Who Knew You Could Do That With Salsa or Crock Pots - Not Just For Dinner Anymore

If you remember last week, dear readers, I talked about cooking in the crock pot with salsa. And I mentioned the Thai chicken we were going to make this week.

Well, I gotta tell ya. It was definitely interesting.

It was intended to be, essentially, rama chicken, chicken with spicy peanut sauce. In order to make this happen with minimal effort, the recipe called for mixing a cup of hot salsa, a quarter cup of peanut butter, a couple of tablespoons of soy, fresh ginger and lime juice. Mix, pour over chicken pieces (I used boneless thighs) and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

I will say it was tasty. We ate it over rice and fresh spinach, taking the swimming rama thing as far as we could. Would I call it an unqualified success? Probably not.

Because the chicken was so tender, it fell apart in the sauce, so it looked a bit more like goulash than rama. Also, the salsa I used was more chunky than saucy, so there wasn’t quite enough liquid to keep things moist. That meant the sauce burned a bit on the sides and when I first peeked into the crockput when I got home, the top looked, well, kind of like vomit now that I look back. Kinda brown and chunky. I’m not really selling this, am I? ;o)

This time we were glad that it only made enough for two nights worth of dinners. It wasn’t bad. If it was that bad, we would have tossed it out. But it was heavy and not in a good way. Definitely not something I could eat more than twice in a week.

Thankfully we have a lot more recipes to try. Next time I come around to this one, I'll use some soupier salsa and play around with more soy and lime and maybe some coconut milk. I do love me some peanut sauce.

But enough about dinner. Let’s talk about a meal that doesn’t see enough slow cooked love. Breakfast.

The first time I heard the words ‘crock pot oatmeal’, I thought, “Are you crazy?” That would turn the oatmeal into gluey mush.

I was still among the uninitiated. Then.

Granted, this past week wasn’t my first time. Thanks to the advice of friends and the genius of Alton Brown (rumored to be the love child of Mr. Wizard and the Galloping Gourmet), I tried the overnight oatmeal a few years ago. His recipe is delicious and you really should try it. It’s right here. Do it. I dare you.

When I opened one of our little cookbooks and saw they had an oatmeal recipe, I decided to give it a whirl. We already had the steel cut oats in the pantry. All we needed to get were a couple of apples and some slivered almonds. You dump everything in the pot before you go to bed, turn it on low, et voilá, you wake up to breakfast. Set up the coffee pot on the timer and you don’t have to do a damn thing except dish up and pour in the morning!

This recipe wasn’t quite as good as Alton’s, I must say. Next time, I won’t mess with perfection. I’ll stick with the genius. Still, I’m looking forward to taking the leftovers tomorrow, making them into little cakes and frying them in butter.

And someday I’ll try the bacon and egg breakfast casserole. Because who doesn’t want to wake up to the smell of bacon?

Crockpots. Not just for dinner anymore.