To slow cook or not? That is the question.

I had a slow cooker many moons ago and hated it because... well, I'm not sure why.  I wasn't inspired, and the thing was  HUGE.  I couldn't wait to get rid of the thing.  Now with the advent of Pinterest and the resurgence of crock pot recipes, I've made the decision to jump (back) on the bandwagon.

Since it is just the two of us, I got a small, 4.5 quart Crock Pot.  It's about the cutest thing with its blue background and polka dots.  I will say, though, that I saw one on Pinterest today that has a black and white Damask print that caught my eye (don't tell my slow cooker, but I think the other one is cuter).

Mid morning, I paused from filling new orders and responding to conversations to realize that I hadn't thought about dinner yet.  I went to the grocery yesterday and bought some meat without a real plan on how to use it, so I have the supplies but not the ideas.  Enter Pinterest.  As an aside, I think I will re-iterate to you just how much I love Pinterest.  Like any relationship based on true love, I have to be careful or the strong feelings can overwhelm me and cause spending quality time with my beloved to turn into a complete time warp.

Back to the point... I opened pinterest and simply typed in "crock pot" to see what would pop up.  (This is where the photo of the prettier crock pot made me think impure thoughts about my slow cooker).  One of the first recipes is for Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore by Skinnytaste (you can find the pin here and the link here).  Of course, based on my individual tastes and pantry ingredients, I have made it my own.  And so Chicken Cacciatore ala Lisa was born.

It is super hard to cook for 1.5 people especially since Little Man is a bit picky and I don't particularly like leftovers.  True to form, I made way too much.  I also don't like chicken too much (I'm not picky at all), so I get the chicken breast cutlets that are sliced thin.  There are usually four to a package, and I've realized that one cutlet is enough for the two of us.  Aha, that means that one package of four cutlets will feed us four nights!  Cha-ching!!

Back to the Cacciatore.  I took one of the chicken pieces and seasoned with what my family simply calls mix (2 parts granulated garlic, one part salt and one part pepper; it makes ALL the difference) then placed it in the bottom of the crock pot.  I then dumped a 28 oz can (it's the only size I have at the moment) of diced tomatoes on top and sprinkled more mix.  Then I chopped half a medium onion and threw it in then grated three medium carrots on top with my microplaner.  I usually add sugar to my sauce, but carrots are sweet and they add another veggie to the recipe.  I call those veggie ninjas because Little Man doesn't know they are there and can't object!  I also grated a few cloves of garlic on top.  Finally, I sprinkled dried Basil and Oregano on top and added a dried Bay leaf.  I cooked on high for probably about 5 hours (I lost track of what time I started) and was tortured the whole day with a heavenly smell.  Once we were leaning toward hungry, I boiled some tri-colored rotini topped the whole thing with some finely grated parmesan.

I would definitely put half the tomatoes and add some sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth, but it was still a big hit with both Little Man and I.