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 "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!

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!

Crock Pot Pork Chops and Sauerkraut for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good, tasty! (he's eating leftovers!)
SHE SAID: Good, will make this again using bone in pork chops and less sugar.

Pork Chops and Sauerkraut

The female half of this couple started feeling disconnected with her crock pot.  The male half of this couple commented sadly (in a jokingly way) that he didn't get any home cooked meals this past weekend.  As per our previous post, last weekend was busy - we dined out a lot.   Decided to slow cook some pork chops for us this week.

We're happy with our crock pot pork chops!  We splurged this week and bought farm raised pork chops which are 3x the price of the mass produced pork.   It was worth it!  We got the pork chops in the crock pot late, so we had to cook them on high (not our preferred way of cooking).  We'll definitely be making these again, but slow cooking it next time.

Served this up for him with some Japanese rice and corn.  For her, the one trying to stick to a lower carb diet, just two pork chops and a small scoop of corn.   We used brown sugar to cut down on the tang of the sauerkraut, but next time we'll try a little less sugar.

You may also use other cuts of pork, but stay away from tenderloin (too dry).  We're trying to eat leaner cuts of meat.

Here's the recipe:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 7-8 hours on low (4 hours on high)
4 qt crock pot (if you're only doing 4 or less pork chops, use a 2 qt)

4-6 pork chops
14 oz can of sauerkraut with juice (if you're cooking 4 or less pork chops, you may want to use half the can)
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/3 c brown sugar (next time we'll try 1/4 c.)
3/4 c beer (we used Fosters because we already had it in the kitchen)
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

Before cooking

Season pork chops with kosher salt, pepper and garlic powder (to taste, we are on a lower sodium diet, so we use more pepper and garlic powder).  Sear in a pan, then transfer pork chops to the crock pot.  Deglaze pan with the beer, transfer the beer to the crock pot (don't forget to scrape the bottom of the pan).  Pour sauerkraut and juice on the pork chops.  Sprinkle brown sugar into the beer sauce along with the minced garlic.

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.

We already rice cooked from the night before, so the male half of this couple ate the chops with rice.  Next time we want to try adding halved red potatoes to the crock pot.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Crock Pot Poached Salmon in Wine for two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good (he ate leftovers too)
SHE SAID: Yum!

The lower carb plate, this was quite filling.

Here's our second fish recipe from this past weekend.    This was much better...first of all, salmon is fattier which equals moister fish.   Secondly, we cut the fillet into 2 inch wide pieces and added a packet of sazon.  Oh and we love cooking with wine.  Wine makes everything so yummy!

We love salmon...prefer it raw as sushi and spicy salmon bowls, the fattier, the better.  We're tempted to buy the huge slab of salmon at Costco, but that's way too much for the two of us to eat and we prefer not to  freeze the fish.

This fits nicely into a 2-qt crock pot.  Served with Japanese rice and we stir fried some bean sprouts with chinese peas in a little bit of sesame oil and Bragg's Liquid Amino instead of shoyu (soy sauce).

Note: the reason for the leftovers - trying to save money and eat healthier at work during lunch.  To make just two servings, cut down the fish to 3/4 to 1 lb. - depending on how much each of you like to eat and if you're going lower carb like we are, you'll need a little more fish.

Before

Here's our recipe:

Serves 2 (plus leftovers)
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 3-4 hours on low

1 - 1 1/2 lbs. fresh salmon fillet (pick the fattiest looking piece)
3/4 c. dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced (ok to use some of the rind if you wish)
5 olives (stuffed with pimentos), sliced
1/4 t. kosher salt
pepper (to taste)
1 pkg. sazon
1 - 1 1/2 T. olive oil

Grease crock pot with olive oil.  Cut salmon fillet into 2 inch wide pieces and place in crock pot.  Add wine, olives, salt, pepper, lemon juice and sazon.  Cover and cook for 3-4 hours on low.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Au (Marlin) for two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, but a little dry, try adding butter.
SHE SAID: Good, but too dry, should've cut the fish into smaller pieces.

This tasted better than it looked

We've been eating a lot of chicken lately, but on Valentine's Day we attended a wedding and had two wonderful fish dishes...inspiration...we should have fish this weekend.  Found some nice pieces of au (marlin) and salmon fillets - fresh too!

Decided to make the au (marlin) on Saturday night in a light wine sauce.  Shouldn't have added the asparagus in...wished we sauteed them separately.  The sauce was nice and light, it flavored up the fish and mushrooms nicely.  Next time we'll cut the fillets into 2 inch wide pieces.  The outer edges of the fish was juicy and tasty.  The middle was too dry and lacked flavor.

RECIPE:

Serves 2 (plus leftovers)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 3-4 hours on low
2-qt. crock pot

Before

1 1/2 lbs. au (marlin) or a flaky white fish fillet
1/2 c. dry white wine
4 baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
1 lemon, juiced (add some of the rind too if you wish)
pepper to taste
1/4 t. kosher salt
1 T. olive oil

Grease crock pot with olive oil.  Cut fish fillet into 2 inch wide pieces and place in crock pot.  Add mushrooms, wine, lemon juice (and rind), pepper and salt.  Cover and cook for 3-4 hours on low.

We served this with Japanese rice and white corn.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Shoyu-Wine Marinated Chicken Wings for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: They taste great, but next time make thighs.
SHE SAID: Yum!

Wings, Japanese rice and white corn

We made these wings for Super Bowl Sunday last week and loved them.  Had 9 wing pieces ("flats" and "drums") left so we decided to make more wings.  We knew we'd be out for a couple of hours trying to get in a sunset photo shoot and with the cook time for these wings set at 3-4 hours, the wings would be ready as we returned.

We really could have gone with just 7 wings since we only ate 3 each...Safeway's wings are HUGE!  The sauce can accommodate up to probably 12 wings, depending on how large your wing pieces are.  Prep time is about 5 minutes, but we highly recommend marinating the wings for at least 4 hours.

RECIPE:

Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 3 hours on low

Serves 2, 2-qt crock pot

6-8 wing pieces ("flats" and "drums") - depending on how many wings you want to eat
1 c. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 c. dry white wine
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. sugar (we use truvia)
1 t. ground ginger

Mix all ingredients except chicken in a bowl.  Put chicken in a gallon size ziploc (we put our ziploc into a foil pan just in case).  Pour half of the marinade into the ziploc bag and refrigerate wings for at least 4 hours.  Refrigerate the remaining marinade.  Flip ziploc bag several times, maybe every hour or so.

Drain marinade from bag, pour wings into a 2 qt crock pot, cover with remaining marinade.  Cover pot and cook on low for 3 hours or until chicken is cooked all the way.

We had our wings with Japanese rice and corn.

Enjoy, we did!

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: it was ok (keep in mind he loves pasta and ordered this on our third date).
SHE SAID: not bad for a crock pot recipe, but nothing beats the real thing

Photo from Stephanie O'Dea's site.

We are still tweaking this recipe, but we rate it a 10 for easy recipe with a great taste.  We almost used our homemade marinara sauce (well, our friend Pam's recipe for marinara sauce) and hindsight, we should have went with our first instinct.  Also, we had 5 pieces of chicken thighs which came out very moist and tender...a little too moist and tender for Chicken Parmesan.  We thought we adjusted the time correctly for the 5 pieces of chicken, but our cheese was overcooked - we didn't even recognize it when it came out of the crock pot!

We used our 4-qt crock pot for this recipe and it was a bit overfilled.  Next time we will use the 6-qt crock pot which we haven't used yet!  Our chicken didn't look anywhere near as nice as Stephanie O'Dea's looked!   We used some gemelli and rotini pasta since we had 1/3 of a bag of each waiting to be boiled.

RECIPE:

serves 2 (plus one leftover meal), 4-qt crock pot

2-4 boneless chicken breasts (we used boneless skinless thighs, stick with breasts)
1/2 c Italian bread crumbs
1/4 c shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 t Italian seasoning
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t kosher salt
1 T olive oil
1 beaten egg
sliced mozzarella cheese (we used fresh - it was on sale)
favorite jarred marinara (we used an organic one, we wished we used homemade)
your choice of pasta

Spread olive oil into the bottom of the crock pot.  Whip the egg in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients including the shredded parmesan cheese.  Dip the chicken into the egg, the coat with the dry mix.  Place chicken into crock pot.  Layer 2-3 slices of mozzarella on the chicken - we covered the chicken with the mozzarella.  Pour entire jar of marinara on chicken/cheese.  Cover crock pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours.  Serve over pasta...and some Luccio Moscasto d'Asti!

We cooked our chicken parmesan for 7 hours, will try 6 hours next time, hopefully that will help the mozzarella.  Again, we like the recipe, just need to tweak it a bit and use the homemade marinara!

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Foil Packet Fish for Two

RECIPE RATING:

HE SAID: Good! Didn't care for the fish we chose.

SHE SAID: Good..ditto!

During our quarterly Costco run (we go more than that, but the quarterly trip is the big one) we decided to pick up a bag of frozen fish. Costco has those individually wrapped fish that are supposed to be great. We wanted Tilapia since we were trying out Stephanie O'Dea's Foil Packet Fish recipe. Couldn't find any Tilapia, so we chose another white flakey fish, Pacific Cod...being from Hawaii where fresh fish is always available, we were quite disappointed with the Pacific Cod from Costco.

Photo from Stephanie O'Dea's site.

We were however pleased with the recipe. For the two of us we used 3 small pieces of fish in our 2-quart crock pot. Not too much adjusting from the recipe. We served with Japanese rice and probably could have cooked the fish the entire 4 hours since the cheese wasn't melted all the way.

We too made it with cheddar cheese since we still had some left from the Skyline Cincinnati Chili we made. We also prefer parmesan cheese in the mix.

We tried this recipe again with swordfish from the local market but altered the recipe..instead of lemon, we added chili oil (lots of it - to taste - we like our food spicy) instead. We really liked the fish this way. Served it with Japanese rice and stir fried chinese cabbage (won bok) or Napa Cabbage.

Will be trying other fish with this recipe and probably various spices. We're thinking even shoyu (soy) and ginger or shoyu and white wine sauces.  For now, here is our Foil Packet Spicy Fish Recipe...

RECIPE (2-qt crock pot):

3-4 fillets of tilapia (or other white fish)
1/4 c mayonnaise (we used Cupie - Japanese mayo)
1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
4 cloves of garlic, minced
chili oil - to taste (we used 2-3 tablespoons)
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of pepper (we recommend a pepper grinder)

Mix all ingredients except the fish in a bowl.  Lay out a piece of foil for each fish (enough to fold over into a sealed packet).  Place a piece of fish on the foil, coat in the mayonnaise mix on all sides, fold up the foil into a sealed packet - be sure all folds are facing up.  Put all packets in a 2-qt crock pot, cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours.   Fish is done when it flakes easily.  We usually cook for at least 3 hours - ours has never dried out.  Careful when opening the packets, steam will come out of your packets when opening.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Salsa Chicken for Two

Yum!

RECIPE RATING:

HE SAID: Pretty good, could be spicier, would eat it again

SHE SAID: Yum and soooo easy!, great as leftovers

What to make, what to make? That's always the question! Here's another great recipe we found on Stephanie O'Dea's blog. We chose it for it's simplicity since one of us had to work and the other ran household errands - wow, what an easy recipe, but it's so flavorful!

Photo from Stephanie O'Dea's site

Salsa Chicken...mmm. We went with 8 small chicken thighs (which looks more like 6 regular sized thighs) and used the 2-quart crock pot for this recipe. We're not into beans, so next time we'll be using half the beans. It was great and so tender!

Another way to serve this...we did this with our leftovers (and wished we served more of the sauce with the chicken the first night!)...make "pulled chicken" open faced sandwiches. For our starch we made homemade guacamole (the better way to go) since avocados were on sales $1 a piece. We've also made something similar to what Stephanie O'Dea suggested..creamy sauce. We usually add in cream of mushroom soup with the salsa...we've only tried this in the oven, but will try it in the crock pot soon!

Enjoy! We sure did! All 8 thighs were gone after two meals!

Breakfast in the crock pot

We tried two recipes from Stephanie O'Dea's blog, reducing the recipes to only feed the two of us...we didn't care for either since both were either over or undercooked. We're not sure if these recipes just come out better making a big batch or if we didn't adjust the cooking time enough. In any case, waking up to your breakfast ready in the crock pot sounds wonderful.

The two recipes we tried are Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole and French Toast Bake Recipe. We made some adjustments to the Hash Brown Casserole since we stay away from sausage (used left over chicken) and left out the bell pepper since we didn't have any. Made half the recipe, cut the cook time in half and the casserole was dry and hard. We're not giving up on this recipe...we may try it again in the future. We (well, the female half of this couple) was pretty excited about the French Toast Bake and had high hopes for it since the male half enjoys French Toast. The top two pieces came out decent, the underneath was hard and overcooked, the middle was spongy and wet. Tried Stephanie's suggestion on leaving the crock pot open (still cooking) for 30 minutes...didn't help our batch. Again, we reduced the recipe by half. This could be one of the reasons the recipe didn't come out well.

As mentioned, we're not ready to give up on breakfast in the crock pot recipes but last weekend we made French Toast on the stove!