook until desired toasty-ness of bread and melty-ness of cheese has been achieved.

Silverbeet, Pink Lady & Gruyere Toasted Sandwich

 

I'm always looking for new sandwich ideas.  Especially toasted ones !

I pinned this recipe a while back and just finally got around to trying it.
I'm glad I did.  Rory is too.  The kids ate it but they weren't excited about it.

You can find the original recipe here ... I made a few subtle changes.

Silverbeet, a whole big bunch
Shallots, finely diced
Pink Lady apple, thinly sliced
Wholegrain mustard
Gruyere cheese, grated
Wholewheat, grain bread

I used a whole big bunch of silverbeet.  This will seem like heaps !  It's ok.  It wilts so much !

Heat up your sandwich press.

Cut out the stems of the silverbeet and chop it up.  Sautee shallots and silverbeet in a bit of olive oil.

To assemble the sandwich ... Bread, mustard, cheese, apple,  silverbeet, cheese, mustard and bread.  Drizzle one side of bread with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt.  Put that side down in the sandwich press.  Drizzle the top piece of bread with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and then close the sandwich press. 

Cook until desired toasty-ness of bread and melty-ness of cheese has been achieved.

Rory and I thought this would be even better with big sliced of mushroom on it !  Will try that next time.

Meatball Subs

i have so many fun recipes to share with you !

let's start with this one ....



i tried my sister ellie's families favorite meatball recipe last week and boy was it good !

i am so excited that there is still half a recipe in our freezer waiting

for us to eat them very soon !!

i had to adapt it a little bit because i ran out of ketchup ... i used one cup ketchup

and then one tin of diced tomatoes. i think i'll do it that way again.

a tin of tomatoes is a heck of a lot cheaper than ketchup here !

ANYWAY ....

we made our meatballs into meatball subs !

and they were amazingly delicious !

we used ...

white hot dog buns
2 or 3 meatballs, depending on person eating
provolone, jarlsburg (swiss) or tasty (cheddar) cheese ... again, depending on person eating !
and jono (our 9 year old) added paul newmans south west dressing to his

easy peasy !
perfect for dinner and then lunch the next day !

you should try it.

ps ... we had cooked the meatballs the night before and then just heated the up for the subs ! even easier !!

Fancy Toasted Sanga

So ... some nights, due to our crazy schedules, we need to all eat at different times. I hate cooking twice, and I hate serving Rory (who is usually eating last) something cold or re-heated. I mean, that's ok for leftovers but I have this thing about the first serve of something being totally amazing but that's just another of my oddities ... let's move on.

I have been trying to plan not only meals but specifically for our crazy schedule. So ... on this particular night, we did toasted sandwiches ... aka, grilled cheese. The kids had grilled ham and cheese and then later, much later !, Rory and I had these ...

I liked them, although the basil I chose was a bit strong. Next time I'm going to try the Opal Basil. We have about 4 varieties of basil growing in our garden so I'll give them all a go maybe and see which one I like best for this ...

Super simple. Heat up your sandwich press.

Between two pieces of bread ... Sliced Tomato. Basil Leaves. Thinly Sliced Red Onion. Salt and Pepper. Provolone Cheese.

Toast til it's Toasted.

And I served it with a handful of plain Kettle Chips. My favorite.

Apple Sanga

A few weeks ago we tried this Maple Apple Cheddar Melt but I feel that's too hard to remember and since I live in the land of abbreviations, I decided to call ours Apple Sangas. Don't try to figure it out. I don't know why but Sanga is short for Sandwich is this land down under.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this recipe came from Closet Cooking ... possibly my favorite cooking blog of all time. I want to eat everything he posts !! EVERYTHING !!

Apple Sanga ~ adapted from Healthy Food For Living who adapted it from Closet Cooking !!

Ingredients:

1 medium apple, peeled, cored, & sliced thin ~ I used Granny Smith, I think.
Olive Oil
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
ground cinnamon
2 slices whole wheat sandwich bread
sliced tasty cheese (cheddar)

Directions:

Heat oil in nonstick pan over medium heat. Add apple slices and maple syrup. Cookuntil the apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Make sure you keep stirring, you don't want the apples to burn. Stir in the ground cinnamon. Lay cheese slices on one piece of bread. Spoon apples over cheese and top with remaining piece of bread. Put in sandwich press. Press til bread is browned and cheese is melted.

Delicious ! We all liked these !!

I served them with Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli ...

Salad Sandwiches

A great Aussie sandwich ... not something I'd eaten many of before moving here.
(a sandwich with only salad fixins ... I've had plenty of other sorts of sandwiches!)

This one had leftover Artichoke and Cumin Dip, Tomato,
Cucumber, Sliced Beets, Sliced Mushrooms, Pine Nuts and Fresh Spinach !

It was delish !

And here's Alia whipping up her Salad Sandwich ...
she and Jono both opted out of mushrooms, and beets !
But they both had pine nuts which was a pleasant surprise !!

Jono's Egg Curry Sandwich

I love our adventurous and creative almost 8 year old boy.
Look at this sandwich he invented.

His Recipe:
Put egg curry leftovers between two pieces of bread.
Toast in the sandwich press.

Bonnie Bread

I've had this photo sitting in the drafts for ages ...

I made this up years ago.

I use bake at home bread rolls that I sometimes have in the freezer.

You can put anything on top.

My favorite things include but are not limited to :

olives ... any and all kinds
sundried tomatoes
artichoke hearts
pine nuts
feta cheese
asparagus
salami
mushrooms
top with a bit of mozzarella cheese

Cut open the bread rolls, top with your choice of toppings, bake in oven til cheese is melted ...

A new series ...

Does anyone else get tired of putting the same old things in their kid's lunch boxes ?? I'm so on the lookout for new things to give the kids ... homemade things that travel/keep well !!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to post a series of lunch box ideas ... would you like to join me ?? Go ahead, grab the "what's for lunch...?" above, post to your blog and then link back here, or post right here if you are an author ! I'd love to see what you put in your kid's lunch boxes ! Or your husband's lunch box .... or your own lunch box ... or your neighbor's lunch box ... I'm not really picky about who the lunch box is for ... I just want to see what is in it !!

Here's a different sandwich idea that my kids love. I don't often keep cream cheese in the house, but when I do have it, they love this simple, refreshing sandwich. Cream cheese and sliced cucumber. Try it, you'll like it !!

Ps ... how do you like the lunch box drawing ?? Yep ... it was me ! Hidden talents, I tell ya !!