Barbecued Chicken with Blue Cheese and Celery Paninis

My panini press has been neglected lately. I just felt like I was always making the same sandwiches with them, so I got the genius idea to look up panini cookbooks at the library instead of buying one. I heart the library...especially for cookbooks! Since I have an overwhelming cookbook collection already, it's a nice way to indulge in my guilty pleasure without dropping a small fortune.

So I flipped through the book and found several that sounded good. Unfortunately some have really obscure (or expensive...or both) ingredients, and some there is no way the husband would touch them with a ten foot pole. I'll still have to copy them down before the book is due back.

The husband is actually sick today, but when I asked if he'd want dinner he asked what the choices were and thought these sounded good. The other choice, by the way, was Shepherd's Pie, which we were supposed to have last night, but due to some issues at our vet's office (i.e. they're slow and incompetent and ALWAYS take forever to get simple things done), there wasn't going to be time to make it and pick up the dog before they closed. So it was a mac & cheese and hot dog night. Anyway...on to the recipe.

Barbecued Chicken with Blue Cheese and Celery Paninis
1-1/2 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded barbecue chicken
3 Tbsp barbecue sauce (optional)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp sour cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 scallion (white and light green parts), finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 ciabbata rolls or store-bought Italian rolls
1 celery stalk, trimmed, tough outer strings peeled away, and thinly sliced

Heat a panini or sandwich press. Combine the chicken and barbecue sauce, if using, in a small bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the rolls in half and spread some blue cheese dressing on the inside of each roll. Arrange the celery on the bottom halves of the rolls. Pile the chicken on top of the celery. Top each sandwich with the top half of the roll.

Put the sandwiches on the press, pull the top down, and cook until they are brown and crisp, 4-7 minutes, depending on the machine. Carefully remove from the press and serve immediately.

*****

I don't think I'm really changing things up except that I have some foccacia rolls I'm using instead of ciabatta. I just realized I need to go hustle so we can eat at 6:00. Not sure what we'll have with it, I may throw some tater tots into the oven because I have them and they're easy.

Oh, and I didn't have any barbecue chicken laying around so I just cooked up some chicken breasts and shred them, then I'm going to mix them with some BBQ sauce. This would be a great use for leftover chicken meat from cooking a whole chicken!

Pulled Pork

Originally I was going to make this yesterday since we needed to leave early for our fun night at Pump It Up, but our morning plans changed, and I was going to have time to get it in the crockpot. Normally it wouldn't be a problem to just toss a pork loin roast and a bottle of BBQ sauce in the crockpot, but I'm trying to cut out high fructose corn syrup from our diets, and every bottle of BBQ sauce I picked up at the grocery store had HFCS as either the first or second ingredient. Yuck. So I bought a bottle of organic ketchup instead and decided to make my own sauce. I looked up recipes on allrecipes.com and found one I kind of modified.

Pulled Pork
20 ounces ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup worcestshire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pound pork loin roast

In a saucepan, combine first eight ingredients. Bring to low boil. Place pork roast in crockpot, pour sauce over. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove pork roast to a bowl and shred with two forks. Add sauce into bowl until desired consistency. Serve on hamburger buns.

*****

The sauce tasted really good when I sampled it from the saucepan, hopefully it will taste good after being in the crockpot so long. The original recipes had different quantities of some of the ingredients and some different spices, and it said to combine everything in a blender. I thought that was weird, so I opted to cook them all for a bit.

Pulled Pork

This is what we're having for dinner tonight. I took dinner to someone from MOMS Club last week that just had a baby, and this is what I made. I still had some pork roasts in the freezer, so I thought we'd have it one night this week. I forgot to get it set up this morning before Cooking Club, so hopefully it gets done in time. I also forgot to get out my pork to defrost, so I'm hoping have the crockpot on high will help speed things along!

Pulled Pork
1-2 lbs pork loin roast
1 bottle barbecue sauce

Place pork roast(s) in crockpot. Pour in bottle of barbecue sauce. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours. Remove pork from crockpot, shred meat with two forks. Return pork to crockpot and mix with sauce. Serve on hamburger buns.

*****

Ridiculously easy. When I buy the pork roasts, it's usually around four pounds, so I cut it into one pound sections. I used two pounds of meat last week for the new mom, and I decided to use two pounds for us for tonight based on how much that made. It's probably going to be a bit too much, but then we'll have lunches the rest of the week. I'm not sure what we'll have with this yet. Maybe crinkle fries. I'll have to see what I have on hand.

Oh, and to mine I sprinkled Montreal Steak Seasoning over the pork roasts before adding in the barbecue sauce. I also added in a little honey because I bought the "Traditional" flavor BBQ sauce.

BBQ "Meatloaf"

Why is meatloaf in quotes, you might be asking? Because I'm making it with Boca grounds, not beef. I'm totally addicted to these things now, especially since I found the recipe section on their website. Plus the box is less than $3 at Walmart; you can't get lean ground beef for that price unless it's on sale! This is a new one for us, so we'll see how it turns out!

BBQ "Meatloaf" Bake
1 pkg. (12 oz.) frozen BOCA Meatless Ground Burger
1/2 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup cholesterol-free egg product
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup ketchup

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Microwave ground burger in medium microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. Add all remaining ingredients except ketchup; mix lightly. Let stand 5 min.

SHAPE into loaf in 8-inch pie plate or into 2 smaller loaves in 2 miniature loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray. Spread top evenly with ketchup.

BAKE 35 min. or until cooked through.

*****

I think I have the Italian style bread crumbs, not plain, but I doubt that makes much difference. I'm excited to try it. I don't know what to have with it, though. I was thinking baked potatoes, but the only toppings we'd have would be butter and cheese since I used the last of our sour cream for the stuffed shells. I guess I'll look through the pantry and see what all we have.

Barbecue Chicken Cups

I'm such a slacker!! Forgot to post Friday, forgot to post yesterday. I don't know where my brain has been! Last night I made another recipe to use some of the leftover chicken. I thought that would finish it up, but nope! I still have some. I may try freezing it and just use it for something else. I found this recipe on a "frugal recipe" website when we were low on funds one week. I didn't end up making it that time, but I did a few weeks ago when I had some leftover chicken to use up. This is so easy, so cheap, and so good!

Barbecue Cups
1 can of biscuits
2-3 c. shredded chicken
1 c. barbeque sauce
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven 375 degrees. Mix chicken and barbecue sauce together in a bowl. Place biscuits in a muffin tin and push up the sides, making a cup. Spoon chicken mixture in uncooked biscuit cups and bake approximately 12 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle cheese over chicken. Return to oven and bake another 3-5 minutes until biscuits are golden brown and cheese is melted.

*****

Last time when I made them I sliced up some green onions and sprinkled on the top with the cheese, but I didn't have any this time. This makes 3-4 servings depending on how hungry you are. :)

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I had a rare afternoon to myself yesterday and forgot to get on and post my dinner recipe! Friday night is grilled pizza night, and since we had leftover BBQ chicken from Wednesday, that was our pizza topping. I like to use some kind of smoked cheese with this, a smoked gouda or mozzarella. My grocery doesn't ever have smoked gouda, so unless I'm going to Trader Joe's or a fancy grocery, we have smoked mozzarella. I mix it with regular mozzarella, otherwise it's too smoky tasting.

So after you flip your crust and it's time for toppings, I put BBQ sauce down as the sauce on the pizza, then spread shredded chicken on top of that (I usually mix in some BBQ sauce with the chicken, too). Top with cheese and then sprinkle chopped cilantro or green onions on top.

Yummy!

And, since we had it last night, I can tell you it was good. :) Tonight we're getting family pictures and my son's 18 month pictures done, so we're eating out while we're off doing that. I'll be back tomorrow! :)

Crockpot Barbecue Chicken

Now I know this one will be better than last night's, although I don't think anything could be worse. We've had this once before and it was really yummy. I love cooking whole chickens in my crockpot because we generally get three meals out of one chicken. Tomorrow night we're having something different, but Friday and Saturday nights' dinners will be using leftover chicken.

Crockpot Barbecue Chicken
1/4 c. water
3 tbsp. catsup
3 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 (2 1/2 or 3 lb.) chicken

Combine water, catsup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, butter and seasoning in a saucepan; heat to boiling. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place chicken in the crock pot and pour sauce over it. Cook slowly overnight or on high for 6 to 7 hours. This barbecue sauce can also be used with pork and beef.

*****

We had this several weeks ago, and it was really good. I'm always looking for new crockpot chicken recipes because I always seem to use the same one, so I was really glad when my friend Jen sent this to me. Not sure what we're going to have with it. I was thinking maybe I'd make au gratin potatoes, and I bought some broccoli at the store on Monday, but I'm the only one in the house that eats it (the dog won't even go near it).

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

We're taking dinner to some more friends tonight that just had a baby. What can I say, I have very fertile friends! The husband leads my husband's bible study group, and the wife leads mine. They had their second child last week, so I said we'd bring dinner over and eat with them tonight before the men have their study. I was going to do a casserole but decided to move my menu around a little for the week and instead of having pulled pork on Sunday for dinner, we'd have it tonight. It's a crockpot meal...I LOVE my crockpot!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
2 lb. boneless pork loin roast
1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 cups barbecue sauce
1/2 cup chopped onions

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Place pork roast in slow cooker; sprinkle with garlic powder. Add barbecue sauce and onions and mix lightly. Cover and cook on low heat 7-9 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks. Return meat to slow cooker and toss with barbecue sauce until well coated. Heat through and serve on hamburger buns, toasted bread, pita bread, or baked potatoes.

*****

I think 2 cups of BBQ sauce works out to be an entire bottle; I never measure, I just pour in the whole bottle. Why dirty a measuring cup? I didn't realize I was out of onions and didn't want to have to go to the store, so I just put some onion powder on the roast with the garlic powder. I was also low on BBQ sauce (had about 1-1/2 cup), so I had to come up with my own BBQ sauce concoction. I ended up using about 3/4 cup of chili sauce and mixed in some grape jelly and brown sugar. I sampled it before adding it, and it tasted pretty darn good.

I'm going to make a pasta salad and some cupcakes to take along with it. Should be yummy!