Lemon Garlic Chicken Crock Pot Recipe

Who doesn’t love cooking in the crockpot?? I mean, come on people, it is so easy and everything comes out so moist and delicious. You have absolutely no excuse not to get one. Of course, now that I’ve rejoined the working world I enjoy mine more and more. Luckily I have lots of recipes already on my Pinterest so I pulled this one out the other night. BTW, two things you need to do….get a crockpot and join Pinterest! I have found so many great recipes there. It’s awesome.

As I was saying, I love a great crockpot recipe, but a super flavorful one and I am even happier. This one is really garlicky (which I love) and a little zesty too. But wait, that’s not all, it’s also really low fat. The site I found this on claims it’s only 3 Weight Watchers points per serving. Now that’s a bargain!



Ingredients:

 - 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I didn’t have breast so I used thighs instead. I seem to always buy those instead)
- 10 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth
- 1/4 cup lemon pepper seasoning (I cut this back by half, but do as you wish)
- 4 tbsp paprika (I also thought that was a lot so I cut it in half, but do whatever floats your boat)
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tsp lemon zest



Directions:

 Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Mix together the lemon pepper seasoning, paprika and salt. Coat the chicken with the spice mixture. Place the coated chicken in the crock pot and cover with the fat free chicken broth, garlic cloves, parsley and onions and lemon zest. 

Cook on low heat for about 3-4 hours (or until done).


I served with a little whole wheat pasta with garlic, olive oil and kale. A very delicious and healthy meal!

Apple Pecan Pie w/Caramel drizzle - so delicious!

I love apple pie! Not just any pie, only Apple pie. Don't be trying to make me eat cherry or lemon or keylime, APPLE is the only pie I like and nothing will ever come between us. If apple pie is listed on a dessert menu, especially apple crumb pie,  I'm getting it! I love the cumbly topping. Yummers! This is my dad's recipe and when I first tasted it, I knew I had died and gone to heaven. It is seriously the best apple pie you will ever taste. I'm not kidding! I have tasted many apple pies and this really is the best one. It has a lot of pecans added and the caramel sauce just puts it over the top. It is so dang delicious. I have some apples at home from a recent apple picking trip and I believe an apple pie is in my future! Are you ready to learn how to make the best apple pie on the planet?? Let's get started:

Filling:

5 sliced and peeled apples

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup brown sugar (dark or light – I use light)

4 Tablespoons white sugar

4 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/3 cup caramel topping

1 deep shell pie crust

3 Tablespoons melted butter

Topping:

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup chopped pecans

¼ cup sugar

6 T butter (melted)

1/3 cup caramel topping

Toss sliced apples with vanilla. In separate bowl combine pecans, sugars, cornstarch and cinnamon; add to apples and toss to coat apples. Drizzle caramel sauce over bottom of pie shell.  Pour in apple mixture. Drizzle with melted butter.

Combine flour, pecans and sugar. Pour in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 65 minutes or until  browned. Drizzle with caramel while still hot. Cool on wire rack.

What's better than one pie?? TWO pies!

Hearty Veggie Soup

It’s getting colder so it’s getting time for some great soup recipes! We love good soup around here! Well, who likes bad soup?? I’ve already made chicken noodle soup, the hubby’s favorite, now time for my favorite, a yummy veggie soup with pasta. Mmmm....mmmmmm.....good. This really is a great recipe. It’s very hearty and healthy. What’s better than that, right? Thanks again to Pinterest I found the start of a good recipe. I found a couple of recipes that I liked, combined a few ingredients, added a few of my own and viola, you have the perfect veggie soup recipe. You are so welcome. I am here to make things easier on you. This is your one stop blog for the best recipes ever! Yes, I am just a bit prejudiced on that. Can you blame me though? I’ve really made some yummy things. I’m not bragging. Trust me, I’m still amazed that  I even attempted some of these recipes! If I did it, you can do it too. Want to know how to make a delicious vegetable soup?? Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 carrots, finely chopped

4 ribs celery, finely chopped

1 onion, diced

2 zucchini, diced

3 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chicken stock

1 Tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves

1 Tablespoon thyme

2 bay leaves

handful fresh parsley

2 cup pasta shells

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound ground turkey

Directions:

Brown turkey in a separate pan. While meat is browning, in a large pot, over medium heat, cook onions, celery and carrots until soft. Put the lid on and cook about 20-30 minutes (that’s how long it took mine to get good and soft). We want those veggies to get good and soft. Remember, no crunchy veggies in our soup!

Such a pretty veggie medley

Add zucchini and garlic and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until squash is soft.

Stir in rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and stir. Add can tomatoes, meat and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

How pretty does that look??? Yummers!

Add pasta, cook about 10 minutes or until pasta is done.

Add fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

You can also make this soup without the meat and it will be just as delicious. I needed to add the meat for the hubby. He might wonder what’s up if I serve him a meal without meat! :-)

Braised Ribs

My friend, Giada, taught me how to make Braised Ribs back when I used to get to watch the Food Network every day. I miss those days. Why do we all have to work anyway?? We’ll ponder that another day. I have made them many times since. This is one of the husbands’ favorite dinners now. He’s always loved Country Style Ribs, but braising them is just the icing on the cake. It takes a lot of time, but it is well worth it. You can use beef short ribs, but using bone in country style ribs is the bomb! I love when your entire dinner is all in one pot too! The broth this creates is awesome so you’ll want to spoon that over the ribs and veggies. Save it, it's Delish!

 

 

Here’s how you can make this delicious dinner:

 

 

Ingredients
 

4-6 Country Style Ribs, bone in

2-3 celery ribs, largely diced

3-4 carrots, largely diced

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

red wine (about 1/4-1/2 cup)

2 bay leaves

bunch fresh thyme

1 spring rosemary

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

About 2 cups chicken stock

Olive oil

 

 

Directions

While you are chopping veggies, brown ribs on stove top in Dutch oven and remove.

Heat about 2 T olive oil in Dutch oven, then add diced celery, carrots, onion, tomatoes and sauté. Add 2 cloves garlic after veggies soften. Stir and add 2 T of tomato paste. Again, the squeeze tube is the best invention ever!

Once veggies have softened, deglaze with red wine, just a bit.  Sprinkle red pepper flakes over veggies, add bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Add meat back to pot and pour in chicken stock until it is about half way up the meat. Do not cover it totally.

Bring to a simmer on stovetop then cover and put in 350 degree oven. Cook 2 hours with lid on.

Take it out and enjoy one of the best dinners of your life! Yes, it splatters and gets the Dutch oven all dirty, but it sure is worth it! So yummy!

Dinner at 525 at The Berry Burk

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about one of my fabulous dinners. I usually post my pics directly to Facebook and forget to come back and blog about them. Ironically, my food pics are the reason I started this blog but got carried away with cooking as a result. Let’s get back to Dawn’s Blogalicious’ roots!

 

My dinner club tried out a new restaurant in Richmond, 525 at The Berry Burk. It is in the old Berry Burk building, across from the Carpenter Center. It is such a great space. If you live in Richmond, you know how hard it is to find a restaurant that has more than 10 tables or that will even take reservations for a party less than six.  Most of the restaurants downtown and in the Fan are very small. This one is a very large space, you’ll forget your downtown. Well, you’d forget except for the large windows surrounding you. It really was a great space. I know I don’t usually write like I’m writing a restaurant review, but if you live in Richmond, you know how hard it is to find a nice space to take a larger group. Okay, enough about the space, the food was awesome too!

 

They have lots of small plates, which made me happy because I got to sample a few things. I really loved everything I tried. I will definitely go back! I couldn’t really decide between a few plates so Amy and I decided to split a started appetizer so we could both get the scallops. They sounded awesome, and didn’t disappoint.

 

We started with the Fried Pork Pot Stickers which were yummy! Don’t you think they look yummy in their photo? I do love a pot sticker and these were crunchy which made them even better.

 

Then we moved onto to the best dish of the evening! This caught the attention of everyone at the table…..Seared Sea Scallops with Sweet Pea Lobster Risotto! What’s that you say? Scallops AND you’re going to throw lobster into my risotto??  This dish lived up to the hype. The scallops were cooked perfectly (Chef Ramsey would be proud), but the risotto was really surprising. I mean, I love risotto, but I didn’t think this one would be out of this world. It was super flavorful! You might not be attracted to a normal sweet pea risotto, but throw some lobster in there and it just because delectable! Highly recommend this dish.

 

And of course we had to finish the night with a few desserts. I went for the obvious choice, Motlen Lava Chocolate Cake. Everything you expect it to be, except they went one step farther with the nutella whip cream….delish! The other girls tried out the Crème Brulee and Bourbon & Pecan Bread Pudding. They seemed pretty happy as well.

 

Perfect evening…..a great meal shared with great friends. We’ll definitely hit this place again!