Can you tell I’m a little obsessed with my crock pot right now? I found this recipe on Crock Pot 365-a great crock pot recipe site.  I made a modified version of this recipe. It was really good-I thought better than the other Apricot Chicken that I made.  That one was more Asian influenced and this one wasn’t (despite some soy sauce).

Ingredients:

• 1 pound frozen skinless chicken meat-I use thigh since Shaun hates breasts (chicken breasts…)
• 10 ounce jar of apricot preserves-no sugar
• 1 tsp dried onion flakes (sorry Kath!)
• 1 TBSP garlic aioli mustard
• 1 TBSP Braggs Amino
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp red chili flakes

Place the chicken in the crock pot. Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl:

And then smother the chicken:

Set the crock pot on

And then:

For:

hours (6-8 for frozen. 4-6 on high for defrosted).

I made brown rice and just chopped some brussel sprouts and carrots and sautéed them in a little vegan butter, S+P, and cider vinegar.

Look at how pretty it was:

Here’s the finished product in the pot:

Plated:

Lucy didn’t have any-her appetite has disappeared 🙁 She has croup poor thing.  Shaun took his first bite and said “Wow this is AWESOME!” Later I asked him to rate it and he said 3 stars.  I asked how something could be awesome and then only get 3 stars.  His response? “It’s chicken.”  So many people comment on how Shaun will eat anything.  No one believes me when I tell them his particular. Do you believe me?

On Sunday I threw together a soup using a bunch of stuff from my cupboards.  It wasn’t supposed to be a soup originally but I changed my mind mid recipe.  It was seriously good and easy.

Ingredients:

-Tri Tip

-1 TBSP Paprika

-2 TBSP Montreal Steak Seasoning

-S+P

-1 Box Chicken Broth

-2 Cans of Navy Beans, drained

-1 Can Chopped Tomatoes with Roasted Garlic

-1 Can No-Salt Corn

I took a big hunk of tri tip that I had in my freezer from Lu’s birthday party-probably around 1.5 pounds and put that into the crock pot frozen.  I topped it with the seasonings and a little chicken broth.  Cook on low for 4 hours. 

I added the rest of the ingredients (including all the broth) and cooked on low for an additional 2 hours.  I had envisioned the meat shredding but that didn’t happen.  So I took it out and that end and sliced thin pieces of meat (like Carne Asada) and added it back to the soup.  I think the sliced beef ended up much better than shredded beef would have been.

I topped mine with Fage and Avocado.  Shaun got Sour Cream, Avocado, and Cheese on his.  I think it would have been great with some corn chips too.

Lucy gave it a “mmmm-mmmm-mmm-mmm” and Shaun gave it 3 stars-big praise from a man who claims to “HATE soup”.