DIY Hot Chocolate Bar {Recipe Included}

Hey-oh!  Can you believe Christmas is a week away!?  Seriously, this year has flown by.  Our shopping is complete.  Most of the presents are wrapped.  So the next few days will be filled with wrapping the rest of the gifts, cleaning the house, last minute grocery shopping and baking, and most importantly, spending time with our families.  This weekend we're headed to Illuminations at our local Botanical Garden.  They have thousands of lights scattered throughout the many gardens so it's always a beautiful time to visit.  We're also off to see "A White Christmas" at one of our local music theaters with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (20 total!).  I'm really looking forward to this weekend and making memories with the people we love.

I was fortunate to have the day off today.  I spent a few hours baking Chocolate Cranberry Cookies and Chocolate Meringues (recipes coming soon!) for our work celebrations tomorrow.  I also had the opportunity to enjoy lunch with my husband.  We aren't able to meet up often over the lunch hour due to our schedules, so our lunch dates are always enjoyable.

This past weekend I hosted a bridal shower for my sister-in-law.  The Hot Chocolate Bar was a success and I'm excited to share the details with you!

Hot Chocolate Recipe:
3 cups Swiss Miss Powder Mix - I purchased a bulk can at our local grocery store
3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
6 quarts Water
Crock pot
Meat thermometer

Directions:
Mix the three ingredients together.  Turn your crock pot on high to heat the hot chocolate.  We used our meat thermometer to keep the temperature of the the hot chocolate around 130 degrees.  Serve and enjoy!

For the toppings, we opted to offer Reddi-Whip, ground cinnamon, crushed candy canes, full size candy canes, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows and white chocolate chips.  We put each item in its own serving dish and let people pick and choose what and how much they wanted.  The bar was a hit!

Enjoying the hot chocolate bar back home!  Yum!

 Next time: Peppermint Meringues!

Slow Cooker Ranch Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

Happy weekend, everyone!  I know I've been slacking with the blog recently.  I'm sorry!  Don't really have a good reason other than we haven't been cooking or crafting!  For the last couple of weeks, both T and I have been in the quick foods like egg, cereal, spaghetti or other super easy meals and haven't spent a lot of time trying new recipes.  But fear not!  We tried a delicious slow cooker meal this week that I'm excited to share with you today!  Without further ado: Slow Cooker Ranch Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes found via RealMomKitchen.com.

Ingredients: Pork Chops
5-6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 package dry ranch seasoning
10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup + 3/4 can of water

Ingredients: Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
For the potatoes, I did a terrible job of keeping track of the quantity for each ingredient.  But here are my best estimates:
10 red potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon half and half
2 tablespoons skim milk
1 tablespoon dried chives
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Place thawed pork chops into slow cooker.  Pour ranch seasoning directly onto pork chops.  Mix cream of chicken soup and water together and pour over pork chops.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low heat for 5-6 hours.

Boil a large pot of water on your stove top.  Once boiling, add potatoes and boil until potatoes are tender.  Transfer potatoes to mixing bowl.  Mix on low until potatoes are mashed.  Add butter, parmesan, half and half, milk, chives, salt and pepper.  Add additional seasoning to taste.

Serve pork chops and gravy over mashed potatoes.

Slow Cooker Smothered Pork Chops

Good morning, everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  With the exception of our lunch date Saturday and our grocery shopping trip, Troy and I spent the weekend at home relaxing and catching up on a variety of shows on our DVR.  It was nice to finally have some time together without a ton of things to do!

Saturday night we opted for a slow cooker meal of Smothered Pork Chops.  This was by far one of the easiest things to make.  But easy doesn't mean not tasty!

Ingredients:
5-6 Boneless Pork Chops, thawed
1 Can Cream of Mushroom
1 Cup Water
White Rice

Directions:
Lay pork chops into bottom of slow cooker.  Mix cream of mushroom with water and pour over pork chops.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours until meat is tender.  Prepare rice according to package directions and serve with pork chops. 

Homemade Creamed Corn

Hi, everyone! Hope all is well! We've had a busy week picking up tuxes, having our dog groomed, cleaning the house, packing, visiting the salon, etc. This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as we're just days from the wedding and our honeymoon! I'm super excited!

 

As promised, here's the recipe for Homemade Creamed Corn.

 

Ingredients:

2 packages frozen corn

1 package cream cheese, low fat

1 stick unsalted butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Directions:

Turn slow cooker onto high and pour in corn.  In a microwave safe bowl, soften the cream cheese and butter.  Add this mixture to the corn and mix.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once cream cheese and butter are melted, you're ready to serve delicious homemade creamed corn!  Yum!

 

 



Chips and Queso

Having a party?  Need something quick and easy for a food day at work?  How about chips and queso? 

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 pounds Velveeta
1 can Rotel

Directions:
Brown hamburger and drain.  Add onions and Rotel.  Break Velveeta into smaller chunks and add to the mixture.  Keep heat around medium low and stir as cheese melts.  Serve with chips.

Alternative: Brown hamburger and drain.  Add onions, Rotel and Velvetta to slow cooker at heat on low until cheese is melted.  Stir regularly.

Using the slow cooker is definitely ideal for parties and work.  On Super Bowl Sunday, we made this cheese dip for just the two of us.  Because of that, we opted to take the stove cooking route.  Either way - still yum!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

When my fiance leaves town I tend to spend a lot of time cleaning and going through closets and purging our house of things we don't need anymore.  This time was no different.  Since I made a list of several things I wanted to get done tonight, I decided a slow cooker dinner would be perfect.  I found a great looking recipe for Slow Cooker Lasagna from Taste of Home and it turned out to be delicious.  Below is my take on the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground sausage
1 pound ground buffalo
1 tablespoon minced onions
1 jar Ragu tomato sauce - I like Parmesan Oregano
1 can tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 package no-cook lasagna noodles
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
12 ounces ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Brown sausage and buffalo meat.  Mix meat, minced onions, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt, oregano, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder together.  In a separate bowl, mix mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese together.  Spread a fourth of the meat in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Arrange a third of the noodles on top, breaking if necessary.  Spoon a third of the cheese mixture on top.  Repeat layers twice and top with remaining meat sauce. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, or until noodles are tender. 

I browned the meat in advance and did the rest of the prep on my lunch hour today.  The lasagna was ready when I got home from work and was absolutely delicious! 

Zesty Barbecue Chicken and Baked Beans

Happy Monday!  Today was a super busy day between work and appointments, so we opted to to use one of the best inventions every: a slow cooker!  We've made this great Barbecue Chicken before and love it!  Its super easy to make and requires very few ingredients.

Zesty Barbecue Chicken Ingredients:
1 bottle of barbecue sauce - I like to use a honey barbecue flavor
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar - We use Splenda
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
frozen, skinless chicken - 6 breasts or 10-12 tenderloins

Directions:
Place chicken in the slow cooker.  In a separate bowl, mix barbecue sauce, dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce together.  Pour over chicken.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.  About an hour before serving, I shred the chicken and place back in the slow cooker to absorb more of the juices.  Delish!

I've been testing possible side options for this great chicken and decided to try a new Baked Beans recipe.  I came across two recipes here and here that had ingredients I liked, so I opted to mix and match. 

Baked Beans Ingredients:
1 can kidney beans
1 can butter beans
1 can lima beans
1 can grillin' beans
bacon pieces - I used 1 package, but you can use however much you want
onion - I used about a 1/4 cup fresh and 1/4 cup minced
1/1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
2-4 tablespoons brown sugar - I used Splenda
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Simmer brown sugar, onion, barbecue sauce and other seasonings for about ten minutes.  Drain butter beans, kidney beans and lima beans and mix with grillin' beans and bacon pieces in a separate bowl.  Add in barbecue sauce mixture and mix well.  Pour into greased pan and bake for one hour. 

I'm happy with how this turned out!  And my fiance loved it!  There was the kick he loves, but it wasn't too spicy for my palate.  Next time, I may skip the minced onion and opt for all fresh.  Otherwise, great complement to the barbecue chicken.  Dinner is served!

 

 

Update: Since we had more than half a pan of baked beans left, we decided to add ground beef and make a meal of it!  It was delicious! 

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese

I think I've mentioned before that I love Mac & Cheese!  Its such a comfort when life gets busy and stressful.  Between the holidays and our busy schedules, we've not spent a lot of time at home recently.  Luckily, we had a some time at home today to relax and catch up on things around the house, so we decided to a slow cooker Mac & Cheese would be a perfect solution for dinner!  I ran across Crock-a-doodle-do's recipe and thought it sounded like a great foundation for our dinner tonight. 

Ingredients:
1/2 pound macaroni noodles, uncooked
3 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
4-5 cups shredded cheese, any flavor - I say 4-5 cups as I had 4 heaping measuring cups
Salt, pepper, garlic salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper - just a dash!
1 can chicken in water, drained
1/2 package of precooked bacon bits
1 cup frozen corn

Directions:
Against my better judgement, I didn't spray the slow cooker crock with cooking spray and I didn't use separate bowl for mixing.  Instead, I just threw everything in the crock and mixed it.  I cooked on low for about an hour and switched it to high for another half hour to make sure the noodles were soft.  After an hour and half cooking time, I turned the slow cooker off and let the mac and cheese cool for about 15 minutes or so.  The cooling time also allows the final juices to be absorbed.  We both at a bowl of mac and cheese and we have plenty left for dinner tomorrow.

While eating, we discussed adding broccoli or onion next time.  Or possibly more corn and bacon bits.  Or even topping with bread crumbs.  I'm excited about the prospective ideas! 

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp

I love, love, love desserts!  I came across a few apple crisp desserts on All Recipes and mixed and matched to make the following:

Ingredients:
6 medium apples - I used half red, half green - cored and sliced
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar - I used Splenda
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon all spice

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

Directions:

First, grease the bottom and sides of the slow cooker.  Next, arrange apple slices in pot.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, spices and butter.  Pour over mixture ensuring that the mixture sifts to the apples at the bottom of the bowl.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  Serve with frozen vanilla yogurt.  Delish!

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Kansas is crazy.  We've had such a weird winter without snow and mostly semi-warm temperatures.  Its been delightful!  Last week the weather decided to break its streak and brought some pretty cold temperatures.  To fight the cold, I decided to make Chicken Noodle Soup in the slow cooker.  I came across a delicious looking recipe here at the Creatively Domestic website and decided to alter it slightly. 

Ingredients:

5 cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken
1/2 cup white onion
5 celery ribs
5 carrots
1/2 cup green onions
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 package frozen peas
3 packages Ream's egg noodles
2 cans cooked chicken, drained
1 tbsp parsley flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 bay leafs
1 tbsp poultry seasoning

Directions:
First, chop the white onion, green onions, celery and carrots.  Put them into the slow cooker.  Add peas, corn, cream of chicken, chicken broth, and seasonings to pot. 

Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  An hour or so before eating, added chicken and noodles.  Turn temperature to high.  Once your soup is ready, remove the bay leaves and serve. 

You can certainly cook chicken instead of using canned.  I like to set up my slow cooker during my lunch hour, so I opted for canned chicken to save time.  Also, feel free to add extra vegetables and seasonings - whatever works for you and your family. 

Enjoy!