Slow Cooked Teriyaki Chicken

I have been having so much fun with my crock pot! And I am thrilled to find that so-called "Chinese" dishes are actually pretty easy to make. I hated buying pre-made sauces in the past. This is just so much better.

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Hot cooked jasmine rice

Whisk ingredients (chicken through pepper) together in a bowl. Place chicken breasts in crock pot and pour sauce over them. Set your crock pot to cook 5 hours on low. When done, remove chicken and set aside. Pour sauce into saucepan and mix cornstarch and water in a bowl to create your roux. Heat sauce on high till boiling and add roux. Continue to whisk until thickened. If still too thin, add more roux. Set sauce aside and shred chicken. It will be so tender that it practically falls apart. Put shredded chicken back in slow cooker, pour sauce over the top. Serve warm over jasmine rice, and steamed veggies if so desired.

Crock Pot Steel Cut Oatmeal

I freaking hate waiting for steel cut oats to cook. It's literally the worst. THE WORST! And it boils over no matter what I do. So pre-cooking it in a crock pot rocks. You can turn it on before bed and wake up to done (unmessy) oatmeal or you can let it cook, cool, and congeal and "slice" pieces to heat in the microwave as wanted.

And listen, you must use steel cut oats for this recipe, not regular rolled oats. You should be eating steel cut oats anyway, they're better for you because they're the least processed type of oat cereal.

Ingredients:

1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
1/2 cup milk (I use soy)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp maple extract
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon (or nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice or whatever ever other spice you may prefer)

Directions:

Simple. Put all ingredients in crock pot and set on low for 8 hours. When done, mix.

More directions:

When ready to eat, spoon or slice out a serving size of oatmeal into a bowl. Add more milk and a little butter and brown sugar to taste. If re-heating, put oatmeal in a bowl and microwave for 1.5 minutes, remove from microwave and stir in milk. Heat for another 1.5 minutes and add butter and brown sugar. Serve.