How not to Stir Fry

You would think stir fry would be easy and would be good every time. Well I figured out the trick to screwing it up. Fact #1. Thin sliced chicken does not need to be cooked in a crock pot. It's thin, it's a quick cook, 6 hours in a crock pot renders that nice dry, leftover, reheated chicken taste no buddy loves. Fact #2. If at first you don't use enough seasoning / Worcestershire sauce, soaking it does not make it better. Fact #3. Brown rice with assorted veggies boil in a bag + steamed broccoli can in fact disappoint. An all around lack luster effort.

Personal performance: D-

:(

Enchiladas, si

After a long lay off, finally strapped my apron back on this eve. I tried my hand at one of my favorites by Mom.

Always have to utilize the crockpot when you can. I spiced up the chicken prep a touch by adding some chicken broth, red pepper, some left over taco seasoning and some onions to let the chicken thighs bath in.

 Turn this

into this. BAM.

*Note: Did not fry tortillas for a few seconds until limp, tortillas are already limp. #confused.

Personal performance: B

Per always, Mom wins. Nothing to complain about. But nothing too exciting either.

Tacos

Don't worry hungry readers, I'll feed you... So I got a crock pot in the fall thinking it would make meals far easier. Turn it on when I leave, dinner ready when I get home. Well, turns out that is true. What is also true is it takes a lot of thinking ahead and planning. Ergo, it doesn't get used all that much. But, it did get dusted off for some chicken tacos this eve.

1.25 lb boneless/skinless chicken thighs

Can of diced green chilies

Can of cannellini beans (drained)

2 tbsp of taco seasoning

HEY MOM! I bought the 1.25oz package of  package taco seasoning, do I use the whole thing? (keep in mind, I'm no fool, tbsp is a volume - oz is a mass, even if you get the app, those don't convert)

"Umm, open the package and measure out 2 tbsp ..... ??"

Ohhhhh. Good point.

THANKS MA!

Pile it all in and cook on low for 6 hours

I didn't make it home until 10 hours later. This is when Mom would usually call me saying "can you turn off the crock pot please". But one perks of buying the $45 crockpot over the $30 is it's got a built in "can you turn off the crock pot please - but keep it warm too" function. So I made it home, pulled out the chicken, gave it a shredded, mashed the beans (no idea why, just following instructions), added rice, Monterrey Jack cheese, splash of hot sauce and...

Personal performance: A

Actually very good. No real complaints. If I had more fixings they could of been my first A+. I'm real concerned how the chicken is going to hold up to the reheat though.

BBQ Sunday

So I made this BBQ in the crock pot... Kroger special on pork loin shoulder, rubbed it down with garlic salt, black pepper, ground red pepper, ground paprika, and a fiery 5 pepper seasoning. Wrapped it up last night and let the seasonings set in over night. Tossed it in the crock pot this morning and let it go for 8 hours on low. I flipped the slab over a few times to keep the top side juicy. Does this make any sense? Did to me.

HEY MOM! Is pork like ground beef, are you suppose to drain the the juice?

"I would drain most of it otherwise it will be too juicy and your buns will be soggy. Did you make a roast?"

Ummm.... I got the pork slab that was on sale.

"Yeah, you got a roast."

THANKS MA!

The meat fell apart beautifully with about 30 minutes left. I mixed in some more garlic powder, red pepper and added some cumin. Finally toppped it all off with some honey hickory smoke BBQ sauce.

Yeah, I'll take the BBQ slider trio with a side of almonds.

Personal performance: B+

Gave myself an A- after slider #1, but slider #3 proved that I may have went a little overboard with the garlic salt. Waiter... more water please!