I took today off just in case my Thanksgiving break extended a little long (meaning if we were delayed due to weather problems), but then we got back from CA right on schedule... so today was just a lazy stay-at-home-and-get-things-done sort of day. As those sorts of days go, this one went quite well.
I decided to take advantage of the time at home and utilize one of my ultimate lazy dinner tools: the crockpot! Dinner tonight was a sweet and sour chicken recipe. I made a few modifications: I didn't brown the chicken first (just threw it straight in from the freezer), and I used 1 c. water with 1 chicken bullion cube instead of 1 c. beef broth. Overall it took about 5 min to prepare and 5-6 hours to cook. The verdict? It was quite tasty (I served it on white rice) but we both wished the sauce was a little thicker. I'm not sure how to remedy that; maybe I'll try adding some flour next time, or cornstarch at the end to thicken it. But taste-wise it was pretty delicious.
The only problem I find with crockpot recipes is they all take about 5-6 hours to cook. This makes it ideal if you are home around noon: a tiny amount of prep and dinner is taken care of. However, I am nearly always at work and can't come home for lunch, so it's trickier to get things going at the proper time. I may find a way around that someday, but for right now I try to take advantage of these days when I can.
I also whipped up a cheesecake today, but it is currently cooling in the oven and will be for another 4 hours, so no pictures just yet. A pie or two may be in order soon as well, since I did not get nearly enough at Thanksgiving. So many treats, so little time to eat them all!
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