I'm obsessed with this BBQ crockpot chicken

I've made this recipe, no joke, every week for the past month. I'm not even that big of a chicken fan, but I can't get enough of it. It goes well on a potato bun, in a lettuce wrap, or just mixed in with white rice and sliced peppers. It's all just freaking delicious. I cook it in the crockpot and then boil the liquid down into a spicy vinegar drip

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts (can be boneless or bone in. both work great, but bone in makes more broth)
TJ's coffee garlic dry rup
Salt
Smoked Paprika or Chipotle pepper powder
Apple cider vinegar
Ketchup
Chili flakes
Brown sugar


1) Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt. Sprinkle VERY LIBERALLY with smoked paprika and then the TJ's dry rub. You want all sides of the chicken to be completely covered, and you can't overdo the seasoning, so don't be shy with it. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes.

2) Pour 1/8th a cup of apple cider vinegar in your crockpot and lay the chicken breasts flat on top. Cook on low for 3 hours, turning once halfway through so both sides get the spices cooked in.

3) When done, pull the chicken breasts out (reserve the liquid! this will make your drip) and shred the chicken in a mixing bowl while it's still hot. If you've got quality boneless chicken, you should be able to just take a fork and smash and mix about the breasts until it's all shredded. If you've got bone in, shred by hand.

4) Pour the reserved liquid in a medium size sauce pan and put on medium heat and bring it to a large simmer (not quite boiling).

5) Add:
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons more apple cider vinegar
3 good squirts of ketchup
2 shakes of salt
5 good shakes of smoked paprika
3 good shakes of chili pepper flakes

I also sometimes throw in a couple drops of liquid smoke, or maybe also some Tabasco or Frank's red hot.

6) Boil the drip until it starts to get thick. It will be thicker than water; you'll notice when it gets there.

7) Take a piece of chicken and dip it into the drip to taste test. To modify the drip to your preference, add these ingredients one at a time for the desired effect:

For more sour: 1 teaspoon vinegar
For sweeter: 1 large three-finger pinch of brown sugar (I really wouldn't do more than three or four of these, otherwise it gets super sweet)
For spicier: Either two shakes of the paprika or one shake of the chili flakes.

8) Boil a couple minutes longer to incorporate your flavor changes, then remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Once cool, pour it all over the chicken and mix well.

The best ribs and potatoes you will ever have IN YOUR LIFE

The other day my roommate bought me Trader Joe's BBQ dry rub with coffee and garlic. It's pretty pungent when you smell it in the can, but it is absolute HEAVEN on pork ribs. I made some ribs over Memorial day weekend with corn on the cob, sugar snap peas, and herbed potatoes. It was literally one of the best meals I've ever had in my life and I can't stop thinking about making it again!
I used this recipe as a guide. I tweaked that a bit, and the instructions below are exactly how I cooked them. I might tweak this in the future to use only the oven or only the crocpot, but this recipe cooked them perfectly:

• Thick country cut pork ribs (not the rack ribs, the kind that are individually cut)
• TJ's dry rub (I didn't measure the amount I used)
• 4-5 red potatoes, sliced max 1/4 inch thick
• Melted butter
• Oregano
• Dill
• Black Pepper
• Sweet white corn on the cob
• Sugar snap peas

1) Coat the ribs VERY GENEROUSLY in the TJ's dry rub. You'll want to make sure each side of each rib is completely covered in rub. You won't need to salt. Let sit for about 30 minutes. While they're sitting, preheat your oven to 275 degrees F. (As a note, the oven that I cooked mine in doesn't heat well, so I did 300 degrees for 2.5 hours, but I don't recommend that).
2) Line a baking sheet with  foil and set a cookie cooling rack on top. Place the ribs on the cookie rack and pop it all in the oven.
3) Cook at 275 for 2 hours.
4) Once the 2 hours are up, put the ribs in the crockpot on LOW for 3 hours max. This mix of oven and crockpot will ensure that the ribs have a nice crust but also are nice and moist.

While the ribs are in the crockpot, you can start on your potatoes. I sliced them not super thin, but not super thick either. You should aim for less than a quarter of an inch, and try to keep it as uniform as possible.
Line a baking sheet with foil and brush with melted butter. Use lots of butter. Lay out the potatoes flat on the sheet. Sprinkle with just a little bit of salt and pepper. Then sprinkle with LOTS of dill and oregano. Seriously, go wild. Pop in the oven at 375 F for 30 minutes, flipping the potatoes halfway through. Some of the potatoes should be getting golden brown before you pull them out. If they haven't reached that stage, cook them 5-10 minutes longer.

Cook the sugar snaps according to directions on their bag, and cook the corn per usual (simmer until the cobs are bright yellow).
And there you have it, an amazingly delicious summer meal! Feeds 3-4 people.

10:30 Soup

This is more for my reference since I haven't measured out ingredients yet:

• 2 packets chicken flavor ramen (seafood flavor would probably even work better). Use both flavor packets.
• At least 3 cups of water
• Soy sauce
• Sriracha
• 2-3 capfulls of Fish sauce
• Small dash of sesame oil
• Minced Ginger
• Lime juice (used lemon juice once and it worked fine)
• Soft tofu, cubed
• Mushrooms, thinly sliced
• Green onions (4 or 5)
• Optional: thinly sliced bell pepper, oyster sauce, little bit of minced basil

Boil everything together, add ingredients to taste, cook until noodles get really big.

More meal planning!

Day 1:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 2:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 3:

Eggs and bacon
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Smoothie

TBD for Thursday and Friday dinners.

Spinach Souffle

Adapted from this recipe, with assistance from this recipe. This recipe is kind of time consuming, so I only make it for special occasions, but boy, is it worth it! I'm a fairly picky eater and even I scarf it down. If this is a dish you'd want on a regular basis, I'm fairly confident you could make a batch sans egg, and freeze it. That way all you have to do is thaw, mix in the egg, and throw it in the oven. The recipe calls for five eggs, which is difficult to split, but I bet you could split the recipe in half, and use three eggs per half. Haha, you could even split and freeze it five ways and just make yourself an individual serving if you're having a craving!

Ingredients:

10 oz. fresh spinach

Cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 dash cayenne
1 dash pepper
1 dash worcestershire sauce
5 eggs, separated and chilled
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Optional: 3 tablespoons finely shredded swiss or parmesan cheese

1) Grease a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2) Take a handful of spinach and role into a log. Slice finely. Do this handful by handful until all the spinach is sliced. Don't worry about discarding stems.

3) Fit as much of the spinach as you can into a blender. Add a couple dashes of cream to aid blending, and blend until spinach is very fine. As you blend, the spinach will pack down and make room to add more spinach. Add spinach until all 10 ounces are blended; if blending becomes difficult, add a couple more dashes of cream. You should end up with a sauce-like consistency.

4) Melt butter in a medium size frying pan.

5) Sprinkle flour into butter and blend with a spoon. Cook until bubbly.

6) Slowly blend in the milk, stirring constantly, until smooth. (I subbed some of the milk with cream, just for fun).

7) Add seasonings and cheese, and cook on low for about 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. (Note: You've just basically made a super simple alfredo/white sauce)

8) Separate the eggs and store the whites in your fridge to keep chilled. Beat egg yolks in a large, sturdy bowl.

9) Add spinach mixture into the egg yolks and beat until well blended.

10) SLOWLY pour the the white sauce into the yolk and spinach mixture, while stirring/beating constantly. Warning!: Make sure the white sauce has cooled a bit and that you stir constantly, or your yolks will cook and become lumpy.

11) Take your egg whites out of the fridge and beat with the 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer on high until whites are "stiff but not dry"; basically until they start to peak.

12) VERY GENTLY fold egg whites into the spinach mixture. Don't mix, don't beat. Fold. You mixture also doesn't have to be streak-less; you can have a couple streaks, but what's most important is that you don't stir the souffle so much that it starts to fall.

13) Bake 45 mins to an hour.

So turns out I *DO* have new year's resolutions

Which I never, ever have, and generally don't cotton to, but these are things that really need to be done. So here are the things that I really need to do:

1) Stop making work a priority. Go home on time. Go to the gym. Go out with friends. Take your lunch break. Stop thinking about work all the time.

2) Have a nighttime routine. This routine should include:
     -Neti potting
     - Brushing my teeth
     - Steaming and washing my face
     - Melatonin, vitamins, and Claritin
     - Stretching


So there that is.

Meal Plans!

Day 1:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 2:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 3:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
Diet soup
apple & pb
banana
yogurt
tuna melt

Day 4:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
smoothie

Day 5:
Eggs
coffee
smoothie + protein
apple
banana
yogurt
TBD dinner