Gluten Free | Little Chef Within

Tuna Salad

A quick and easy Tuna Salad that has a special ingredient to mask that fishy taste 🙂

Let me just say up front, I’m not a big fish lover, not at all. Tuna patties and tuna salad sandwiches are about the extent of my fish eating experiences. I did however eat salmon two times a week when I was pregnant with the twins. That my friends was Divine intervention! Jesus knew I had to have help with my eating habits to have 2 healthy babies! 😊

I love this recipe because it doesn’t have that full fishy taste thanks to seasoning salt. This is actually the 2nd recipe I ever made on my own as an adult! I got it from my sister and added the seasoning salt later on.

One day I went to visit her and she had made some amazing tuna salad. I immediately asked her how she made it. She told me and it was so easy that I gave it a shot and I’ve been making it ever since! I don’t recall why I ever tried tuna salad in the first place, since I’ve never had a love for fish. I guess I must’ve thought it would’ve tasted like salmon patties that our Mom made (it doesn’t!). I’m not sure, either way, I’m glad I tried it. I hope you give it a shot too! I have added Lawry’s seasoning salt to cover up and mask all fishy taste! So if you love the true taste of tuna, just leave the Lawry’s out! And if you LOVE tuna, don’t forget to check out my Tuna Patties.

With or without the extra ingredient, it’s my most favorite tuna salad. Since I have to eat gluten free, I like to eat it on toasted bread now because gluten free bread leaves alot to be desired!

I’ve just finished 21 days of Beach Body. I’ve been drinking a Shakeology drink every single day and it has literally changed my life! I know some people just throw that statement out nonchalantly like hey man, this shampoo has changed my life, or this lipstick has changed my life. NO! I’m talking an honest to goodness life change! I went from being an exhausted slug that only got out of the recliner when I was forced to because I was SO tired, to beaming with energy and walking 5-6 miles a day!! It’s crazy!! I wish you could’ve peeked into my body before I started the shakes, the lack of energy, the aches, the pains, ALL GONE now!! I did Whole 30 the beginning of this year, you can read about it on the blog. I had good results, but nothing like I have had drinking Shakeology for 3 weeks! I have lost 15 pounds, 11.5 inches gone, (3 off my hips alone!!), and 2 % body fat gone!! That is nothing in comparison to my energy levels. When you wake up more tired than when you went to bed and you go through your day wondering how you are going to make it, just to function because you are bone tired exhausted, this is such a blessing to actually have energy!! To get through my day without feeling like such a failure because I’m so exhausted.

I’m very passionate about this because as I said, it has changed my life! I have signed us as an Independent Team BeachBody Coach. If you can resonate with anything in this post, please don’t hesitate to connect with me. I want you to feel good again. You can get your energy levels back, it is possible! Only from a shake? That sounds suspicious? I get it, trust me I do. I thought the exact same thing too! My in-laws had been doing it for a few months and my MIL (mother in-law) brought me some shake samples when they came to visit. I had no excuses then! I tried them daily and I noticed almost immediately that I felt better. I had to give the program a chance and I thank God for my MIL. If it hadn’t been for her graciously sharing then I never would’ve believed a little tasty shake could’ve changed my life! If you are interested and curious what’s in the super shakes click here to read all about Shakeology My BIL (brother in-law) has been doing it 4 months and has lost over 70 pounds, that’s insane!!

What does Tuna Salad Sandwiches have to do with a life changing Shake, Beach Body? Nothing! I just wanted to post a new recipe and I made tuna salad today and I wanted to share the amazing news about what’s been happening with me! I have a house full of sick kids right now, so my new routine of exercise and eating healthy has been thrown off today. I’m looking forward to starting round 2 and gaining even more energy and strength!! I Praise Jesus for allowing my body to walk and exercise after so many years of inactivity. To Him be all the glory!!

Don’t worry, my blog won’t go all healthy. I know that’s not what you signed up for! Nor is that my family. I just couldn’t sit here and not share the amazing results I have had. It’s worth it if I can help just one person change their life, to change their family!

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Tuna Salad

Ingredients

2 cans tuna, drained
2 eggs (hard boiled), chopped
⅓ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sweet relish, drained
-1 TBLS Lawry's seasoning salt

Instructions

Drain 2 cans of tuna; place in bowl
Using a fork, flake tuna up; add seasoning salt
Add mayo, then chopped up eggs, lastly add sweet relish
Mix it well; store in fridge

Delicious Gluten Free Meatballs

Don’t let the word Gluten-Free fool you, these Meatballs are just as good as the ones with breadcrumbs, if not better! Yummy and delicious!

I know I’ve been quiet this week. I’ll try to make this a short story….

Last Wednesday around 9 o’clock that night, I went to grab my phone for the flashlight to look in LittleChef3’s throat, it was hurting. You know, normal Dr. Mom stuff! Well my phone was dead and I thought it was just where I let the battery drain down. I was wrong. My 4 month old Google Pixel phone kicked the bucket! So after I called Google, they said to take it to my carrier for a quicker replacement. It took several days due to the weekend even with overnight shipping. How’s that for an oxymoron!

Not having a phone at my fingertips for a week has made me painfully aware of how much I use, and depend on my phone even for little stuff. I use it all the time for alarms, timers, flashlight, calendar, and most importantly for pictures of the kids and blogging! Yes, blogging! I upload the pictures to my husband’s Mac (I use my big camera for blog pics), but I do all the written stuff from my phone, mostly in the middle of the night after the twins go to sleep. So if I’m never coherent, at least you’ll know why 😉

Normally no phone wouldn’t have caused a huge problem, just an inconvenience. But since I didn’t have my phone to check my e-mails (personal, business and school), I was locked out of my business e-mail till just a few minutes ago. I had changed my password to an incredibly hard one after I thought I got hacked (I didn’t), obviously I didn’t remember what it was, so much for my secure brain vault, if you wanna lose or misplace something, tell me or give it to me. LOL! I’ll be playing the “Mom Card” till I’m dead! You know the one where I blame all my forgetfulness on being pregnant with 7 babies! Seriously, I did read that pregnancy sucks brain cells out, and so that’s why I believe that now. Funny how I don’t forget that. 🙂

Anyway, there was a glitch in the system and all the “backups” I had in place didn’t work. I finally got smart enough to chat with them and they unlocked it for me, after some trouble. They told me I’d have to first create an email account. Even though I had been using one with them almost 10 months! But thankfully it had a happy ending!

Okay, enough of my ramblings and on to Meatballs…

Since these only contain one type of meat, ground beef, I like to think of them as American meatballs and not Italian. Because every single recipe I find for authentic Italian Meatballs include more than one type of meat. I may be mistaken, if so, comment below and change my mind 🙂

These meatballs aren’t really time consuming, just messy on the hands. I roll the meatballs with my hand stuck in a plastic baggie, LOL! The twins are still on bottles (not for long!), so I’m still real leary of what my hands touch. I can’t believe next week they’ll be a year old and the next day my oldest 17! It’s been a super fast year, the quickest out of all the kids! I’ve been trying to think of what cakes I want to make all 3 of them. I have about a billion cakes going through my head right now!

See how easily I’m sidetracked. I done went from meatballs to cake, but in my defense, cake is always a good thing. LOL!

Sometimes I like to switch spaghetti up a little. I’ll do my normal spaghetti with just meat sauce, or I’ll do baked spaghetti, or these meatballs. In that order of frequency too! They all include My Favorite Spaghetti Sauce.

There’s just something about meatballs that instantly bumps spaghetti to a whole new level! Pair spaghetti and meatballs with a salad and bread and you have a tasty meal! I like to serve mine with green beans. I’m still on a French green bean kick. I had salad twice a day on Whole30, so I’m still not wanting to eat it yet. I realize now that I still haven’t posted the recipe for freezer garlic bread. I’ll try to remember that the next time we have it.

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Delicious Gluten Free Meatballs

Serves: 19 meatballs

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 eggs
⅓ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 TBLS dry parsley
½ tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp pepper
¾ cup milk
1 cup oats, ground in a food processor or blender

Instructions

Mix eggs and seasonings with fork; add ground beef and ½ of the oats and milk.
Mix, then add other half.
Keep mixing and adding till the correct texture is reached; you should be able to roll mixture into a ball, but it should still be tacky (sticky like)
Roll meatballs about 1½", golfball size
Place on a greased cookie tray (one with sides) Place in fridge for 30 minutes to help firm up.
Bake in pre-heated oven set at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Flip the meatballs over, then bake additional 10 minutes.
After cooked, simmer in sauce. Enjoy!!

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Mom’s Beef Stew

A comforting bowl of Mom’s Beef Stew always made things better.

This was one of my favorite meals growing up. A meat and potatoes meal at its best! All that was needed to complete this meal was a tall glass of cold milk, bread and some butter that melted upon impact of the hot stew! I still remember dipping my torn off piece of light bread into that buttery juice. I’m not sure if it’s strange or not to add butter to your Beef Stew, but we sure did, and boy was it ever good!!

My Mom had one of the old pressure cookers of the 70’s. That thing would hiss, jiggle and rattle so bad that it sounded like a mean coon! That’s probably not a sentence you read that often. LOL! I’ll save my irate raccoon story for another day 😁

Every time she used it, without fail, she would yell over and over again DO NOT RUN! Even though I don’t specifically remember running around the house, she informed us that the running would make the pressure cooker blow up! I’m sure there’s absolutely no logic or truth to this, but in her head she was convinced it would happen. Sadly the pressure cooker did blow up once and she cleaned chicken and dumplings off the ceiling for days. Ironically we were at school when it happened. Thinking back I wonder why in the world we didn’t ask her if she had been running?? LOL

Yeah, probably a smart move we didn’t 😉

This is one of the few recipes I asked for as an adult. My Mom never used beef broth, just plain water. But I think the broth gives it a richer taste. I also throw in some fresh garlic and some herbs from time to time depending on what mood my taste buds are in. 😁

Also my Mom never would’ve used baby carrots. I wonder if there was such a thing as baby carrots back in the day? WOW! You know you’re old when you start referring to your childhood as back in the day. LOL

But when I can get organic baby carrots for a $1 a bag, I’m all over that!

Give this simple and comforting recipe a try with regular carrots, baby carrots, or no carrots at all. Just don’t forget to try your beef stew with a big chunk of butter. Yum!!!

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Mom's Beef Stew

Ingredients

2 lbs stew meat
6-7 Potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, quartered
2 cups beef broth
1 cup water
2 large carrots, peeled and diced, or baby carrots
1 (6oz can) tomato paste
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Season meat with salt and pepper. Place stew meat, broth, water and onion in Instant Pot.
Cook on high for 22 minutes;
Add potatoes, carrots and tomato paste; cook additional 12 minutes or till potatoes are soft.

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The best Chicken Fajitas

The BEST Chicken Fajitas made at home without those little dry seasoning packets. Fresh and Tasty!!

This is hands down LittleChef1’s most favorite dish! He even requests this every single year for his special birthday dinner. He could eat these everyday of his life if I always had them fixed. These are referred to as “Mommy’s Fajitas”, which is funny because LittleChefsDad was the first one to find the recipe and fix them many years ago. He used to get the cooking itch one time a year and make amazing, restaurant quality meals. Not just little rinky dinky meals, but gourmet! Oh how I wish that itch would come back very often LOL. He fixed these several times because everyone just loved them. Like all good things, it came to an end, and I took up fixing them. It’s probably been 8 years now so the kids don’t remember they actually started out as “Daddy’s Fajitas”, I tell them the story and they think I’m joking. 😉. All joking aside, this recipe is great and the heat can be adjusted by the amount of Cajun seasoning you use. I buy Tone’s brand. I buy it in bulk at Sam’s. This recipe is also gluten free and Whole30 compliant if using Tone’s Cajun seasoning. Always double check ingredients due to manufacturers changes.

You can use regular paprika, but you’ll want to try the smoked version for extra oomph! I found this out by accident. I was out of paprika and didn’t realize it. So I rummaged through the spice drawer and found LittleChefsDad’s smoked paprika he uses for his Grilled chicken tacos. Everyone noticed the taste difference, especially LittleChefsDad. He rarely gushes about anything I fix and he went on and on about the difference. So trust me, you want the smoked paprika 😉

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The best Chicken Fajitas

The BEST Chicken Fajitas, no seasoning mix required so it's much healthier. *Adjust the Cajun seasoning to your liking. My crew prefers a little kick!

Ingredients

3TBLS Cajun seasoning
1 tsp smoked paprika
3 TBLS oil
4 large chicken breasts, sliced in fajita chunks
1 large red onion, sliced
3 bell peppers, sliced, multi-colored ones look most appealing 🙂

Instructions

Slice the chicken into thin slices about 1½ inches long.
Sprinkle Cajun and Smoked Paprika spices over the sliced chicken; let sit a few minutes while doing next step:
De-seed the peppers. Cut them and the red onion into medium thin slices. Place the slices onto a plate.
Heat an oiled pan (I use a wok) over medium- high heat. Add the seasoned chicken to the pan. Cook everything until the chicken is tender or for about 5 minutes.
Add the peppers and onion to the pan. Stir and cook for 3 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Add more seasoning if needed.
To serve: Place the chicken mixture into a warmed flour tortilla with your favorite toppings: shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and salsa! Roll the wrap up and enjoy!

I double this recipe to feed my crew. It does dinner and lunch is always chicken fajita nachos the next day!

Mini Meatloaf – Gluten Free

A Meatloaf plate, the quintessential meal at an American Diner. The All-American Meal historians would say. We all grew up eating it, whether we enjoyed it or not! I was on the not caring for it team. It tasted like ground beef mixed up and slathered with plain ketchup. Well basically it is that I suppose, but this recipe is so much more tasty! Plus it’s mini meatloaves, how cute is that?? There’s just something about mini food and kids. They’ll gobble it down when it’s in smaller shaped portions. I have a confession, I love mini food too 😉

I can not think of meatloaf without hearing the chant from A Christmas Story. Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf, I hate meatloaf! 🙂

Funniest movie- EVER!!

I’ve been making this recipe long before I had to cut the gluten out of my diet. I prefer the taste of it with oats instead of bread crumbs or crackers. You may notice cheddar cheese in the recipe, don’t freak out just yet. Let me explain first! The addition of the cheese adds an extra yumminess that you want, trust me! It does not take away from the typical meatloaf flavor, not at all! I have kids that eat their meatloaf without the ketchup/sugar mixture. (Insert shocked face here). Since I have a slight addiction to ketchup, I often wonder if they really are my kids or were switched at birth. LOL! The addition of the cheese gives the “uncovered” loaves that extra oomph that it needs. So remember, cheese = good. 🙂

I’m not sure about this last picture. I don’t know whether it’s good or bad. I try to think of creative ways to “style” the food I take pictures of, and sometimes I wonder if what’s in my head comes out all crazy. LOL! I’ve have learned so much these past 8 months taking pictures, and I have SO much more to learn! I enjoy taking food pics . The food just sits there. It doesn’t wiggle, squirm, flip, roll over, pull up, run around, fight, hit others, whine or complain. Yes, it just sits there! There’s always SO much movement at my house with 6 kids it’s kinda nice to snap pics of still objects. I’ve tried to get a good pic of some beautiful BlueJays in the back yard, but no such luck! They’re like the kids, always moving around 😉

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LittleChefTip: Use a plastic baggie to cover your hand to mix and mold meatloaf.

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Mini Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 egg
¾ cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup quick cooking oats
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 lb ground beef
Topping:
⅔ cup ketchup
¼ cup packed brown sugar

Instructions

Pre-heat over to 350 degrees.
In large bowl, combine the egg, milk, cheese, oats and salt. Add Ground beef mixing well into 8 mini meatloaves. (or 12 muffin cups)
In separate bowl, combine ketchup and brown sugar. Stir well and spread evenly over the top of each meatloaf.
bake, uncovered for 45 minutes.

White Chicken Chili (Slow-Cooker OR Instant Pot)

Say Hello to my new favorite food in a bowl! Since the original title was chili, I left it as that, but in my head I think of it as soup! So white chicken chili, white chicken soup, whatever you call it, you must try it!! I was first introduced to this amazing “chili” at my surprise 40th birthday party. Since I hate surprises, and my good friends know that, it was a risk they were willing to take and it ended up being a great day! I was in my 1st trimester pregnancy with the twins and I was sick and starving all day long! So not a good feeling!! Even though I had been pregnant 5 times before, the twin pregnancy made me feel like a first timer again! Everything was different and the nausea and hunger was greatly intensified! Betcha thought I was gonna say DOUBLED, huh? LOL! This party was catered especially for my favorite gluten free foods. I felt so loved!! My dear friend Amber, even had my favorite Creamy Artichoke and Spinach Dip that LittleChefsDad gave her the recipe for, and she even made a cake out of my favorite gf candy bars. Gotta love an amazing friend like that!! Among other tasty morsels, my good friend Brooke brought this amazing chili in a crock-pot! It was love at first bite!!!! Nowadays I make it in my new toy, the Instant Pot. But its been fixed many times in my old faithful Elite Pressure Cooker. Just cook 22 minutes using the chicken setting.

Brooke is my friend that I keep bugging to start a blog. She’s doing the world a great disservice by not having her own blog! She’s the type of person that is naturally funny, humble, kind, smart and when you befriend her, you feel like you’ve been friends forever!! She has the cutest adorable little laugh and most importantly, she totally gets me. All of my weird and crazy personality traits 😉

So see why you would want to read a blog by her?? I know I have intrigued your interest about my friend. 🙂 Don’t worry, when, if, she does, I’ll let you all know.

So you see, great friends share great recipes and that’s what I’m sharing with you all today!

She found the recipe on my most favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com. Click on the bold word and it will take you to the original recipe. I have modified it somewhat, but I still make it both ways. It’s just an all around great recipe! I like to eat my bowlful with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and cilantro. And if I’m being fully honest, Doritos find their way into my bowl. They’re sneaky like that 😉

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White Chicken Chili (Slow Cooker)

White Chicken Chili that can easily be made in a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot.

Ingredients

1 (24 ounce) jar green salsa (salsa verde)
2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (10 ounce) can Rotel
2 (15 ounce) cans white beans, drained
4 cups Homemade Chicken Broth OR 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can corn, drained
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon ground cumin
salt and ground black pepper to taste
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Instructions

Mix green salsa, diced tomatoes, Rotel, white beans, chicken broth, corn, onion, oregano, cumin, salt, and black pepper together in a slow cooker.
Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture; turn to coat
Cook on Low until the chicken shreds easily with 2 forks, 6 to 8 hours.
Remove chicken to a cutting board and shred completely; return slow cooker and stir.

Fast Food ColeSlaw

This is my go to recipe for ColeSlaw. It’s from a Top Secret Recipe cookbook. It’s supposed to be a KFC clone recipe. I don’t think it’s an exact copy cat, but to be fair, I haven’t had the original in almost 4 years! ColeSlaw is one of those foods that I’m very picky about. There’s just something about it that I either love or hate. I prefer mine to be finely grated. ColeSlaw that has cabbage shredded in larger pieces just doesn’t seem like the real deal in my book. Maybe it’s a regional thing, I’m not sure. I am from Kentucky after all 😉 But I do know that I’m lovin’ my food processor every single time I make this recipe!

Fast Food Coleslaw goes perfect with any thing barbequeish. Yes, I did make that word up, but I know all of you are agreeing with me! If you saw my Shredded BBQ Chicken post this week then you may have spied this coleslaw on the platter. I love to eat it with BBQ chicken! I also love it with Sloppy Joes, hamburgers, even chili!

If you don’t have a food processor, you could do all the chopping by hand or use a box grater. I’ve done both methods and let’s just say I’m very thankful for my kitchen appliances!!

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Fast Food ColeSlaw

Ingredients

½ cup mayonnaise
-1/3 cup white sugar
-1/4 cup milk
-1/4 cup buttermilk
-2½ TBLS lemon juice
-1½ TBLS white vinegar
-1/2 tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
-1 head finely chopped cabbage
-1 medium carrot, shredded

Instructions

Process cabbage and carrot in food processor. Combine everything else in large bowl. Add cabbage and carrot mixture. Mix well. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

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Apple and Pear Crumble

This is my new favorite dessert! I could eat it everyday it’s that delicious! LittleChef1 has a slight addiction to it also. He has requested this to go along with his birthday meal. It’s that good my friends!!

Juicy apples and pears that naturally make the perfect amount of sweet liquid when baked, lie hidden underneath an oat crumble topping.

I’ve made apple crisp for years, but I never thought of adding pear to the equation. Boy was I missing out! That subtle addition compliments the apple so well. It makes my taste buds sing in harmony 😁

If you remember me mentioning in the Honey Oatmeal Bread recipe about the 14 pound bag of oats my Dad gave me, well, let’s just say I’m not even making a dent in it all this time later!

I’m gonna have to start making more bread and more No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies

Or, I can just continue to use this yummy recipe over and over again till all the oats are used up! Yes, great game plan 😊

We prefer to eat our Apple and Pear Crumble with some vanilla ice cream plopped on the top. Plain is good also! You really can’t go wrong with this dessert.

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Apple and Pear Crumble

Ingredients

Topping:
1½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter (1 stick),softened
Mixture:
4 cups peeled and diced apples (6)
4 cups peeled and diced pears (6)
1½ cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix oats, flour, ¾ cup brown sugar, and butter together in a bowl until crumbly.
Mix apples, pears, 1½ cups brown sugar, and cinnamon together in a separate bowl; spread into the bottom of a 13x9-inch glass pan. Sprinkle oat mixture on top of apple-pear mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven until the top is golden brown, about 40 minutes.
Recipe Source: Adapted from: Allrecipes.com

On a frugal note, I found the burlap in the picture on clearance for $.75!! It was originally $8.00. Great savings! So now I can go buy more apples and pears…..

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Shredded BBQ chicken

This is my most favorite Crock-Pot recipe! It’s my little black dress in the slow cooker world! I use it for parties, church functions, family get togethers, bring to a sick friend, lunch, dinner, you get the picture!

This is the most shared recipe I have and I didn’t even create it! I found it on Allrecipes.com many moons ago! I was in desperation mode one day frantically searching for a recipe that used frozen chicken in the Crock-Pot and lucked upon this fantastic recipe. Even after 10 years, I’m still having trouble remembering to thaw meat out! So if you’re like I was, or I should say like I am, and are wondering what to do with those rock solid chicken breasts, look no further! 😃

Please keep reading below to hear about the Shredded BBQ Chicken made in the Instant Pot!

I’ve recently been gifted an 8 QT Instant Pot. It was a wonderful anniversary gift from my thoughtful Mother-in-law. Let’s just say ALLLLL the hype surrounding the Instant Pot is SO true!!
Here’s the one I have, it’s the INSTANT POT IP-DUO80 7-in-1 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker, 8 QT

It’s the biggest one on the market, we are a big family now 🙂

The Instant Pot has been on my watch list for awhile now. I already have multiple slow cookers (2) and an electric pressure cooker, so I couldn’t justify the expense of a “new toy”. Boy was I ever wrong! I’ve alread used it multiple times this past week and can’t wait to cook more! Yes, I realize I’m very late to the Instant Pot Party, and no, I’m not trying to sell you one. I’m just sharing my experience with you and maybe there’s someone out there that was like me. You keep thinking I don’t need another appliance, more counter clutter, on and on…. I hear you and get you!! Just take it from me, GET AN INSTANT POT. You’ll thank me and so will your loved ones 🙂

Okay, enough about my gushing about the Instant Pot. This can also be made in a regular old fashion stove-top pressure cooker (sorry no help here!), or an electric pressure cooker. I vary the cooking method depending on how much time I have. Obviously the Pressure Cooker is gonna be much faster! I haven’t noticed a taste difference in either method, so the choice is yours 🙂

I use the Poultry button on the Instant Pot, high pressure, and cook it for 22 minutes for fresh chicken. Adjust the time if frozen meat is used. Same directions are used for an Electric Pressure Cooker.

This recipe also freezes beautifully! I make a double portion and freeze whatever is leftover in 2 cup portions. Just pull the freezer baggie out, dump the meat into a pot/pan and cook till hot! This makes a great hot lunch when you think there’s nothing to eat!

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Shredded BBQ chicken

Makes the most delicious BBQ chicken!

Ingredients

6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
½ cup Italian salad dressing
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Place chicken in slow cooker.
In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.
Take chicken out, shred in Kitchen Aid Mixer, or with 2 forks; place back into slow cooker and mix well.
*Note* Please adjust cooking times with different types of chicken (tenders,legs), or thin/thick chicken breasts.

I have included the original recipe ingredients. I fix it identical except for the fact I only use 3 gigantic chicken breasts, cut in half. The chicken found in the supermarket nowadays are SO big it’s crazy!! They’re like a wanna be turkey or something. LOL! My slow cooker tends to cook extra hot so I have to check it after a few hours on high for frozen, less with fresh chicken.

Use your favorite BBQ sauce and Italian Salad dressing, I personally prefer Kraft BBQ sauce. I grew up eating that and still enjoy it. My crew enjoys eating it with chips and I like coleslaw too!

If you choose gluten free ingredients, this makes a most tasty dish served on a piece of cheese, or on top of a large leaf lettuce slice.

If you only try one recipe from my website, you must try this one!!!!

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Kids in the Kitchen: Cookbook Adventures- Hot Cocoa Recipe

Today is our first recipe in our series Kids in the Kitchen: COOKBOOK ADVENTURES. To read the intro to this series, please click here.

The first recipe up is a much loved classic around our house- Cocoa! We have hot cocoa more than I would care to share during the winter time. I’m just as bad as the kids! Snow equals hot cocoa. ALWAYS! How much snow you ask? Just a single flake qualifies 😉

LittleChef3 chose this recipe and cooked it all by himself.

CBA (Cookbook Adventures) Kitchen Questions:

Q:What’s the first thing you do before you fix this recipe?

A: I don’t know, (shrugs shoulders), read the instructions?

LittleChefsMom response: I was hoping you’d say WASH YOUR HANDS!!!

Q: What do you think the recipe will taste like?

A: The best ever!

Q: What part of the recipe do you think will be hard to do?

A: Stirring it

Q: Can you think of a better way to fix the recipe, would you change anything?

A: Yeah, I would put extra sugar in it

Q: What kind of animal would enjoy this recipe? Why?

A: A zebra, because it would like sugar 😁

*LitteChef3 is our sugarholic! I’m scared his exotic pets would be too, LOL!

The little kids put the cocoa in their favorite mugs. LittleChef3 has a white alligator on his cup from the Zoo, and LittleChef4 has his name on it from The Great Smoky Mountains 😀

I’m not sure where those reindeer mugs even came from, but they fit the occasion 🙂

Here’s a full color version since it was hard to see in the comic sketch.

Stay tuned for next week’s adventure…..

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Kids in the Kitchen: Cookbook Adventures- Hot Cocoa Recipe

Ingredients

5 Tablespoons Cocoa powder
Dash salt
5 Tablespoons sugar
½ cup water
3½ cups milk
Marshmallows, optional

Instructions

Mix cocoa, salt and sugar in saucepan. Mix in water; cook and stir 3 minutes
Stir in milk. Heat just to boiling. Remove pan from heat immediately.
Ladle carefully into cups. Serve hot.

Category: Gluten Free

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