French Dip Sandwiches with Au Jus

1. This was very cost effective
2. This was extremely easy
3. Every single person in my family ate and loved all of this

There really isn't much "gourmet" about this. It's kind of a dump recipe. Somehow it made incredible results with amazing flavor. With how easy and cheap it was (aside from the meat..heh heh..) and the fact that no one could stop eating it, it's going back on the menu often.

Definitely fill your sandwiches more than I filled this one :). 4 kids and 4 dogs running around ya know, I was not being incredibly attentive here haha!

What you will need:

• 2 cans french onion soup
• 1 can beef consmme (you can just use beef broth like me)
• 2-2 1/2 lbs. chuck roast
• Provolone cheese slices
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Sear the outsides of your meat (you can cut it into chunks to sear and cook it)
• Pour cans of soup and consomme (or broth) into crock pot.
• Add the meat into the crock pot
• Cook on high for 6 hours
• Shred the meat and set aside
• Slice your preferred sandwich bread in half and place on a cookie sheet.
• Spread softened butter on each of the slice
• Pre-toast the bread at 400* for about 4 minutes. You don't need it darkened, but when you touch it, it's rough and a bit crispy
• While your bread is pre-toasting, place a strainer over a bowl and pour the broth into the strainer. It will catch all the extras, allowing just the jus to pass through into the bowl

• Pull out your pre-toasted bread and add the shredded meat and provolone cheese to the bottom slices
• Put them back into the oven until the cheese is nice and melted
• Serve with the au jus !

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Our family was so lucky to get to spend the holidays with all my family this year! It's pretty rare these days so I'm glad we got to make a lot of memories!

One of the things we did was doing a Chinese food potluck for New Years Eve. Best. Idea. EVER! I feel like it might have to be tradition now no matter who is around! Everyone made such delicious food, and lucky me I was able to find a crockpot teriyaki chicken recipe from the Flavorite. It made things so easy with how crazy my New Years Eve day was. I knew I wouldn't have the time to cook something later in the day or spend much time on it.

This was perfect, although my chicken got really tender and it kind of turned into shredded teriyaki chicken. Woops! This picture was taken a couple days later with leftovers so it's not as juicy looking. But you get the idea! I actually doubled the sauce recipe and I think it turned out great that way!


What you will need:

• 2 lbs. boneless chicken
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C soy sauce
• 2 T cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tsp water
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• Sesame seeds

Directions:

• Mix the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a bowl
• Pour the sauce over the chicken in a slow cooker
• Cook on low for 4-6 hours
• Remove chicken from slow cooker
• Pour sauce into a pan and bring to a boil
• Mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl
• Slowly pour cornstarch mix into the sauce and mix together
• Turn heat to medium and stir until sauce thickens (about 2-3 minutes)
• Add sesame seeds if desired
• Cut up chicken and place back into slow cooker with sauce until ready to serve

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes

Comfort food at its finest! Smooth and pillowy mashed potatoes, creamy, flavorful gravy and a deliciously tender pork chop all in one bite. The best part is you really only need 4 ingredients for the pork chops!

I'm a little crazy. I had scrolled past a picture of something like this on pinterest. It had a picture of the pork over the potatoes and a picture of a ranch packet. So I assumed I knew what I was doing without actually opening the link. I went shopping and grabbed the things I figured it asked for, went home and pulled up the link just to make sure and I was a little off! The recipe was way more complex than I'd thought and I just had a few basic things to use.

So I used them anyway. And you know what? It's fanFREAKINtastic! Holy crap. My daughter who hates potatoes (she's learning...) still gobbled this up and kept telling me how yummy and flavorful it was. So I'm kinda like hm, I don't know that I want to try the more complex recipe when I can just make this and have my kids eat it all with fewer ingredients/time put into it.

What you will need:

• Pork chops (as many as you'd like. I think I used 8 and there was plenty of gravy for them all)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 3 T ranch mix
• 1-2 T kosher salt (I tasted the gravy before serving and added more salt in and pinch more of the ranch mix but you decide!)

Directions:

• Mix together the soups, ranch mix and salt
• Place pork chops inside a crock pot
• Pour the gravy mix on top of the pork chops
• Cook on low for about 5 hours

Crock Pot Taco Soup

My kids and I made a tradition last year that on the first snow fall of the season we make sugar cookies and have hot chocolate. It's flurried here and there but nothing I would call "the first snow."

Today has been kind of a nail biter! Is it the first snow fall? Really? Is it going to melt in an hour? Can I for sure give it the first snow label? I can't decide, and the clock is ticking!

In the meantime, taco soup. Need I say more? Warm up with this gem. I served it with the Olive Garden Bread Sticks and it was a big hit! Which is extremely rewarding since it was a typical "threw it together" meal. Whew!

What you will need:

• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 3 cans beef broth
• 1 1/2 pkg. taco seasoning
• 1 1/2 pkg. ranch mix 
• 1 lb. ground beef

Directions

• Dump all the canned ingredients into the crock pot 
• Mix in the taco seasoning and ranch mix
• Brown the ground beef and add it into the crock pot to mix in
• Cook on low 4-6 hours
• Top with grated cheese and a healthy dollop of sour cream if desired!

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken and Broccoli over Rice

Do you ever feel like your fridge, freezer and pantry get stocked up with just...stuff? Yet you still go grocery shopping for a newly prepped dinner menu? At some point every month I'm like really...we already have stuff I can make dinners out of! So, this week has been our "get rid of what we already have" week as far as food goes.

Which brings me to this yummy, cozy, comforting, fall appropriate, easy crock pot meal from the Picky Palate! Both of my kids absolutely loved it and ate every bite.

What you will need:

• 3-4 chicken breasts
• 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 can cheddar soup
• 14 oz. (or 1 can) of chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cajun seasoning
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1 C sour cream
• 1 crown broccoli, steamed
• Shredded cheese

Directions:

• Mix cream of chicken, cheddar soup, chicken broth and seasonings into a bowl until blended well
• Place chicken breasts into crock pot
• Pour soup mix over the chicken breasts
• Cook on low for 6 hours
• Remove chicken and shred
• Steam broccoli
• Add sour cream into soup mix and mix until blended
• Add shredded chicken and broccoli back into crock pot and serve when ready over rice with a sprinkle of shredded cheese

Kira's BBQ Root Beer Pulled Chicken

I was looking for a particular flavor to create as my bbq sauce flavor. The last time I made this, it wasn't quite right. This time, it was PERFECT! This is soooo good you guys. And I hope you can see some of that corn on the cob behind that sandwich there. That "recipe" (yeah, a recipe for corn on the cob) is right here and it's delicious. Hint: it involves crab. Woah! Hands down the best corn on the cob I've ever had in my life. Loving my Kitchen-Brain lately.

What you will need:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 20 oz. Famous Dave's Rich&Sassy BBQ Sauce
• 4 cloves fresh garlic, grated
• 1 T Onion Powder
• 1 C Root Beer
• Salt&Pepper
• Kaiser rolls or any preferred sandwich bread (I lightly toast mine on the stove cause I can't handle "soggy" bread)

Directions:

• Poor 1/4 of the bbq sauce into crock pot
• Grate 1 garlic clove and add it into the bbq sauce
•  Add 1/2 T onion powder into the bbq sauce
• Add the root beer into the bbq sauce and mix all together
• Place chicken breasts into the bbq sauce mix
• sprinkle the rest of the onion powder over the chicken
• Grate one garlic clove onto each chicken breast
• Salt and pepper the chicken breasts
• Poor the rest of the bbq sauce over the chicken 
• Make sure the chicken is smothered in sauce
• Cook on low for about 6 hours
• Shred with two forks and serve

Jerk Pork Wraps with Lime Mayo

Another great recipe to add to my "healthy" category. Okay so the lime mayo isn't really all that healthy but I'm sure you could use fat free or something and make it healthier. In the end, the flavor of it didn't really add a whole ton to the meal anyway so technically it could be left out and not be missed. We are also going to use Baja Fresh's pineapple salsa next time because it's spicier, so I'll update this with that recipe next time. Whenever I have a recipe that uses tortilla's but the main recipe is gluten-free, I am still considering it a gluten-free meal because I feel that I can still do something with it to keep it gluten-free like eliminating the tortilla and using it as a rice topper or putting it on corn tortilla chips.


**Update**- I'm not sure if the recipe I tried is similar to what they have at Baja Fresh, but it's super good! Check out this Spicy Pineapple Salsa!

What you will need:

Taco's

• 1 1/2-2 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast
• 6 tortillas**
• 1 T Jamaican jerk seasoning (naturally gluten free)
• 1/4 tsp. Thyme
• 1 C water
• 1 T lime juice
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 red onion, diced (only if you aren't using the Lime Mayo)
• 1 mango, peeled, seeded and chopped OR pineapple chopped (I used the pineapple)
• cilantro (optional)
• lettuce (optional)
• Lime Mayo

Lime Mayo

• 1/2 C Mayo
• 1/4 C finely chopped red onion
• 1/4 tsp. finely shredded lime peel
• 1 T lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Directions:

Taco's

• Trim the fat off of the pork shoulder
• Rub pork shoulder with jerk seasoning
• Sprinkle the pork with thyme
• Pour 1 C water over the meat and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours
• Remove meat from slow cooker and drain juices
• Shred the pork shoulder
• Toss the shredded pork in 1 T lime juice
• Build your taco with the pork, pineapple/mango salsa, cilantro, lettuce, dressing, cheese, etc.

Lime Mayo

• I just tossed all these ingredient into my food processor and voila

**For the tortilla's, I buy the La Abuela brand in the refrigerated section by the cream cheeses at the store. A cast iron skillet is always a great way to warm up the tortilla's!

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Well this was a pleasant surprise. I found it Skinnytaste.com, meaning it's a healthy dinner for y'all! I am capable of sharing healthy things. It's just that it's only sometimes. I plan on browsing more on that website to try and expand my healthy side. I'll even make a new "healthy" label to encourage myself to be able to stick recipe's in that category. How's that for a plan that I might follow through on?!

Anyways, I definitely plan on making this again. Super yummy!

What you will need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 16 oz. can black means
• 1 16 oz. can kidney beans (I used pinto beans)
• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 10 oz. pkg. frozen corn
• 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes with chilies
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning (I used McCormick brand chicken taco seasoning, it was great! I want to try and make my own seasonings though)
• 1 T cumin
• 1 T chili powder
• 24 oz. (3-4) boneless skinless chicken breasts
• chili peppers, chopped (I used 1 jalapeno pepper)
• Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions:

• Combine onion, beans, tomato sauce, corn, diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder and chili pepper(s) in crock pot. 
• Place the chicken breasts on top
• Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours
• 30 minutes before serving, take the chicken breasts out and shred the chicken
• Add chicken back into the chili and cook another 30 minutes or until ready to serve
• Serve over rice and top with grated cheese and cilantro if desired

7-Up Chicken

I grew up eating this a lot at my house. It has been the biggest life saver when I have no idea what to cook and want something super easy but delicious. Can you handle 3 ingredients to amazing chicken? If you put this in the oven at the same time as some baked potatoes, everything will be done at the same time. It's an easy go-to meal.

What you will need:

• 1 bottle Kraft Original BBQ sauce
• 4-6 boneless chicken breasts
• 3/4 C 7-Up

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Place chicken breasts in a baking dish (I use a cake pan)
• Coat the chicken in the BBQ sauce
• Pour the 7-Up over everything
• Cook for 45 mins.-1 hour*

*As of late, I have only been doing this in the crock pot and it makes the chicken sooo tender that I am able to shred it for leftovers. BBQ chicken sandwiches the next day are amazing! Just place all the ingredients in your crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours! :)