Recipe Reblog #19

When it's hot outside, the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven. Especially when you're in a stand off with the air conditioning. (I will win!) Enter, a crockpot meal and a cooooool treat.

Honey Sesame Crockpot Chicken: I was really in a Chinese mood when I picked this recipe. Actually, I've been craving Chinese for weeks and just haven't made it to our favorite take-out place. This was healthier anyway. This recipe was a win even before I tasted it because I had all the ingredients on hand. LOVE that!  Throw it all in the pot and a few hours later, you've got dinner! If you don't have sesame seeds and don't feel like shelling out $5 for a jar just to use 1 tablespoon, you can skip it. They only get thrown in at the end and don't make big difference in the flavor. Sweet and savory chicken shredded over rice. It did not get overly saucy and I like a lot of sauce. Next time, I might skip the cornstarch step. That thickened it up and if I had left the sauce a little loose, it would have covered the rice better. Another thing, 1/2 cup of honey felt like a lot to me. You can skimp on that a bit without compromising flavor....I think. Give this one a shot for some at home, healthy Chinese!

Orange Creamsicles: First time busting out my popsicle molds this year! I had whole milk to use up so I googled recipes using that and came up with a bunch from the NY Times. Again, I had all the ingredients for these so that's why I picked this one. Maybe not as healthy as the extremely low calorie ones from the grocery store but MUCH more flavor. They were a lot creamier too. John and I were both pleasantly surprised. The recipe yielded 5 pops for me but my molds are larger. All natural ingredients? Count me in!