Tag Archives: crockpot

Peaaanut, peaaanut butter. And chicken?

Monday’s word of the day was T-I-R-E-D!

After a post-Super Bowl bedtime of wayyyy too late o’clock followed up with the random early body-clock-alarm-wakeup I was seriously struggling for energy yesterday!

Good thing I had planned on throwing together a crockpot meal to be ready & waiting upon my arrival home :)

Gave me plenty of time to relax and get in a rejuvenating yoga session.

Has anyone else tried the Body by Bethanny yoga workout on ExTV?  I absolutely love her first of all, plus am really liking this workout on days where I want some physical activity but not too much, ya know?

Perfect for this particular Monday if you ask me :D

After yoga was over it was time to serve up some dinner.

Crockpot, sometimes I think we may be soulmates… you make my life so easy on days that just seem to be so hard!

Here’s the recipe, courtesy a A Year of Slow Cooking.

Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Chicken

I kind of doubled the recipe to fill the 6-quart slow cooker I have (did you know you are supposed to make sure your slow cooker is between 1/2 to 2/3 full?)

I also didn’t have any soy sauce on hand, so substituted this wonderful SoyCha sauce instead.

For the sauce:

  • 2/3 cup MaraNatha peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup SoyCha (or soy sauce)
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 container chicken broth

For the rest:

  • 2.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 red bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced

I mixed up the marinade (sans chicken broth) Sunday afternoon before we left for the Super Bowl festivities. 

I also chopped up the red bell peppers and onions so they’d be ready to roll in the morning.

After 9 hours on low, I came home to some pretty awesome kitchen smells!

Once I opened up the slow cooker I removed the chicken & veggies and drained most of the fat from the remaining sauce.

With the combo of peanut butter, chicken thighs and SoyCha sauce there was a bit of oil to remove, no big deal :P

To serve, I cooked up some spaghetti to serve as well as some simple spinach.

Dinner is served.

Very very rich dish.  A little goes a long way!

But also very flavorful and tasty.  The cumin and lime added a different spin to the “normal” peanut sauce that I’m used to – but in a good way!

The chicken was also fall apart tender and just sunk itself into the spaghetti with each bite.

Good thing we liked this because we’ll be eating it for a few days (close to 3 lbs of chicken, what was I thinking? ;) )

Does anyone else remember this song (in reference to the post title)?  Guess having a sister 7 years younger means I remember wayyyyy more Barney than any normal person should hahaha.

Here’s to a much more “awake” day today – thank you 8 hours of sleep!!!!

Happy Tuesday all :)

93%

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FRIENDS :)

Whoa chocolate overload, look what The Man gave me!

We decided to do low-key gifts this year and plan on really celebrating when we get to make our trip to the wineries & the Ashby Inn soon (post-surgery) so this was definitely a welcomed surprise :)

I reminded him that I really can’t exercise, so if I eat all these chocolates it’ll be him that has to suffer those consequences ;)

He was cool with it, which is why I love him so :P

Speaking of exercise, I ended up getting in two mini-workouts today which was the perfect way to ease back into things.  This morning was a 20 minute yoga session and this afternoon this 20 minute Bikini Body Workout on ExTv (I loved this!)  I am definitely not as strong post-sickness, think my body is still in recovery mode, but it felt good to get moving and splitting things up was perfect :)

We decided that since today was Lucy Dog’s birthday, she needed a day out on the town!  So The Man and I took the pup to PetSmart (even let her ride in the bmw!) and she had a blast… sniffing everything in sight I tell ya.

We got her some fun bones & toys to celebrate, but she wouldn’t let us leave until she tried on a new summer dress…

P.S. she is wearing a gentle leader bc she pulls on the leash like crazy, helps us to control ‘the situation’

She also wanted to make sure I captured a pic from her “good side” ;)

 

Biggest dog ever that loves wearing clothes, you think I’m kidding?  She wags her tail and immediately sits whenever I get her sweater out, whoever had her before I adopted her must have also dressed her up bc she is a D.I.V.A.!

Snacks today included a ‘fun-fetti’ smoothie as I like to call it :)

 

Papaya, strawberries, spinach, ice & peanut butter (? don’t ask, but it was good ?) all blended up… resembles this guy? No? haha

Valentine’s Day dinner was a plan for a dish that the both of us could enjoy, so I got out the trusty slow cooker to help me out along with a few other friends.

Cooked up 1 diced onion in a lil’ EVOO & gave 4 medium potatoes a peel and chop.

 

Then added them to the crock pot along with some of my leftover homemade chicken stock (which freezes just beautifully!) and some S&P, “set it & forget it” for 6 hours!

Once time was up, I used the infamous immersion blender to give these a good smoosh right from the comforts of the crockpot and voila!

Yea, no so pretty… YETTTTTTTTT!  Here comes the good stuff ;)

Cheese & light cream, where ya been all my life?

I also baked up some hickory smoked bacon in the oven, love this method!

All served up, soup topped w/ sauted onions, bacon & extra cheese :)

What a perfectly indulgent way to spend Valentine’s Day, at least I think so.  And even better news, I could eat the bacon (where there’s a will, there’s a way? ;) )!!  My throat & body are feeling seriously at about 93% right now for the first time since last weekend… I am in HEAVEN! 

I don’t know about ya’ll, but I am really excited to get back to work tomorrow.  I haven’t been in quite some time thanks to this horrid sickness & sometimes you don’t realize how nice things are when you are healthy until that gets taken away.  So I’m going to most likely be the annoying chipper Monday morning girl tomorrow – don’t play, ya’ll all know “him/her” haha – as long as this get well thing keeps goin’ on track :)

With that being said, I better get back to my Valentine & enjoy the last of our Sunday evening… 

Hope all of you had a most wonderful day however it was spent and see ya on the flipside!