Beer Crockpot Chicken
Now that I have gotten in to attempting recipes, I’ve been trying to find things that I would like to cook. I really prefer to make desserts, but I also want to get better at cooking main dishes. I really enjoy cooking with the crockpot because it is so easy to put a bunch of ingredients in a pot and walk away. I got this recipe from My Daily Dish. I figured that I like chicken and I like beer so it HAS to be good!
Ingredients
1 whole chicken (according to the recipe I used, you can also use cut up pieces or 4-6 chicken breasts)
1 can of any kind of beer (I used a bottle of Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat because that’s what I had in the fridge)
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
I put all the ingredients in first and then added the whole chicken.
Cook in the crockpot on high for 3 – 4 hours or on low for 7 – 8 hours. I cooked it on high.
The recipe said you could also cook a frozen chicken, you just have to cook it longer.
Saltine cracker toffee
Ever since I made firecrackers, I’ve been looking for another recipe that I can make with saltine crackers. I found this recipe on Pinterest that looked really good. Anything with toffee and chocolate has to be good, right!? Tomorrow is our pot luck end of the school year party, so I figured this is a good a time as any to try and make this recipe that was pinned from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.
Ingredients:
40 salted saltine crackers…or as many that cover your pan
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips (I used the semi sweet)
(optional) 3/4 cup chopped pecans…since I’m making this for potluck, I didn’t use the pecans. You never know who is allergic.
Line up the crackers on a pan covered in foil or parchment paper
Mix the butter and brown sugar and bring to a boil.
After comes to a boil, let it boil for 3 more minutes.
Pour the mixture over the crackers and spread it as evenly as possible.
Bake at 400 degrees for 5 – 6 minutes. It will get bubbly.
Right when you take it out of the oven, put the chocolate chips on the mixture and let it begin to melt.
Spread the melted chocolate as evenly as you can over the saltine cracker/toffee mixture.
Let it all cool down completely and then break in to pieces.
These are really good. The chocolate kind of overpowers the toffee though. I think I used more than 2 cups of chips, so you may not want to use as much as I did. I also put them in the fridge to cool them down. I was in a hurry to try them!!
Pool time
Yesterday was Memorial Day so I was excited about going swimming. Instead of going to our neighborhood pool, we went over to my super athletic friend’s pool downtown. If you don’t have a friend with a pool downtown, I suggest you get one. The people watching is great because almost everyone is good looking at the pool. It was so much fun. We laid out for a few hours, then went across the street to Lamberts happy hour. They have all their appetizers half off. It’s amazing food. I suggest going there for sure.
Sparkly
Every summer I like to do something different. Last summer it was hair feathers. This year it’s going to be funky fingernails.
This was my inspiration!
Graduation Season!
I have decided that everyone I know must have had children in the same year. I must have gotten 20 high school graduation invitations this year. I am so proud of all of my friends’ children because it seems as everyone of them has excelled in their education. Yesterday, we went to Houston for a graduation party for one of my favorite young ladies. It seems like only yesterday her parents were getting married and now they have a daughter that is a high school graduate! It’s crazy how time flies. Despite her choice of where to go to college, I am so proud of her! She has become such a beautiful, responsible, caring, young lady! I know she is going to do well in her life!!
My favorite meal
Everyone that knows me knows that I LOVE nachos. I have even eaten nachos for breakfast before. I figured since I am eating them for dinner tonight, I would share my recipe with everyone. This is the moment that I’m sure EVERYONE has been waiting for!!!
Ingredients:
Chips
Cheese
You put chips on a plate. I prefer Tostito Rounds, but you can use any kind you want.
Put shredded cheese all over the chips. I use colby/jack pre-shredded cheese, but this time I didn’t have enough, so I also added sharp cheddar pre-shredded cheese. 
Put in microwave for 1 minute or until melted.
Voila! You have an instant meal!
Field Day
Today was field day at my work. I think this is the kids’ favorite day because they get to do all kinds of fun activities. This year our coach decided it would be a good year to have all the upper grade kids have water balloons. I went out to watch the kids as they have fun with the activities, when I saw a group of fifth graders walking up to me suspiciously. As they got closer, I noticed that they had something in their hands, so I took off running. I am really slow or they are really fast, but as they were gaining on me, they started throwing the water balloons at me. One bounced off my back and another hit the ground around me. I felt pretty confident that was it, so I started slowing down and that’s when it happened. WHAM!!! One hit me right in the back of the head. It must have hit JUST right because my whole back and my front managed to get soaked. We all got a huge laugh out of it! I love the kids at my school! They have such a good sense of humor!!
Couch to 5K
I am not a runner. I want to think I am, but I really am not. I get really motivated to start running, but I just don’t go as far or as fast as I want to and I end up getting discouraged and quit. Usually, this happens right about the time I get to the point when I can run two miles straight. I had finally decided I was going to give up on running and focus on being a walker when someone told me about the Couch to 5K app on the iPhone. About 2 weeks ago, I decided to give it a go. So far it has been an easy work out. It starts out with a 5 minute walk and then has you alternate walking and running. (I have been using the 5 minute walk time as a 5 minute jog time.) As the weeks go on, they add run time and minimize walk time. As of today, I have completed Week 3, Day 1 of the couch to 5K program. Since this starts out slowly and helps you build stamina, I feel like I may be able to keep this up. I guess we’ll have to see as the runs start getting longer if this is going to work for me!!
Climb for Air
Saturday I finally did the Climb for Air. I figured it would take me a minute a flight of stairs.To my surprise, the 33 flights of stairs or 660 stairs, only took me 8:07. But let me tell you, it was the hardest 8:07 of my life. But the third flight I was panting and had to start walking. It was crazy. I’m telling you, if I had any stairs near by, I’d start walking them. That was the best/hardest exercise I’ve ever done!!!! What was even crazier was firemen from around the area went in and did it wearing full gear. It took most of them about 5 minutes or less to climb to the top! I was so proud of my entire team. We did so good! I’m going to put this on my annual races, but next year I will try to train for it at least a little bit. 🙂
After the race, we went to Coal Vines on 2nd street. Three of us shared a sausage bell pepper pizza. I was a little leary of this because I usually only put cheese on my pizzas, but this was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten! I recommend this place to anyone. It wasn’t crazy expensive either!!
The fire fighters did the climb in full gear.
A fire fighter waiting to go in!
I’m about to climb THIS????
Two ambulances ready to serve…we saw several people going out on stretchers.
These guys are amazing!
I think this was just another day for them!
Really? WHY did I sign up for this?
This is the stairs I had to climb.
I saw this car in the parking garage as I was about to leave. It reminded me of being a kid.
What a beautiful building!
After the climb, we went to Coal Vines. Their wine wall was too cool!
This is one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten!
I can’t believe I did it!! That building is MINE!!! 🙂
Southwestern Chicken Cornbread Salad
This weekend I signed up to climb to the top of the Frost Building to raise money for the American Lung Association. You would think that knowing I’d be climbing about 33 flights of stairs that I would train a little bit for it. Nope. Not me. I have let it go until the last minute and now I am going to just have to do it. I’m really nervous, but I’m going to make it no matter what!! I’m not sure why I thought I would be better off making something to eat rather than training this week, but I found this and it seemed easy enough.
I got this recipe off Pinterest. I copied it exactly from the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. The only major prep to this was making the cornbread, grilling the chicken and dicing some of the vegetables. Other than that, it was an easy recipe to make!!
- 6 cornbread muffins, very dry, coarsely crumbled, divided… I used a box of jiffy cornbread muffins and just made it in a small dish
- 1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced ripe olives drained
- 1 (16 ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel sweet corn, drained
- 1 cup Hidden Valley® Spicy Ranch Dressing, divided
- 1 cup bell pepper, diced, assorted colors
- 2 chicken breasts, grilled*
- 1/2 cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
- In large clear salad bowl or trifle dish, layer half of the cornbread followed by olives, pinto beans and corn. Top with 1/2 cup of the dressing. Layer with bell pepper, chicken, onion, tomatoes, remaining cornbread and remaining dressing. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Fabulous after FIFTY 