Blog Love: Crock Pot Kung Pao Chicken

Man alive, is it really 10:30am already?!  I swear the days around here fly by faster than I ever thought possible.  Not to mention Wes just projectile vomited all over me, his clean outfit, my clean outfit, and a freshly cleaned carpet.  He didn’t cry and seemed totally fine afterwards but I totally burst into tears and snuggled the heck out of him.  Poor little nugget…

Anyway, time is crazy these days and most of the time Nate’s on his way home from work and dinner isn’t anywhere near being ready.  Needless to say my crockpot has become one of my absolute best friends.  It’s so nice to just toss everything in, clean up quickly and have a fabulous hot supper ready and waiting.  Not to mention during the summer months it’s nice to not have the oven and stove going and heating up the house.

 

Side note:  I hate how inefficient our house is for cooling down.  The end.

 

The problem I have with my slow cooker though is that everything I make tends to be limited to a few kinds of foods – stews and pulled meat.  I hadn’t ventured out to try something new for a long time until I ran across this Crockpot Kung Pao Chicken recipe on Janetha’s blog a while back.  And MAN am I glad I did!

Not only is it easy to make, but it’s LOADED with veggies and highly customizable.  That means that since I absolutely cannot stand water chestnuts I don’t have to put them in there…but I could add corn instead.  Or maybe some extra broccoli?  It’s all gravy baby!

 

I think in total this meal took me about 10 minutes to throw together with some pre-cooked rice.  And the flavor?  AH-MAH-ZING.  I love that I finally made a little something different in the crockpot too…not that there’s anything wrong at all with stews and shredded meat, but let’s face it:  changing it up can be nice sometimes.  Especially when you’re changing out of baby-vomit covered clothes.

 

My poor little nugget…

I only made a few changes:

1. I used rice wine vinegar instead of mirin.
2. I added double the chili sauce because I like it spicy.
3. I didn’t do the water chestnuts.
4. The broccoli and cauliflower that I used were frozen and turned out perfectly.

I’m telling you guys, try something new and make this.  It’s heaven and will make you drool every time you think of it!