Pineapple Crock Pot Chicken

** This is an experiment based on recommendations from my almost ten-year-old **

In the crockpot on high about 6 hours:

- frozen chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)

- 16 ounces sweet and sour sauce

- 20 ounces crushed pineapple

- about 1/2 cup strong homemade chicken stock

- 1/2 cup water

- about 2-3 tablespoons ras el hanout

(I don't like this sweet and sour sauce. The ras el hanout is an attempt to make the flavor less sweet.)

- 2-3 tablespoons garlic pepper

When I got home from work, I added about 2 cups water and another 1/2 cup chicken stock. 

It was good. Definitely sweet, but not syrupy. Different.

Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

We're throwing a whole chicken in the crockpot, though we didn't take the guts out before we froze it. So, now, despite taking it out and putting it in the fridge yesterday, it was a wrestling match of man vs chicken to get the organs.

The sauce I'm starting with is the juice from one large can of pineapple chunks, some brown sugar and some low sodium soy sauce. I will throw the pineapple in and set the crock pot on low for about eight hours.

I also added some local raw honey.

Super veggie vegan chili

Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards are certainly getting very bare.

So, I started chili.

My chili is always bland or five-alarm delicious. Maybe if I followed a recipe, this wouldn't happen.

Today's batch:

In my Le Creuset pot I boiled and then simmered for one hour:
- one can petit diced tomatoes
- one can sliced carrots
- about 1/2 a big can of pineapple chunks ( and the juice)
- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- way more cocoa than I intended (about 1/4 cup)
- similar amounts of chili powder
- 1 teaspoon hot indian chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- about 1 cup frozen spinach

Stir every 15 minutes.

Add:
- 1 can reduced sodium black beans (rinsed, drained)
- 1 can reduced sodium red kidney beans (rinsed, drained)
- the equivalent of 2 cans mysterious beans from the freezer (pinto? Not labeled. Don't remember)
- 1 cup water.

Boil. Pour into crockpot. High for an hour. Low for the rest of the day. Add water if needed.

Finally marinaded the pork

Last week, I posted an idea for a meal. Finally started it today. Now, it's raining and I fully expect to not be able to grill it. But here's what I did in prep.

Ingredients:
- 5 thin pork chops
- black olives
- 1 red and 1 green pepper
- 1 can pineapple slices.

I layered the meat in the bottom of a large bowl, then I added the olives. Next I arranged thick long slices of pepper. I poured the juice from the pineapple over all of it and placed the pineapple on top.

I covered and put in fridge.

Will update when I finally cook it.

Meal idea

So, last week I bought thin pork chops on sale thinking they would be perfect for the grill. I have green pepper, red pepper and potatoes left from an earlier meal.

I thought I'd slice the peppers in big pieces, mix them into pineapple, add black olives and throw the meat in there to marinade.

But all week, life kept thwarting my plan. Today I finally put the pork in the freezer. I still hope to prepare this meal. In my head, I have it all figured out.

I'm going to chunk the leftover potatoes and line the vegetable basket with them. Then I'll top with the pineapple-pepper-olive mixture and grill the chops outside of the basket.

If you try this before I do, let me know how it turns out.

Perfumed Pineapple Oat Crumble

This is a favorite from the French cookbook my friend Jessica brought me. The original attempt (with way too much butter after the conversion from metric and translation) is here:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/perfumed-pineapple-crumble-crumble.html?m=0

I did some alterations today, trying to make it heartier/healthier.

Ingredients:
- 2 small pineapples
- real vanilla
- brown sugar
- butter
- flour
- oats

Cut the pineapple and 'perfume' with about 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Grease dish with butter. I used my Le Creuset skillet today.

Sprinkle with brown sugar. The original suggests 3 tablespoons. I didn't measure.

Arrange pineapple in the bottom of the dish.

Make sandy crumbs with remaining ingredients. The recipe suggests 2 more teaspoons vanilla, 2 cups flour and 2 cups brown sugar. And butter -- at room temperature.

I tried:
- vanilla
- one cup unbleached flour
- one cup oats
- one cup brown sugar
- 1/2 stick butter

Cover pineapple with crumbs and bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Almost vegan chili

A batch of chili is something that can never be the same twice. Not in my house.

I started with a Le Creuset cassoulet with a tablespoon or two of canola oil and a pinch of minced garlic. I added the following spices, while the pot heated over medium-high:
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon Indian chili powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa

Added:
- one 15 or so ounce can of Italian seasoned tomatoes

Heated to boiling.

Added 2 grated carrots.

Boiled.

Added about 20 ounces of Pacific Foods organic Homestyle tomato soup. And about 1/4 cup diced pineapple in juice. (a single serving cup I got on clearance on Target)

Boiled, covered, simmer for an hour.

Now, I'm adding three varieties of beans: 1 pound red kidney, about 10 ounces black and 10 or so ounces of white. I made all of these from dry beans, which is why I added the soup for liquid. The Betty Crocker recipe suggests using the sludge from canned beans.

Sandwiches and salad

Got an applewood smoked ham quarter for $3 at Target. It's certainly not a quality ham or a big ham, but it's sliced for sandwiches and has 1.66 pounds. I heated it with water in the crock pot.

We made sandwiches on bagels from NY Bagel & Deli in the 25th Street shopping plaza, leftover mozzarella from Calandra's in Nazareth, and that kale-zucchini-cream cheese dip from Lost Gourmet at the Pheonixville Farmers Market yesterday.

We served with an Asian style salad that began life as a Fresh Express Very Veggie with some greens and sorrel from my garden, dried peas, dried pineapple, cucumber and Newman's Own Ginger Sesame dressing.

Simply Asia Sesame Noodles

We're having a processed but augmented vegan lunch. Simply Asia Sesame Noodles with broccoli (tiny cut) and pineapple added. Daughter has an ear infection again, so we're getting her off dairy again.

Picked these mixes up at Target since after the burn incident (second degree burn on my hip from boiling water), my husband would like to handle the cooking.

These were fantastic and the pineapple and broccoli were so welcome in my belly.

Pineapple Smoothie

The flavor on this one is incredible, but the mouth feel odd. I didn't want to blend the pudding to a liquid, so as a consequence, the tapioca provides chunks and the fresh pineapple provides strands.

In the blender:
- about 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
- 1/2 cup very vanilla soy milk
- 1 cup tapioca pudding

Salad experiment

Looking for a quick soothing lunch, I grabbed some bagged salad from the fridge, the last four Morningstar Chikn nuggets and some dried pineapple.

For the dressing, I opted for experimentation: equal parts of Archer Farm Buffalo Blue Cheese Dip, light mayonnaise and creamy Ceasar dressing.

We liked it.

Asian inspired salad

Tonight my husband started and I finished these Asian-inspired salads. Bagged salad with carrot, cabbage and lettuces. Cashews. Sunflower seeds. Dried pineapple. Wegmans Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette. Green pepper from the garden. These would have been vegan, but my husband added cheddar and extra sharp provolone.

Broccoli slaw

I bought broccoli slaw at wegmans to use as filling for egg rolls and forgot the egg roll wrappers. I decided to prepare a cold broccoli slaw salad using this dressing from Cooks.com:

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. Miracle Whip
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. vinegar

But we all know I won't stick to the recipe so let's see what I throw in my pot.

- left the sugar at 1/2 cup because my family doesn't like vinegar, so the sugar will balance that.
- not quite 1/2 cup Miracle whip (the Aldi kind)
- oil: split 50/50 between olive and canola, with a tablespoon of walnut
- vinegar: 50/50 apple cider vinegar and champagne vinegars

Now, the recipe says to heat until combined and add nuts, golden raisins, carrots etc. as desired.

I have 12 ounces of broccoli slaw, which is strips of broccoli [stem], carrots and red cabbage. I'm going to use some really good peanuts I have and chopped some of my dried pineapple. I don't know if I'll add anything else. Probably sunflower seeds.

Chill 1 hour before serving.

Okay, so I ended up adding three grated organic carrots and I probably could have added more. I added about 1.5 cups unsalted kettle cooked peanuts, about 1 cup sunflower seeds (unsalted), about 1/4 cup raisins, 2 dried pineapple rings chopped into tiny squares.

This could easily be vegan if you use a soy mayonnaise instead of Miracle whip style product.

I ate THREE servings. Got my veggies for the day.

Honeyed Fruit

As I was prepping the fruit salad yesterday, at the last minute I decided to make white wine-honey sauce for it. It's a French recipe I found online for a dinner party, that depending on the dryness of the wine used to make the sauce can be enjoyable for children and adults alike. But that's if you use a sweet wine, like a Vouvray. I, in this case, used a dry Reisling made by a friend. (I save my old wine bottles for him and he returns one from the batch filled with home brew.)

My original experience with this recipe can be found here:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/04/fruit-salad-with-honey-wine-dressing.html

I thought yesterday's version was worth noting, in part because of the local nature of some of the ingredients. The honey was local honey and the wine, as I mentioned, came from a friend.

This is the list of ingredients for the sauce:
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons plus two teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

It's all supposed to be mixed in the blender. I used a measuring glass and a whisk. And I didn't use as much sugar. I never do. After you mix it, you're supposed to chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes. I slapped mine in the freezer for ten.

My fruits, as mentioned in the earlier post about this meal, were the leftovers of a fresh pineapple, a banana and the last of my strawberries sliced.

What was leftover, I let soak in the fridge (with some sauce left in reserve and I'm thinking ice cream). That became my breakfast this morning.

Thin Broccoli Quiche

So, today I made a thin quiche for lunch. The egg filling was four eggs and about 1 1/4 cup of milk. I sprayed the bottom of my pie dish with cooking spray and coated with fresh broccoli, about 1/3 teaspoon four color pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, and thorough sprinkles across the broccoli of grated romano from Calandras.

I baked it at 425 for 12 minutes, then lowered the temp to 300 for the next twenty, keeping an eye on it because it's so thin.

This will accompany a fruit salad made from the last of the pineapple, the leftover strawberries and a big banana.

Salad will be served, but it's slightly wilted. My husband will still eat it.

Breakfast(s)

So, breakfast # 1 was cream of wheat made with 2% organic milk, a glass of water and a cup of coffee.

Breakfast #2, in search of protein and fruit, was a glass of unsweetened sun tea, leftover perfumed pineapple and a serving of cashews.

We have minimal fresh veggies, no fresh fruit and no fruit juice. This will be rectified over the weekend.

Another batch of chili

So... It's raining. I'm making a batch of chili.

I started with one idea and due to my mistakes ended up with quite another.

I started with a partial teaspoon of olive oil, some garlic powder and some diced tomatoes. I added four color pepper, Italian seasoning, a pinch of cumin, a teaspoon of chili powder, and I meant to add a pinch of Indian chili seasoning but I ended up with closer to a teaspoon. Oops!

So I added almost two teaspoons of cocoa powder and another can of diced tomatoes, this one Italian style, and more garlic. Then I added a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. I boiled it for about 15 minutes, then simmered it for an hour and added two cans of no salt added dark red kidney beans, one can light kidney beans, and one can black beans.

I made the cornbread dumplings to go with the chili, and I didn't have enough milk, so I reduced the amount of milk, added some water (do-it-yourself skim milk) and a little extra canola oil.

VERDICT: The chili wasn't spicy and because I cooked the pineapple and tomatoes together for a couple hours, everything more or less melted into one flavor. And the flavor was very rich and despite the lack of spice still had taste.

Now the dumplings took over the pot, but they were yummy, even if it was hard to find the chili underneath.

Perhaps my best batch of chili ever.

Said to my husband, I probably won't be able to replicate it, but then he said I probably wouldn't try...

This is the link to only the three recipes I usually blend to make my chili:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/five-alarm-chili.html

All my chili-related recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili

Pineapple Pork with Apples

So, tonight I decided to make pork with apples because I needed to make something in my Le Creuset skillet and this is a good winter dish.

Here are all my pork recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/pork

Here is my original post on pork with apples:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork-with-apples.html
(It doesn't look good because that was early in my food styling career)

Tonight I started with two one-inch boneless pork chops and had my husband slice them into stir-fry stips. I browned them in butter and added about 3/4 teaspoon rosemary from my freezer. I added about 1/2 cup sweetened pineapple sauce I had in the freezer after my last poire tartin. Then I added about 1/2 teaspoon organic four color pepper and one cup white grape juice and a handful of brown sugar and 1/2 cup mustard-- in my case about 1/3 cup plain yellow mustard and the rest brown horseradish mustard. Boil then return to a simmer. Finally, add one large green apple sliced. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens.

Tonight I'm serving over chow mein noodles.

When I tasted the sauce in the pan, I wasn't very keen on the lingering flavor of the juice. But with the meat, the apples and the chow mein noodles it was yummy. The chow mein noodles are definitely the perfect texture to serve with this meal.

Breakfast

Yesterday for breakfast my husband made these little sandwiches. Today for breakfast, we're having fresh pineapple and gingerbread cookies... It looks like lunch will be commercial spinach asiago artichoke dip with crackers. I am very excited to report that my good friend Jessica gave me an adorable round cheese board and some cheese utensils for Christmas. This will be the family single cheese board, since my new slate cheese board is cumbersome and difficult to wash.

Oh, and my mother-in-law thanked me yesterday for Thanksgiving and commented on how nice it was. My sister-in-law mentioned that she's a tad disappointed no one is making pancakes for the family Christmas morning. I said I would gladly make her pancakes if she came to my house. My mother-in-law interpreted this to mean I would make breakfast for anyone who wanted it. So, we'll see...

Starting chili

We got about a foot of snow... okay, it's probably more like eight or so inches. But that makes me want something hot and stew-like. Beef bourgogne would be fabulous, but working with what I have on hand, it looks like chili. And if I can gather the ingredients, I'd like to make the kind with cornbread dumplings...

If this link works, it should take you to my previous chili recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili
If not the link in the labels below for chili should help...

But let's see today...

• about a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• about one and a half cups browned hamburger crumbles from the freezer
• one clove garlic coarsely chopped
• about 3/4 teaspoon Indian chili powder
• about one teaspoon pizza and pasta seasoning
  

That's sizzling in the pan. I added:

• almost two cups Wegmans vegetable stock

As I wait for that to boil, I'm debating between Hunts Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes or the cheap Italian style from Aldi... I'm thinking fire-roasted.

• One can Hunts Fire Roasted tomatoes

Waiting for that to boil. I'm going to boil it for about 10 minutes to reduce some of the vegetable stock. Then I'll simmer covered for about an hour. I added:

• one tablespoon cocoa powder
• about a half teaspoon four color organic peppercorns

I let it cook for about 30 minutes and seeing how it reduced down, I added:

• 1 cup thai broth (also Wegmans, I had it in the freezer)
  

Perusing my chili recipes, I'm thinking this calls for:

• one can (15.5 ounces) light red kidney beans
• one can dark red kidney beans

(I'm out of black. I love black beans.) I'm still debating whether to add corn and/or pineapple. It all depends on the flavor.

Well, my goal is always to make chili that has a nice flavor but isn't too spicy for the child. I usually only succeed in making either bland chili or five-alarm chili. Today, it seems like this concoction is three-alarm chili. So I added:

• 20 ounces crushed pineapple (minus a couple ounces for the tortoise)

Smells and looks great.