Playing with the Crock Pot

Anyone who has ever moved knows that in the weeks before your move you do whatever you can to consume the food you have in the house so that you have less to take with you. We've been in the process of doing this for a little bit now, but now we're in full swing. I had these cans of chili-ready tomatoes that I needed to use up and while driving last weekend I had an idea.

This is where most people say "Uh-oh". In our home, it's when we say "What's going to be delicious now?"

Today before I went to work I threw some stuff in our Crock Pot and VOILA! Dinner. Delicious, yummy, dinner.

Danielle's Crock Pot Tomato Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 stems celery, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 vidalia or sweet onion, sliced (Admittedly I did not have this today, but I'm getting one for next time. It was definitely missing) 
• 1 can diced or stewed tomatoes (I used chili-ready, but any kind would work.)
• 1/8 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
• Fresh ground pepper (I think I did 3-4 turns)

Method:

• Place both chicken breasts on bottom of crock pot
• Crush garlic cloves on top of chicken breasts with a garlic press. If you don't have one, finely chop garlic and sprinkle over chicken.
• Layer the celery stems, green pepper, and onion over the chicken.
• Pour the can of tomatoes over everything that's already in there.
• Sprinkle chili powder, cayenne pepper, and fresh ground pepper over chicken.
• Place lid on Crock Pot and cook on Low for 6.5 hours.

When I got home tonight, the chicken was done. It had been on "Keep Warm" for a couple of hours and was ready to be eaten. I paired it with some sweet potato "fries" (I par-boiled them for too long) that I made using a spice blend that I got from a friend of mine for a recent Christmas. It's a great spice blend and went well with the sweet potatoes.

When we sat down for dinner, it was judgment time. Steve was honest - he said that when he got home the apartment didn't smell as he had expected it to. He opened the Crock Pot and smelled the veggies and was unsure about my latest experiment. Then he sat down to dinner and tried it and was glad to find out that it was, indeed, pretty tasty.

Dinner with the flowers I got for our anniversary. Yes that's a Star Trek glass. Shutty.

It's a good thing he liked it too. I still have 2 more cans of chili-ready tomatoes and a package of chicken to use before July 3rd!