Exceedingly Mundane

Sandra, over at Diary of a SAHM mom, sponsors this each week. I love cooking with my crockpot, and love seeing all these great recipes. Be sure to check out this week’s entries… click here.

This week, I’m posting an easy version of a thai-flavored chicken. This is not gourmet, but easy comfort food that tastes really good, and is a bit unique for a crockpot recipe. The ingredients sound really odd, but believe me, once you mix them together, it comes out really tasty. I have used regular peanut butter (Jif brand) and also the natural one (I think it’s Smuckers brand), and both are fine. I usually serve this over plain whole wheat noodles when I make this. I tried a flavored noodle / box mix the first time, but the flavors sort of competed with each other, so now I just make plain noodles. There is a lot of good sauce, so we just spoon that over the whole wheat spaghetti.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup salsa
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated gingerroot
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

Directions
Place chicken in crockpot. Mix other ingredients except cilantro and peanuts. Pour over chicken. Cook for 4 hours on low. Garnish with cilantro and peanuts.

Misc Notes: I use crunchy peanut butter and then just leave out the peanuts. Other posters noted it could use some minced garlic & crushed red pepper.

Stacy’s Notes – Made Feb 2005. Really good! I used 2 frozen, boneless/skinless chicken breasts and the full amount of sauce. Used Jif reduced-fat creamy peanut butter, bottled lime juice and bottled ginger. Also added crushed red pepper & some minced garlic. Did not garnish with cilantro, but did use chopped peanuts. Served with a box sesame noodle mix (Simply Asia brand) and stir fried vegetables. Really good, a keeper.

More Stacy’s Notes – I have made this many times since Feb 2005, and it’s always good. I have used natural peanut butter and it works fine. I never use cilantro, because I don’t like the flavor. I don’t make a boxed noodle mix anymore, but just use plain whole-wheat noodles (spaghetti, usually). There’s plenty of sauce, so we just eat it over the noodles.

I have a long standing love affair with candy corn. It goes back as far as I can remember. I guess it’s because it’s basically pure sugar. Maybe it’s because I only have it during October and November every year. Who knows. But I love and adore the stuff.

I’ve been trying to be really good, but the last few days I’ve been failing miserably. I have put off buying actual Halloween candy to give out to all of the trick-or-treaters we get. I’ll have to break down and buy that soon. In the mean time, I caved and bought my first bag of candy corn. No, this picture is not of that first bag. It’s of the second bag. And never fear, I have a third bag in my pantry, ready and waiting to be gobbled up by yours truly before the end of the month.

It’s a sickness I tell you. A sickness. 😈

OK, how about a Question of the Day: Do you buy Halloween candy at your house? If so, have you bought any, and what kind did you buy? And the biggie – have you had any of it yet?!!! 😆

Sandra, over at Diary of a SAHM mom, sponsors this each week. I played for the first time last week, and am really enjoying seeing all the great recipes! Be sure to check out this week’s entries… click here. I love cooking with my crockpot and hope to do more as the fall and winter progresses.

This week, I’m posting a creamy Italian chicken recipe. I think this recipe is fairly common on the Internet (that’s where I found it), but I made it last night and we really liked it, so I thought I would share. I add more seasonings, see my notes at the very bottom. Enjoy!

Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 envelope Good Seasons Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 cup water
8 ounces cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
4 oz can mushrooms — drained
seasonings (see notes)

Place chicken in a crockpot. Combine dressing mix with 1/2 cup water. Pour over chicken. Cook on low 3 hours.

In a bowl, mix together soup and cream cheese. Stir in mushrooms. Stir in into chicken and cook 1 more hour or until chicken is done. Serve over egg noodles, rice or with mashed potatoes.

Stacy’s Notes – Made this August 2005. I used 2 boneless skinless breasts (frozen), and halved everything else. I didn’t have quite a half envelope of dry dressing mix (had used most of it in another recipe), so I squired some bottled Wishbone FF Italian dressing on top of the breasts. I cooked this in my regular crock-pot for about 3 hours or so, till the chicken was done, then added the soup/cream cheese mixture. Served this over linguine. It needed a little something, maybe more seasoning. Next time, try adding some dry Italian seasoning or maybe some garlic or something. Pretty good, like an easy chicken fettucine.

More Notes – made again October 2006. Used 3 breasts this time (having company), and the full amount of everything else. I mixed the one envelope of Good Seasons to 1/2 cup water as recipe states, but next time, consider using a little less water (since I put my breasts in frozen, there was some water from them, I think). I seasoned the breasts with garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, oregano, dash red pepper (and when I added the soup mixture, a bunch of freshly ground black pepper). Need to mix the soup and cream cheese with my hand mixer, then stir in mushrooms. We love mushrooms, so next time maybe add two cans. Really good! Oh, and I took the whole breasts out and chipped them up, easier to eat and makes the dish go a little further too! 🙂

Once again, thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for sponsoring this meme each week. I love getting ideas for menus, recipes, and just basically getting hungry reading everyone else’s menus!

If we can stay on track, here’s what is planned for this week:

Monday – Grilled Chicken Salad, with the Muscadine Vinaigrette I bought at Callaway Gardens, it is deeee-licious!

Tuesday – Teriyaki Grilled Pork Chops, baked sweet potatoes, cooked apples, salad… (unless I decide to throw the chops in the crockpot with some italian dressing) 🙄

Wednesday – Light Night (before Tim weighs in at work on Thursday AM)… eggs, oatmeal and toast

Thursday – Pretending it’s fall here (high’s in the 90’s all week is forecast!)… Homemade Chicken and Noodle Soup, homemade bread, salad

Friday – Ribs, potato salad, baked beans

Saturday – Date Night / TBD

Sunday – Game Day Food – wings, oven fries, maybe pasta salad

I have loved doing the Menu Plan Monday meme lately, and I saw this mentioned before I left on vacation. I’ve been wanting to play along, since I love recipes, like to cook, and love using my crockpot this time of year. Sandra, at Diary of a SAHM mom, sponsors this Slow Cooking Thursday meme, so click here to check it out this week and follow the links to all the other good crockpot recipes. I can’t wait to check them all out later today 🙂

Here’s my offering for this week (my first time playing!)… Maple BBQ Chicken for sandwiches (this recipe is also posted here on our family website). I usually make these in my little West Bend cooker, but I’m sure they are fine in a regular crockpot. As with most boneless skinless chicken breast recipes for the crockpot, they really shouldn’t cook all day, since they will dry out and be tough. Anything using b/s chicken, I usually put in the crockpot after lunch and cook for 3-4 hours on low. Enjoy!

Maple Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup maple-flavored pancake syrup
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
5 hamburger buns

Directions
Combine the ketchup, syrup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, chili powder and garlic powder in a bowl. Set aside.

Place the chicken breasts in a crock pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the prepared sauce over the top. Cover and cook on low for four to five hours.

When ready to serve, remove and shred chicken. Put back in and mix with the sauce. Serve on buns for sandwiches.

Stacy’s Notes – Made this chicken mixture October 2004 to serve on some leftover sandwich buns I had. I used 2 chicken breasts and halved the other sauce ingredients. I cooked these on setting 4 in my West Bend cooker for about 3 hours, then shredded them. This made enough for 4 sandwiches for us with 2 breasts. Really good, Tim even commented that he liked this better than regular beef barbecue. I used real maple syrup and not pancake syrup, and it really just tasted like a sweet barbecue sauce. Really good, a definite keeper!

Laura over at OrgJunkie sponsors this great meme each week. I missed playing last week, since we were on vacation, but it looks like a lot of great menus were planned last week. I am going to try to get back into the cooking groove this week. I haven’t cooked in about 9 or 10 days!!! 🙄

Sunday – we picked up bratwursts and sauerkraut at a local GermanFest. It was really good!

Monday – Chicken Corn Chowder, Parmesan Cheese Muffins, salad

Tuesday – Grilling out (salmon for me, chicken for Tim), Stacy’s Pan Roasted Potatoes, veggie or salad

Wednesday – Light Night (Tim weighs in at work on Thursday) – either grilled cheese and tomato soup, or eggs/oatmeal/toast

Thursday – Spaghetti and Meatballs, steamed broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night or Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken over no-yolk noodles, homemade bread

Saturday – TBD

Sunday – Game Day Food – wings, chips, appetizers, TBD

You’d think we were still in vacation mode or something, seeing as how we can’t stay home! 🙂 We went to Sam’s Club last night and bought a cart full of things we probably didn’t need, then went to the Chinese buffet near our house. Which was an extra-special vacation-type treat for me, since I adore Chinese food and Tim barely tolerates it most of the time. So, he went the extra mile and took me. He was happy though – they had steaks and crab legs on their buffet too, so he was a happy camper!

This morning, we went to our nephew Zack’s football game (pee-wee type stuff), about an hour south of our house. We got to see some of Tim’s family, and watch the game and we had a great time. On the way home, I talked Tim into stopping at a roadside stand and letting me go in and look around.

It’s a big place and they had tons of canned jellies, preserves, honey, syrups, apple butters, vinaigrettes, etc, all from local producers and I really had to restrain myself! They also had a lot of fresh produce, and I knew I wanted to pick up a tomato and cucumber for tonight’s salad, and I wanted to get some sweet potatoes too. Their sweet potatoes looked good, and they were nearly half the price of what I pay in the grocery store (49 cents a pound vs the 98 cents I paid two days ago in the grocery). The sweet potatoes were up front and I stopped to look at them, and then wandered around, and being the forgetful soul that I am, I never went back. I told Tim when we were walking out, I can’t believe I forgot to go back and get some sweet potatoes!

Anyway, I did get some other stuff and had a good time looking. I should have taken my camera in, all of their produce looked pretty good, and I would have bought more if I had not just gone to the grocery two days ago. They had tons of mums and even some pansies, as well as gourds and lots of pumpkins and maize corn too, it was all very festive and autumnal! 🙂 We got all of this, for under $20.00 …

In case you’re wondering, that’s a jar of honey with the comb, a jar of cane syrup (those were Tim’s picks), a cucumber, a tomato, a bunch of plums and a HUGE bag of boiled peanuts. They smelled so good, that we just couldn’t resist.

It looks like rain outside, and we have an 80% chance of rain tonight, so I hope we’re going to stay in for the rest of the day. It’s 4:30 PM now, and I want to watch a few of the shows that we taped last week while we were gone on vacation, like NCIS, the Unit, and Dancing with the Stars. We watched the season premiere of Numb3rs last night and it was good 🙂

I haven’t been blogging much lately, because I haven’t had a lot of time. First off, I’m still on my month-long federal jury summons, but so far I have not had to go in. I keep hearing those three little words I love – “Do. Not. Report.” and they make me so happy. 😆

Da Blog – I worked the other day on a new look for the blog. I know a lot of you don’t like it, either it’s too dark or too hard to read. I’m still looking for something else that will work, but in the mean time, I’m going to leave this one up. I just don’t have time to work on another one. Sorry, hope everyone understands!

Menu ramblings – I post my weekly menu every week, as part of a meme sponsored by Laura. I love doing this, but we don’t always stick to the plan! This has been one of those weeks (starting tonight, the rest of the menu probably won’t go according to plan!) I did make the Tortilla Torta on Monday, and it’s really just an easy layered enchilada pie. Very gooey, pretty good, and meatless too (shhh, don’t tell Tim!). I also made a quick dressing to go on a side salad. I surfed around and couldn’t find a Mexican type salad dressing, but I saw an idea and used it, and I really liked it. I took some low-fat Ranch salad dressing, mixed it with some plain non-fat yogurt, a squirt of lime juice and a bunch of cumin. Whisked it all together to taste and had it over a green salad. I really liked it and will do that again. Last night, I tried a new way to do chicken, with feta cheese. It was good, but next time I will use more feta. Basically, it’s just a baked chicken with feta inside. I pounded my chicken breasts flat, dipped them in beaten egg whites, then rolled in bread crumbs. On the inside, I put some feta then sort of rolled them up. Next time, I’ll definitely put more feta. You couldn’t taste it in half the chicken, but it was still good. I also sprayed the top of the bread crumbs with fat-free spray butter, so that made it crispier. Tim loves fried chicken, but I never fry things, so this is as close as he gets!

TV – I watched the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars” last night, and loved it. I didn’t see the first few dancers (long story, we had a lady knock on the door who bought something at our garage sale and wanted HELP with it. Argh. To me, if you buy something at a garage sale, it’s “As Is”. I would NEVER drive back to someones house and ring their doorbell at dinnertime and ask for help.) Anyway, I didn’t see Tucker Carlson except in the recap at the end, but he looked very wooden. So did Harry Hamlin and Jerry Springer, so I’m not sure who will be the first to go. It sure looks like Mario Lopez will be the one to beat this time. He looked really good out there. I also checked out the show after it, “Men in Trees” and it was ok. I’m looking forward to Survivor starting tomorrow night. We always watch that show. 🙂

Vacation – I’ve been doing a bunch of vacation planning and printing out maps and itineraries. We leave in a couple of days on vacation, so the blogging will be sporadic from here on out until we get back. We will have internet access from some of our hotel spots, so I will try to check in and post if I have time. No guarantees, though! Since we’re driving, we will take the laptop and maybe I’ll be able to post some.

OK, I have to go run errands and maybe do a little shopping. Normally, when we go on vacation, I always get some new clothes. I haven’t bought a single thing for this trip so far, and I am thinking I need to!

So, that brings up a question of the day – when you go on vacation, do you usually get any new clothes for the trip? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Laura over at OrgJunkie sponsors this great meme each week. If you like cooking or planning your meals, go check it out! 🙂

This week, I’m going to try to use up some ingredients I have on hand, before we leave on vacation. Yippee!

Here we go:

Sunday – “Game Day” food – brats and sauerkraut to celebrate the first full day of NFL football

Monday – Tortilla Torta, and ??? — I’m at a loss as to what to fix with it, maybe just a green salad. The dish already has beans in it, which is my usual side dish for anything Mexican or Tex-Mex

Tuesday – new recipe for Feta Chicken, my Pan Roasted Potatoes, veggie or salad

Wednesday – our “light night” – either eggs, oatmeal and toast or else soup and a sandwich

Thursday – TBD (probably grill out fish for me & chicken for DH, veggie, box rice or potato mix)

Friday – Date Night

Saturday/Sunday/Next Week – On Vacation – Tons of eating out!!!!

Oops, I stayed so busy over the long Labor Day holiday weekend, and didn’t get on the computer hardly at all. Come to find out, Claire over at Cooking is Medicine tagged me with a food meme. There is an ongoing “project” going on in the blogosphere called “5 Things to Eat Before You Die“, which you can read about here at the Traveler’s Lunchbox blogsite.

Hmmm, I’ve read skimmed through the posting info and I think I get the general gist of it. We’re to list “things you’ve eaten and think that everyone should eat at least once before they die“.

So, being decidedly Southern, mine will be along those lines! Here we go…

1. Good ole Southern sweet tea
2. Beignets from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans
3. Homemade chicken n dumplings, like my mother-in-law’s
4. Fried catfish, french fries, and hush puppies
5. Homemade banana pudding with meringue

Honorable Mention: crawfish cooked at a “real” crawfish boil, complete with potatoes, corn and mushrooms, and some French bread on the side. Yummy!

That was fun, thanks Claire!! I won’t tag anyone specifically, but if you’d like to play along, go right ahead! 🙂

The previous post (Snack Time #1), where I blogged about the Arizona Tea and popcorn, is actually an older post. I had made it a couple of weeks ago, and saved it to post later, then promptly forgot about it. 😳 Anyway, I still like those, but in the mean time, I’ve found some more new products I like!

One is a splurge, and the other is an attempt to try to make better choices:

Can you tell which is the splurge and which is not? Hehehe, thought so! The granola bars are a splurge. Each bar is pretty small and has 140 calories, but OHMYGOSH, they are so good! I found them in Kroger the other day, and they were completely sold out of the chocolate ones. I had a coupon (!!), so I bought the Vanilla Latte ones, and I just love them. They have just the right touch of coffee flavor. Yummy.

The cookies are my attempt to try to give us healthier choices for snacks. I have a whole post brewing about organic, but I haven’t been able to complete it. I am still really torn on the whole organic thing. But, these seemed like a good choice – they have no trans-fats, no high-fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. This is the second box of them I’ve bought. I like them and Tim thinks they are “just ok”.

Oh, and a cute story on these cookies, well, more of a running joke! The first time I offered them to Tim, I made the mistake of calling them “organic” cookies, which they are not. Tim’s brain translated the word “organic” to earthy or something, because now he calls them “dirt cookies“. 🙂 He’s not very fond of them, and would rather have Chips Ahoy or homemade, but hey, these are a good alternative. Better than Chips Ahoy (or so I convince myself) and less work for me to have them on hand and not make a big batch of cookies – where we totally feel compelled to eat every one of them.

I’ve blogged before about food we like to eat and new things I have tried. There were the soy nuts, the pita chips and hummus, the Veggie Chips, the Brownie Fudge Fantasy frozen yogurt, and even the Lipton green tea that my buddy Julie turned me onto. {Thanks Jules! :grin:}

Yes, folks, this blog ain’t called “Exceedingly Mundane” for nothing

So, to continue the pattern, here’s a couple of things I’ve bought lately, and liked:

The Arizona tea I really like, and I think I’m going to start buying it for two reasons. 1) My Walmart seems to be not carrying the Lipton bottles as much now. I’ve seen Nestea on the shelves, so they may be switching products and mostly because… 2) I’m the only one who drinks them and I’m just as happy with a big jug as the individual bottles. Tim acted like he liked the green tea blends at first, but now he won’t touch them at all.

The canister of English Toffee Caramel Corn was a splurge from Target. I think it’s great. It was a bit pricey at 3.99 for the container, but I was in a splurging mood the last time I went to Target (got a few other happies also!). Tim, while he likes it, made a face when I called it a splurge. He said “why don’t you just buy that stuff in Walmart in a cardboard box, I think it’s called Crunch N Munch”. So, the $1 box from Walmart it is, once I devour the remainder of this canister. 🙄

Laura over at OrgJunkie sponsors this great meme each week. Go check out her new design by Susie at Bluebird Blogs — it looks great! I love planning menus, even though I don’t always stick to them 100%. Mine often have things rolled over from the previous week, and have to stay flexible on the weekends. We sometimes eat out a lot on the weekends, so you’ll often see TBD (to be determined!).

Here we go:

Sunday– tacos, refried beans for lunch. We splurged and had a big breakfast for supper – eggs, cheesy hash browns, turkey bacon and biscuits

Monday – grilled turkey cutlets, garlic smashed potatoes, sesame green beans

Tuesday – Easy Baked Fish (using tilapia), baked sweet potatoes, mixed veggies with cheese (frozen bag I’m trying to use up)

Wednesday – Light Night (my husband weighs in at work with his weight loss group on Thursday mornings) – either soup and sandwich or eggs, oatmeal and toast

Thursday – Stroganoff over yolk-free noodles, butter peas, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night probably 😀

Saturday/Sunday – TBD

Monday – Labor Day, not sure yet

Check out OrgJunkie‘s website for the specifics… in the mean time, here’s the plan for this week (plan being the optimum word!):

Sunday – we had hamburgers
Monday – Grilled Chicken Salad, grilled zucchini, homemade bread
Tuesday – Italian Tortellini Stew, salad, homemade bread
Wednesday – Tomato soup, cheese toast (didn’t have this last week as planned)
Thursday – grilled chicken (Tim)/grilled salmon (Stacy), roasted sweet potatoes, homemade bread
Friday – tacos, refried beans, mexicorn
Saturday – eat out at NFL preseason game
Sunday – TBD

I really enjoyed this last week, so I’m going to try it again this week… and also do a little updating from last week’s menu plan, which I posted here. We ended up eating out less over the weekend than usual, and I cooked a bit more 🙂

Here’s the plan for this week, and an update to last week is on the extended page (just click the Read more button):

Monday – Turkey Burgers, homemade coleslaw, oven fries

Tuesday – Grilled Chicken (Tim)/Grilled Salmon (me), baked sweet potatoes, veggie (maybe sugar snap peas)

Wednesday – tomato soup and cheese toast

Thursday – Spaghetti, Broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – Date Night

Saturday – Out of town; eat out

Sunday – TBD

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