Crock Pot Chicken Breasts
3 chicken breasts, skinned and boned
½ cup sliced mushrooms
½ onion, sliced
½ cup sliced celery
OR 2 tablespoons crushed, dried lovage (see article below)
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
1 cup water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
Place all of the ingredients in your crock pot.
Cook covered on high for 1 hour
Reduce heat to low and cook for about 7 hours.
Serve with rice and a green salad. Serves 4
Crock Pot Meals and Herbs and Spices
If you haven’t learned to cook with herbs and spices you really ought to. Flavor is really what eating is all about. You can add a whole new wonderful world to the dishes you whip up by adding a touch of flavor to an otherwise very ordinary recipe.
Crock pot meals and salads are without a doubt the best place to do any experimenting. That’s why my very first web sites are crock pot meals and pasta salads. It’s hard to go wrong with either of them. Read the introduction to my pasta salad site and you’ll know why I chose pasta salads rather than green ones. Back to herbs and spices ! The mistake that many people make in cooking with herbs and spices is using too much before their palate gets acquainted with the flavor. If a recipes calls for a flavor of which you are not familiar, cut the quantity in half and increase after sampling or at another time. Garlic, cilantril, ginger and curry are examples of ones that can be over-bearing to someone unfamiliar to the flavor.
I nearly set my husband against curry forever because of a slight curry ‘overdose’. I just plain put in too much. He refused to eat anything containing curry after that. Fortunately, I was able to slip a wee bit into later dishes in a way that was absolutely delicious. Now, I’m a lot more cautious. If a little is good, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a lot is better. So, easy does it. But, do try some new things, experiment. Keep in mind – a pinch will do. I always sprinkle a bit of the herb or spice in the palm of my hand rather than directly into the pot. That way I can control what comes out and what goes in – to the pot or salad. You can always add more but you can’t take it out.
I have a favorite herb which very few people know about. In fact, I don’t even know where you can buy it. I’ve even checked the internet. You can buy the seeds and raise it yourself. It’s very easy to grow and it comes back every year. Because it has the flavor of celery, I use it as a celery flavor substitute for all kinds of salads (including pasta salads), Italian dishes, casseroles, stews, soups and, of course, crock pot meals. Oh, and, of course you want to know what it is. Lovage. That’s the name. It taste’s and smells like celery. Plant it somewhere out in your garden, flower bed, herb bed, wherever, harvest, hang it upside down to dry and you’ll have all the celery flavor you need for a long time. EASY TO GROW.
