Spicy Honey Terriyaki Chicken

Our church time changed to 11 o'clock this year. I love it because I no longer have little kids at home where this time ruins their nap times. The best part is that I get to SLEEP IN! I LOVE this! With the long shifts I work plus working two jobs and going to school it never feels like I get enough sleep. However, this time also means we miss lunch and everyone comes home from church hungry. This is a meal I can throw in the crock pot in the morning and have ready to eat when we get home. It's a life saver to be able to do this - there is nothing more whiny than a bunch of hungry boys!

 

Spicy Honey Terriyaki Chicken 

1 medium onion, sliced thin

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast

2 Tbsp. garlic paste

2 tsp. ginger paste 

1/4 c. soy sauce

1/4 c. honey

1 c. chicken broth

1 tsp. crushed red pepper

1 tsp. black pepper

3 Tbsp. corn starch

3 Tbsp. water

Put the chicken, garlic, and ginger in a large crock pot and cover with onions. Pour the soy sauce, honey, and chicken broth over the chicken. Sprinkle with the red and black pepper. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours or until the chicken is cooked through. In a small bowl, stir the corn starch and water together. Pour in the crock pot with the chicken and stir, shredding chicken into large pieces. Cover and cook for 30 minutes on high or until the mixture is thickened. Serve over rice or noodles. 

Waffles

My kids are in love with waffles. Especially these waffles, which kind of boggles my mind because they like them even more than the chocolate waffles. Go figure. It's what I get for having boys instead of girls.

 

Waffles

1 3/4 c. flour - I use half white flour and half whole wheat

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 3/4 c.milk

1/2 c. oil

2 eggs

Combine the milk, oil, and eggs and a medium bowl. Add in flour and baking powder. Stir to combine just until the dry ingredients are mixed in. The batter should still be a little lumpy. Pour batter into a lightly greased waffle iron and bake following the manufacturer's instructions. 

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

I am not a great cookie decorator - I have a friend who does that for me. But once in awhile I get my stuff out and make my poor attempts. This time, I totally cheated. Let's face it: cleaning up all the decorating stuff is a pain, and a pain I'd rather not do. Even with disposable decorating bags... well, I cheated. For this, I put the frosting in a baggie, flooded the cookie, piped on the snowflake, and tossed the baggies away. Easy. Minimal clean up. Perfect. Even if I'm not that great at decorating.

 

Frosting

3 Tbsp. butter, softened

3 c. powdered sugar

2-3 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. almond extract

Mix the butter, powdered sugar, almond, and 1 Tbsp. milk together in a bowl. Add additional milk as needed to get it the consistency you want. If you are adding liquid coloring be sure to add it before all the milk as it will thin your frosting. I use gel coloring which doesn't thin. Just don't use very much because it can really color (this snowflake was intended to be a LIGHT blue...).

Cheesy Garlic Bread

My family loves to have pizza and movie night. We do it fairly frequently - like several times a month but not quite every week. I frequently make the pizza but we occasionally buy it from somewhere cheap. And then we get the cheesy, garlic bread, too. Yum! So, I was making pizza for us one night and figured that I could make the cheesy bread, too. It can't be that hard, right? Fortunately, I was right! And I had all that lovely pizza dough right there in front of me, so I used enough dough for one pizza (recipe here) and turned it into cheesy garlic bread.

 

Cheesy Garlic Bread 

dough for one pizza, recipe here

1/8 c. butter, melted

1 Tbsp. garlic paste

2 tsp. Pizza magic other seasoning you like

1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Roll dough out onto greased jelly roll pan. Mine was on the thick side because that's how I like it but you can make it as thin or thick as you want. Cut the dough with a pizza cutter. This makes it easy to pull apart when it's baked. Don't separate the pieces, only cut the dough. Add garlic to melted butter and stir. My local grocery store sells garlic paste in the produce section and I love to use that, but you can use fresh garlic, garlic salt, whatever form of garlic you like. Spread the butter/ garlic mixture over the dough. Sprinkle the seasoning over the butter, then sprinkle the cheese over all. Bake at 375 degrees 10-12 minutes. Baking time will depend on how thick you rolled your dough - thinner dough will cook faster. Keep an eye on it while it's baking. It's done when the edges turn golden brown.

Peanut Brittle

I love peanut brittle but hate paying for it. Some places charge a small fortune for something that is pretty easy to make yourself. Ok, I like to make it myself and probably not everyone does, but this just takes a little time and is so yummy! I remember when I was young I would ask my mom if I could make various types of candy and she always told me no because candy was too tricky. Well, I haven't found it to be all that difficult but I can't say that I like having my own kids around the super hot liquids home made candy involves. And I do recommend using a good candy thermometer when you make candy. Anyway, give it a try and see what you think!

 

Peanut Brittle

2 c. sugar

1 c. Karo syrup

1/4 c. butter

1.2 c. water

2 1/2 c. peanuts

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

 Cover two cookie sheets with aluminum foil and coat with a light coating for cooking spray. Set aside. Use the butter to coat the sides of a heavy, large saucepan. Put the remaining butter in the pan and add the sugar, Karo, and water. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until it begins to boil. Once it boils, clip the candy thermometer to the side and continue stirring until the mixture reaches 275 degrees (soft-crack stage if you like the stages). Add the peanuts and stir. Continue stirring until the temperature reaches 295 degrees. Remove the pan from the heat and add baking soda. Stir it in quickly and pour the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheets. Allow the peanut brittle to cool and break into pieces. Store tightly covered (I use a ziplock bag). 

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Freezer dinners are a huge help to me and I usually have several in my freezer for my family to use on nights I work late or on days when I feel out of time. Freezer dinners to throw in the crock pot and let cook all day are even better! When I get home from church or running errands, dinner is done and ready to serve. Perfect!

 

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts - I usually use 2 large breasts and put them in the bag frozen

16 oz. bag frozen chopped broccoli

32 oz. Alfredo sauce

1 green pepper, chopped

Dump everything in a gallon sized freezer bag. Label the bag before you put everything in - it's much easier to write on BEFORE the food goes in it. Trust me. I've tried it the other way. Squeeze the bag to get as much air out as possible before putting it in your freezer. 

Directions to write on the bag:

Thaw. Place in crock pot and cook on low 4-6 hours. Serve over noodles.

I serve this over egg noodles but any noodles will work. Shred the chicken while still in the crock pot before you serve it.