Crock pot Ham!

I'm not sure why I've never thought this was possible before, but now that I know...

I'm not sure who gifted us with the 7lb ham we've had in the fridge for a while, but I'm grateful. It was precooked, so it didn't need a ton of cooking time but ham still takes some planning. I usually make some kind of brown sugar glaze and then reglaze half way through the cooking process. Even then, ham can end up being dry if you're not careful. The crock pot seemed like an excellent way to remedy that.

The recipe I found said to cook it on low for 4 hours. These were instructions for a 6-8lb ham. Obviously, you could use a meat thermometer to ensure it was cooked to your liking. Being that this ham was already cooked, I really just needed it warmed to my liking. I found this brandy brown sugar glazed ham recipe from A Spicy Perspective. I'm not really an alcohol drinker (unless it's wine) but the recipe said you could sub juice so that's what I did. We don't always have juice but this week we have some pineapple orange juice, so that's what I used. I also used regular ground  mustard, because that's what I had, and I tend to not like overly mustardy things so I used half as much. I found this to be amazingly good. Different than your normal brown sugared ham, but different in a really good way. My husband wasn't thrilled, he doesn't seem to like cumin unless it's Mexican food, I know, I pity him too, but he still ate it. It's also the first time I've used the grinding function on my blender. I used fresh ground coriander. Love the way it smells. I omitted the allspice, because I didn't have any.

I wondered what kind of crust we'd get on the ham in the crock pot, but to my surprise it browned very nicely. All in all, I'm quite sure we'll use this method again. It's the perfect way to have Easter dinner done right after church let's out without worrying about burning the house down!

6-8 lb ham

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c juice (apple, orange, mixed)

1 T ground mustard

1 T cornstarch

1 T cumin

1 T ground coriander

1/2 t cayenne pepper

2 t seasoned salt

Mix all the dry ingredients up and add your juice. Stir it well to make sure you've gotten all the brown sugar declumped. Score the ham about 1/4 inch deep. Rub about half the glaze all over the ham. I put the ham in the crock pot cut side down. Really, it was because that's how it fit best, but I'll do it again next time as well because I then poured the rest of the glaze over the ham. You could save the rest and do it half way through the cooking process, but I decided not to do that because with slow cookers you really want to leave the lid on to keep the heat in. Let it cook on low 4-5 hours. You could leave it longer for a larger ham. 

So good folks!

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate shake (that won't ruin your diet!)

It's lent. Everyone gives something up. I've decided to have a different perspective this year. It's not about giving something up, but about committing something. I'm committing to 40 days of healthy eating and positive perspective. I was really excited about this new outlook and that high kept me easily turning away from bread and cookies all week. Then tonight happened. I'm sitting at home watching a movie (Harry Potter for anyone that cares) and I'm dying for chocolate. I go to the kitchen to see what I can come up with and what do I find, Red Velvet Oreos. I did not buy these. I would not deliberately temp myself. God bless my husband and his ability to eat ONE cookie and then put the bag away. I don't know how he does it.

I turned away from the cookies and decided I could come up with something that would satisfy my need for something sweet without breaking my commitment this season.

Frozen bananas puree like ice cream, did you know? I've posted about it before here, and I highly recommend you try it if you haven't. I grabbed a banana from the freezer and chopped it up. I used my 12 oz blender cup, so this isn't a giant treat, just enough to satisfy my craving. I added the banana to the cup and then filled it to the 12oz mark with Vanilla Almond milk. I added about 2 T PB2 and 2 T carob powder. Blend it up and yum. Delicious peanut butter banana chocolate shake. It's a little thin, but just darn good.

1 frozen banana, sliced

Vanilla Almond milk (about 8 oz)

2 T PB2

2 T carob powder

Pork Chops & Garlic Parm Pasta

It's sounds like a weird combo doesn't it? It really isn't though. I decided to make these mushroom, onion, garlic, wine pork chops that I've made previously and I couldn't decide on a side. When I thought of the onions, garlic, and mushrooms though all that came to mind was pasta. I figured why not?

This pasta is so easy to make. It's butter, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese. That's it. I used 16oz of bow tie pasta and cooked it as directed. Once it was finished I drained it and used the same pot to melt 1/2 stick of butter and 2 T of olive oil. I sauteed about 6 cloves of minced garlic for about 30 seconds and then added the noodles back to the pot. Turn the heat off and mix it up. Then add about 1/2 c of parmesan cheese. Grated or shredded, whichever suits your fancy. So yummy. I plated it with the pasta on the bottom, then a pork chop with all the extra goodness from the pan drizzled on top, with a side of broccoli. Enjoy!

Super Bowl 2015

Also known as the time it snowed so bad we cancelled church, shoveled snow multiple times throughout the day, and stayed inside. It was great!

I'm honestly not even being sarcastic. We watched a livestream service of  the Potter's house and it was exactly what I needed to hear this morning. We played some Earth, Wind, and Fire and I had myself a dance party while my husband looked at me like I was some crazy woman. We picked up some awesome chicken, I made some cheesy ranch potatoes, and decided to make the peanut butter dip I was going to make for the party we were going to go to that was cancelled. It's about to be a Super Bowl party for two! Hope you're enjoying your day wherever you are!

1/4 c butter, softened

4 oz cream cheese, softened

12 oz jar of peanut butter (or 1 c will work)

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Chocolate sprinkles

White frosting

Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter. Stir in the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar half a cup at a time. Stir in the chocolate chips. You can add more powdered sugar if it's too sticky. It will mold nicely on a serving platter and you can have a free standing football. I had a football shaped dish so decided to use that instead. The amount of sprinkles you use will vary, I used about 1/4 cup and it covered the top nicely. Then draw on your seam. It's delicious. You will want to eat it with a spoon. And you can! We have some pretzels and celery we're going to use. I bet cookies would be delicious too! 

Honey Soy Chicken thighs

You ever have days where you take something out of the freezer and think, "By dinner time I'll know what I want to do with this," and then dinner time rolls around and you're just as uninspired as you were previously? Never happens to me either....Ha. My husband sat there looking at me like a crazy person going on about how I had to have a hundred different recipes. I preferred to just stare back at him like he had no idea what he was talking about and in no possible way was he right.

Ok, well, maybe I do have close to a hundred different chicken recipes pinned...Tonight gave me the opportunity to try one as I really was not inspired to be creative. There are some days when you just wish someone came over and cooked for you. And then mopped and dusted and did the laundry too.

I took tonight's masterpiece from She Wears Many Hats blog. It was one of those recipes that you look at and realize it 1) Sounds delicious and 2) contains things you have in the pantry. Always two big pluses in my book. I followed it pretty well. Well, in that mine has everything that hers does. I'm just not good at measuring spices. I just eyeball a lot of it. We're eating this with some stir fry veggies that were sauteed in sesame oil and soy and then seasoned with garlic powder and ground ginger; and we're eating it all over brown rice.

It's really quite tasty and your house will smell amazing while it's all cooking!

Crock pot Chicken Vegetable stew

I had no intentions of blogging about tonight's dinner. Then I ate some of it. That's always a pleasant surprise.

When I started dinner this morning I knew we were having chicken and vegetables. I honestly just thought we'd each have a piece of chicken and the vegetables on the side. That's not what happened.

I took three, bone-in chicken thighs with the skin removed and put them in the crock pot. I seasoned them with lots of garlic powder and lemon pepper. By lots I mean I shook each contained until each piece of chicken was pretty well coated. I still used Campbell's condensed soups. I know I shouldn't and that there are replacements, but they're so easy and my husband keeps buying them so I keep using them. I used a can of cream of mushroom soup with this. I just spread it on each piece of chicken

For the vegetables I used three small white potatoes chopped in large chunks, three stalks of celery chopped, and three carrots chopped. Everything was kind of chunky chopped, not diced. I dumped each vegetable in their own little spot in the crock pot. I almost took a picture this morning, because the different colors looked so pretty and it would've been a great blog shot, but alas I did not. Once they were in I also decided that onion was necessary. I had some diced and frozen in the fridge so I dumped about a cup in the middle. I took a teaspoon of my homemade vegetable broth mix (I swear I've linked to this recipe in my last 5 posts) and sprinkled it over the veggies and put about 3/4 a cup of water in and turned it on low.

When it was about time to turn the crock pot off (about 8 hours later) I realized that the vegetables I used were really good soup veggies. That's when I decided this was going to be soup of some kind. I scooped out the chicken so I could pull the bones out (they'll shred right up for you). Then I added a cup of frozen corn and a cup of frozen broccoli. The mix was super thick so I also added a cup of chicken broth. Let it cook just a bit longer for the new veggies to thaw and yum. It's so very good. Still pretty thick, hence the stew name, but you could thin it out with more broth. If it didn't have potatoes it'd probably be amazing with some noodles. Try it out!

3 bone-in chicken thighs, no skin

3 small, white potatoes, chunky chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1 c diced onion

1 c frozen corn

1 c frozen broccoli

3/4 c vegetable broth (made with 1tsp vegetable broth mix + 3/4 c water)

1 c chicken broth

1 can cream of mushroom soup

garlic powder to taste

lemon pepper to taste

Add chicken to slow cooker and season with garlic powder and lemon pepper to taste. Spread cream of mushroom soup to top. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions to top. Add vegetable broth and cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Scoop out chicken and remove bones. Shred to desired size. Add corn, broccoli, and chicken broth. Allow to cook on high for another 30 minutes, until frozen vegetables are cooked through.

Enjoy

Green Goodness

I may have a post titled this already. I don't care. There really is no better explanation for this smoothie. Try it out!

1 c spinach

1/2 banana

1 c frozen peach

1 c frozen pineapple

1 Hi5 Lean packet

1 c water

This smoothie has such a strong fruit flavoring that you can definitely increase the amount of spinach without consequence.