Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BBQ Pulled Pork, I mean Chicken

9-3-11 (21) When I'm looking for a new recipe, I always tend to go for ones that only use a few ingredients. It keeps things simple, and I like that.

Even better if the ingredients are ones that I already have on hand.

I'm also trying to find recipies that work in a crock pot, but don't come out tasting like rubber.

This recipe fits both of my requirements.

Here's what you need. The original recipe came from here.

Ingredients
6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I did not use frozen chicken and it worked just fine.)
1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions
1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low. (I had mine in the crock pot for about 5 hours, then I "pulled" it and returned it back to the crock pot for another hour)
3. Remove chicken and "pull" it apart, return chicken to crock pot for about an hour.

Here's the chicken cooking in the crock pot. 9-4-11 (22)

After your chicken has cooked, remove one piece at a time and "pull" the chicken using two forks. 9-3-11 (4)

Return the pulled chicken back to the crock pot. 9-3-11 (5)

After about an hour, serve the chicken on toasted buns. We served ours with cole slaw on top. It was a nice addition. 9-3-11 (21)

I have made this twice now - it really is quite good!

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Bailey and Pat the horse

9-7-11 (16)-edit Bailey loves horses. But then what young girl doesn't love horses?

Ever since she found out about a therapeutic riding facility nearby, she has been wanting to volunteer there so that she could spend more time around horses. About two weeks ago, she was trained and she is now volunteering there twice a week.

Last Wednesday was her first day. 9-7-11 (29)-edit
Her job is to get the horse for the class ready by grooming the horse, getting the saddle and riding gear on the horse, and then warming the horse up by walking it around for a bit.  Then during the lesson she either walks next to the rider to ensure that the rider is comfortable, or she is in the lead guiding the horse.  After the lesson she has to take the saddle off and put the horse back in his/her pen.

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The weather got a bit cooler this week, so it was actually plesant to be outside watching Bailey.

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As she and the horse, Pat, were walking around, I started to notice something.


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Do you see it? 9-7-11 (57)-edit

Look at their feet.

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They matched foot steps each time. I thought that was pretty neat.

Also please notice Bailey's new boots. She insisted that she have them for this.

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I'd say she's pretty happy.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Honey Bun Cake

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The other day I was looking at all of the cake mixes I have in my pantry and decided I needed to make something.

I should explain. Yes, the show Extreme Couponing has been seen in my house, and yes I may have the couponing bug. I am not going to the extremes that the people on the show go to, but I still have about 30 boxes of cake mixed in my pantry at the moment. What? I got those for about $0.25 each, so it was a good deal.

Anyway, back to the recipe.
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This is the Honey Bun Cake. Bailey used to request it for her birthday each year, but back then I made it in a 9x13 pan. I wanted something easier so I made it in a bunt pan today. The original recipe came from here and of course I tweaked it a bit.

Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
I added 1 box of vanilla pudding because I also have a lot of those too it makes cakes very moist.

1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

For the icing:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
4 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat your over to 325 degrees.  Spray your bunt pan with cooking spray. 

Let me just say here that I love, Love, LOVE the smell of Pam Baking spray. 

Mix the cake mix, oil, eggs, sour cream and pudding together.  Pour half of the mix into the pan.  Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the mixture over the cake.  Pour the rest of the cake into the pan. 

Bake for about 50 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean. 

Mix together the icing and after the cake has cooled a bit, drizzle the icing over the cake.
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Enjoy!