I Have Nothing to Offer Except this Recipe: Barbecue Chicken and Black Beans

I know I haven't blogged in, like, a month. I have plenty to say. You all will be amazed at my wit and intelligence and amazing opinions. Eventually.

In the meantime, I'm totally sharing this recipe I accidentally created carefully planned out yesterday.

Three thirty in the afternoon and I realize I will have to feed my children and myself at some point in the evening. Pffft. Anyhoo. A quick survey of available ingredients told me that I could either put an insane amount of effort into supper, order pizza, or pull out my trusty cook-time love....THE CROCK POT. Option C [obviously] won out. But since I only had three hours to cook, it had to be in that pot fast.

So now you, too, can be an awesome afternoon chef, throw all this stuff in the pot and then sit on a cushion eating bon bons all day because that is totally what I did. If by sitting on a cushion, you mean carefully orchestrating two naptimes by playing human pacifier/human pillow, letting Bear win getting beaten in Chinese checkers, picking up the stupid Percy the train puzzle again.... Whatever, you get the idea.

I had frozen chicken breasts, black beans, barbecue sauce and some spices. So I used them. Combine the following in your crock pot.

Sweet Baby Ray's is by far my favorite BBQ sauce, and I consider mysel

f a connoisseur

1 pound chicken breasts
2 cans black beans
2 cups barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mexican seasoning ( you can make your own here.)
1-2 drops sweet hot sauce

Isn't that appetizing?? Mmmmm....

Okay, now listen carefully because this is where it gets really tricky: Turn your crock pot ON. Got that?

If you are looking to eat in 4 hours or less, put it on high; if you have, say six hours or so, turn that sucker on low and let the smell of barbecue make your mouth water all day.

About 30 minutes before I served it, I took the chicken out and shredded it, then put it back in. I also thickened the sauce with a little cornstarch.

I served the whole mess over rice with tortilla chips for scooping. The kids loved it and it's high in protein and fiber. Enjoy!

Is this not the picture of deliciousness? It was all I could do to stop and take a picture before I made a pig out of myself.

I Made Nummies, and You Can, Too!

Oh, the yummy foods we make. I'd be lying if I said we plan our suppers each day. Usually, Wes or I come home with some kind of meat and then we make up some kind of creation. It's at the very least edible. At the most, it's worthy of me sharing the recipe here because we accidentally created something awesome.

This is one of the latter instances.

So we had some pork chops. And potatoes. And frozen veggies. Usually this will result in some kind of crazy casserole, but last night I was feeling rather inventive. I will now give credit to Pinterest. Completely responsible for the wonderful potatoes. You can see the recipe here. But the chops....

I did get inspiration for the pork from a loin recipe on Pinterest. (...this one...) But it took a sharp turn when Bear spilled half of the thyme on the kitchen floor. So we came up with our own variation. This was mostly due to her insistence that we have gingerbread pork chops. I thought that ginger would be a great addition. So. Here is what we ended up with:

4 bone in pork chops

Mix:
3 T thyme
2 T ginger
1/2-1/4 c honey
2 T butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sear the pork chops in oil for 45ish seconds on each side.
Transfer to baking dish lined with foil and lightly coated with oil.
Rub the mixture on each side of the chops.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until done.
Voíla.

Yup. And it was incredible. All of it. Serve with a simple green veggie like broccoli because you don't want the tastes to compete.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. They were gone before I got a chance to take any....