Crock Pot BBQ Chicken Wings

So, I haven't exactly made any sort of chicken wing or leg yet. Period. Its intimidating. I was browsing Local D'lish's website this weekend and I spotted this Crock Pot BBQ Chicken Wing recipe and it just looked too good and too simple to not try. So for all of you out there that are intimidated by a big'ole basket of homemade BBQ wings try this one out! It is fantastic. Like Julia said, "it is perfect for one of those cold winter days when all you want to do is curl up and read a book." It is such an easy meal to start cooking and leave it to do the work. I chose to use the BBQ sauce local in Minnesota that D'lish recommended, but I bet this recipe would be great with your favorite BBQ sauce. I prefer something a little sweet and alotta spicy so the next time I make this I will be looking at some additional hot sauce to put an extra kick on it! All of the ingredients listed can be found local to Minnesota and found at Local D'lish, however, I challenge you to find these ingredients local to you! 

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken
from Local D'lish and Julia (from February 2nd 2010)

Ingredients
1-2 lb Callister Chicken Wings (or chicken wings from your local farmer)
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced1 12 oz bottle Lucky’s Bar-B-Que Sauce (Applewood Roasted Jalapeno, Garlic and Honey)

Directions
1. Salt and Pepper the chicken and saute them in a pan drizzled with a little splash of olive oil until they brown lightly, 3-4 mins. on each side, do this in batches so to not crowd the chicken. 2. Spray your crock pot with some oil and place the chicken in the bottom, spread out evenly. 3. Add the onion into crock pot. 4. Drizzle 3/4 of the bottle of BBQ sauce evenly. 5. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. 6. Add the rest of the BBQ sauce

I served these as-is with a side of creamy cheesy mashed potatoes. D'lish also suggests that they would also be great shredded and eaten on a bun with a side of cole slaw and beans.

Hearty Tomato Bisque and the Onion Monster!

Brooke: I love onions. I love onions so much that I could eat them like an apple.
Me: Really? Like an apple?
Brooke: Yeah I really like them. You rememb...
Me: (Interrupting) Prove it.
Brooke: Uh...what?
Me: Prove it.
Don't fret. (onion monster enters the scene...luckily we captured it all on film to show you guys)

(Source) Onion Monster

She shows no mercy.

RAWR!

Muahahaha (Evil cackle after onion defeat)

Shortly after we put the onion out of its misery.

This my friends is a recipe that will stand the tests of time. It is one of the most phenomenal, knock your socks off soup recipe. Words.... wor... they can't even describe this masterpiece.

Tomato Bisque Recipe
adapted from The Food NetworkServes 4-6
Ingredients
1T olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5T all-purpose flour
5c chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1 (28oz) can whole, peeled tomatoes (with liquid), chopped
3 parsley sprigs (or about 1/2T dry parsley)
3 fresh thyme sprigs (or 1/2T dry thyme)
1bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, about 8 minutes. 2. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Pour in the broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Tie the parsley sprigs, thyme, and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the pot (sprinkle in if using dry ingredients). Lower the heat, place the lid on, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. For those of you who are impatient like me, fill kitchen sink with ice cube (aprox. 1 tray) and ice cold water to speed up the cooling process. 3.When the soup base is cool, remove and discard the herb bundle. Working in batches (if you need to), transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Using a sieve (I used my food mill) over a large bowl, strain the tomato puree. Return the puree to the pot and reheat over medium heat. Whisk the heavy cream and salt into the soup and season with pepper to taste. Divide among warm soup bowls and serve immediately.

Almost all gone!

The Perfect, Simplest Spaghetti Sauce

I pulled this recipe from one of my favorite "webcookbooks" Smitten Kitchen and adopted it to my own tastes. This recipe is very easy; it will be even more wonderful in the summer when tomatoes are in season and abundant. This recipe also inspires me to can some whole tomatoes this summer so I can easily whip some up next winter!

(Source)
Onions

Whole Canned Tomatoes

Simmering Sauce

Finished Product
(Yes, I always get whatever I am cooking all over my stove...)

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
adopted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves about 4 (I would add another half recipe if you have garlic bread that you like to load with sauce!)

Ingredients
24oz of whole peeled tomatoes from a can
1 medium yellow onion
5 tbsp of butter
Pinch of salt
Clove of garlic (minced)
Pinch of Italian seasoning

Put can of tomatoes, butter, onion (half chopped, other half whole) in a medium pot, garlic, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Turn the oven on to a simmer and let the pot of sauce ingredients simmer slowly for 45mins. Check on it occasionally to stir. When the tomatoes start to soften after about 30mins. squish them on the side of the pot with a wooden spoon to crush. Discard the half onion. I served this over angle hair pasta that I seasoned with the Italian seasoning (you could also sprinkle some into the sauce while it is simmering) with garlic bread! Mmmm...!

Healthy Pasta!

I was brainstorming today about what to eat; as I usually end up doing in the middle of my mug of coffee or on my bus ride between classes. I often find that I rarely have any time during the week to make a meal meal more than a couple of times. So subtracting out the days for left-overs that usually leaves me with at least 3-5 meals where I don't have a lot of time to prepare an extravagant dish.

Lately I have been finding everything that I can whip up quickly is usually not the healthiest for you.... anything prepacked with an expiration date that is longer than three months from now is probably chalk full of preservatives that are unnatural for our bodies.

Pasta is my favorite go-to dish for a quick meal, so I decided to do some research for everyone and find some pasta dishes that are healthy to for your body and quick to make.
(These pictures are not pictures I have taken. They are pictures from the website that the recipe is located on.)

No Bake Mac&Cheese
from: EatingWell

This recipe contains most of the ingredients you would have on hand. I would advise switching the cheese depending on what you liked. I even kick it up a bit by adding some spices and additional veggies like red peppers and some Sriracha sauce! And for those meat lovers, this dish would be very youthful with some chopped up hot dogs or more fancy with some thinly sliced prosciutto.


Prep time: 20mins
Total time: 25mins
Per serving: 412 Calories; 13 g Fat; 7 g Sat; 1 g Mono; 37 mg Cholesterol; 56 g Carbohydrates; 22 g Protein; 7 g Fiber; 640 mg Sodium; 236 mg Potassium

Athena Pasta Primavera
from: EatingWell

What I like about this recipe is that everything is literally fresh. The recipe is so simple that you could change it depending on what veggies are in season. You could also tailor it to your favorite veggies. It is a very filling dish, but with the nutrients you gain from the veggies and the whole wheat pasta it is a quick and healthy dish to keep handy!


Prep time: 30mins
Total time: 30mins
Per serving: 305 Calories; 6 g Fat; 3 g Sat; 3 g Mono; 13 mg Cholesterol; 51 g Carbohydrates; 10 g Protein; 8 g Fiber; 326 mg Sodium; 236 mg Potassium


Whole-Wheat Pasta with Garlic and Olive Oil
from: MarthaStewart

This is probably the easiest pasta recipe I could find. Once again, like all of the other pasta recipes, this one could be tailored to what you like to have in pasta. Personally if I'm feeling like something a little less sharp I would replace the parsley with basil and I would definitely add some tomatoes. Preferably cherry tomatoes!


Sorry guys, Martha doesn't have the nutritional values nor length of time it would take to make. If I were to guess though:
Prep time: 5mins
Total time: 15mins