Double Dose of Goodness: Crock Pot Chicken Sandwiches and Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

Last week flew by, and before I knew it, I owed D two new recipes. So here they are.

CROCK POT CHICKEN SANDWICHES

What you need:

4-5 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut up into chunks.
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the heart healthy version from Campbells)
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Pepper
bread crumbs
Burger buns (I use whole wheat)

Optional: Lettuce, cheese, tomato...any sandwich toppings.

What you do:

Put chicken breast into crock pot. Add cream soup, and season to taste with garlic and onion powders and pepper. Cook on high for 2 hours, until chicken is cooked through. Shred chicken using two forks or whatever method works best for you. Add bread crumbs to thicken mixture, usually about 1/2 to 1 cup depending on preference. Then all you do is build the sandwich!

The next recipe I made for lab meeting this week. It's super easy and versatile.

CHEWY GRANOLA BARS

What you need:

1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup of old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz of fruit jam or jelly (I like raspberry)

What you do:

Combine flour, baking soda, and butter in a large bowl until coarse crumbs form. Mix in oats. Grease an 8x8 pan (I've also used a round cake pan). Press mixture onto bottom of pan, reserving about 1 1/ cups. Spread jelly over oat mixture. Top with remaining oat mixture, pressing down slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until top is golden brown.

I have combined the jelly with melted chocolate chips. Someone in my lab is trying it with white chocolate chips and strawberry jelly. Another labmate is using nutella (SWOON) and raspberry jam. You can create your own flavors. :)

Snake Bite Pasta

We here in the Lahman family love spicy. We love pasta. Therefore, we love spicy pasta. In a massive haste of a hectic evening, I threw a bunch of things that sounded good into my slow cooker, set the timer, and walked away. A little over an hour later, I came back to what turned into Snake Bite Pasta.

What you need:
1 tub Kraft Santa Fe cooking creme
1/2 jar of Pace Picante sauce (we use hot, but use whatever your taste buds can handle)
1/2 tub of sour cream (I use low fat, but use whatever)
1 small yellow onion chopped
1 can of petite diced tomatoes with jalapenos
1 green bell pepper
4 chicken breasts
1 can whole kernel corn (I use no salt added)
1 box pasta (I use whole wheat rotini...something with texture holds the sauce better)
Cumin
black pepper
Green onions

What you do:
Put the cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Put into the cooker with the cooking cream, onions, tomatoes, and pepper. Season to taste with cumin and pepper. Cook on high for about an hour, until chicken is cooked through. Mix in sour cream, corn, and Picante sauce. And cook additional 10-15 minutes. Cook pasta according to package directions. Mix sauce and pasta in large bowl, garnish with green onions (I usually just cut them up with kitchen shears).

What I love about this is that you can make it as hot as you like. You could also use beans instead of chicken  for a vegetarian option. I have also garnished with a sharp cheddar or pepper jack cheese, if I have it handy.

ENJOY!

PS. One day I will figure out how to take decent food pictures with my camera.

Good Eats for D

One of my best friends, D, from California is quite possibly busier than I am. She has three boys, two of whom are twins. She has a dog. A husband. A house and a mortgage. And she is an awesome family person. Oh, and she runs marathons. FOR FUN.

So yeah, she's super busy and I have crazy amounts of respect for her. We have never really lived in close enough proximity so I can help her as much as I want to. She taught me so much about being a first time mother, giving me all kinds of tricks and tips, without being pushy. I in turn, taught her some cooking tips, like how to make gravy from scratch and how to barbeque chicken. I just got to talk to her for the first time in a long time the other day, other than random texts and facebook snippets here and there. It was wonderful. Hearing about her life and her boys made me feel like I was back in California. It was like a breath of fresh air.

I know that she likes to feed her boys good, homemade food whenever possible. I promised her that I would send her some recipes, and I thought that I would share them with the blogosphere. Therefore :)...I am starting a new section to blog, called Good Eats for D. All the recipes that I will put here will be simple and easy to prepare, as well as easily affordable. I get my recipes from all over, and if by chance you stumble upon one that I don't credit you for, please please PLEASE let me know. I will be more than happy to correct myself.

Anyhoo...here goes the first one! Sausage Crescent Pie (as made for me by Miss Sarah Jane). Note: I use low fat and reduced fat whenever possible. It's not necessary to do so, but I like to :)

What you will need:

2 tubes of crescent rolls
2 bars of cream cheese, softened
1 lb of turkey sausage (or any sausage you like)

What you need to do:

Preheat the oven to crescent roll specifications (most likely it's 375).
Brown the sausage in a pan over medium heat, drain.
Unroll one package of crescent rolls and press them flat so they cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole pan.
Spread one package of cream cheese on top of the rolls.

Now comes the fun and creative part. Add the sausage. Then you can add pretty much whatever you want. I  have added mushroom pieces, spinach, onions...sometimes asparagus or tomatoes. Or you can just leave it as the sausage cause it's uber delicious that way.

Spread the last package of cream cheese over the sausage layer.
Unroll the last package of rolls over the top.
Bake according to crescent roll package directions (usually about 20 works)