Chicken Stew to Keep You Warm All Winter

There is nothing better then sitting down to dinner and enjoying that warm comforting sensation of a home made chicken stew. I enjoy that feeling and I would love for you to have that feeling. This meal used to mean hours in the kitchen cooking, however, thanks to modern-day technology, it can happen very easily with little time involved. All you need is a crock pot and a little prep time and you can make this instant hit.

Crock pot Chicken Stew
2 Bone-in Chicken Breast
6 cups of water
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 bay leaf
pepper and salt
1 1/2 c carrots chopped into bite size pieces
1 c celery in bite size pieces
3/4 c noodles
In your crock pot combine your chicken, water, the carrot, the celery stick, bay leaf, and then salt and pepper to taste. This will make the most important part of your stew, the stock. You should let this cook on low overnight. In the mid morning pull everything out of the liquid. Discard the carrot, celery and bay leaf.

Let the chicken cool for about 30 minutes so you can pull the meat off the bone and rip it up. Once you have pulled of all the meat and cut or ripped it into bite size pieces put it back in the crock pot and discard the bone and skin. Let that continue to cook on low. About two hours before you will be eating add the chopped carrots to the stew. Then when when you are 30 minutes from eating you will want to add you celery and noodles, you may also want to add a little more salt and pepper so go ahead and take a little taste. You can also add some corn, peas, or green beans if you would like. When the noodles are soft serve and enjoy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Larisa_Noga/7268

Easy Apple Butter Recipe and 2 More Delicious Crockpot Recipes

Preparing delicious and long lasting meals is easy when using a Crockpot. Apple butter, apple coconut crisp and apple cranberry compote recipes are 3 great Crockpot recipes. Here are the 3 recipes for you to prepare at home:

1. Apple Butter
This can be made in a slow cooker/Crock Pot or oven at 325 degrees for 3-4 hours.

Ingredients:
- 4 qts. unsweetened applesauce
- 7 C. granulated sugar
- 1-1/3 C. brown sugar
- 5-1/3 T. cider vinegar
- 5-1/3 T. lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon. cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon. allspice
- 1 teaspoon. ground cloves

Directions:
- Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker/Crock Pot or roasting pan.
- Cover and cook 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove lid and continue cooking until excess liquid cooks away (turn to low as necessary) Slow Cooker 5-8 hours, oven 3-5 hours Seal mixture in hot jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes approximately 8-10 pints
2. Apple Coconut Crisp
Ingredients:

- 4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled & coarsely sliced (about 4 cups)
- 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butterscotch or caramel ice cream topping (fat-free is fine)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 cup quick rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Directions:
- In a casserole 1 1/2-quart baking dish that fits in the slow cooker/Crock Pot, combine apples with
coconut, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Drizzle with the ice cream topping.
- Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl with a fork or pastry cutter and sprinkle over apple mixture.
- Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until apples are tender.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.
3. Apple Cranberry Compote

Ingredients:
- 6 cooking apples, peeled, slice
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
- 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cups port wine
- sour cream , (low fat)
Directions:
- Arrange apple slices and cranberries in slow cooker/Crock Pot.
- Sprinkle sugar over fruit.
- Add orange peel, water and wine. Stir to mix ingredients. Cover, cook on low 4-6 hours, until apples are tender.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lucille_Green/234766

Easy Slow Cooker Recipes For Healthy Living

One-dish dinners are cooked best in a crock pot and easy slow cooker recipes have now made it possible for you to ensure that your family can enjoy nutritious and healthy meals. This handy kitchen appliance can be your best friend if you know how to use it well because it is simple to operate, cost-effective and comes in a variety of styles and sizes. Easy slow cooker recipes are what you need when you have had a long tiring day and you need to cook a nutritious dinner in the shortest possible time. You could either opt for a vegetarian slow cooker recipe or even try your hand at international cuisines if your family is open to experimenting.

How To Make Easy Slow Cook Recipes Work:

• Alter the recipes to appeal to the palates of your family members like seasonings or spices or vegetables.
• Follow instructions carefully when doing layering because some vegetables like carrots take longer to cook. Usually the ones that take the longest to cook are placed at the bottom of the crock-pot and those that cook easily are placed on top.
• Unless instructions are diligently followed, you may end up with a meal where the vegetables end up raw!

Advantages Of Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes:
1. They are very easy to handle and give you the flexibility to prepare different kinds of delicious meals for your family.

2. All you need to do is to combine ingredients and let it cook in the crock-pot over a gentle flame.
3. Saves you time during which you can complete other household chores.

4. Healthy slow cooker recipes can be prepared easily because most recipes typically demand healthy and nutritious ingredients which can be cooked over a long period of time so as to retain all the essential healthy vitamins and minerals as well as preserving its deliciousness.

5. Healthy slow cooker recipes are also cheaper and simpler to make, especially for those who have neither the time nor the patience to cook an elaborate dinner.

6. This type of cooking is hassle-free and safe because they involve lower temperatures and gentle heat. With a timer, it can be left unattended as well.

7. The lengthy cooking time lets the flavour get distributed better and the lesser temperature prevents the food from getting burnt or getting stuck to the bottom of the container unlike in an oven.

8. Most convenient for large gathering meals or holiday treats like a Thanksgiving dinner.

For a vegetarian slow cooker recipe, wherein the majority of ingredients are derived from non-animal sources, it can prove to be very valuable and convenient. While cooking beans or making pea-based soups and stews, these cookers are the best. Root vegetables or heavy vegetables like squash are best cooked in a crock-pot as are soups made from grains. All in all, when you want a nutritious and light meal for your family that can cook on its own and demands little effort on your part, easy slow cooker recipes are your best bet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Albertina_Belmont/237984

Quick & Easy Chicken Recipes

Do you wish you had more time in the kitchen or more energy left over at the end of the day so you could prepare a delicious, nutritious, and satisfying meal for your family? Well, lots of working parents feel that way; sometimes it just seems so much easier to pop a frozen dinner into the microwave, order a pizza, or run into the drive-through on the way home, but we all know that those kind of meals are neither good for you nor all that satisfying, and they don't really promote meal time as a special time for the family to gather.

The good news, however, that you really don't need to spend hours in the kitchen to prepare a delightful meal that everyone will enjoy. There are lots of quick easy chicken recipes, for example, that can be prepared in a short amount of time and will taste delicious and make a nice meal for your family. Chicken is very versatile and can be prepared a lot of different ways.

My favorite quick easy chicken recipe involves boneless breasts and Italian salad dressing. All you need to do is take five minutes before you leave the house in the morning to get your chicken started. Simply poke some holes in the breasts and cover them with the dressing and leave them in a flat baking dish in the fridge to marinate.

When you get home at night, simply roll the breasts in a mixture of flour, grated parmesan cheese out of the can, and Italian bread crumbs, and then place them on a tray or in a shallow pan and bake them in the oven for about half an hour.

While they are getting tasty in the oven, prepare a nice salad using bagged lettuce and some tomatoes and cucumbers and put one of those steam-in-the-bag bags of broccoli or green beans in the microwave and season them with some butter and salt and pepper.

In half an hour, you have a delicious, quick, easy chicken recipe that the whole family can enjoy around the table.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jamie_Owen/309940

Save Time and Money Preparing Chicken Recipes

Today, just about everyone is searching for some ways to save time and money. This is true of all those wonderful cooks out there who are also trying to stretch the monthly food budget while satisfying the hungry family. Getting good ideas about how to save time and money is always a resourceful move, especially when times are so lean.

When you make the decision to conserve any reserve you are making a wise decision. It is the same for meal preparation. By learning how to cut certain corners, you are able to not only serve a hot piping and delicious meal you give yourself more time to spend with your family.

Here are a couple of good tips and ideas that can help you stretch your monthly family food budget. These tips and ideas will help you save time and money while preparing chicken recipes for your family and friends.

Save on Meat Cuts
Chicken is one of the less expensive meat types you can eat today. You can save money on your family budget by preparing chicken dishes. However, do you know you can also save money by using your own pair of meat shears to cut and cube the meat yourself? Doing so will save you money since you can remove skin and fat as well as cut or cube meat while using them. No butcher will have to do it for you, which means you can save money since all those slices, dices and cuts figure into the total price of specialty packaged meats.

Save by Bulk Cooking Chicken
If you do not already cook chicken in bulk to store in the freezer for future meal preparation, you really should consider doing so. Cooking several pieces at a time will save you on preparation time. It will also help save money on your power bill. You may want to pre-cook your chicken by boiling, broiling, smoking, poaching, baking, grilling, or even frying. You can place the pieces of properly covered meat in the freezer whole or you can cut, cube, and then store them for later

When you choose to cook in bulk by boiling, remember to save any chicken stock that you can use for other meals. Freezing the stock in ice cube trays and then storing the cubes in zip-sealed storage bags is a good idea. You can also use a larger container with a tight sealing lid when you want to store larger amounts of chicken stock for broths, soups, and stews.

Use Plenty of other Great Ingredients while Preparing Chicken
When you are on a tight budget and you have hungry mouths to feed, you can save by making use of plenty of other great ingredients while preparing chicken. For instance, you can use all sorts of vegetables, rice and pastas to create a more eye-appealing, delicious and nutritious meal. You may want to take the time to pre-cook and then store some of these items in the freezer for future meal preparations.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Christine_Szalay-Kudra/414787

Important Facts to Consider When Purchasing a Slow Cooker

Slow cookers are great for cooking side dishes, entrees, stews and soups. They are versatile enough, especially in preparing specialty foods, cakes and other desserts. It can simplify preparation of everyday meals.

Slow cookers have built-in heating elements, along with an insulated shell and an inner cooking chamber. It is usually made of glass or stoneware which operates through heat transfer. A crock pot is not only convenient. It also has the ability to prepare affordable dishes, saving you valuable time.

One of the things to consider when purchasing a slow cooker is the number of people you need to feed. Crock pots come in many different sizes from 1 pint to 7 quart capacities. Small sizes can feed 1 to 2 persons only, measured only in ounces. A large 4 to 6 quart slow cooker is much better for a crowd or big families.

Slow cookers come in oval or round shapes. A 4-quart cooker requires 12 inches wide by 9 inches high size. Large ones occupy from 14 to 19 inches. The smallest unit is best when making hot dips. The large sizes can prepare a batch of family sized beef stews. The crock pot size should fit in your needs to avoid inefficient cooking.

New product innovations have included multiple interchangeable liners. These replicate a slow barbeque roaster that can cook two different foods at the same time.

Crock pots have traditional and programmable settings. These include plug-ins, low and high warming selections, and to programmable features. High-tech settings include start and end timers, keep-warm, automatic shut-off and temperature controls. Programmable crock pots can lessen instances of overcooking or undercooking food.

Units with digital display screens let you see the elapsed cooking time with a touch of a button. There are certain models that enable changing temperature settings of the unit about half-way through the cooking process. Digital displays cost much higher as compared to ordinary models.

Slow cookers with temperature gauges are used for checking cooking progress. It is more useful in cooking larger meat cuts. It uses an internal temperature or probe inserted to the meat. The unit switches to warm when the meat reaches the ideal temperature.

Some of the non-digital units come in keep-warm settings to retain the ideal serving temperature of the food.
Most slow cookers come in a particular design, from the simple floral trim to the classy theme designs on the base. The traditional white and green style is the most popular. It adds a visual appeal to the appliance.

Slow cookers have thick metal exteriors, a glass lid and a stoneware liner. A stainless steel model costs more. Crock pots should have a heating element on its sides, not only at the bottom. Most manufacturers add up an insulator or a plastic layer in order to minimize heat and scalding.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Urmann/39183

Cooking Tips - Meals That Are Easy to Prepare in a Crock Pot

The crock pot must have been invented by a busy mom or someone who spends all day at work. There is nothing worse then coming home at dinner time with a growling stomach, and still having to put a dinner together before you can begin eating. Fortunately, there are a few cooking tips you can put into action so that your dinner is ready and waiting for you when you get home.

First, consider creating a soup with your slow cooker. Use chicken or vegetable broth as your base. Toss in freshly chopped veggies, your favorite spices, and any leftover meat that you may have sitting in the refrigerator. Chicken, turkey, steak, ham, and even leftover chunks from a roast taste great in homemade soups. The only thing I recommend is not adding salt to the soup if you plan on using ham. Many food blogs recommend that you cook most of your crock pot dishes on low for 6 to 8 hours, instead of on high for 3 to 4 hours. You won't want to use the high setting anyway if you are going to be away at work.

Second, cook your meat and potatoes together. Slow cookers are great for combining your proteins with your veggies for a complete meal. Whether you are cooking chicken or beef, simply chop and toss in the vegetables you like the most. You could cook chicken with carrots and green beans, or a roast with potatoes, celery, and onions. Just make sure that you create a broth to add, or add a can of condensed soup with a can of water to the crock pot. Otherwise, your meat and veggies will dry out. This is the most important of the cooking tips to remember.

Third, make chili. Chili tastes the best when it has been allowed to cook for a longer period of time, which makes it a perfect recipe for using in a crock pot. You'll have to brown your ground beef or ground turkey ahead of time, but everything else can simply be tossed into the slow cooker and mixed together. If you plan on topping your chili with cheddar cheese, hold off until the last 5 to 10 minutes before you plan on serving it. Otherwise, the cheese will brown.

Food blogs are especially helpful in deciding what you want to create in your crock pot. The possibilities are almost endless. It's not just dinners that are easy to make in this essential kitchen appliance, you can also put together some delicious desserts as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dominic_H_Milner/1287438