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

Turkey Kielbasa Stir Fry

What do you do when you get home late with a starving stomach and have a little leftover rice and some turkey kielbasa? You make a delicious stir fry on the fly of course!

Daaang. This should be served in a restaurant. The flavors definitely have their act together.

What you will need:

• 1 C rice, cooked
• Turkey Kielbasa, sliced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/2 jalepeno, minced
• 1/2 tsp. Ginger
• 1 1/2 T Soy sauce
• 2 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce
• Salt&pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a non-stick skillet, saute' the sliced kielbasa in the olive oil over medium-high heat until both sides are starting to brown
• Add in green pepper and onion slices and cook until they've reached desired tenderness
• Add in jalapeno's, garlic and sriracha sauce and stir together
• Add in ginger and salt&pepper, stir
• Add in soy sauce and stir
• Cook and stir the stir fry until the sauces have reduced to desired thickness
• Pour over prepared rice

Mexican Rice

Okay so I stumbled on this blog called Life as a Lofthouse totally by accident and about 30 minutes later had chosen 4 recipes to try out this week in my dinner plans. I have always wanted a nice simple side dish to go with fajita's or Mexican dishes and nothing has ever jumped out at me. But this...this is PERFECT! Such good flavor and so EASY! Plus, you could easily make this extra healthy using brown rice, so I'm tossing it in the "healthy" tab (you can see my standards are slightly low as far as "healthy" goes). Not only that, but it's just naturally Gluten-Free. A plus for my daughter, who freakin' loved this stuff (just make sure you double check the chicken broth you're using with this list I found right here).

The pictures on her site are way better than mine so don't base whether you think this would be good or not on this picture! :)

What you will need:

• 1 C uncooked long grain rice
• 2 C chicken broth
• 1 T butter
• 1/2 C salsa (I used Picante' which is confirmed to be Gluten-Free)
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Directions:

• Put all ingredients into a non-stick skillet
• Bring to a boil
• Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes

Beef Adobo

There's only a million different ways you can go with this. Which is why I love it. You can add veggies or anything else you want or change the meat up any way you prefer! This is how I've been doing it the past year or so.

What you will need:

• 2 lbs. beef chuck
• 1 yellow onion sliced
• 2 gloves garlic minced
• 1/3 C soy sauce (Use Kikkoman brand if you are nervous about gluten. They are "technically" gluten free but have come out with a gluten-free version)
• 1/3 C vinegar
• 1/3 C water
• Salt&pepper
• White or brown rice
• large Ziploc bag

Directions:

• Cube your meat
• Place meat into large Ziploc bag with all other ingredients excluding the water
• Marinate for 2-3 hours
• Pour everything from your Ziploc bag onto a large sauce pan and brown the meat on medium-high heat
• Once the beef has browned, add 1/3 C water and simmer on low for about 40 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce has reached desired consistency
• Serve over rice

I have been wanting to try this with coconut milk and substituting the water with it. If any of you try it that way let me know how it goes!

Turkey Rice

..at least that's what we call it. Some days it's chicken rice. It's a made up recipe, and sooo simple/good it will blow your freakin' mind.

What you will need:

• Leftover turkey (or 1-2 boneless chicken breasts)
• One medium yellow onion
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Rice

Directions:

• Using a rice cooker, cook your rice
• While your rice is cooking, chop up your turkey or cook your chicken and dice
• Dice the onions
• In a large pan, carmelize the onions with olive oil
• Once your rice is done, add it to the pan with the turkey or chicken
• Add your salt and pepper to taste
• Stir it all together until heated well