Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken

Delicious and easy!

My crockpot broke, so I didn't make this in a slow cooker. I just cooked up the chicken first then added everything else and let it simmer for an hour or so.  Don't be in too much of a hurry. Let it simmer. I tasted it as it was getting warm and thought it was going to be terrible, too sweet!  After it simmered, it really did taste so much better.

I highly suggest adding red onion (I love red onions) and the extra pineapple slice when you are serving.  I don't like cilantro so I didn't buy any, but Kenny said he would have liked that as well.

My family ate it on buns last night. I just made it into a salad for lunch today and it was delicious.

The original post is here.

• 1 pound boneless chicken breasts
• 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice
• juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (adjust to your heat preference)
• 8 whole wheat buns
• for serving, optional: pineapple rings, diced red onion, chopped cilantro

Place chicken into crock pot. Cover chicken with remaining ingredients, through the red pepper. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. Shred chicken and serve on buns; top with additional pineapple, red onion and/or cilantro.

Cafe' Rio's Sweet Pork Burrito

These are a bit time consuming to prepare, but totally worth it. So if you have time to plan ahead, try these! They are super good!!

(I didn't make the ranch dressing, but I did make the pork, rice and beans)

Sweet Pork
Ingredients:
2 pounds pork roast (boneless ribs can be used as well)
3 cans Coke (NOT diet), buying the 2 ltr. is cheaper
1/4 cup brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 cup water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can enchilada sauce (I use Old El Paso brand, mild spiciness but any will work)
1+ cup brown sugar

Directions:
1. Put the pork in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinate overnight.
2. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on low for 6- 8 hours.
3. Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork. (for those of you who have a Bosch mixer, place meat in mixer with wire whisks and mix on speed 1 for 15-20 seconds, it will be perfectly shredded!)
4. In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.
5. Put shredded pork and sauce in crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours.

Cilantro-Lime Rice
Ingredients:
1 c. uncooked white rice
1 tsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro


Directions:
In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice

Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Ingredients:
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno

Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!

Black Beans
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 c. tomato juice
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

Directions:
In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ (Or Pork)

This is my modified version of a recipe from Maceys. My modifications are in blue.
3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts I used country style pork ribs. I think a beef or pork roast would work too. Why not?
1 18 oz bottle BBQ sauce
1/2 cup Italian dressing or 1/2 packet Italian seasoning mix plus 1/8 c. vinegar. (Dry seasoning is like 20 cents and makes 1 cup of dressing.  There's plenty of fat in the meat so I omitted the oil from the packet directions and used half the vinegar required).
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs Worchestershire sauce

Place meat in crockpot.  In a bowl, mix BBQ sauce, Italian seasoning and vinegar or 1/2 cup Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worchestershire sauce.  Pour over chicken.
Cover and  cook 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. (I cooked my ribs on high for 6 hours)
Shred meat with 2 forks.  While you're shredding the meat, pour the liquid from the crockpot to a saucepan and bring to a boil to reduce. This will make a nice, thicker sauce. Return meat and sauce to crockpot.

Serve on toasted buns.

Autumn Harvest Pork Loin

This was today's dinner...and boy was it yummy!! I was surprised at how good it turned out. And it was relatively easy. Success Rate: Kenny and Rachel LOVED it. Zachary thought the meat was super good, and he even poured on some honey. Tyler didn't care for it much, he picked at it a little, but that was about it. The flavor is sweet, so we had a hard time knowing what to serve with it, so we ended up making some corn bread and that seemed to be a perfect combination. We will for sure be making this again.

1 cup cider or apple juice
1 1/2 - 2 lb. pork loin
salt
pepper
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 whole butternut squashes, peeled and cubed *
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. dried sage

1. Heat cider in hot skillet. Sear pork loin on all sides in cider.
2. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper on all sides. Place in slow cooker, along with juices.
3. Combine apples and squash. Sprinkle with sugar and herbs. Stir. Place around pork loin.
4. Cover. Cook on Low 5-6 hours.
5. Remove pork from cooker. Let stand 10-15 minutes. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices.
6. Serve topped with apples and squash.


*I don't know what butternut squash is, so just bought regular yellow squash, you know the kind that looks like cucumbers only bright yellow. It worked out great and yummy.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

We made this conference weekend for Sunday dinner. Mom and I each made a crockpot full. They were basically the same in each crockpot, but the brand of enchilada sauce was different and I had an extra dose of green chilies in mine, so it made it a little spicer. I think that we can all agree that it was tasty. You can't go wrong with this ingredient combination. Success Rate: Mom, Dad, Diana, Justin, Rachel and Kenny all liked it. Leftovers were great. Tyler picked at it and only at the chicken and tortilla, and Zachary wouldn't try it.

(The original recipe called for red enchilada sauce, but I prefer green with chicken, so this is my version of the recipe.)

1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp oil
BIG can of green enchilada sauce (can't remember the oz's)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
8 flour tortillas
3 boneless chicken breast halves,
15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
11-oz can Mexicorn, drained
3/4-lb shredded cheese
2 1/4-oz can sliced black olives, drained

1. Saute onion and garlin in oil in saucepan. Add chicken and cook until chicken is cooked thoroughly. (I added a can of diced green chilies during this step for fun)
2. Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Place 2 tortillas in bottom of slow cooker. ( you may need to trim to fit) Layer one-third chicken on top. Top with one-third enchilada sauce, one-third beans, one-third corn, one-third cheese, and one-third black olives. Repeat layers 2 more times. Top with 2 tortillas, coat with sauce and cheese.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 6-8 hours.

Sweet and Sour Ribs

So I got me a new cookbook. It has 1400 slow cooker recipes. Kenny and I decided that we will have "Crock-pot Sundays" for the next several cold months, and today was the first dinner I made from this cook book. As a courtesy to ya'll, I will only post the ones that actually turned out yummy. I was successful on my first recipe attempt...(I am basing my success on that fact that I like it, Kenny likes, Tyler likes, and Zachary tried it)...here goes:

3-4 lbs. boneless country-style pork ribs
20-oz. can pineapple tidbits
15-oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
1/2 cup thinly sliced green bell pepper
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

1. Place ribs in slow cooker
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over ribs.
3. Cook on Low 8-10 hours.
4. Serve over rice.