Dukan Crock Pot Chicken Artichoke Pasta

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good (he had seconds)
SHE SAID: Yes, agreed.

Crock Pot Chicken Artichoke Pasta

We tried this recipe before using heavy whipping cream and both enjoyed it.  Decided to Dukan the recipe since it looked simple enough.  Also, we use crushed tomatoes since the male half of this couple doesn't like tomatoes but will eat tomato sauce.  We recommend using Italian style diced tomatoes for this recipe.

This is a nice, light dish and went nicely on the House Brand Angel Hair Tofu Shirataki Angel Hair Noodles although you can really serve on any of the Tofu Shirataki noodles.  We did add some of our Rustica sauce from our lunch dish to add flavor.  If you prefer a thicker sauce, add a cornstarch paste made with 1 t of cornstarch and just a little bit of water.  Our original recipe calls for 1/2 c. pimento stuffed olives which doesn't seem to be allowed on the Dukan Diet.

RECIPE
Serves 2-3 (depending on how much you eat)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 5-6 hours
4 qt. crock pot

1 - 28 oz. can Italian tomatoes (diced, stewed, etc)
1 - 13 or 14 oz. can of artichokes hearts in water, drained and lightly chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. non-fat half-and-half
1/2 c. Rustica sauce from leftovers (recipe here)
2 packages of House Brand Tofu Shirataki Angel Hair Pasta

Cut chicken into bit size pieces and put into crock pot.  Pour tomatoes into crock pot.  Lightly chop the drained artichoke hearts and toss those in.  Add garlic.  Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours on low or until chicken is no longer pink.  Just before the meal is done cooking, boil noodles in salty water for at least 5 minutes, drain (do not rinse after boiling).  Before serving, mix in the non-fat half-and-half, Rustica sauce and pasta.

This tastes great with the stuffed olives, so we're looking forward to having the full recipe during Consolidation and Stabilization.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot on Hold...Maybe

We've got family in town this coming weekend for a couple of weeks....so we may not be crockpotting at all until they leave.  Got lots of places to go, family to see, etc.  Which means we may have lots of "Dining Out" posts!

Tonight we went to Paesanos in Manoa...will be posting a "Dining Out" review.  The food was fabulous and so was the service.

Crock Pot Red Wine Braised Short Ribs for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, tasty, reminds me of my mom's pot roast - meat just falls apart.
SHE SAID: Tasty and delicious, but only once a year due it being beef and not very lean.

This past week there were several articles mentioning braised short ribs.  Reading through the recipes made the female half of this couple hungry for braised short ribs...mmmm....we don't eat beef much and if we do, it's very thinly sliced for shabu shabu or sukiyaki, once in a while a nice steak, but never short ribs!  Most of the recipes we found required red wine, mmmm...almost everything braised in wine tastes yummy!

This is also our very first beef dish made in our crock pot (other than the first try on Skyline Cincinnati Chili)!  Wow, if were meat eaters (the reason we're no longer meat eaters, we're getting older, need to watch the cholesterol, etc) we'd make this dish at least once a month!  This was very tasty and tender.  It's very simple, there were several other more complex recipes we thought about trying, but this recipe we didn't need to purchase any additional ingredients other than the ribs.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 7-9 hours on low
4 qt. crock pot

1 c. dry red wine
2/3 c. ketchup
3 T. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. dark brown sugar (we used light since we had it already)
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
4 lbs. beef short ribs with bone
1 small red onion, chopped

Before

Combine first six ingredients in slow cooker and mix.  Add ribs, submerge as much as possible in sauce (we spooned sauce over the ribs too).  Scatter onions over ribs.  Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.  We turned the ribs over half way thru cooking to ensure the sauces soaked into entire ribs.  If you plan well enough ahead, we read a lot of reviews which suggested cooking the ribs the night before, refrigerating the sauce separate from the ribs, then the next day scrape the fat off the sauce.  We took out as much of the oil/fat as we could just before serving.  Serve with rice or pasta.  If you like gravy, mix some cornstarch paste (cornstarch with water) into the gravy, stirring constantly to make your own gravy.

Enjoy..we sure did!

Crock Pot Chicken Adobo for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, moist but a bit salty
SHE SAID: Same, salty, but good.

Chicken Adobo, before

Happy May Day!  May Day is known as Lei Day in Hawaii.  We both were really busy, so no Lei Day festivities for us.  Decided we needed something lighter to eat and we've been on a vinegar kick (both food and cleaning!).  Didn't take the time to find the female half of this couple's recipe which came from a Filipina friend's grandmother (her recipe calls for more vinegar versus shoyu).  Instead, we decided to pull one off allrecipes.com which is often times a great resource.  Generally what we do is what many other posters do, take the recipe and tweak it with our own additions/changes as well as suggestions by other reviewers of the recipe.  Most have turned our fabulous...this one was a bit too salty for the one with high blood pressure.  Plus, we prefer our adobo more on the "vinegary" side.

For those who don't like a strong vinegar taste, this recipe may work for you!  As mentioned in other posts, the female half of this couple is on a lower carb diet, so we make more than 2 servings.  The crock pot worked well for this recipe.  We normally simmer the chicken in the adobo sauce for about an hour on the stove, it's still good on the stove, but not as tender as when done in the crock pot.

Since the female half is on a lower carb diet and we've been reading about vinegar's greatness, we will definitely use our own adobo recipe very soon (and we may marinate the chicken first)!

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 6-8 hours on low
2 qt crock pot

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2/3 c. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
1/3 c. white vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. ground ginger
2 bay leaves
1/2 T. black peppercorns
1/2 to 1 t. truvia (or sugar)
1 T. garlic powder

Rinse and pat dry chicken.  Place chicken in crock pot.  Layer in ingredients (we usually start with the dry ingredients first).   Give it a quick stir.  Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours.  Serve with white rice.

We didn't need rice this week, so we bought the male half of this couple a kaiser roll, toasted it and served the chicken shredded with sauce on the roll.  We prefer adobo with rice.

Enjoy!

P.S.  Forgot to take a pic of the finished product!

Crock Pot on Hold

It's been a REALLY busy week.  Last week we started renovating a rental unit, then on to cleaning it for the new tenant.  College students and recent grads are NOT clean people.  Yuck!

Anyway, due to all the hours we've been putting it, we've not had time to use the crock pot much since Friday!  We have quite a few recipes we want to try, including a healthy, very low carb chicken adobo recipe.

We've got another busy weekend ahead, so no crock pot meals until probably next weekend.  We did mostly takeout this past week.  If you're into healthy pizzas, Whole Foods sells pizza by the pound.  It was ok, not the kind we like :-)  There always seems to be a line for the pizzas.  You can by it by the slice or you can buy three pounds which is a whole pizza shaped like a skateboard versus a round pizza.

We also had pasta from La Pizza Rina.  Will be posting a review of La Pizza Rina since it's one of our usual pizza takeout places.

Crock Pot "Mexican" Chicken For Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good.
SHE SAID: Yum!

Years ago before the female half of this couple's cousin married her first husband, he introduced our family to this easy but yummy recipe.  Simple...simple enough for a teenager to make and easy on the pocketbook too.  We believe it was his own recipe.  He made it with sliced canned mushrooms, sliced black olives and shredded cheese melted on the top (baked).  We this without the mushrooms and olives since the male half of this couple doesn't care for them.

Before (forgot to take a  pic of the finished product)

For the salsa part of the recipe, it's really to taste.  Depends on how spicy you like your salsa, if you like it chunky or smooth...we've also made this with homemade salsa.  We normally serve this dish on rice...mmmm, but you can serve with tortilla chips if you prefer.  The amount of sauce you make also depends on how much you like the sauce.  If you're not into sauce, you may want to make just enough to cover the chicken...if you love sauce, make extra sauce for dipping.  The sauce tastes great as leftovers too!

The original recipe calls for the chicken to be baked in a 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (until chicken is cooked, but not overcooked).  Using the crock pot made the chicken softer, but the sauce runnier.  We probably won't be making this in the crock pot again since the thicker sauce is easier to dip.  If you don't mind the runnier sauce (it doesn't taste bad, just hard to dip) and you're just pouring the sauce over the rice, the crock pot way is a bit tastier and as mentioned, the chicken is very tender.

It was another very busy day, dinner had to wait until 9:30PM, so we forgot to take a pic of the finished product!  Will definitely post one when we have leftovers.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6- 8 hours on low
2-4 qt crock pot (depending on how much sauce you want)

6 - 8 pieces boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut in half or whole)
2 small cans or 1 large can cream of mushroom soup (again, depends on how much sauce you want)
1-2 cups of salsa (your choice, depends on texture and spice you desire)
1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained (optional)
1 small can diced black olives, drained (optional)
shredded Mexican blend cheese (optional)

Rinse and pat dry chicken.  Place chicken pieces in crock pot.  In a bowl, mix cream of mushroom soup until smooth and creamy.  Add in as much salsa as you wish (we usually use at least 3/4s of a jar of salsa or more).  Mix in mushrooms and olives.  Pour sauce over chicken, be sure sauce covers chicken.  Cover and cook for 7-8 hours on low.  Sprinkle cheese on chicken just before serving...melt the cheese.  Serve over rice or with tortilla chips for dipping...or both!

Enjoy...we always do!

Crock Pot Fish Provencal for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good.
SHE SAID: Good sauce, needs more wine and better fish.

Before.  Forgot to take an "after" shot.

This dish tasted great...but we need a break from tomato sauce.  We had some crushed tomatoes leftover from the weekend before, so we decided to make this dish.  As mentioned before, the closest market to our house doesn't have the greatest selection of fresh fish...often times we end up buying "previously frozen".  Sometimes that works out great and other times, it's just ok.

It was a busy and humid Sunday...we were running late on getting the fish into the crock pot which meant a late dinner.   We were both starving and ready to watch the movie "Blood Into Wine" that we forgot to take a photo of the finished dish!  By the way, if you're a Tool fan, the movie "Blood Into Wine" is a documentary on Maynard Keenan's vineyard...pretty interesting if you're a fan of Tool or a fan of wine.

We'll definitely make this again when we're ready for a tomato sauce dish again...and when we can get our hands on some firm fresh fish fillets.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours on low
2 qt. crock pot

3-4 cod, snapper or another white firm fish fillets (depending on the size and how much you like to eat)
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. olive oil
1 1/2 c. crushed tomatoes, plus 1 T. Italian seasoning or 1 1/2 c. Italian style diced tomatoes
1 T. capers, drained
1 T. dried basil (use fresh if you can)
8 pimiento stuffed olives, slices
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. dried oregano, crushed
1/2 t. dried thyme, crushes (use fresh if you can)
1/2 c. white wine
salt and pepper to taste
angel hair pasta

Rinse fish and pat dry.  Place fish into crock pot.  Add dry ingredients first (except pasta), top off with wet ingredients (we gave it a stir).  Cover and cook for 3 hours on low or until fish is cooked (at least 2.5 hours).  We served this on angel hair pasta.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Crock Pot "Skyline" Cincinnati Chili (Take 2 and for two!)

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID:  Pretty close to Skyline, could use more spice.
SHE SAID:  Not spicy enough, but nice texture.

Finished product - forgot the cheese!

This was our second try at making "Skyline" Cincinnati Chili in our crock pot.  While the texture was a lot closer to Skyline's, we must have not used enough chili powder.  The spices are almost the same as our first recipe, just different amounts.  The main difference between the two recipes we've tried is the boiling versus browning of the ground meat.  After reading quite a few reviews posted by other home cooks, you get the Skyline texture by boiling the ground meat.

This time we also forgot to sprinkle on the shredded cheddar cheese even though we bought it just for this meal!   We halved the recipe which made enough for one meal and one leftover meal for the two of us.  We also decided to use Multi-grain Angel Hair Pasta which was a nice change from regular spaghetti.

Ground turkey

We will definitely try making "Skyline" chili again, with a slightly different recipe, but keeping the "boiling" part in and adding more chili powder and cayenne pepper.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time:  At least 8 hours on low.
2 qt crock pot

(Double the recipe to feed 4-6 people)

1/4 c. red onion, chopped
1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 lb. ground turkey (can use chicken or beef also)
1/8 c. chili powder (will increase to 1/4 c next time)
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/8 t. ground allspice
1/8 t. ground cloves
1/2 bay leaf
1 T. + 1 t. cocoa powder

Ready to cook!

1 - 10 oz. can beef broth
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 T. cider vinegar
1/8 t. ground cayenne (probably will try 1/4 t. next time)
shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
angel hair pasta (your choice of pasta)

Put ground turkey into crock pot.  Break up the turkey a bit.  Put all other ingredients in except for the cheese and pasta..give it a mix since you have a utensil from breaking up the turkey.  Cover and cook for  at least 8 hours on low.  Try not to cook on high...it just won't taste right.  Serve over pasta with shredded cheddar cheese.

Enjoy..we sure did!

Crock Pot Coq Au Vin For Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID:  Good, but needs more salt and wine.
SHE SAID:  Same as above.

We promise, this looked better in person.

We've been wanting to try this Coq Au Vin recipe for a while now.  We used this recipe as a base but had to make a few alterations since our markets don't seem to carry baby portabella mushrooms and fresh herbs are expensive.  We also didn't realize we were almost out of red wine, so we used 1 cup instead.  Next time we may try this recipe found on WholeFoods' website.

Mmmm...bacon...who doesn't love bacon?  :-)  Well, other than vegetarians that is...even though there's almost no nutritional value in bacon.  You'll love the smell of this dish while it's cooking!  This is the first time we're cooking for frozen chicken in the crock pot which is suggested in the recipe, but the WholeFoods recipe as well as other recipes found on the internet suggest browning the bacon, chicken and veggies first to bring out the flavors.  Definitely trying that next time.

Definitely make sure you have 1 1/2 c. red wine for this recipe.  Our batch was good, but you could tell it was missing something and would have been a lot more flavorful.  We're making this again with the 1 1/2 c. red wine.

RECIPE:
Prep Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours on low (most recipes recommend not cooking this dish on high)
4 qt crock pot (because our 2 quart doesn't seem to boil very good unless we use 6 thighs or less)

6 to 8 frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs (depending on the size and how many pieces each person can eat)
6 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon (we used turkey)
4 baby portabella mushrooms, sliced (we used crimini since we couldn't get baby bellas)
1 c. baby carrots
1/2 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 c. chicken broth
1 c. red wine
1 1/2 t. dried thyme

Before

Bake bacon, then crumble.  Place frozen chicken in crock pot.  Layer in all ingredients add the liquids last.  Cover and cook for 8 hours on low.  Halfway through you may want to quickly open your crock pot and use a spoon to push everything down into the liquid.

The recipe said to serve over pasta, which the male half of this couple would have loved, but we had leftover Japanese rice, so we had it over rice.

If you decide to use this recipe, change it to 1 1/2 c. red wine.  We used 7 pieces of chicken.  It was enough for the two of us, plus one leftover serving.

Crock Pot Butterfish Foil Packets for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID:  Good, but prefers the misoyaki sauce most restaurants use and too many bones
SHE SAID: Same as above

Butterfish steaks were on sale at the local Japanese store...great!  The male half of this couple LOVES butterfish.  The female half of this couple thought she hit the jackpot.  Well, the butterfish steaks were frozen...surprisingly enough they tasted great BUT they were ALL steaks near the tail...BONES BONES BONES...what a pain.  It's not unusual to find some bones in your butterfish, even at restaurants, but these had a LOT.  Also, we both ended up with stomach aches immediately after eating the fish.

We had about half a cup of sukiyaki sauce leftover from our sukiyaki dinner the other week, so we decided to cook our butterfish steaks in foil packets with the sukiyaki sauce.  It was good, but the taste was very light...not like misoyaki sauce which is much saltier.

We'll definitely cook butterfish in our crock pot again, but think we'll spend a little more for better cuts.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 - 20 minutes (depending on how much you have to clean your fish)
Cook Time: 3 hours on high
4 qt crock pot

3 butterfish steaks (if you're a big eater, you may want to cook 4-5 steaks)
1/4 c. sukiyaki sauce
foil

Cut a piece of foil for each piece of fish large enough to fold into packets.  Rinse, pat dry and place one piece of fish in each foil.  Pour 3-4 T. sukiyaki sauce over each piece of fish.  Fold each into sealed packets.  Turn up the ends to minimize the amount of sauce that spills out.  Place foil packets in crock pot.  The foil packet on the top layer didn't seem to allow for the sauce to boil much.  The two pieces on the bottom of the pot were a darker brown color.

We served this with Japanese rice and stir fried baby bok choy or shanghai cabbage in a katsu sauce.

Enjoy...we did, except we'll be using a better cut of butterfish next time!

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Provencal for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good.
SHE SAID: Very good...tastes like a lot of the other chicken with wine and tomato sauce dishes we've made, but you can taste the anchovy paste!

The male half of this couple doesn't like a lot of sauce on his pasta

We had a half cup of white wine leftover from cooking another dish, so we decided to try Chicken Provencal this weekend.  (Plus we saw a Chicken Provencal recipe in a Crockpot Cookbook at Barnes and Nobles a few weeks ago...mmm).

We were going to make fish, but we ended up having lunch at Nico's on the pier (two fish dishes - one very good and one just ok).  More on Nico's in another entry.  So, with fish on the lunch menu and the rain coming, we decided on something more comfort food-ish.

We decided to serve this on pasta...mmm.  Wine makes everything taste good!  The recipe is another one we tweaked to fit what we could find in our market...and it's actually a sauted recipes, but we decided to throw everything into the crock pot.

RECIPE:
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 7-8 hours on low (try not to cook on high)
2 qt crock pot

6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (wash and pat dry)
1 T. olive oil
3/4 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper
1/2 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. red or white wine
1 1/2 c. canned crushed tomatoes with juice
1/2 t. dried rosemary
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/3 c. olives (black, nicoise, kalamata or green)
1 t. anchovy paste
pasta of your choice, depends on how much you want and if you're low carb-ing it.

If you have the time, sear the chicken in a pan (use the oil and salt/pepper on your chicken).  Transfer chicken to crock pot.  Layer in onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, olives, then wine.  Mix anchovy paste into crushed tomatoes, then pour mixture over chicken.  Cover and cook for 7-8 hours.  If you make the larger batch, you'll have enough for one leftover serving.  Serve over a bed of pasta.


Enjoy...we sure did!

Crock Pot Cuban Style Chicken for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, but didn't care for the sliced onions and diced tomatoes (texture)
SHE SAID: Good, could use more sazon

Our intentions were to make some fish in the crock pot this weekend, but we needed comfort food with the rain.  We've made Chicken Fricassee, the Cuban style one before and loved the flavors, so we decided to try a new Cuban style recipe.

The aroma from this dish as you prepare it is wonderful.  We took a recipe we found on the web and tweaked it to what we have available in the market here and added some sazon.

It was good, but next time we may cut down on the vinegar...it was good, but a bit overpowering.  We'll probably add some dry white wine and more sazon next time too.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6-7 hours on low
4 qt crock pot

6-8 pieces boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 small can diced tomatoes
1 c. chicken broth (we used low sodium, free range)
2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. white vinegar
3-4 T. garlic, minced
2 T. cilantro (we used freeze dried this time)
1 T. cumin
1 T. garlic powder
1 t. kosher salt
1 pkg. sazon
avocado, sliced

Wash and dry chicken thighs, placed in crock pot.  Add all other ingredients except avocado.  Stir.  Cover and cook for 6-9 hours on low or 3-5 hours on high.  Garnish with avocado and a splash of vinegar.  According to the recipe we found, the splash of vinegar is a must!

We served over a bed of Japanese rice (because we were making musubis for the next day) and corn.

Enjoy..we did!

Crock Pot Chicken & Artichoke in a Creamy Tomato Sauce with Penne for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Tastes great, needs a little more zest.
SHE SAID: Yum, yes, lacks zest.

Over the past few weeks we've been putting a lot of thought into cleaning out our homes...purging.  One of the areas we've gone through...the kitchen.  We keep telling ourselves - we really need to use what we have in the cupboards.  The one can that's been haunting us - artichoke hearts.  Seems like it's been there forever!

We found an Artichoke Pasta recipe and made it our own.  It's very tasty, but we both love zesty Italian and although we did add rosemary and Italian seasoning, this dish really tasted like an Americanized pasta dish.  Well, it's probably because the chef forgot to add the seasoning in and threw some in about an hour into cooking and guesstimated on the amounts.  We're planning on fixing the leftovers up by "zesting" it up a bit.  However, the male half of this couple (he LOVES pasta) - he really enjoyed the dish (minus the artichokes).

RECIPE

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 6-8 hours on low (if you cook this without the chicken - 4-5 hours on low)
4 qt crock pot (we think we could've squeezed this into the 2 qt)

3/4 lb boneless, skinless thighs, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 - 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (you can use diced Italian tomatoes - we use crushed since the male half of this couple doesn't care for chunks of tomatoes and we didn't have time to run the diced tomatoes in the food processor)
1 - 14.5 oz can of artichoke hearts in water, drained and lightly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. pimiento stuffed olives, chopped in half (or whole)
1/2 c. dry white wine
1/4 - 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream (add in the last 30 minutes)
1/2 lb. cooked pasta (add later, we used penne)
1/4 c. shredded parmesan cheese (add in the last 30 minutes)
shredded parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top (optional)

NOTE: If you're using crushed tomatoes, you'll want to add Italian seasoning (2 T.), some dried rosemary (1 t.), maybe some pesto, etc...whatever you'd like to add.  It's really a matter of taste.

Pour crushed tomatoes into pot.  Add chicken, artichokes, garlic and olives.  Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low.  During the last 30 minutes, mix in the heavy whipping cream and 1/4 c. shredded parmesan cheese...you'll want to do this quickly since your pot will lose a lot of heat without the cover on.  Sever over cooked pasta, sprinkle parmesan cheese on the finished product.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Sukiyaki for two - Not Made In The CrockPot

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good, different and light
SHE SAID: Yum!

Sukiyaki ingredients

While cleaning out our kitchen, we found a soon-to-expire bottle of Sukiyaki sauce.  Sukiyaki is a fun dish to make at home...healthy, easy to prepare...but if you ever have a chance to enjoy Sukiyaki in Japan or a Japanese restaurant where the waitress cooks everything for you at your table, definitely try it.

A fancy Sukiyaki meal in Japan can easily run you $160 per person or more.  It's a fabulous meal.  If you're wanting that sort of experience, we recommend Zakuro in Tokyo (Akasaka area).  It's pricey, but wow, the food is great and a waitress dressed in a yukata will prepare the meal at your table.    They'll even sell you their sauce!

It's easy enough to make your own sauce if you prefer.  There are several recipes on the internet like this one.  We've cooked this on the stove too, but it's fun to bring out the modern nabe pot and cook while you eat.

There's really no wrong way to make Sukiyaki.  Pick vegetables that cook fairly quickly.  If you don't have a Japanese market that sells beef sliced for Sukiyaki, ask your local butcher if he can cut your beef almost paper thin.  Sukiyaki beef is cut slightly thicker than shabu shabu meats.  If you really want to get fancy and you own some Japanese cutters which are flower shaped, etc., you can cut daikon (radish) and carrots into flower shapes.  Even if you don't have the cutters, you can easily cut daikon and carrots into shapes.  Cut designs into your fresh Shiitake mushrooms.  You can even take konnyaku and "twist" them.  We'll post instructions with pictures next time we do that.

RECIPE

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cook Time: The duration of your meal (cook as you eat)

1 bottle of Sukiyaki sauce (taste it, some bottles require dilution, especially if you have high blood pressure like the female half of this couple)
1 tray of beef, sliced for Sukiyaki (and very marbled)
Chinese cabbage, chopped (depends on how much you want to eat)
1/2 tray firm tofu (we prefer House brand), cubed
1 pkg enokitake mushrooms (normally fresh Shiitake mushrooms are also used, but the male half of this couple doesn't care for them)
1 pkg shirataki noodles (we prefer the goma or sesame ones)
Negi (scallion) - optional
1 T olive oil

Photo from about.com site -
by Setsuko Yoshizuka

Rinse and chop chinese cabbage, arrange in tray.  Rinse and cube tofu, arrange in tray.  Don't cut your tofu too small or it'll fall apart while boiling - also, use firm tofu.  Rinse and remove roots from enokitake mushrooms.  Separate and arranged in tray.  Drain shirataki noodles, arrange in tray.  Arrange beef in tray.  Turn pot on, add olive oil.  Add one or two pieces of meat in the pot, move it around the pot to grease up the pot.  Pour diluted sauce into pot.  Bring to a "soft" boil.  Add other ingredients in pot.  We don't recommend adding everything in at once.   It looks pretty, but things start to over cook.  As items are done cooking, transfer them into your personal dishes and eat with rice you've cooked in your rice cooker FROM Japan!  So good!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Crock Pot Lasagna with Pollo in Potacchio

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good.
SHE SAID: Yum, but next time we'll adjust the cooking time when using flat egg no boil noodles

After we cut a couple pieces out.

We made this two weekends ago, but the female half of this couple (the chef) got the stomach flu two Thursdays ago which meant the blogging and cooking were put on hold.

So, two weekends ago we decided to do some meal planning.  Made Pollo in Potacchio on Saturday night in the crock pot and decided to make enough for a lasagna the next night.  Turned out great.  Very tasty.

We love Barilla's Flat Egg No Boil Lasagna Noodles...just be careful not to overcook the lasagna or your noodles will be a bit overcooked.  This fit nicely into our 4 qt. crock pot and served us dinner for two nights.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3-4 hours on low if you're using the same noodles we used, if you use "regular" lasagna noodles, cook for 6-8 hours on low (check the noodles, when the lasagna cuts easily, your lasagna is probably done)
4 qt-crock pot

Pollo in Potacchio with sauce - depends on how much you want, the sauce is good to hydrate the noodles
lasagna noodles (your choice)
ricotta cheese (depends on how much you like to use, at least 8 oz)
1 pkg shredded Italian blend cheese
2 t. Italian seasoning
1/4 c. water

We promise this looked better in person!

Mix Italian seasoning in ricotta cheese.  Shred chicken from Pollo in Potacchio.  Spray crock pot with non-stick spray.  Pour in a ladel full of sauce into crock pot.  Layer with noodles (break to fit the pot).  Smear some ricotta cheese mixture on.  Sprinkle some shredded cheese on next.  Ladle more sauce (with chicken), the lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese mixture, then shredded cheese.  Continue layering until you're happy with your lasagna.  We only did 4 layers.  End with sauce and shredded cheese.  Pour water over food.  Cover and cook for 3-4 hours on low if you're using thin noodles, 6-8 hours on low if you're using thicker noodles.

Lasagna is done when you can cut into the lasagna and the noodles are cooked.  Let sit a few minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy, we sure did!

Crock Pot Pollo In Potacchio for two MEALS

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good!
SHE SAID:  Loved it, but it's not the same as Cafe VIII 1/2's

As mentioned in a previous post, Cafe VIII 1/2 here in Honolulu produces a great Pollo in Potacchio.  We haven't seen this dish on any other Honolulu Italian Restaurant yet.  What a treat!  The chicken just falls off the bone and the sauce is yummy (everything cooked in wine is yummy).

Before

We decided to make a large batch of this for a couple of reasons - the female half of this couple is trying to lower her carb intake, trying to save money by taking "home lunch" to work and wanted to use some of it for a lasagna the next night.

Cafe VIII 1/2 serves this dish with either rice or mashed potatoes.  There are several variations of this recipe online.

RECIPE:

Prep Time:
Cook Time: 6 -8 hours on low
4 qt crock pot

2 1/2 lbs boneless skinless thighs
2 T. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed (we used minced since we have the big pre-minced Costco jar)
1 lg. onion sliced (the male half doesn't care for onions, so next time we will use a small onion or half)
3/4 T. red chili pepper flakes
1 can tomato paste (small can)
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. dry wine
1 c. chicken broth
1 T. dried rosemary

The end product, yum!

We put everything in the pot, but you can season your chicken with salt and pepper, sear the chicken, then transfer to the crock pot.  Here's how we did it and it still tasted great.  Put oil into crock pot.  Wash, dry and place chicken into pot.  Mix tomato paste with wine, pour over chicken.  Put the rest of the ingredients into the pot.  Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low.

We served this with homemade garlic mashed potatoes and corn.  Yes, we love corn!  We had some for dinner and kept the rest for the lasagna we made the next night.

Next time we'll amend this recipe to use less tomato paste, it tasted too "tomatoey" compared to Cafe VIII 1/2's dish.

Enjoy, we sure did!

This weekend's crock pot plans

Have you ever had Pollo in Potacchio?  It is a braised chicken dish, very light and pretty darn healthy.  It's one of the female half of this couple's favorite dishes from Cafe VIII 1/2 in Downtown Honolulu.  It's a very simple restaurant, small, cozy...run by a husband and wife team.  It can get a bit weird in there, but nothing extreme...if you've been there, you know what I mean?

Everyone's favorite dish there seems to be Radiatore Verde which doesn't seem to have radiatore pasta in it.  Looks like penne pasta to us.  Anyway, the sauce looks like a pesto sauce with chunks of steak.  It's good, but not as good as the Pollo in Potacchio!  There was a table of 6 people - 4 of them ordered the Radiatore Verde.

We found some Pollo in Potacchio recipes and will be tweaking the recipe for the crock pot.  We may be ambitious and trying making a double order to have enough chicken and sauce for a Pollo in Potacchio Lasagna in the Crock Pot.  We'll see how that goes!

Crock Pot "Anchor Bar" Buffalo Chicken Strips for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good
SHE SAID: Very good, but should have skipped the flour part...will be making this again and again!

It looked better on the plate next to some rice

The other weekend as show aired on Travel Channel, you know one of those "best of" types.  They mentioned coming up "the original Buffalo Wings" and we're a fan of Buffalo Wings, so the chef of this couple was all ears.  I never bothered to google this, but supposedly Buffalo Wings was created by a woman who owned the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.  We had to google the recipe.

We found many variations of the Anchor Bar Buffalo Wing recipe and sorry, but can't remember which one we ended up with.  What we normally do is read through several recipes and the reviews and tweak the closest sounding recipe to our liking.

We loved this recipe!  We chose to use boneless skinless thighs even though wings are very tasty...thighs are easier to eat at work.  We followed the recipe, including the flouring up the chicken part, but that didn't go so well in the crock pot.  We realized it AFTER we turned the crock pot on, but by then it was too late to wash the chicken off.  We're posting the recipe minus the flour.

Neither of us has ever tried Anchor Bar's Buffalo Wings, so we wouldn't know if it tastes the same or not.  If you have tasted Anchor Bar's wings and are trying this recipe, let us know if it's close!

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours on low
2 qt crock pot

6 - 8 boneless skinless thighs, cut into strips (depending on the size, 6 large thighs or 8 small thighs fits into our 2 qt crock)
1 T. olive oil
1 1/2 T. white vinegar
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. tabasco sauce
1/4 t. kosher salt
6 T. Frank's hot sauce
6 T. unsalted butter

Put oil in crock pot.  Add chicken strips (or you can leave them whole).  Mix all other ingredients in a small pan and over low heat bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Cover and cook for 6 hours on low.

We ate this with Japanese rice (since we had leftovers from the fish the night before) and white corn (our favorite).

Enjoy, we sure did!

Crock Pot Chinese Style Steamed Fish For Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, but a little salty and too much ginger
SHE SAID: Good, but yes, a little salty.  Nice and light.

Finished product

A slight change in plans with the public utility strike starting up this afternoon...no Morimoto's due to a revised work schedule (plus longer hours) for the male half of this couple.  He's non-union, so he now becomes an essential worker.

Decided to make some Chinese Style Steamed fish, a local favorite at Chinese restaurants.  Normally the dish is prepared either by steaming the fish in the sauce on the stove or pouring the hot oil mixture on the fish.  We figured the fish would steam nicely in foil packets in the crock pot and we were so glad we tried.

This recipe is simple, inexpensive and oh so good!  We had a lot to do, so being able to whip up the sauce, throw it in the crock pot and 3 hours later have a wonderful meal was perfect.  We used tilapia since it was the only white flaky fish at the local market.  Due to the heavy rains we had, the green onion crops are low, so we couldn't do the green onions sliced in long, thin strips.  Went to the markets AND the farmers market...no green onions, no chives, nothing!  Luckily we had some chopped green onions in the freezer.  You can also garnish with chopped chinese parsley (cilantro)...we didn't just because it wasn't on sale.

Here's the recipe:

Prep Time: 10-15 mins
Cooking Time: 3 hours on low
4 qt crock pot (although I think this would have fit in the 2 qt)

1 lb. tilapia fillet (or other white flaky fish)
1 t. kosher salt
1 1/2 T. minced fresh ginger
3 T. thinly sliced green onions (chopped works too)
2 T. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
2 T. peanut oil
1 T. sesame oil
chinese parsley (cilantro) for garnish

Dango from Nijiya Market

Mix ginger, shoyu (soy sauce) and oils together in a bowl.  Lay out pieces of foil (one per fillet - large enough to fold into a sealed packet).  Wash and pat dry your fish, then rub with kosher salt on each side.  Place the fish in the middle of the foil.  Make a "boat" with your foil (see picture above) so when you pour sauce onto the fish, your sauce doesn't spill out of the foil.  Pour sauce over each piece of fish, divide the sauce up equally.  Scatter green onions on fish.  Fold foil into a sealed packet and place foil packets into the crock pot.  It's ok to stack the packets, they will all cook evenly.  Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.  Be careful when opening packets, steam will come out of the packets when opened.  Garnish with chinese parsley (cilantro) if desired.

We served this with stuffing (just because someone gave us some stuffing the night before), but next time will serve with Japanese rice.

On another note, we finally stopped at Nijiya Market and bought some dango.  It was very good for previously frozen dango.  It's not quite as good as eating dango from the street vendors in Japan, but after microwaving the dango, it was pretty close!

Enjoy, we sure did!

More Crock Pot Meals!

North Shore near Haleiwa

Decided we need to eat in on Friday and Sunday since we'll be joining some friends for pupus (appetizers) at the new Morimoto's in Waikiki!

For this weekend, the planned crock pot meals will be Foil Packet Tilapia made with a shoyu (soy sauce) ginger base (kinda like Chinese Style Steamed Fish) and Buffalo Chicken Strips (using an Anchor Bar recipe we found online.)  A few weeks ago the Travel Channel did a spot on the original buffalo wings originating from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.   We love bufffalo wings, so we just have to try it!

We will post our recipes..even if they are flops...that way you creative chefs out there might want to take the recipe and tweak it a bit to make it better!  Will also post a review of Morimoto's too!

Decided to include a pic taken with our camera phone during our last bike ride on the North Shore near Haleiwa.  It's a beautiful bike path!  We started near Shark's Cove and headed towards Kahuku for about 4 miles before the sun started going down.