I've moved from soups to noodles in the slow cooker! This week I made for the second time a unique chicken Florentine Alfredo dish. Very easy to do! And oh so yummy! Unlike my other crock pot dishes, this one is one is a little more involved, but it's perfect for a Sunday supper!
Ingredients:
8 oz frozen spinach
4 oz frozen onions
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can mushrooms
2 chicken breasts
1 16 oz alfrado sauce
1 cup milk
½ stick butter
2 cups linguini
Garlic salt, pepper
Season a frying pan with garlic salt, and pepper. Sautee the frozen spinach and onions in a skillet until all the water is gone. You want it to be fairly dry before you put it into slow cooker.
Season the frying pan with garlic salt, salt, pepper again. Drain the diced tomatoes and mushroom and put the remaining contents of the cans into skillet. Sautee the tomatoes and mushrooms until all the water is gone, but don’t let it burn. Again, you want it to be dry before you put it into in the slow cooker, but not scorched. Once the vegetables are cooked and dried, put them into the slow cooker.
Boil the linguine until the noodles are soft, but not completely done. Drain well, rinse and put in crock pot. It’s important to rinse the noodles to get rid of the excess starch that will make the noodles gummy.
Chunk the chicken breasts and put in the crock pot.
Pour in Alfredo sauce, milk and butter in crock pot and mix well.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours until the chicken is done.
Delish with wine and HBO!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Five Ways to Ensure a Healthy Lawn and Garden
Gardening is not my first love. I plant perennials like mums which are hardy and come back year after year. But some folks love to dig in the dirt at the first sign of spring. Outdoor power equipment manufacture Troy-Bilt offers these ideas for taking care of your lawn this spring:
Don't plant annuals or fruit- or berry-producing plants early. Annuals and fruit- and berry-producing plants are especially susceptible to being killed off or damaged by frost. If you have these kinds of plants already in the ground, keep them well-watered. If you know the temperature will be dropping dangerously low on a particular night, cover the plants with mesh netting.
Begin pest and insect control earlier than usual. Cold winter temperatures keep pests and diseases in check, but this year many of those pests and diseases may not have died or gone fully dormant. Also, it's possible the warm winter could have thrown off the life-cycles of various insect species, which may mean the good insects we count on to gobble up the bad insects that harm grasses and gardens were born too early to do the job – so keep an eye out for new problems.
Protect ornamental bushes and shrubs that are out of their native range. Ornamental bushes and shrubs that are on the border of growing in their climate zone are usually more susceptible to blooming early at the first sign of warmer weather. If they do and there's a freeze, it's likely they'll lose their flowers for the season or produce fewer flowers this year. Protect them by watering well early in the season.
Begin weed maintenance earlier than usual. Your grass and garden aren't the only things growing sooner this year. Weeds had an early start as well. If you don't get an early start on weeding this year, your lawn or garden may get choked off and not grow as well this season.
Stay off the lawn, and resist the urge to cut the grass too short too early! A growing lawn is more susceptible to freezing than a dormant lawn. Staying off the lawn keeps the stress down on the grass and helps protect it if the temperature suddenly drops. Also, don't cut more than a third of the blade at a time. If you go lower and a freeze comes along, it could shock the grass and stunt its growth.
Once you're ready to pull your lawn mower out of the shed for the first time this year, take some time to tune it up. If you've used your mower for more than a year, it may be time to sharpen or replace your blades. Also add fresh gas and oil. If your mower needs to be replaced, now is the time to start researching and hitting the stores.
Not sure what kind of mower you need? Consider the following choices to find the mower best suited to your needs:
Walk-behind mower – If you have less than an acre of land or many obstacles in your yard, a reel, push or self-propelled walk-behind mower may make the most sense.
Lawn tractor – For larger yards that would be difficult to cover on foot, consider a riding mower.
Source: Troy-Bilt via PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1bEur)
Don't plant annuals or fruit- or berry-producing plants early. Annuals and fruit- and berry-producing plants are especially susceptible to being killed off or damaged by frost. If you have these kinds of plants already in the ground, keep them well-watered. If you know the temperature will be dropping dangerously low on a particular night, cover the plants with mesh netting.
Begin pest and insect control earlier than usual. Cold winter temperatures keep pests and diseases in check, but this year many of those pests and diseases may not have died or gone fully dormant. Also, it's possible the warm winter could have thrown off the life-cycles of various insect species, which may mean the good insects we count on to gobble up the bad insects that harm grasses and gardens were born too early to do the job – so keep an eye out for new problems.
Protect ornamental bushes and shrubs that are out of their native range. Ornamental bushes and shrubs that are on the border of growing in their climate zone are usually more susceptible to blooming early at the first sign of warmer weather. If they do and there's a freeze, it's likely they'll lose their flowers for the season or produce fewer flowers this year. Protect them by watering well early in the season.
Begin weed maintenance earlier than usual. Your grass and garden aren't the only things growing sooner this year. Weeds had an early start as well. If you don't get an early start on weeding this year, your lawn or garden may get choked off and not grow as well this season.
Stay off the lawn, and resist the urge to cut the grass too short too early! A growing lawn is more susceptible to freezing than a dormant lawn. Staying off the lawn keeps the stress down on the grass and helps protect it if the temperature suddenly drops. Also, don't cut more than a third of the blade at a time. If you go lower and a freeze comes along, it could shock the grass and stunt its growth.
Once you're ready to pull your lawn mower out of the shed for the first time this year, take some time to tune it up. If you've used your mower for more than a year, it may be time to sharpen or replace your blades. Also add fresh gas and oil. If your mower needs to be replaced, now is the time to start researching and hitting the stores.
Not sure what kind of mower you need? Consider the following choices to find the mower best suited to your needs:
Walk-behind mower – If you have less than an acre of land or many obstacles in your yard, a reel, push or self-propelled walk-behind mower may make the most sense.
Lawn tractor – For larger yards that would be difficult to cover on foot, consider a riding mower.
Source: Troy-Bilt via PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1bEur)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Satisfying the Sweet Tooth Without the Sugar
Low carb diets are hard when you’ve got a sweet tooth! Sure, there’s sugarless sweets out there, but they’re budget busting expensive! But I’ve found a solution in Pillsbury’s sugarfree cake mixes and brownie mix. The cake mixes come in yellow and chocolate. Unfortunately, the gourmet flavors and the fun flavors aren’t available in sugarless versions yet.
Fortunately with basic flavors, you can be creative to change them up. Sugarfree chocolate and vanilla frostings are available so you can make up a straight up traditional pan cake. I haven’t done that yet as I’m not a fan of mounds of frosting. But I have found some creative alternatives.
I typically back cakes in my bundt cake pan. I could eat plain hot cake, but to compromise with John, I drizzle frosting on them – vanilla and chocolate work well on the chocolate mix. With yellow, I stick to chocolate.
My favorite way to make these cakes is to top them with no sugar added fruit. This works great on the yellow mix. Or fill the bottom of the pan with no sugar added fruit pie filling and pour the cake mix on top. I’ve done used blueberry and cherry pie filling on the yellow mix and cherry pie filling with the chocolate mix. Flipping the cake out of the pan is a little tricky – I use an oversized plate (bigger than my cake plate) to avoid spills. The results are amazing!
This photo doesn’t do it justice.
Be warned: These delish deserts are low sugar, but not low calorie.
Fortunately with basic flavors, you can be creative to change them up. Sugarfree chocolate and vanilla frostings are available so you can make up a straight up traditional pan cake. I haven’t done that yet as I’m not a fan of mounds of frosting. But I have found some creative alternatives.
I typically back cakes in my bundt cake pan. I could eat plain hot cake, but to compromise with John, I drizzle frosting on them – vanilla and chocolate work well on the chocolate mix. With yellow, I stick to chocolate.
My favorite way to make these cakes is to top them with no sugar added fruit. This works great on the yellow mix. Or fill the bottom of the pan with no sugar added fruit pie filling and pour the cake mix on top. I’ve done used blueberry and cherry pie filling on the yellow mix and cherry pie filling with the chocolate mix. Flipping the cake out of the pan is a little tricky – I use an oversized plate (bigger than my cake plate) to avoid spills. The results are amazing!
This photo doesn’t do it justice.
Be warned: These delish deserts are low sugar, but not low calorie.
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