Sunday, August 18, 2013

Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken

I have been wanting to try cashew chicken in the crockpot for a long time and I finally found this recipe on Pinterest from www.sixsistersstuff.com.  I actually doubled the sauce part of the recipe because we like ours saucy.  Loved this recipe!!!  I forgot to take a picture so I am including the one from the original recipe.


Ingredients:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thigh tenders or chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 T. canola oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
2 T ketchup
1 T brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger (I didn't have this so did 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup cashews

Directions:
Combine flour and pepper in large Ziploc bag.  Add chicken. Shake to coat with flour mixture.  Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat.  Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side.  Place chicken in slow cooker.  Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger and pepper flakes in small bowl; pour over chicken.  Cook on LOW for 3-4 hours.  Add cashews and stir.  Serve over rice.

Makes 4-6 servings

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Zucchini Baked Ziti

 
Holy cow it has been forever since I have posted on here!  Life has certainly gotten away from us and I truly miss enjoying cooking (not just the "throw it together for a cooked if not frozen meal" we have lived off of the last few months).

I don't know if this is your typical baked ziti or not because I put in hamburger but it was Oh, So Good!  I morphed some recipes together and added stuff of my own.  It was fun!  I actually used tomatoes and zucchini straight out of my garden!  Here we go:

Ziti pasta (cooked according to directions on box)
1 lb. hamburger, browned and drained
2 small zucchini sliced and fried in 1 T. Olive oil until brown
Mozzarella cheese, grated

Sauce:
1 cup minced onion
2 T. minced garlic
28 oz crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup water
2 T tomato paste
2 tsp honey
1 T ried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp crushed red peppers
Salt to taste

Cook onion and garlic until onion is translucent.  Add to sauce pan and add all other ingredients.  Cook on low for one hour.

Add all ingredients except cheese to a bowl and toss together.  Put in a casserole dish and top with mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.