Coca-Cola Crock Pot BBQ Beef Sandwiches

1 c. Coca Cola
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. chili powder
a dash or two of cayenne pepper

1 1/2 lbs boneless beef roast or stew meat (cut into small cubes)
Your favorite BBQ sauce

 

Hamburger buns

butter

Garlic salt

Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Combine first 5 ingredients.  Add beef to crock pot (use a liner for easier clean up) and cover with coke mixture.  Add more coke to top if beef isn't covered well enough. Cover and cook 5 to 7 hours on low heat setting. Transfer meat to cutting board or bowl and shred.  Mix in BBQ sauce to desired taste.  Cover and keep warm.  Butter hamburger buns, cover one side of bun with cheese, and sprinkle garlic salt over the other side.  Broil or toast in oven until cheese is bubbly and edges begin to crisp.  Top with meat and enjoy!

*The meat is delicious without the BBQ sauce too- you can use it as it is for steak tacos or enchiladas, or make a stew by adding carrots and potatoes the first night, and then add the BBQ sauce to the leftover meat the next day.

Chicken Stuffed Biscuits

One of my favorite Sunday dinners growing up was my dad's Season-All Chicken. It's the simplest thing in the whole world...generously sprinkle chicken breasts with Lowry's Season-All and bake at 350 until cooked through. He serves it with his famous homemade cheese and garlic mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. It's the simplest meal in the world but super delicious. So I usually plan it into our menu at least every couple of weeks. The great thing about this chicken is that it's super versatile- so I make extra and use the leftovers to make lunch wraps, or dice it up and put it on pizzas, casseroles, or any other recipe that calls for cubed or shredded chicken. If you make extra ahead of time it's just as easy as canned chicken and has a WAY better flavor and texture (i personally can't get over the "tuna" flavor of canned chicken).

Anyway, one of the recipes I love to use this for the most is Chicken Stuffed Biscuits. It's one of those recipes where you kind of just add whatever amount of stuff you want, but I'll try to estimate here. Just realize you can add more or less of anything as you see fit:

Chicken Stuffed Biscuits

1 to 1 and 1/2 cups Season-All Chicken (small cubes or shredded)

4 to 6 oz shredded cheese (i usually use cheddar)

1 can cream of chicken soup

3-6 T cream cheese (optional)

Sour cream (I like to add a lot ---like 3/4c-1 cup---  to tone down the soup but you can get away with less)

A few dashes each of any or all of the following:

   garlic powder

   black pepper

   curry powder

   lemon juice

1 can of large Pillsbury biscuits (any kind you like- i usually get the flaky ones)

1 to 2 packets of gravy, prepared (I go back and forth between chicken and country- they each add a distinctive flavor so it depends on your mood- but I can't find country gravy in the city so it's been chicken for a while now ;)

Preheat oven according to biscuit directions.
Mix all ingredients together, adding spices to taste.
Divide each biscuit in half and stretch each half slightly.  Place bottom half on baking sheet, fill center with chicken mixture, add the top half of biscuit dough making sure to stretch far enough so you can seal the edges.
Poke 3-4 small holes in top of biscuit using fork or toothpick.  
Bake according to biscuit directions, until golden brown.  Top each biscuit with gravy and serve.

Makes 8 large stuffed biscuits plus some extra filling- so you can make more, add some broccoli and more cheese for a small chicken divan over rice, or add black beans, corn, lime juice, etc to the filling for a small pan of white enchiladas).

**The biscuits save really well for a few days- wrap biscuits in foil and then you can just unwrap them straight onto a baking sheet and reheat for 5-7 minutes in a hot oven.

Weekly Meal Plan

My meal plan last week ended up being awesome, so I wanted to share.  I made:

Stuffed Green Bell Peppers (Mel's recipe w/ a few tweaks)
Amy's Crock Pot Roast and Corn Bread
Mackenzie's Enchiladas (sort of)
Chicken Cordon Bleu (Mackenzie's recipe)
Corn Chowder
Steak Tacos and Nacho Libre Corn
Greek Chicken Souvlaki Pitas

Click on "read more" for the recipes!

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Fiesta Tater Tot Casserole

Okay- so I like posting a great picture as much as the next girl, but let's face it-- there are no appetizing pictures of tater tot casserole so Dave suggested this as a good alternative.  Normally, I'm not a fan of this 1950's June Cleaver-esque dish- ground beef, cream of mushroom soup and tater tots?  Blech!  But I ended up with a bunch of leftover taco meat this week and in google searching I came across someone's idea to use it for tater tot casserole.  I realized I had some Ragu cheddar sauce I could use instead of soup, and since that meant I already had everything but the tots, I decided to try it for my budget's sake.  I served it to David wearing a frilly apron while proclaiming "Yum! Tater puffs and cheese whip!  I found it in Suburban Homes Magazine.  Enjoy!"  But all joking and artery clogging ingredients aside, it actually turned out so good, I think I will make it every time I have leftover taco meat.  So here's what I did:

Leftover seasoned taco meat (i use ground turkey instead of beef)

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