My husband and I decided to buy a slow-cooker sometimes last year (sounds so weird saying that!) I think we bought it in September, or early October. When it got home, it sat, half opened, in our den for months, until I FINALLY decided to wash it and use it toward the end of December.
I was inspired because I play on this website for people who are pregnant and there was a huge discussion about freezing foods before the baby comes, which is something I actually want to do. Someone recommended a website called OnceAMonthMom.com. It has a ton of recipes that can easily be made ahead of time and then frozen, and one of the sections is just for slow-cookers.
So I found this recipe for cranberry chicken. It looked interesting, and really easy, so I decided to try it. (FYI, the picture above is borrowed from the actual onceamonthmom.com website because I forgot to take a picture of MY chicken when we were eating it. Oops.)
I had been nervous about a slow-cooker for a long time. A few years ago my mother in law asked if we wanted one but I said no. I was afraid to leave it on during the day when I wasn't home... what if it went on fire?? But, I caved. Granted, the first recipe I made, I was home. And for the next few, I probably will set it up while we are home on the weekends so at least I can see the progress. For example, we ended up turning the slow-cooker off a little earlier than the recipe said because we halved the portion and we saw that everything was fully cooked a little earlier. So I just have to learn to adjust when not making a full batch, or set up one of my automatic timers on the outlet where the slow-cooker is plugged in to.
The only thing I changed about the recipe was not using cranberry sauce. I buy this cranberry-apple spread from trader Joe's that I LOVE so I wanted to use that instead. My dish came out tasty, except it wasn't SUPER cranberry-ish. I think I probably should have just used cranberry sauce... or a little more of the spread than I did. Otherwise, everything went fine and it tasted delicious over rice!
So look out for more slow-cooker recipes from me (in fact, the next one I am making tomorrow is for pizza stew!! I can't wait!)
Also, starting next month I will be making a bunch of food to freeze so when the little boy is here, we don't have to worry about cooking for a while and just popping something into the oven. So if anyone has any ideas for recipes, feel free to pass them along too!!
And now, the recipe: (I halved it...but this is the full recipe)
Ingredients:
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 packet dried onion soup mix
1 cup Catalina or French salad dressing
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
Directions:
Place ingredients in a slow cooker. (It cracks me up that dumping everything in a pot is the only direction. I could get used to this!)
Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.
Serve over rice, if desired.
Here are all my ingredients in the pot, love it!
Hopefully I will master slow-cooking soon and have lots of tasty ideas! Until next time, fellow eaters.
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