Crockpot Curry

It's the youngest daughter here tonight, and I will freely admit that my idea for this freeze ahead crockpot meal is totally taken from my dear friend Steph over at Cupcakes and Curls. I did, of course, adapt it to be my own.

Here's Steph's original recipe:
Chicken Curry

4 Chicken Breasts - Cut up in strips or chunks
2 Bottles of Trader Joe's Yellow Curry
4-5 Red Potatoes sliced or cut into chunks

This one is easy - Cut up your chicken and potatoes, toss them in a Ziploc freezer bag and pour in your ready made sauce. Freeze. When ready to cook, defrost in fridge overnight and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with Trader Joe's Microwave Jasmine Rice.

I tweaked this in a couple of ways, mostly to include a bigger variety of veggies, since Steph's husband is notoriously picky about vegetables, but I am a huge fan of veggies of all stripes.

Here are the ingredients I used to make two freeze ahead bags of curry tonight.

Ingredients
2 bottles of either red curry or yellow curry
1/2 curry bottle of water, shaken to get lose curry
1 gallon size freezer bag full of the following:

• 2 of those massive frozen chicken breasts
• 2 red potatoes, cubed
• 2 gold potatoes, cubed
• 1 1/2 bell pepper, variety of colors, sliced
• 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced
• FREE CHOICE - Add more or less of any of the above ingredients, as well as different vegetables. I fully intended to include eggplant and bamboo, but I fell short on two accounts. My eggplant had gone bad and I forgot to buy a can of bamboo. I upped how much potato and pepper went in, accordingly. If you don't like veggies or use smaller hunks of chicken, you'll need to put in more breasts to fill the bag.

Steps

1. Label bag before adding food, as it is much easier to label an empty freezer bag. I specify what the dish is, the date it is made, and any cooking instructions (low 8 hrs).
2. Chop and slice all meat/veggies according to preference. I did not slice the chicken, as it was already frozen. I will just fish the chicken out and either cube, slice, or shred it when it is time to serve.
3. Dump all chopped meat/veggies to the ziplock.
4. Pour two bottles of curry sauce (yellow or red to taste) over top.
5. If you're like me and your crock is often on for longer than 8 hours--work, am I right??--this step is crucial to maintain moisture. Fill one bottle about 1/2 way with water; cap and shake it. Dump the curry water into the other bottle; cap and shake it. Dump into bag. This gives you extra moisture and maximum flavor!
6. Seal the bag and squeeze it to be sure all veggies are coated in cooking liquid. Freeze flat.
7. The night before you use it, leave in refrigerator to thaw.
8. The morning of, dump contents into crockpot; set it; forget it.
9. Cook rice when you get home to serve with curry. You can use instant rice, stovetop rice, or a rice cooker (my preference). 
10. Chop, shred, or slice chicken if need be.
11. Enjoy! This is really easy, delicious, and satisfying.

The bag between bottles. Is your mouth watering yet?

Garlic Egg Noodless: Super easy side

It's youngest daughter here, and I have a confession to make--I love egg noodles. I LOVE egg noodles. I finally decided tonight to find something to do with them other than boil them in chicken broth for a poor girl's chicken soup when I feel sick, and it turned out pretty great and very simple.

Ingredients:
1/2 package of egg noodles
1/2 package of frozen peas and carrots
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
pepper to taste

Instructions:
(1) Boil egg noodles, peas and carrots according to package instrucitons.
(2) Drain noodles and vegetables.
(3) Return noodles and vegetables to pan.
(4) Add butter and melt while stirring.
(5) Add seasonings and cheese. Stir till consistent.

That's it! It's like having garlic bread, but with vegetables! I can't wait to serve this one to our son once he decides to cut some top teeth.

Salmon Burgers with Lemon Caper Mayo

Younger daughter here! Tonight Wisehubby and I made this recipe with just a few tweaks to ingredients, and it was a big 'ole hit in our house.

I used 1 tbsp. of lemon juice from a bottle and 1 tsp. of lemon peel out of a can because I didn't buy a lemon on accident. Plus, grating your own lemon peel? Ain't nobody got time for that!

I used two 7 oz. individually frozen salmon fillets because that's what I had. I just had to defrost those puppies.

I used Italian bread crumbs because that is what I had and I was too lazy to toast up some wheat bread and food process it.

I ended up using salt and pepper on the outside of the burgers because I forgot to mix the salt in the salmon to begin with.

I accidently used too much Italian bread crumbs in the patties because I didn't catch that you put half in the blend and half on the outside. It was ok. I just sprinkled a little on the outside before we grilled it.

We grilled on some foil because I had a suspicion that the patties might fall apart. They didn't, but rest assured, had we not used foil they would have.

Finally, we used one white bread bun and two slices of sourdough instead of wheat buns. Again, it was a situation driven by what was available and defrosted.

Two easy meals from one slow cooked pork loin

Guest blogger and youngest daughter Sarah here, and I want to brag about a two super easy meal ideas that came from one slow cooked pork loin, which I will admit is big sister's recipe.

Base Recipe: Sweet and Spicy Dr. Pepper Pork Loin

Ingredients:

Big ole pork loin

1 cup brown sugar

12-16 oz of Dr. Pepper*

12-20 oz of salsa*

Directions: 

• Place the loin into a big ole slow cooker.

• Pour the remaining ingredients over the loin.

• Cover and heat on low setting for eight hours.

*Adjust amounts based on size of loin and slow cooker, as well as for desired balance of sweet versus spicy.

Meal One: Meat and Taters

Pair the fresh out of the crock pot loin with Walmart's BBQ chopped salad and mashed potatoes. My taters were left over Rachael Ray smashed potatoes, but the Yukon Gold instant potatoes would be sufficient in a time crunch.

Meal Two: Pork Tacos

Shred and reheat the leftover loin. Warm tortillas; I used Rosa's Cafe flour tortillas, which are thick and homemade style. Mix Walmart's Southwestern Chop salad. Create tacos to taste with standard taco fixings--see my mom's post on that for ideas. My husband's delicious suggestion? Dress the taco with the chopped salad!

Photos

I didn't realize that I had a blog post brewing until we were halfway through meal two, so I apologize for the unattractive photos. Then again, shouldn't food be so delicious that you devour it before you have a chance to think straight?

The taco done Jeff-style with pork, chop salad, and a sour cream and salsa mix

Walmart's super delicious Southwestern Chop Salad

All that remains of the super tender, sweet and spicy pork loin