Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Let me just start by saying that photographing my recipes lately has been a bit of a challenge.

First off, as the days get shorter the beautiful natural light I normally saw shining through my kitchen window has totally disappeared.  As a food blogger who mostly shares what I make for dinner this makes photographing it quite difficult.  I don't love artificial light, not for food or people photography (check out my lifestyle photography blog here).  And we are also trying to get dinner on the table for a very hungry two year old, so I can only mess around with plating for so long.

Secondly, I have been experimenting with my slow cooker and let's just say slow cooked food, while tasty, convenient and comforting is not the most appealing to the eye.  Case in point:

Please, I beg you, DO NOT take this photo seriously!  This chicken is moist, tender, and oh so yummy.  We usually serve it with rice and broccoli (pictured) and then I will use the leftovers to make Hummus Pasta for the daycare kiddies.

If anyone has any wonderful tips for food photography in low light and how exactly I make a dish like this look good, please, please share! Please.

But for now you will be subjected to terrible photos accompanied by delicious recipes as I explore the world of slow cooking over the next few weeks/months.

Menu Plan Monday - Slow Cooker Cooking

So it's been a really long time since I shared a Menu Plan with all of you.  Truth is I've been busy creating some new weekly menus centering around a wonderful, miraculous time saving device - my slow cooker.

I am sure if you've been reading my blog you have noticed I do A LOT of slow cooker cooking. Just check out some of my recipes here, here,and here.

This Friday is Halloween and what a great night to test drive your slow cooker.  You can prep everything the night before, pop it in the slow cooker in the Am and when you get home from work just serve the Littles dinner and you are out the door.  No drive-thru windows, no frozen pizza, just fresh, homemade goodness to fuel their Trick-or-Treating.  My family will be enjoying my Slow Cooker Chili (recipe here).

Below is this weeks menu.  Note I have also "Halloweenafide" our afternoon snacks at daycare, you can follow along on Instagram (here) as I share our Spooky Treats each day. 

Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and enjoy Slow Cooking this week.

For recipes follow these links: Slow Cooker Indian Chicken Stew; 

Slow Cooker Legume Soup

Is it just me or has this been the fastest/slowest October ever?

It seems like the month just started while at the same time it feels like it should be Christmas already.

When life gets busy I usually turn to my slow cooker to help out in the dinner department.  I have dedicated the month of October to using my slow cooker and have obtained a lot of inspiration from Pinterest (you can check out my Slow Cooker Board here).

The great thing about a slow cooker is you can usually throw a bunch of stuff in them and a beautiful meal comes popping out.

This recipe is exactly that, you simply throw everything in the pot and leave it alone. 

I LOVE when dinner can be simple even when life is not.

Weeknight Turkey Dinner

I am coming at you today with two recipes.  That's right, TWO recipes.

One recipe is for a juicy slow cooked turkey breast.

And the other is a quick and simple stuffing made with couscous.

I serve both with a green veggie of choice; my family usually chooses broccoli. I also whip up a quick gravy (READ: I make a packaged turkey gravy and add the slow cooker juices).

How does turkey dinner in 30 minutes sound????  Perfect for a weeknight meal or a low key Thanksgiving gathering.

So here they are, the recipes I promised you.

#1

# 2

Oven Roasted Chicken Wings

Currently my Little One is in LOVE with Chicken Wings.  In fact when she asks for more she does this cute little wing flap with her arms which her Dad and I LOVE.

 She was anxiously awaiting this super easy and quick weeknight dinner and getting quite annoyed that Mommy kept taking photos instead of letting here eat.  Oh the life of a child of a #foodblogger.

Like I said these wings are quick (ready in under an hour) and super tasty and pair well with a store bought salad or freezer fries for a yummy #weeknight meal.

The only dishes you dirty are a mixing bowl and baking sheet (which I recommend covering with foil for easy clean up).

I made two pounds of wings for our family of three.  The wings I got from Dutchies here is Waterloo were HUGE so this was more then enough.  If your family needs more I would say double the recipe for every two pound of wings you add.

BBQ Beer Crust Pizza

I LOVE PIZZA!

When I was a child it was my duty in life to eat as much pizza as I could.  Glorious were the weeks when I could get pizza for 3-4 meals in a row!   Take out for dinner, leftovers for breakfast (a valid option in the AM as far as I am concerned) and then pizza lunch at school.  Throw in the odd snack here and there of frozen mini pizzas or if those weren't available making my own and I was golden.

I learned to become the ultimate pizza improvisor.  Any form of bread was a good base, if there was no pasta sauce in the house ketchup with basil, oregano and garlic powder would do just fine.  I would raid the fridge and anything hiding in there was fair game for toppings.


My Mom had this crust recipe that she would make quite often.  Nothing beat Mom's homemade pizza and when I moved out on my own I tried and failed many time to make the crust.  Now you need to know that doughs and I DO NOT get along.  I just don't seem to have the knack for kneeding and rolling, so I filed Mom's recipe under things I'd never be able to do and moved on.  Then I came across this on Pinterest and I had to give it a try.

If you are anything like me you probably have everything in the house to make this crust tonight.

When I first gave it a try I knew it could go really bad really fast and we could be ordering take out.  But this dough was easy to work with and came together super fast, I made it while the little ones napped.

 So for the past year or so this pizza crust has been an almost weekly occurrence in our house.  When summer rolled around I got courageous and decided to try it on the BBQ.

After some research (back to Pinterest) I decided on the best method to try and gave it a go.  It worked and it was delicious.

So now we make BBQ Beer Crust Pizza almost every Friday.  The best part I just scrounge in the fridge and use leftovers as toppings.  These babies pictured above featured chicken, asparagus, red peppers and corn.  I mixed a little BBQ Sauce in with a pasta sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese (the only thing that needed to picked up on the way home from work).

A few hints if you choose to try your crust on the BBQ:
* Have your BBQ nice and hot
* Oil the surface of the dough that will be touching the grill
* Don't worry if dough falls through the grill it will all work out in the end
* Work fast with flipping and topping so the grill doesn't cool.