Cola-Glazed Chicken Wings

These are definitely not the healthiest, but they’re super simple, take maybe…5 minutes of prep time, and fall off the bone! :D I had em’ with a small portion of brown rice (and didn’t eat the skin …or drink the sauce, so there’s that). The picture looks a little funky because they’re hanging out in a clear tupperware. I made these mid-finals week, so I couldn’t be bothered to plate them/make em’ look pretty. I never buy soda, but my school provides that a lot during the free lunches we sometimes have, so I swiped a can specifically for this purpose.

Cola-Glazed Chicken Wings

Ingredients:
-6 chicken wings
-1 can Coca Cola
-1 cup ketchup
-1 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-pepper, to taste
-4 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions:
1) Mix everything (except the chicken wings) together and transfer to a crockpot.
2) Add the chicken wings and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Advertisement

Kale Lentil Soup

I haven’t been wanting to eat salad lately because it’s cold and everywhere around me is cold, so the thought of throwing it all into a soup sounded like a rather worthy idea. Couple that with the fact that I had a whole lot of lentils that I bought on sale a couple months ago and we had ourselves a winner! Recipe adapted from here!

I just realized that the picture makes it look more like stew than anything else, but it came out like a super super hearty soup. (It’d probably work really well over rice.) Makes about 12 small-ish servings and very adaptable! You can throw in potatoes to make it more filling, take out the chicken essence and use vegetable broth to make it vegetarian/vegan, cut up sausage for more protein…

Kale Lentil Soup

159 calories, 26g CHO’s, 2g fat, 10g protein, 8g fiber, 29mg sodium!

Ingredients:
-12 oz. frozen vegetables
-6 cups water
-1 1/2 tbsp chicken essence (optional! sub with veggie broth or just omit altogether)
-1 tsp dried thyme
-sea salt
-freshly ground black pepper
-1 cup green lentils
-1 cup red lentils
(For Later)
-1 pack Harvest Sensations Kale Salad (please don’t throw in the dressing)
-1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions:
1) Put all ingredients into crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours (or low for 6-8).
2) Add kale + balsamic vinegar ~10-15 minutes before serving.

Hungarian Goulash

This was very much adapted from here, based on what wasn’t on sale at Kroger/my ambitions to use up things I already had. I think traditionally, you add sour cream at the end and serve it with noodles, but these days, I’m all for proteining it up, so I just ate it as is. This made approximately 8 servings of goodness. :]

Hungarian Goulash

216 calories, 21g CHO’s, 8g fat, 15g protein, 3g fiber, 331mg sodium!

Ingredients:
-2 lb. ground veal
-1 yellow bell pepper, diced
-1 orange bell pepper, diced
-4 small potatoes, peeled + thinly sliced
-1 3/4 cups cacciatore Italian-inspired simmer sauce
-1 tbsp dried onions
-1 tbsp dried paprika
-sea salt
-freshly ground black pepper
-1 Kroger 100% whole wheat hot dog bun, crumbled into breadcrumbs
-2 eggs

Instructions:
1) Chop up everything that needs chopping. Mix all ingredients other than the potatoes together.
2) Peel + slice potatoes and put them at the bottom of the crockpot.
3) Add all other ingredients.
4) Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Melt-in-your-Mouth Meatloaf

I think it’s about time for me to do one of those grocery bans of sorts. I’ve been relegating my monthly grocery budget to $100 since it’s pretty much the only thing I really spend money on and I like splurging on food (sigh), but I just looked in my fridge/freezer and holy crud, I need to eat everything in there before I go buy anything else. D:

As such, you will likely be seeing a whole lot of “throw everything I have in the kitchen together into a dish”-type recipes next month. :O The recipe for this one is adapted from here! Makes approximately 7 servings. It does indeed melt in your mouth and it is glorious.

Melt-in-your-Mouth Meatloaf

142 calories, 10g CHO’s, 3g fat, 19g protein, 1g fiber, 253mg sodium!

Ingredients:
-2 eggs
-3/4 cup soy slender vanilla soy milk
-1 100% whole wheat hot dog bun (Kroger)
-2 tsp dried minced onions
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp thyme
-1 tsp parsley
-1 lb. 99% lean ground turkey
-1 red bell pepper, diced
-3 cloves garlic, minced
(Sauce)
-1/3 cup ketchup
-2 tbsp light brown sugar
-1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:
1) Combine eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion, salt + bell pepper into a large bowl. Crumble ground turkey over mixture + stir well to combine. Place in crockpot.
2) Cover + cook on low until a meat thermometer reads 160 F (5-6 hours).
3) Whisk ketchup, brown sugar + Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. Spoon sauce over meatloaf. Return to crockpot + cook on low until heated through (~15 minutes). Let stand ~ 10 minutes before cutting.

Pumpkin Beef & Chicken Chili

Monika and I decided to do a sort of pumpkin-themed dinner after one of our quizzes last week! As luck would have it, I happened upon the cutest crockpot in the world a couple weeks ago, and it was on sale for <$20! Needless to say (after reading some reviews online), I brought it home with me.

Ain’t it adorable!?

I was originally going to try to recreate one of my favorite food truck of all time because I really miss their food, but driving 9 hours to visit a food truck is hardly reasonable when I’m supposed to be in school to learn to save lives. In any case, I unfortunately ran out of turkey when I made the Thai Turkey Zucchini Meatballs, so I figured I should just use up the ingredients I already had before I went and spent more money. The recipe for this was adapted from here!

Pumpkin Beef & Chicken Chili
Nutritional Info: (makes 16 [big] servings) 152 cal, 14g CHO’s, 6g fat, 13g protein, 4g fiber, 514mg sodium per serving!

Ingredients:
-1 tbsp EVOO
-1 lb. lean ground beef (91%)
-8 chicken hot dogs, diced
-1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes w/ garlic + onion
-1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes w/ no salt
-1 15 oz. can chili beans
-1 15 oz. can black beans
-1 15.5 oz can pumpkin
-freshly ground black pepper
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-cinnamon
-paprika
-cumin
-cayenne pepper
-ground ginger
-ground cloves
-ground nutmeg

Instructions:
1) Heat EVOO in a large skillet over medium heat and brown the beef, stirring often until crumbly and no longer pink. Drain + discard any fat.
2) Dice up the chicken hot dogs.
2) Transfer beef + chicken to the crockpot and stir in the diced tomatoes, pumpkin, chili beans, black beans, brown sugar and all spices. Set cooker to “Low,” cover and cook for at least 3 hours.