Bourbon Chicken - AMAZING!

Let me introduce you to my favorite chicken recipe! Chicken is my favorite meat so I like to cook with it often. This is probably one of the only recipes I have found that taste delicious fresh and still tastes as good the next day!

 You're going to need...

• About two pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed into small pieces
• 1 garlic clove, minced (I used pre minced garlic from a jar (see pic below) and just threw in a bunch.)
• 1-2 Tablespoons Olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (again, I just threw in the amount I wanted)
• 1/4 cup apple juice (you could substitute with white grape juice if you don't have apple)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (use if you want thicker sauce)

As you can tell, I don't do a lot of measuring when it comes to seasonings. Liquids I do, but I like to add the amount I think would be good. Doing that, will give you a different flavor every time you make it. :)

• First, you cube the chicken into small chunks. 
• Heat oil in pan and cook chicken until lightly browned.
• Take out the chicken and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring until dissolved.

mmm, such a good sauce!

• Next, add the chicken to the sauce and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. (I discovered that simmering it for an hour increases the flavor and intensity. Also, it made it slightly spicier. Much better simmering for longer!)
• Serve with white rice.

 OMGosh ya'll, this stuff is AMAZING! If it were up to me, I would make this at least once a week. It has the perfect amount of sweet and spicy.

I'd love to hear if any of you make it, and what you thought.

A Couple More Tasty Meals

So I posted here quite some time ago about some meals I was planning on doing. Well, I made most of them and told you what I thought of them.

We did make the Egg Brunch Casserole and the Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork Loin and they were both SO good!

The casserole was made in the crockpot and took a little more prep than just throwing everything in together. I LOVED the taste! Gabe said it was good but wasn't as enthused about it as I was (maybe because he said it needed more bacon?). Christian wasn't feeling good this day so he didn't eat it. Alena did but didn't have much to say about it. I would grade it an A-.

Now the Pork loin. HOLY COW this was AMAZING! I finally found some tenderloin on sale so I could make it. yay! I didn't tweak the recipe at all and I don't think it needed it. This was also made in the crockpot and it came out so juicy and tender that it literally was falling apart as I was taking it out of the crockpot. Everyone ate some and we all loved it! Even Gabe who said he wasn't a fan of pork tenderloin (well now he is!). He did comment that maybe next time I make it, add a little more brown sugar for extra sweetness. This one definitely gets an A+ and will be made again.

Meal Reviews

So remember that post I wrote about the Home Cooked Meals? Well I made all but one and I'm going to tell you about them. :)

I didn't remember how EXPENSIVE pork tenderloin was so I'll have to wait for some to go on sale to make the Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork Loin meal.

The first recipe we tried was the Lemon Garlic Spaghetti. This was supposed to be a meatless dinner but Gabe HAS to have some sort of meat in all his meals.  I went with shrimp. Gabe and the kids love seafood. Me, not so much but I can do without meat when pasta is involved so it worked out. My main concern was the pasta ending up dry. You make your own sauce from garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. Well the pasta was a little dry and I might have added too much lemon, but the taste was ok. Gabe said it was a nice taste change from what we've been eating lately. The kids weren't big fans of the pasta, but devoured the shrimp. All in all, I wouldn't make this on a regular basis and I would definitely be trying to change the recipe a little to better suit our taste buds. I grade it a C.

Our second recipe was the Beef Taquitos. OMG were they AWESOME! They were super easy to make and you can basically add any ingredient you want. I added just beef, onions, a little bit of green peppers, salsa, and cheese. The tortilla shells were a little hard to roll without them ripping, so we put them in our electric saucepan with a wet paper towel. That kept them warm and moist and they rolled SO much better. The kids each ate one without too much complaint. But Gabe and I stuffed our faces! They were just so good! We'll be making these often. This one definitely gets an A!

Third was the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken. I looked everywhere and could not find ANY hawaiin BBQ sauce! I ended up making up my own "sort of Hawaiian" chicken. I added regular BBQ and then chunked pineapple and onions. It definitely tasted more like just BBQ sauce but still tasted good. Christian ate all his chicken without complaint and Alena didn't like it. Gabe loved it and I thought it was just ok. So this grades all over the board from us! I may try it again if I can find that darn Hawaiian BBQ sauce! I give it a B-.

Last, we have the Egg Brunch Casserole. While we haven't eaten it yet, this is in the crockpot now and I can tell you the smell is GREAT! I'm thinking this one will be a keeper.

Home Cooked Meals

So as of this Saturday, we are "celebrating" two weeks of eating nothing but home cooked meals! Heck yeah! It's a pretty big deal to us considering we used to eat out at least twice a week. As we finish this second week, I'm realizing that it's getting easier and easier to resist the temptation to eat out. YAY!

I'm not sure what made us change what we were doing. Money, health... Who knows but I'm not questioning it. :) It wasn't until the end of the first week that I realized how long it had been and I mentioned it to Gabe. I didn't have a meal plan at all, (I know I should have because I would've had a lot easier time coming up with dinner ideas!) so each afternoon I had to scour the fridge and freezer to see what we had that I could come up with.

Well, I have just about run out of ideas without having to start repeating meals from the past two weeks. Then it hit me last night as I was sitting at the computer wasting spending time on Pinterest. (Oh Pinterest... the best way to make yourself feel unaccomplished. ) I was pinning recipes and DUH! How did it never occur to me to actually put all those food pins to good use?!

So at some point today I'm hoping to get the recipes and my shopping list together. I'm excited to try the recipes because they all look so delicious!

Here's what's on the menu this coming week. I have linked them all in case you're interested in trying them out too. :) Oh, and they are or will all be Gluten Free since Gabe can't have any gluten.

Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork loin

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti


Hawaiian BBQ Chicken


Egg Brunch Casserole
We love breakfast for dinner!


Beef Taquitos

YUM, right?! Just doing the links for all that made me hungry and my mouth water. *drool* If I remember and motivated enough, I will review them and let everyone know how they all tasted. If you try any of them too, be sure to let me know how they all turned out!