Category: FOOD

I am admittedly not a great cook. Am I a bad one? Not necessarily, just someone who doesn’t have the interest or energy to put a lot of time and effort into meals most days.

In the division of labor in our household, my husband cooks most nights but if there’s one day during the work week that I take ownership of making sure something gets on the table, it’s Thursday evenings. To keep it simple the base of this meal is almost shredded chicken. Thursdays are a remote work day for me so I have an alarm on repeat every week at 11am to remind me to put chicken in the crockpot so it’s ready to go when I get off work for the day.

That step is easy! It’s usually about 1.25 pounds of chicken that goes in the crockpot with a little salt, a little pepper, and enough chicken broth to cover it. No sauces or other flavorings since that could change depending on what we decide to make with it that night. Set that crockpot on high and by about 4pm (5 hours later) I have chicken ready to be shredded and flipped to warm.

Here’s some of our go-to ideas then to make with it!

BUFFALO CHICKEN EGG ROLLS

This idea is one of my favorites, although I’ve made it so much my husband is a little tired of it! This recipe from Half Baked Harvest was the one that generated the idea, although lots of days I make it even more simple and just add a dry packet of ranch seasoning, hot sauce, and shredded cheddar to the chicken before wrapping it up in the egg roll wrappers.

FRIED RICE

My husband found this recipe that he uses as a guide for fried rice and we just use chicken instead of shrimp. The key here is to make the rice earlier too so we also put some rice in the rice maker as I get the chicken cooking, then when it’s done we throw it in the fridge until we’re ready to put everything together.

CHICKEN TACOS

I’m talking go the route of buying the Taco Bell seasoning packet and grab some tortillas. Make some white rice to go with it and stir in some lime juice, salt, and chopped cilantro for a Chipotle inspired take. Top the meal off with your favorite chips and salsa and maybe a homemade margarita too?

BBQ CHICKEN

So easy! Add your favorite BBQ sauce to the shredded and drained chicken, grab some Hawaiian roles if you want to turn them into little sliders then add whatever sides you like best. Cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, or corn on the cob are a few of my personal favorites.

SESAME GINGER CHICKEN

You could easily keep any kind of sesame/teriyaki sauce stocked at home to use, but my current favorite is BIBIBOP’s sesame ginger teriyaki sauce. Adding it to the shredded and drained chicken then adding some rice is a great base, then if I’m feeling like trying to copy my favorite order from the restaurant I could add potatoes, bean sprouts, pineapple, and a scrambled egg.

I’ve settled myself right into the two cups of coffee a day camp, with the second cup usually happening early to mid afternoon. My favorite way to enjoy it on the weekends is by adding a little bit of peanut butter whiskey to the routine! Here’s how I do it…

Ingredients:

• 4 oz cold brew coffee
• 1 oz peanut butter whiskey (I’ve used Screwball and Sqrrl)
• 1 oz flavored coffee creamer – I’m sure any flavor will do, but my favorite is Chobani Sizzlin’ Brown Sugar
• 3 oz vanilla oat milk

Fill your glass half full of ice and pour in your cold brew. Pour oat milk, peanut butter whiskey, and creamer in a frother and cold froth. Pour on top, throw in a straw, and enjoy!

The other day I made an appointment and as I was saving the late March date on my calendar I had the realization that oh my gosh, by then it could actually feel like spring! Living in the midwest, late March weather is a wild card and you never truly know what you’re going to get but still, it gave me hope.

And although I’ve hit the stage of looking forward to warmer weather and leaving winter behind, I really enjoy a lot of things about winter. Cozy sweaters, an excuse to hibernate, pretty snow days – and soups! Something I haven’t taken nearly enough advantage of this winter is making some consistent favorites so I think I’ll spend this last bit of February fixing that.

My favorite and by far easiest “recipe” is for chicken tortilla soup. This ranks high on the list because you literally dump the ingredients in a crock pot and turn it on and that’s really hard to screw up. Play around with ratios based on ingredients you like more than others! My preference for not loading up on the black beans and corn actually led to me opting to use a jar of corn and black bean salsa instead of individual cans of beans and corn.

Ingredients:

– One jar of your favorite salsa (I use the 16 oz size of the mild Chi-Chi’s brand)

– One jar of corn and black bean salsa (I use the 13 oz Cowboy Caviar from Trader Joe’s)

– 4 oz can of mild green chiles

– 2 cups chicken broth

– Boneless chicken – anywhere from .75 and 1 pound is what I typically use

– Shredded cheddar cheese

– Southwestern tortilla strips

Now this is the part I really love – pile everything but the cheese and tortilla strips into the crock pot and set on high for about 4 hours or until the chicken is easy to shred. That’s it. Shred the chicken, dish it out and top with shredded cheddar cheese and some tortilla strips if you want a little crunch!

Banana bread muffins are my favorite baked good that’s easy enough to make at home. I’ll always just conveniently happen to buy a few more bananas than I know we’ll eat just to have the perfect excuse to make muffins. This recipe from The Busy Baker is the one I make each time, so much that I have it almost committed to memory!

After buying 10 pounds of tart cherries from our local orchard this summer and trying to come up with some good ways to start using them, I threw some in my next batch of banana bread muffins and that my friends, was an excellent decision.

We live close enough to where most tart cherries are grown (Michigan I learned) that we seem to be able to usually get them fresh and then we freeze them for year round use. But you can find them frozen or canned at the grocery store.

So here’s what you do. Follow that recipe all the way up to the point where you mix the wet and dry ingredients. After you do that step, do this to add the cherries:

– take about 1 1/2 cups of cherries, this ended up being about 12 oz

– drain them and save the juice – it’s good to save and drink later!

– add the cherries and stir them in really well

– pour evenly into the muffin cups

– sprinkle some raw sugar on top of each muffin

– bake for the same amount time the original recipe calls for, 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes!

Peaches! Quite possibly my favorite thing about summertime. Every year we get a 25 pound box from The Peach Truck and that’s my fix for the year. The best way to eat them is to just slice one right up and eat it fresh. This peach mango salsa recipe is one I go back to year after year, nothing beats a peach crisp, or a galette – like a pie, but easier!

But my favorite way to put them to use them is to drink them, in the form of a peach margarita. I’m loose with how I make my drinks with a little of pour in a little of this, dump in a lot of that kind of approach. If you prefer something a little more direct, this recipe looks pretty delicious! If you like to wing it like me though, then here’s what you do:

– peel and slice a peach and put it in a blender with tequila and a little bit of limeade, blend until it’s nice and smooth looking

– pour it in a glass until the glass is about a third full and throw in a little bit of simple syrup

– fill the rest of the class with more limeade – jalapeño limeade if you like a little spice to your drink and live near a Trader Joe’s.

Then grab your sunglasses and head outside to enjoy it in the sunshine! Cheers!

Then if you’re ready to head back inside into the kitchen, here’s some other peach recipes I have my eye on but have yet to try:

peach poundcake 

peach BBQ sauce (I’m thinking to add to some pulled chicken made in the crockpot?)

cinnamon baked peaches

My favorite recipes are the ones that are so easy to tweek along the way that you can barely call it a recipe. Guidelines, more like. This quinoa and brown rice salad one is exactly that. I’ve put it together several times, often with leftover rice and quinoa mixed with a few staple ingredients in our kitchen before being finished off with whatever is currently in our pantry. That last part seems especially helpful during a time where a quick grocery store run for just that one more ingredient you want feels irresponsible. Cooking in the time of corona I guess. 

First part, the foundation if you will:

¼ cup quinoa

¼ cup brown rice

2 tbsp lemon olive oil

2 tbsp honey

Cook the quinoa and brown rice together, using whatever method you feel most comfortable with. Stovetop, instant pot, go wild. Our favorite way is with our Zojirushi rice cooker, one of those great never knew we needed it and now we don’t want to live without it type gifts from my dad. 

I can’t find the exact model we have, but this one looks close at a price point that doesn’t make me cringe. In case you need some convincing, here’s Bon Appétit making the argument for you along with some good information on which settings to use for cooking mixed grains. Quinoa and brown rice? Cook on the white rice setting!

Throw the rice in a bowl with the lemon olive oil and honey and mix. 

The fun stuff:

½ cup dried fruit – blueberries and cranberries are my favorite

¼ cup seeds & nuts – sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, pecans, pine nuts to name a few ideas

½ cup diced cucumber

2 tbsp feta or goat cheese 

your favorite seasoning

parsley (if you have it, no big deal if you don’t)

a pinch or two of sea salt, preferably the big flaky kind (Maldon is always stocked at our house)

This is the part where you get to just throw in whatever you happen to have or get creative! Blueberries and cranberries are my go to favorites for the dried fruit. I’ve used sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, pecans, and pine nuts for the seeds and nuts, just to name a few options. Don’t have a cucumber in the fridge? Leave it out this time! The seasoning is important, but exactly what it is might not matter much. Most recently I just grabbed our Grillmates sweet & smoky rub out of the spice cabinet and threw in a few shakes of it. 

And that’s it! Mix it up, serve it, throw any leftovers there may be in the fridge. 

*Side note: I’m the only one in my house who eats this and this works as a side dish for me for about 3 or 4 meals. Double it up if you’re feeding a group!