Crockpot

Sunday Dinner: Asian Style

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A few Sundays ago, if you follow me on instagram you know I made
a boat load of wontons. What you don’t know is that I made an entire Asian
inspired Sunday dinner that day. I meant to post it last week, but life got in
the way, it happens.

Regardless, I spent a peaceful afternoon watching New Girl and
folding these little babies. I used this recipe pretty much to a tee (Check this
girl out she knows what’s up), because let’s be honest I have no clue what I’m
doing here with most Asian flavors, aside from soy sauce. The one main difference
is that I followed the instructions on the back of the wontons package to
create the shape you see. These came out magnificent! I loved them! Like totally
completely loved them, and have big plans to make them again in the future,
maybe with a few more changes/additions. I did however get uber fancy and make
my own dipping sauce.

Wonton Dipping Sauce

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp sesame seeds for garnish

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl and serve.

In addition to these guys I made Korean Style Beef in the crockpot.
It was totally inspired by this recipe, also from Damn Delicious, she’s
totally my new food blog crush can you tell? Anyway I wanted to make something
that was clean, so I took her photos, and general idea and made it my own. It
came out AWESOME! I am seriously proud of this one. It’s super easy and healthy
what more can you ask for? It’s definitely going into the I-have-to-work-too-late-to-cook-anything
rotation.

Clean Crockpot Korean Style Beef

1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp raw honey

1 tbsp sesame sauce

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

½ tsp ground ginger

2 lbs lean beef roast, trimmed of visible fat

10 mini sweet peppers, sliced thin

1 cup broccoli florets (optional)

Sesame seeds for garnish

In a small bowl combine soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, red
pepper flakes, and ginger. Place roast in slow cooker and pour the mixture over
the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Remove the
roast from the slow cooker and shred the beef before returning it to the pot
with its juices and mini peppers and broccoli florets. Cook on high for another
30 minutes. Stir well and serve immediately.

To round out this meal I also added a little side salad of
bagged Asian slaw, simply because I felt more vegetables were required, and
after making all of the wontons I knew I would be to fried to make something
else.

Hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. I’m also wondering what your favorite kind of take out is. I would really like to come up with some more easy, and clean takes on traditional take out so please give me some ideas!!

Quick, Easy Clean: Crock Pot Chicken Broth

By Jessica

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Homemade chicken broth is the best kind of broth, that’s for
sure. It is so versatile that I use it nearly every day, but with a full time
job, and a social life finding time to spend hours simmering a pot of broth on
the stove is not always possible.

To be honest I feel silly for not having thought of this
before. There have been numerous time when my heart broke to have to throw out
an entire chicken carcass; it’s just a complete waste. But now I have the
perfect solution; the crock pot.

I usually roast my chicken in a crock pot anyway, for the
same reasons I don’t always make broth (my busy life), so why not make the
broth in a crock pot?

On this particular occasion I had roasted an entire chicken
for the sole reason to supply Chuck with lunch meat. When I see whole chicken
for sale for less than a dollar, you can bet that always buy one sometimes 2 or
3. You cannot beat that price for a couple dinners and/or a week’s worth of
lunches.

Roasting a chicken in a crock pot is pretty easy, I just rub
it and stuff it with whatever spices are on my mind at the time with (usually 2
tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp curry, and stuffed ½ an
onion and a couple cloves of garlic), line the pot with tinfoil, as shown
below, and put it on low for 8 hours. Once it’s done its edible, but I like the
crispy skin and carmelization that you get from roasting, so I use the tin foil
to transfer the chicken over to a roasting pan and pop it in the oven at 425
for 20-30 minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy.

Now since I was just planning on using it for lunches I used
the tin foil to transfer it to a cutting board where I could break it down more
easily. Everything that isn’t going into sandwiches or salads goes back into
the crockpot, along with some other things of course; the recipe is below for
all of that.

Finding time to make old recipes, and homemade food work in
this busy modern life is truly a wonderful blessing that makes my heart happy.

Crock Pot Chicken Broth

1 leftover chicken Carcass (or bones), meat removed

1 onion chopped (leave the peel on)

1 rib of celery

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 sprig fresh parsley

1 sprig of fresh thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 bay leaves

Place all ingredients in the crock pot and cover with water
(leaving at least ½” at the top). Place the crock pot on low for 8-10 hours;
Once cooked pass the stock through a fine sieve to remove the leftover herbs,
bones and pieces. At this point you may simmer on the stovetop for 30 minutes
to an hour to further reduce, or use as is. It can remain refrigerated for
roughly 5 days, or frozen for later use.

Random Side note: DO NOT leave the butter Dish next to the
crock pot while it is doing its thing. I have done this at least 3 times
recently, and it never ends well.

Crock Pot Pesto Chicken

By Jessica

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This might be the easiest recipe ever. It has only a handful of ingredients, most of which I can pull out of my freezer and pantry at any time. It can be made on the stove top, oven or in the crock pot. I have been so busy lately and this is one of those last minute recipe wonders that helps me keep my life together.

You will notice there are a list of necessary ingredients as well as a list of optional ingredients. This is because I use what I have on hand at the time, and what is in season. I have also added some random vegetables such as carrot, and squash with varying results. I suggest you experiment and find out what works best for your particular tastes.

Crock Pot Pesto Chicken

Necessary Ingredients

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tbs prepared Pesto

1 can cream of chicken soup

Prepared starch of choice

Optional Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

1-2 cups of baby spinach

2 large tomatoes, deseeded and chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

For the Crock Pot

Place all necessary ingredients in a large crock pot. At this time also add onion, and red pepper if desired. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Once it is cooked use a fork to pull chicken apart, and stir in spinach. Turn the crock pot on high for an additional few minutes until the spinach wilts. Serve over prepared rice or pasta and top with tomato.

For the Oven

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all necessary ingredients in a large baking pan. At this time also add onion, and red pepper if desired. Place in the oven for roughly 45 minutes, or until the chicken juices run clear. Once it is cooked use a fork to pull chicken apart, and stir in spinach. Place back in the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes, or until the spinach wilts. Serve over prepared rice or pasta and top with tomato.

For the Stove Top

Cut the chicken into 1-2 inch pieces. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté onion and chicken until the onion has softened and the chicken has become opaque (10 minutes or so). Add in the red pepper, pesto, and condensed chicken soup, cook for 5 minutes or so, stirring continuously. Next add the spinach and allow it to wilt 1-2 minutes. Serve warm over starch of your choice and topped with tomato.

See how versatile?

Crockpot

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