What's the Dish?

what's the dish???

Hiya pals!  So, I am starting somethin' new.  I love to cook and people are always asking me for recipes.  I know there are like a billion recipe blogs out there.  I am not goin completely foodie on here yalls.  Once a week, I plan on sharing a meal.  

First, when I go to the grocery store, I am always looking for deals most especially on beef and chicken.  There are like a zillion things you can make.  You can never have too much beer or chicken... oh, and beef.  That was a clever typo.  You really can't have too much beer OR wine... or Captain... or Smirnoff.  BUT anyways, whenever I go to the store, I typically buy the family packs of chicken and beef and I try to go early in the mornings or even later evenings to the store because that's when I find the best markdowns on meat.  

When I get home, I will cook the hamburger ahead of time.  Usually when I use ground beef, I always need it crumbled up, so I go ahead and crumble it up and season it with salt and pepper.  ! Ppsst... I also dice up onion and add it to the beef when I cook it ;)  !   After it's cooked and drained, fill up a sandwich baggie of the crumbled meat.  I have found that one full sandwich baggie full of meat is equivalent to 1lb.  If you are one of those who makes a lot of Hamburger Helper, which always requires 1lb of beef... well, here ya go!  I then freeze them.  

With chicken, i have about the same process.  I will cut it in cubes and season with salt and pepper and put in plastic baggies.  I also bag 2 chicken breasts together, uncooked.  Another thing I do with chicken is bake it, put it in my kitchen aid mixer and shred it.  I fill up a baggie and whenever I want to use shredded chicken I have some already cooked and shredded!  I typically spend my Sundays preparing for meals through the week.  

Thank you to Pinterest, I have also started buying Mason jars.  If you buy a lot of fresh produce and hate to go to your fridge 3-5 days later and find your produce is already growing hair (or leaking... GAG!)... I have found that putting produce in a Mason jar will make your veggies go further.  So I cut up some of my veggies and put them in mason jars.  It works EXCELLENT for onions!  The smell from the onions do not escape and make your whole fridge smell oniony.  You don't have to use Mason jars either!  I have been saving and reusing pickle, salsa, spaghetti sauce jars and they work too!  

Fall time means crockpot time.  I use the hell outta my crockpot in the fall and winter.  Also, thanks to my Pinterest addiction, I have found MANY recipes on there to keep some variety in our meals.  I have particularly found myself freezing ingredients together in a freezer bag, then all I have to do is cut the baggie off and put the meal in the crockpot and WHA-LAH!  8hrs later, my house smells like I have slaved in the kitchen all day long when I have really been playing hot wheels and snuggling with my youngest spidermonkey!  

As a matter of fact, today my crockpot is cookin up the Teriyaki Chicken that I made ahead of time and froze last week.  It really smells so good in my house right now!  Plus it helps that I finally took out the trash which totally reeked of poo-poo diapers!

Please ignore my messy stove!  I had just made a frozen pizza and the crumbs were everyhere!

So, here is what you need for Teriyaki Chicken.  It makes 2 bags worth

2 sm bags baby carrots (seperate... one bag per meal)

1 lg red onion, chopped in large chunks (or if you like onions, get 2 and use one onion for each bag)

2 20oz cans pineapple w/juice (one can with juice per bag)

2 -4 chopped garlic cloves per bag ( i added 3 to each bag)

Celery (it's not shown in the picture because I forgot to take it out)  I used chopped 6 stalks and divided them.

2-3 chicken breasts per bag

1/2 c. Teriyaki sauce per bag (you will want to add 1/4c more of teriyaki sauce the day you put it in the crockpot).

Cook on high for 4 hrs or low for 8 hrs.  

I have read that you can add for extra flavoring brown sugar, garlic sauce, and soy sauce.  

Don't forget to make some rice!