Sweet & Sour Chicken

I love Sweet and Sour Chicken or Shrimp at Chinese restaurants, so I wanted to try and make it for myself.  This recipe was pretty good- I think next time I will try to add some red pepper flakes to try and add some heat and a little less sweet. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this one.

3 chicken breasts

1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can cubed pineapple, juice drained

1, 18oz Jar BBQ sauce 

1 cup Chili Sauce

Directions:

• Put all ingredients in the crock pot and mix up. 
• Cook on low for 8 hours
• Serve over rice

Lemon cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Holy yum, these are amaaaazing!! Made these on Easter for brother because he LOVES lemon :)  You HAVE to make these, I think they are my new favorite cupcake!

Cupcakes:
1 box lemon cake mix 

Ingredients that the cake mix calls for

Lemon Glaze:
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2-1 cup powdered sugar

Frosting: 

2 sticks of butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup strawberry jam

pinch of salt
1/2 cup fresh strawberries cut very very small

6 cups powered sugar

2-3 tablespoons of cream

Directions: 

• Bake the lemon cakes in cupcake holders as directed on the box. Remove from oven and let cool.
• Make your glaze by mixing ingredients together. You will want the glaze to be somewhat thick, so keep adding powdered sugar until you get a medium thickness glaze. Once they are mixed, poke small holes in the top of the cupcakes and spread over the top, careful to not let it all run down the sides. Do this 2-3 times after each back soaks in to make them extra lemony! See the first picture for this step
• To make the frosting- first start by beating the butter and vanilla until it is creamy. Best to start with butter that has been sitting out for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Mix in strawberry jam, strawberries and salt
• Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until combined. 
• Then add cream 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the desired consistency
• Devour!
• I topped with a little  lemon decoration :)

Portobello Mushroom Pizza

I thought this was an awesome dish, carb-free, yummy and just overall very easy. Now, for those of you that do not LOVE mushrooms like me, you might want to skip this dish. Stephen likes mushrooms, however, after he took his first bite he said "Yep that is a mushroom alright" The Portobello being such a hearty mushroom dominates this dish, which I love, but some may not. What the heck, might as well try it right?!

4 Large Portobello Mushrooms

1 can tomato sauce

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning

Monterrey Jack Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

black olives

turkey pepperoni

Directions: 

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Add the tomato sauce and seasonings to a bowl and mix
• Take the stem and gills out of the mushroom and put on a baking sheet
• Put the mushrooms in the 400 degree oven and bake for about 8-10 minutes 
• Remove from the oven and put the oven on Broil at High
• Layer your pizzas with some tomato sauce, then cheese mix, then pepperoni and back olives (you can do any creation you want)
• Put into the oven and let the cheese melt and the turkey start to brown
• Remove and eat!