Slow-cooked Lime Chicken Tacos

Slow-Cooked Lime Chicken Tacos
Adapted from this blog

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds chicken breasts

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup chunky salsa

12 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed

Sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and shredded lettuce, optional

Directions:

1. Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.
2. Remove chicken; cool slightly. Shred meat with two forks and return to the slow cooker; heat through. Stir in corn and salsa.
3. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve in tortillas with sour cream, cheese and lettuce if desired. Yield: 12 tacos.

Sweet and Spicy Pork Enchiladas

This was said to be as good as Cafe Rio. It's not. But it is the most delicious pork I've had at home. Justin loved it as well. You could serve this pork in more ways than enchilada-style. I'll be having it in a salad tomorrow. Mmmm.

Sweet and Spicy Pork
Adapted from this blog

Ingredients:

• 1 (2.5-3lb) pork loin roast
• 1 can yellow El Pato sauce
• 1 can green El Pato sauce
• 1 can tomato sauce (I use no salt added)
• 3/4c brown sugar 

For Enchiladas:

• Rice (I flavored mine with cilantro, lime juice, ranch dressing mix, and the broth from the pork)
• 1 can black beans
• Green enchilada sauce.
• Cheese
• Tortillas

Directions:
Put roast in a slow cooker with about 2c water. Cook on high 8-10 hours. Remove roast and shred with forks, removing any fat. Drain and quickly rinse crock pot (don’t worry about getting everything out, just a quick rinse to remove any extra fat hanging around). Return shredded pork to slow cooker with remaining ingredients. Stir to combine well and heat through till warm (about 1 hour on high).
To serve:
In a flour tortilla, add a layer of rice, pork, and black beans. Roll up like a burrito, and spoon green enchilada sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheddar (or other) cheese. Broil until cheese is melty.

Notes: I bought a huge can of green enchilada sauce and used a few spoonfuls. I need to just buy a smaller can. 

French Dip Sandwiches

French Dip Sandwiches
Adapted from Our Best Bites

• 1 2.5-3 lb. beef roast
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 1-ounce packages dry onion soup mix
• 2 c. water
• 2 cans beef broth (I used vegetable, it was fine)
• 6-8 large buns (make sure they are thick, I just used thick slices of ciabatta bread.)
• White cheese of preference, I used vegan, Justin used swiss

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and rub roast with salt and pepper.
2. When very hot, carefully place roast in pan and sear on all sides. You’re not cooking the meat, you’re just browning it quickly on all sides to add flavor and seal in the juices.
3. Place in crockpot and sprinkle with onions soup mix. Pour water and beef broth over roast.
4. Cook 8-10 hours on low or cook 4-5 hours on high and another 3-4 hours on low. The longer it cooks, the more tender it will be. 
5. When meat is ready, shred with a fork.
6. Place meat in rolls. Top with cheese and broil open-faced in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes, until bread is golden and cheese is melty.

Ladle juices into small cups for dipping and enjoy!


Notes: The boys loved this! Make sure to stand next to the bread when it's in the broiler, it can burn quick. I almost made that mistake...

Chicken with Whole Cranberries

I've made this a couple times already. Everyone's liked it who's tried it. It's good for a Sunday when you want to throw something together quick in the morning and have it be ready at the end of the day.

Chicken With Cranberries
from southernfood.about.com

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup fresh cranberries (I froze mine. Still great)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar or honey (honey for me)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 tbsp flour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water

Place all ingredients, except flour-water mixture, in a slow-cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, until chicken is tender. Add flour mixture in the last 15-20 minutes and cook until thickened. Taste and adjust servings.
Makes 4

Spicy Spareribs

LOVED THIS ONE!
I learned something new with this one - Spare ribs are pork. Well, that's what I gathered when I saw this sign in the meat section of walmart. This can be cooked as individual ribs for appetizers or in 3-4 rib sections for a meal. We did the meal.


Spicy Spareribs
from the SlowCook Book

• 3 1/2 lbs pork baby back ribs, cut as you want them.
• 2 c. bottled salsa
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1 T quick-cooking tapioca
• 1 t ground ginger

Preheat boiler. Place ribs on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 6 inches from the heat about 10 minutes or until brown, turning once. Transfer ribs to slow cooker.
In a medium bow combine salsa, honey, tapioca, and ginger. Pour sauce over ribs.
Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6-7 hours on on high heat for about 3 hours. Serve sauce with ribs.

Notes: I added way more salsa than 2 c. I just dumped it on till it looked good. I served this with mashed potatoes, because it does have a bit of a kick and the potatoes balanced it well. Justin really really enjoyed this. Especially after our flop the other day.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

So I didn't really like this one. I liked the idea though. I think I wouldn't cook the veggies with the meat and sauce, it made it taste funny. Maybe it was the sauce I picked. I would just cook the veggies at the end of cook time and add it later. We didn't eat the leftovers.

Sweet & Sour Chicken
from the Slow Cook Book

• 1 lb chicken breast
• 2 9-oz jars sweet & sour sauce
• 1 16 oz package of mixed veggies
• 2 1/2 c. cooked rice
• 1/4 c. chopped almonds, toasted

Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Combine chicken, sweet & sour sauce, and frozen veggies in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for about 5 hours or high for about 2 hours. Serve on rice, sprinkle on almonds.

Pork Chops with Orage-Dijon Sauce

Justin really liked this one!

Pork Chops with Orange-Dijon Sauce
From my slow cooker recipe book, page 305

• 6 boneless pork sirloin chops, cut 1 inch thick
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme, crushed
• 1 c. orange marmalade
• 1/3 c. Dijon-style mustard

Sprinkle both sides of chops lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle chops with thyme. Place chops in a 4 quart slow cooker. In a bowl combine orange marmalade and mustard. Remove 2 T. of the mixture; cover and refrigerate. Combine remaining mixture and 1/4 c. water. Pour over chops.
Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 6-7 hours or on the high-heat setting for 3-3 1/2 hours. Transfer chops to a serving platter; discard cooking liquid. Spread reserved marmalade mixture over chops.

Notes: I made lots of extra marmalade-Dijon mix to set aside and pour over the cooked chops. We like sauce. I cooked it for four hours on high. I served this with curry rice. We'll be making this again.

Steak with Mushrooms

I'm a cookin fool! Woohooooo!

Steak with Mushrooms
From Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes
(I love this book! It's Justin's. There will be many more recipes from this book to come! It has a section for meals with five ingredients or less. Yessssss!)

• 1 lb. boneless beef round steak, cut 1 inch thick
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 41/2-ounce jars whole mushrooms, drained
• 1 12-ounce jar beef gravy
• 1/4 c. apple juice

Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into 4 servings-size pieces. In about a 4-quart slow cooker place onion slices. Arrange mushrooms over onions; add beef. Stir together gravy and apple juice. Pour over beef.
Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8-10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4-5 hours.

Notes: I doubled the meat, added more juice, cooked on high for 5 hours, and it was yummy. Good for a go-to-church-and-dinner-is-ready-when-you-get-home meal.

Pulled BBQ Chicken

Pulled BBQ Chicken
From the kitchen of Brooke Hochstein

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 1 Bottle BBQ sauce of choice (I used Tony Roma's Carolina Honeys)
• Hamburger Buns

Simple as can be -- throw the frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and then cover it all over with the BBQ sauce. 4-6 hours later, the chicken falls apart. Slap it on a hamburger bun and you've got your meal. Add more BBQ sauce when the chicken is on the bun, if desired.