Buffalo Chicken Wings

For the end of football season I thought I would try my hand at making chicken wings. Rick really likes them. I did a little searching and found a recipe for slow cooker buffalo chicken wings. There's a little work at the end because you need to put them in the oven for 30 minutes to brown up, but other than that the majority of it is in the slow cooker. 

They are very good. I will warn you that they are spicy! You may want to let everyone put their own sauce on after they've been in the oven so they can control the heat. I also found that we had leftover buffalo sauce, so you can either store it in the refrigerator or cut back on the amount you make. We like buffalo sauce so I've found some other recipes (check out Adventures with Veggies for buffalo cauliflower bites) to use it in. 

Adventures with Veggies

Lately I've been trying to get more vegetables in my diet. I think I get bored with vegetables because I end up cooking them the same way all the time or I end up cooking the same type of vegetables all the time. So I decided to be more adventurous. Here are some of the vegetable recipes I've tried recently.

Green Bean Fries - These were a little messy to put together, but very yummy! I used spicy ranch dressing mix I had in the cabinet which was good. We like things a little spicy any way.

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites - These were good... very spicy. I had some left over buffalo sauce I made to use with some chicken wings so I thought I'd give these a try. I also thought Rick might try them since he loves buffalo tenders.... no such luck!

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes and Basil - This was good. I think I enjoyed the roasted tomatoes and basil the most. I think you could definitely use them as a nice sauce for pasta or something. The squash was good, but I think I needed to season mine a little more after I shredded it with a fork. Looks really pretty though!

French Dip Sandwich

Rick loves French Dip sandwiches. I came across a recipe while playing on Pinterest one day. It sounded pretty easy, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Well, let me tell you.... Rick loved it. He told me it was the best French Dip sandwich he's ever had.... now that's a pretty good compliment. The best part is they are so easy! Putting the sandwiches together takes the most effort. I will say they are very tasty. I'm not a big fan of these types of sandwiches, but these are very yummy.

I made mine with a little less cheese and used a lower calorie bread rather than the roll. It still tasted yummy!

http://www.thewhickerbasket.blogspot.com/2010/01/french-dip-sandwiches.html

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash and Arugula Salad

Lately I've been slacking around the vegetable area.... so I thought it was time to bring more of them back into my diet. I think I need more variety. I've been catching up on my food magazines and found a salad recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine. I don't know about you but winter doesn't make me want to have a lot of salad, but I decided to give it a try.

I made butternut squash and arugula salad last night for dinner. When I read the recipe I knew I liked everything in it. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the combination. It was delicious! I didn't toss the entire salad with the dressing since I'm not big on mushy leftover salad. I just put a little in my own salad and tossed it that way. Worked great for me!

I had it again tonight for dinner. It was still really tasty!

Salad tossed without dressing

Salad with some shaved parm cheese and tossed in some of the dressing... yum!

Warm Winter Breakfast

Yesterday we got more snow than we expected. Although it was beautiful when it was coming down, I have to say I'm so ready for spring. In fact as I write this post this morning.... I looked outside and it's snowing again! OMG!

This was the lane to my drive way on my way home from the grocery store yesterday.

Anyway, last night I decided I wanted a nice warm comforting breakfast this morning when I woke up. I kept seeing this recipe for slow cooker oatmeal popup on Facebook, Pinterest, and Melissa's blog post. So I decided to give it a try. I made Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Steel-Cut Oatmeal from YummyLife.com.

It was very simple to put together. I didn't have steel-cut oatmeal, but after reading some other slow cooker recipes online I found you can use old fashioned oats as well, which is what I had. The only other thing I did a little differently was that I didn't peel the apples. I figured I would keep the extra fiber in the oatmeal.

Well, this morning I woke up to check it out. It did make the kitchen smell nice so early in the morning.

This is what it looked like when I opened the slow cooker.

This is a small portion I tried. I added some chopped pecans on top.

The consistency was very mushy. Maybe that was due to the fact that I used old fashioned oats rather than steel-cut oats. Not sure. It was a little bland for my taste. I added some extra cinnamon which did make it taste better.

Not sure this is my favorite recipe, but we'll see how it is as the week goes on. I have plenty for the next few days and I'm going to freeze some as well. I will say it was great not to have to put any effort into making breakfast this morning! :)

If you try it let me know what you think. Also, any additional tips you might use.

In case you need a little more info on flaxseed (like I did) check out this article on WebMD.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/benefits-of-flaxseed

Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins

I've been trying to get myself to bake these muffins for a while. Well, today was the day! They were delicious! And I'd say fairly healthy..... 

I would suggest that you leave them in the muffin pan a bit before you take them out. I took them out after a few minutes and found the middle could have been just a little bit more cooked. The recipe doesn't provide any type of timing or suggestions around cool down.

Check out the recipe.... Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins

I didn't use the muffins foil liners they suggested. Just a little baking spray.

Yummy with a cup of tea in the morning.

Greek Chicken Soup

My favorite soup is the Greek chicken soup from The New England Soup Factory. I've had the cookbook for at least 2 years and have made only one soup out of it. It's so delicious and has such a small number of ingredients.

The full recipe is online here. I've substituted cooked rice for the orzo and just cooked it a little less. I've also used thin spaghetti broken up into approximately two inch chunks, in a pinch.

For zesting the lemon, I've had the best luck with a Microplane zester. I used to use a small citrus zester, but that took forever.

I highly recommend this soup. SO delicious, especially if you love lemon.