Italian Chicken

When I went to the grocery the other day I hit the jackpot.  Y'all know how much I love my crockpot.  Well, Taste of Home has a wonderful magazine out with tons of slow cooker meals.  Now I have a question....

Do you say crockpot or slow cooker???

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can Italian stewed tomatoes (I bought the "no salt added" but think I'll buy regular next time or just add extra salt to the meal.)
3/4 cup plus 3 TBSP water, divided (I used chicken broth.  I always replace chicken or beef broth when a recipe calls for water.)
2 TBSP dried minced onion
2 tsps chicken bouillon granules
2 tsps chili powder
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 TBSPS cornstarch
Hot cooked rice

1. Place chicken in your crockpot.  Combine the tomatoes, 3/4 cup water, onion, bouillon and seasonings; pour over chicken.
2. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.
3. Transfer chicken to a serving platter; keep warm.  Pour cooking juices into a small saucepan.  Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; stir into cooking juices.  Bring to a boil.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Serve with chicken and rice.

Servings: 6

Lemon Chicken Marinade

Jon and I have been grilling a lot lately on the weekends.  When we lived in GA and TX that's all we ate year round.  We love the grill!  Needless to say, since it has been gorgeous here now we are using the pit a ton!

1  tsp lemon zest
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Chicken breasts

Put chicken and ingredients in a zip-lock bag and refrigerate 2-8 hours.  I turn mine over at least once while marinading.  Discard marinade and grill.  Don't even ask me how long to grill for.....that's my hubby's job! :-)

Brown Sugar & Oats Muffins

Here's another fabulous recipe that I got from From My Kitchen to Yours!.  I made these for breakfast this morning and Jon and I just can't stay out of them.  Next time I think I'm going to add cut up apples and nuts in them.  So yummy!

(Just ignore the only purple muffin cup.  It was the last colored one left and I don't like to waste. :-))

1 cup oatmeal

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Line a dozen muffin tin with paper liners.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the first six ingredients.  In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla together.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until moistened. (Don't over mix your mixture .  It'll make it more dense if you do and you won't get the nice air pockets muffins have.)
4. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full and bake for 15-17 minutes.

Jambalaya pic

Doesn't that look so yummy?!?!?  I made jambalaya for a pot luck I went to last night and it was gobbled up really fast! 

Click HERE for the recipe.

Cheese Muffins

Mandi found this cheese muffin recipe on The Pioneer Woman website.  If you've never gone to her website before you need to go.  Such wonderful recipes!!!  Anyway, Jon went volunteer in Taylor's class yesterday so I decided to make them a little treat.  She's been telling me about these muffins and about how good they are so I decided to make them.  Wow....they are so good and so cheesy!!!!  I'm just glad I had to send them to school because I could have gobbled these up easily!!!

I should have taken a better picture than this but I was in such a rush that this is what you get. :-)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 TBSPS sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups shredded colby-jack cheese

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 stick)

1. Wisk together dry ingredients then stir in cheese.
2. In a seperate bowl, wisk egg, milk, and butter together.  Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and stir with a spoon to combine.
3. Bake in greased muffin tin at 375 for 20-25 minutes. (it took mine 25 minutes.)
4. Serve warm.  Makes 12 muffins.

Pizza on the Grill

Last night we tried something we never did before....pizzas on the grill.  It was so much fun.  Jon, Taylor, and I each had our own to create.  What a fun way to end a weekend!

Jon's pizza is on the far left.  It consisted of bacon, meatballs, pepperoni, mushrooms, ricotta cheese, mozzerella cheese, regular shredded cheese, and pizza sauce.  I'm sure I'm missing something b/c it was huge!!!

Mine is on the right.  It had pizza sauce, mozzerella, and tomatoes.  When we pulled it off the grill I drizzeled it with olive oil and sprinkled fresh basil on top.

The little one on the front was Miss Taylor's pepperoni pizza that she made all by herself.

Dump Cake

Dump Cake.....doesn't that name sound so appetizing?!?!?  Well, don't let it fool you.  It is so good and so very easy!!!!  This was a staple at our Supper Club, thanks to Monica, when we lived in Texas.  I made this along with the Cookies-N-Cream chess bars for Teacher Appreciation Day on Thursday and it took everything out of me not to take a bite!!!  Now listen to how easy this is.....

Take a large can of crushed pineapple and dump it, liquid included, into a 9x13 pan.  Don't forget to spray with Pam!

Next, dump pie filling on top of the pineapple.  You can use any type of pie filling.  Here I used cherry because that's my favorite and find it's the best.

Now put a box of vanilla cake mix on top of the pie filling. The next step Paula Deen would love.  Take 2...yes, 2 sticks of melted butter and pour on top of the cake mix.

Now stick it in a preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour and Enjoy!!!!