Showdown: MY grand prize winning recipe in my new toy.

I had planned to test drive my new toy with my winning recipe, but I'd thought that meant that I'd be crocking this twice in the not so distant future. (Which would've been MORE than completely okay.) However, the stars must've aligned because my shiny new crock pot arrived on our doorstep late yesterday afternoon. JUST in time for today's crock.

THIS is the slow cooker I won. It's freakin' awesome.

"Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese" (6 quart pot)

The link to it on DinnerTool is HERE.

~3 T unsalted butter, divided
~4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
~1 onion, chopped
~1 celery stalk, chopped
~2 cloves garlic, chopped
~1 c Frank's Hot Sauce, Xtra Hot
~2 c elbow macaroni, uncooked
~3/2 c whole milk
~3/4 lbs of cheese ends, cubed (As far as I could tell, mine were Sharp Cheddar, American, and Muenster. There may have been other random cheeses in there, too.)
~1/2 t salt
~1/4 t ground black pepper
~1 c Panko breadcrumbs
~1/2 c crumbled blue cheese

Grease crock pot.
Melt 1 T butter in large skillet over medium high heat.
Brown chicken long enough that the pink is gone, but don't cook all the way through.
Set aside.
Add onion, celery, garlic, and hot sauce to skillet.
Cook until veggies are tender.
Add chicken to skillet and toss to coat.
Add mixture to crock pot.
Add macaroni, milk, cheese ends, salt, and pepper to crock pot.
Stir gently to mix.
Melt remaining 2 T butter.
Mix butter, blue cheese, and breadcrumbs in small bowl.
Add mixture to crock pot and spread it evenly.
Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.

8 servings.

This recipe won me $1000 and a kick ass KitchenAid slow cooker. Do I even need to write a review?

Orange-cha glad I shared the link?

For those who aren't following along on Facebook...

Here's the link!

You can vote up to 50 times per day EVERY day until March 9th. It's kind of ridiculous if you ask me, but that's what it says in the official rules!

Just keep clicking, just keep clicking!

Mmm..."Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese".

What the what?

This recipe is in the running to win $1000. When the contest is over, I'll move the recipe over here.

In the meantime, here's the link to it on Dinnertool.

You can vote for it HERE.

My original post blog entry...

A LONG time ago (in a galaxy far, far away), my other half mentioned wanting a mac & cheese with blue cheese in it, so when I asked him for an idea for something to crock this week, I wasn't surprised that THAT was his answer. During my search for a recipe that fit that requirement (and ONLY that requirement), I found a Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese recipe. I didn't know such a creature existed! It's not a crock pot recipe, so I had to get creative. I'd crocked mac and cheese a few times, so I knew how to not screw that up. It was the adding buffalo chicken to it part that had me all sorts of nervous. Here's what I did:

"Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese" (6 quart pot)

~3 T butter, divided
~4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
~1 onion, chopped
~1 stalk celery, chopped
~2 garlic cloves, chopped
~1 c Frank's hot sauce (I used Xtra hot.)
~2 c UNcooked elbow macaroni
~1 1/2 c milk (I used whole.)
~3/4 lb various cheese ends-cubes or ripped into pieces (Mars had a bunch. Seems it's the ONLY thing that store is good for.)
~1/2 t salt
~1/4 t pepper
~1 c breadcrumbs (I used Panko because the original recipe did and I'd never had them before.)
~1/2 c crumbled blue cheese

Spray crock pot with Pam.
Melt 1 T butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
Brown chicken long enough that the pink is gone, but don't cook it all the way through.
Set aside.
Add onion, celery, garlic, and hot sauce to skillet.
Cook until veggies are tender.
Add chicken to skillet and toss to coat.
Add mixture to crock pot.
Add macaroni, milk, cheese ends, salt, and pepper to crock pot.
Stir gently to mix.
Melt remaining 2 T butter.
Mix butter, blue cheese, and breadcrumbs in a small bowl.
Add mixture to crock pot and spread it evenly.
Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.

8 servings.

Holy crap, dudes. This. Is. Phenomenal. 99% of our dinner conversation tonight was "Mmm...wow...mmm." It made a TON. Both of us had seconds and we barely made a dent! Fantabulous leftovers for the win!

So...unless someone has a recipe for me to try tomorrow, this is the end of Total Request Crock Week II. It was fun AND delicious. Thanks for the ideas!

More crocking for kids!

In the middle of "Kids Week", I received an e-mail from one of the millions of mailing lists I landed on the second my little helper was born: Parents Magazine. It was an e-mail with my name written ALL over it: "One Pot Wonders:  Healthy Kid Friendly Crock Pot Meals". That, my friends, is this week's theme!

"Pulled-Pork Wraps" (6 quart pot)

~1.5 lb pork tenderloin
~salt and pepper
~1 c bbq sauce
~1/2 c apricot spreadable fruit
~3/4 c onion, chopped
~1 bell pepper, sliced (I used an orange one)
~soft taco flour tortilla
~shredded cheddar cheese

Season pork with salt and pepper.
Mix bbq sauce, apricot, and onion in small bowl.
Pour mixture over pork.
Add bell pepper.
Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.
Remove pork and shred with forks.
Place pork back into crock pot and mix.
Serve in tortillas.
Serve with cheese (it also recommended a bunch of toppings I would NEVER put with bbq sauce like salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. Eew.)

You can't really go wrong with pulled pork barbecue. This was delicious. I don't think it needed the cheese, but I put it on because I'm a sucker for it. Besides, kids dig cheese and that's kind of the point, right?

I've entered this into a contest. The winner gets cheese! How fitting!

•   
• “Get Grillin’ with Family Fresh Cooking and Cookin’ Canuck, sponsored by Ile de France Cheese, Rösle, Emile Henry, Rouxbe and ManPans.” 

Help me win $250. Vote for my first soup! My "clean out the fridge turkey noodle soup".

When I sat down and put this week's meal plan together last week, we had plans to be leaving town tonight. I was going to give my pots the 3 days off...in a row. *gasp* Now, we're staying put for the entire weekend. This morning, I looked through our fridge to see if I could come up with something at the last minute for dinner tonight. Something with 5 ingredients or fewer. Something I haven't had in awhile. Then, I had an idea...

Break the rules guidelines! I wasn't intending on crocking today, anyway!

There was a lot of leftover turkey from Tuesday. What do people do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey? They make soup! I haven't made a soup yet! I searched for chicken soup recipes and used my imagination to create my own based on what we had in the fridge and pantry. So, yes, this has more than 5 ingredients, but our fridge is free of some perishables, so I'm totally okay with that.

Here's what I did...

"Clean out the fridge turkey noodle soup" (6 quart pot)

~About 2 cups of cooked turkey, shredded

~1 cup carrots, peeled and chopped

~1 large can of chicken broth

~remnants (about a cup, maybe?) of an opened box of chicken stock (opened when a friend cooked for us)

~3/4 cups chopped leeks (also leftover from when the friend cooked for us-Hi Molly!)

~1 t salt

~2 chicken bouillon cubes

~2 T dried parsley

~1 t dried tarragon

~1 t minced garlic 

~5 cups of hot water

~egg noodles

Grease crock pot. 

Put all ingredients into crock pot except noodles.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Add noodles at 5 1/2 hours.

Cover and cook on low for remaining 30 minutes.

6 servings.

The fact that I hadn't actually made a soup yet reminded me of a link a friend send me a few weeks ago. (Thanks again, Bianca!) A slow cooker soups and stews contest! I revisited the link this morning. It ends today! Perfect! I know there's no chance of me winning (I can't even type that word now without hearing Charlie Sheen's voice inside my head...grr), but I'm going to enter it anyway. Why the heck not, right? 

It's a pretty tasty soup. It tasted like the chicken noodle soup you crave when you're sick. In fact, I froze the leftovers for when that inevitably happens. AND I've already entered it into the contest. VOTE FOR IT! I could win $250.