My Cooking Experiment

Back in September I confessed my love of all things slow cooker and I got a Facebook comment from a  friend that I needed to get the cookbook, Make it Fast, Cook it Slow from Stephanie O'Dea the creator of A Year of Slow Cooking.  I got her cookbook for Christmas and other than the occasional frozen pizza and one night of deer steak fajitas I have only made slow-cooked suppers since the new year.

My normal "new cookbook" routine is to read over it, pick out the things I know we will like, and only make the things I KNOW without a doubt we will like.  This time I wanted to try everything, unless it was something I know we will absolutely hate, and so begins my month of buying obscure seasonings and things on the "foreign" aisle at the grocery store.  We have had quite a few misses and have probably thrown out more food than we ever had but we haven't had a repeat supper since before Christmas and I am finding some new foods to add to our menu.

Brown Sugar Chicken
I was super excited to try this because she said it was nicknamed "Candy Chicken" at her house.  Mason helped me make it and he was excited to tell Ryan that it was full of Sprite and brown sugar.  However, neither kids would eat it for supper.  I thought it was OK - I ate it and so did Ryan but neither of us fell in love.

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
I am not a buffalo wing sauce fan and the whole house smelled like buffalo wing sauce ALL DAY.  I had somewhere to be that evening and I ended up eating Burger King for supper, but Ryan LOVED it and had it for leftovers the next day too.  I was too scared to ever try it!

Chicken and Brown Rice
I often say that I am a true Louisiana girl and if you can serve it with rice or over rice then I'll eat, but this was terrible!

Creamy Beef over Noodles
Came home for a minute between church and Sunday lunch at my mom's and this smelled so good! It had been cooking for 5 hours and had 5 - 7 more hours to go.  When I got home it had 2 hours left to cook and it was scorched!  I will definitely try this again when I can be home to turn it off sooner.

Barbecued Shrimp
This was yummy and totally a make-again dish.  Next time with less lemon juice though.

Parmesan Tilapia
We did not really like this.  It had way too much lemon.  Now that I know you can make fish in the crockpot then I may try out some different variations.

Seafood Alfredo
This was good but it did not turn out creamy like an alfredo sauce.  I think it was my fault; I used crawfish tails and I didn't rinse them out before cooking them; I just poured the bag in there and I think it added too much juice.

Bacon & Cheese Chicken
Loved it! I have never cooked with teriyaki sauce before and was a little nervous but it was super good!

Cajun Roasted Turkey Breast
Making this tonight with a few variations and substitutions - we'll see!

3-Packet Pot Roast
Roast is my go-to meal because I can throw in vegetables and meat and it is really easy.  I was getting tired of my recipe because we ate it so often.  This was really good and I will make it again.

A-1 & Dijon Steak
We used deer steak for this.  It turned out a little dry but deer meat is very lean and I think that is why.  It had great flavor though and I will cook again with beef steaks next time.  Oh, and I substituted apple juice for the white wine.

Asian Peanut Butter Pork
Those of you who know me well will know that I do not do oriental foods but in the spirit of my experiment I tried it.  I actually went out to eat with my sister and some cousins on this night but I sampled some of Mason's before I left.  It was surprisingly good!  However, the stomach virus hit Mason that night and I now I have spent the past few days scubbing Asian Peanut Butter Pork off my walls, clothes, sheets, hangers, laundry baskets (he happened to be walking past a nice & neat basket of folded laundry with hangers on top waiting to be put away when the urge hit him!) and I think it will be a while before we try again!  However, this did not make him sick!!

Chimichangas
I love chimichangas and was excited to try this! It was a little more labor intensive than I like but it was still GOOD!  I used pork (the recipe calls for beef or pork) and omitted the can of diced tomatoes because my kids and me don't really like tomatoes.  I totally burned my first two chimi's when I tried to fry them but the rest turned out really good!! I made Rotel dip to go on top of them.

Ryan thinks I have forgotten how to use the stove or oven but I am not missing them!  However, next month I am going to try more of the sides and I only have one crockpot so I will have to start making my main dishes using regular methods soon!

Hope ya'll can find something you like on here!