Let's talk about food...

Usually I just post about books...occasionally movies and television, but 90% of my posts are book related.

So I am going to change it up. Let's talk about food....especially all the food I cooked this weekend.

First, let me tell you about cooking in my family. I am a southerner and when we cook dinner there are usually 4 to 5 side items. I have even seen my maternal grandmother have 7 sides once at a meal. Growing up though, my mother didn't do much cooking. She fixed dinner every night, but she mainly threw things together. She only gets recipes out at Thanksgiving or Christmas...and that's only if we aren't going to my grandparents. After my parents divorced, she said she just lost all interest in cooking. One of her biggest regrets she says is that she didn't teach me or my sister how to cook.

In the last 2 or 3 years, my grandmother and I have done nothing but share recipes. We call each other at least once a week and share different recipes we have found, were given, or thought might work well. I love it.

I can't stick to a recipe though. I am constantly adding different ingredients. Turns out my paternal grandmother does this as well. I never thought much about it until my mom pointed out that I never make a recipe the same way.

I don't do a lot of cooking or experimenting. I wish I did more, but the grocery store is my downfall. I always spend way too much money in there. I use to do all my cooking on Sunday and portion up tupperware containers with food for each day. This kept me from running to the store really quickly and instantly spending $20 or $30. This method worked great for me!

Since BF moved in I have found that the food I would cook on Sunday to last me an entire week would be gone by Tuesday or Wednesday. Where I could make one chicken breast last for two meals, he could easily eat 2 chicken breast for one meal. It has taken me a while to get use to this. Fortunately, he does fend for himself a lot when it comes to food. Whereas I rarely purchase fast food, he routinely orders food on his way to work or after. He also has a tendency to forget about leftovers. He has no problem eating them...he just forgets that they are in there.

Ok, now for some recipes. On Saturday I did some major cooking, which I probably shouldn't have done since I was going to the Greek Food Festival that afternoon. I have been inspired by Adventures in Life, Love, Librarianship's Eat All the Food challenge. The goal is to utilize the food already in your pantry before going out to by more. I wanted to find a recipe for chicken in a crockpot, but I wanted to use ingredients that I knew wouldn't get used everyday. I searched through some cookbooks at my house when I found one for Chicken in Honey Sauce.

From the book, Crock-pot: The Original Slow Cooker, 3 books in 1.

Chicken in Honey Sauce
 Ingredients

• 4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt, pepper
• 2 cups honey
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• sesame seeds

1. Place chicken in crockpot, season with salt and pepper.

2. Combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil and garlic in medium bowl. Pour over chicken. Cover; cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.

3. Garnish with sesame seeds before servings. 

Why I picked this recipe: 

1. I had all the ingredients (except sesame seeds, which I omitted)

2. It would give me the chance to use the soy sauce and ketchup (both which I hate) up.

What I changed:

Remember how I said I couldn't follow a recipe? Well I can't.

I realized that I only had 1 1/2 cup of honey instead of 2. I decided to add some honey mustard dressing to the mix, along with a little honey bbq sauce. Don't ask my why. I just thought this might be a good combination and they were in the fridge. That's how I roll. 

I didn't have sesame seeds so I decided to top the chicken off with a little mozz. cheese.

The chicken came out good, but with a little too much of a soy sauce taste for me. I would cut down on the amount of soy sauce (unless you really like it). Boyfriend seemed to like it a lot and it was very easy to make. 

I made squash croquettes and a spinach and tortellini casserole to go along with it. I will post those recipes later on this week.