Hello friends! And welcome to my "I've-been-cooking-my-brains-out-preparing-postpartum-freezer-meals-and-I-have-no-energy-to-cook-dinner" recipe!
But seriously, all jokes aside, yesterday I made THE MOST DELICIOUS dinner, and it was a meal that literally made itself!
Yesterday, I had a 9am OBGYN appointment to prepare for this 38 week old baby, and I cooked 10 days worth of freezer meals, and so let's just say: I was in no mood to cook DINNER after all that slicin' and dicin' in the kitchen all day.
Enter: the crockpot!
(First of all, what freezer meals did I cook? I cooked my Turkey Vegetable Soup, as well as my Italian Tomato Beef Soup). The former tasted like Thanksgiving, and the latter tasted like a beefy minestrone, minus the noodles. Both were made with grass-feed beef bone broth, and are literally the most nutrient-dense, healing-forward foods that you can eat after giving birth to a baby, and I couldn't be more excited about it. I'm so happy 🙂 And I'll post those recipes soon!
But now for LAST NIGHT'S show stopper!
Enter my Greek Pulled Chicken and Rice!
And trust me, you won't believe how easy and DELICIOUS it is. It was succulently juicy and tender, which -- I'm going to be honest: I have never cooked chicken before. I know, sounds crazy. But I am a) terrified to undercook it, b) can't stand touching raw chicken and c) have no idea HOW to cook it thoroughly without drying it out within an inch of its life.
Well, I'd like to say that this recipe is FOOL PROOF. And so healthy and delicious.
I put it in the crockpot at 8am, and by 4pm we had perfect chicken, AND the whole house smelled amazing.
And yesterday, my parents had some friends over in the afternoon, and they were all wondering what the heck was cooking that smelled so darn delicious?! They thought it was corn bread. But nope -- it was this chicken cooking away!
And bonus points because the rice was made in the rice cooker, which also required me to just set it and forget it.
And for those who have never been introduced to a rice cooker, they are literally the most convenient cooking tool that I had never known about until my husband came along! It literally does the work for you -- you just put in the [washed] rice and water, close the lid, and 30 minutes later: perfect rice. No more boiling over on the stove and creating a starchy, burned-on mess you have to spend 15 minutes scrubbing off.
My mom saw me using this, and she's already ordered one for herself!
Quick note: I used a really good salad dressing...I've talked about it on here before: it is the only salad dressing I have found that is Specific Carbohydrate Diet friendly! Not to mention the only salad dressing I've ever found that doesn't contain canola oil or other seed oils, sugars or stabilizers. It is SO DELICIOUS.
Here's the link to it: Greek Strompolos Dressing
Honestly, every time I make a salad for people and they taste this dressing, they always ask for the name of it. And that's because I don't think people are used to salad dressings being made with non-canola oil!
Anywho! HERE'S THE INSANELY EASY RECIPE:
Ingredients:
2 organic chicken breasts (mine totaled about 1.5 lbs)
6 oz (half a bottle) of Strompolos salad dressing
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Tools:
Cheese grater
Crock pot
Directions:
Place your chicken breasts into the crock pot.
In a small bowl, whisk together your cheese and salad dressing. (This step is optional...I didn't have time, so I just poured the salad dressing over top and then threw on the cheese, and it turned out perfectly).
Pour the dressing/cheese mixture over top.
Set your crock pot on low and cook for 8 eight hours.
*Protip: I shredded the chicken and then stirred it together with all the juices and let it sit for about 20 minutes prior to eating, to get the maximum juiciness in the meat, and boy, was it ever succulent!
Serve over rice (or cauliflower rice), with a roasted vegetable and side of crisp chopped romaine lettuce.
Oh my gosh, when I tell you how FLAVORFUL this was!!!
First of all, I could smell this delicious aroma coming out of the kitchen all day, and so all day I was dreaming about how delicious it was going to be!
And it did not disappoint!
It was so moist and tender, and the addition of the cheese gave it this depth of flavor that paired so perfectly with the Greek dressing!
And in fact, by putting the cheese on top at the end, it actually gave the chicken itself this fabulous --almost crystalized cheese -- crust on top! Yowza. Talk about tasty.
And the fact that literally all I had to to do to put dinner on the table was open the crock pot and put it on a plate...I felt like I was cheating!
And the leftovers were phenomenal! For lunch today, I took the leftover chicken, and mixed it with 3 Tbsp [avocado oil] mayo and hot sauce, and made this divine chicken salad sandwich for Steven, complete with a fried egg on top!
I don't know about you, but I love a meal that makes itself. And not to mention: I cannot believe how delicious it was! We are absolutely going to make this again!
And talk about an easy meal to make once baby arrives!
OK - that's all for now! Time to go sterilize baby bottles!
Until tomorrow!
xox Caralyn
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