Cinnamon Chicken in the crock-pot

Okay, I am a little late with today's blog (12:15 am), but I am still awake because our schedules are all messed up, so to me it definitely still feels like "Friday". I found this recipe on my Pinterest board and thought it sounded great...Crock-Pot Cinnamon Chicken, yum! The chicken was great, what I decided to serve it with, not so great lol. We live and learn my friends! Which is great for ya'll because I can tell you that I did not like it with rice. In my head I was thinking back to those days growing up when you pour milk and sugar with a little bit of butter in with your white rice, which is fantastic to me. So, since this recipe kind of made me think of that, I thought to myself, why not! Nope, the flavors did not mix well and I ended up taking the chicken off the rice and eating it by itself. Since I made this error in your favor (haha), I also decided to throw in a spa dip recipe I found while scouring through a recipe book! YUM! Both recipes are so simple it's kind of ridiculous! I'll start with the chicken and move on from there!

The recipe calls for five chicken breasts. Since there are two of us, I only used two chicken breasts (however they were extremely large and filled up the entire bottom of my crock-pot). I was easily close to a pound and half. You start out by peeling and slicing six carrots. I am not a fan of carrots and Dee Jay is, so I compromised and chopped up the baby carrots and threw them in and made sure to spoon them on top of his plate (yea, I'm a baby about carrots). On top of the carrots you will toss in the chicken. Then here comes the part that will make your mouth water every time you get a whiff of this cooking...spices!!! It calls for one tablespoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, 1 (15 oz) can of light coconut milk, and one (15 oz) can of tomato sauce. (I am going to make a side note here: I did not have cardamom and when I went to the store I was sad to see it was almost $15 for one spice bottle. So I made do with what I had and searched for what you can use if you don't have cardamom. I minced up a little bit of ginger and tossed in a sprinkle or two of nutmeg.) You put all this over the chicken (I stirred mine around a little bit), turn the crock-pot on low and cook them for 4-6 hours (until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees and no longer pink). 

The chicken cooking (I promise it's somewhere underneath there)

Sit back and enjoy the smell that will fill your home, and then serve it up with some vegetables as a side and you have yourself a pretty healthy little meal! This recipe was found on a website called The Gracious Pantry. She has a lot of great recipes I can't wait to try out, and the direct link to the actual recipe can be found here if you missed it up above!

Now, on to the spa dip...I pulled this recipe out of Fellowship Bible Church, Tasteful Traditions, book I was talking about in an earlier entry. The lady that entered this into the book is Hilary Smith, and her spa dip is great!

You start with two (8 oz) boxes Cream Cheese (softened), and add two packages of dry ranch dressing, 4-5 green onions, and 4-5 slices of deli sliced smoked ham. You are going to finely chop the green onion and ham and mix everything together in a bowl and serve it up with some crackers (or whatever your choose).

She noted that it is best if made a day in advance so we threw it in the fridge and ate some the next day and it was delicious! See, I told you there were ridiculously easy recipes!! I know it's Memorial Day weekend and this dip would be great at an event you may be going to! We used Special K Multi-Grain Crackers because they are sooo yummy!

SPA DIP
2 (8 oz) boxes cream cheese, softened
2 pkgs. Dry ranch dressing
4-5 Green onions
4-5 slices deli sliced smoked ham

Finely chop ham and onions. Mix everything together. Serve with crackers. Best if made the day before.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend!!
~Happy Eating~