Happy 2021! It’s a new year and I know we are all so thankful for that. I didn’t publish any blog posts in 2020. It’s kind of hard to believe, but honestly I was just trying to survive a very trying year as many of us were and not feeling overly inspired to write. I am feeling so much more positive about the new year and with that comes some much needed inspiration! I’m getting back into the swing of things with content creation and I’m excited to share my first recipe of 2021!
My husband and I really fell off the healthy eating train in 2020. I think a lot of us did. We were home more, had more time on our hands and I used that extra time to bake lots of goodies! In the last couple months, we’ve been getting into a much healthier routine. I’ve been working out every day, eating healthier and my husband actually started doing the Keto diet. I personally am not a huge fan of Keto, but I know it works for a lot of people including my husband. So when he started his new diet, I was forced to get really creative in the kitchen and come up with some Keto inspired dishes.
We both love Buffalo chicken and luckily most Buffalo sauce is low in carbs. I’ve also been on a cauliflower kick in the new year. Cauliflower, cauliflower rice, cauliflower mash, the cauliflower list goes on and on and I just can’t get enough cauliflower. So in my head I dreamt up this amazing Keto Buffalo Chicken Cauliflower Casserole. I honestly wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but it was GOOD! My husband went back for seconds, so that’s how I know it was a hit. Spicy buffalo chicken combined with a creamy cheese mixture, mixed with cauliflower is my new guilty pleasure that isn’t really all that guilty because it’s relatively healthy. Also, to make things super easy you can use your slow cooker to do a majority of the work and then just throw the mixture into a casserole dish and bake right before serving. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!
In your slow cooker, add 2 large boneless chicken breasts and pour 1 cup of Buffalo sauce over top of the chicken. Cook on low for 8 hours.
Once cooked, shred chicken in the slow cooker. Add 8 oz of cream cheese, ½ cup of sour cream, 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and blue cheese crumbles to taste to the chicken and combine until creamy. It should look like Buffalo chicken dip when you are all done mixing.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x13 casserole dish.
Steam cauliflower and drain out any liquid. Add cauliflower to creamy Buffalo chicken mixture and combine.
Pour Buffalo chicken cauliflower mixture into the greased casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 30 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees F.
Remove casserole from oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve up with a side salad or veggie.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so ready for spring. We had some nasty snow and ice over the weekend, which made me super anxious for warm weather and sunshine. Although, I really should not complain. My youngest brother attends college in Dekalb, Illinois and has practically been ice skating across campus to his classes. Winters are brutal in Illinois compared to Maryland. I guess I will just have to embrace this cold weather for the next couple of weeks and hunker down at home with some warm comfort foods.
One of my favorite recipes for a cold winter day is pot roast. I love pot roast because it’s such a simple dish, but is so hearty and filling. There are so many variations of pot roast, but this recipe is my all-time favorite. I cook my pot roast in the slow cooker, which makes it a perfect weekday recipe. Many slow cooker roast recipes require that you brown the roast in a skillet prior to slow cooking, but I omit this step and just dump all of my ingredients directly in the slow cooker. Less dishes, less mess and less stress. This pot roast is cooked in a thick, savory gravy that pairs perfectly with mashed potatoes. If you don’t feel like making mashed potatoes, you can just cut up potatoes and throw them right in the slow cooker along with your roast. Easy peasy!
In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of beef stock, 1 cup of water, 1 ranch dressing dry seasoning packet, 1 Italian dressing dry seasoning packet and 1 brown gravy dry seasoning packet.
Place 2 cups of baby carrots and the sliced onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Feel free to add any other vegetables, such as potatoes or celery. Place the roast on top of the veggies and then pour the liquid mixture over top of the roast. Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper to taste, and place one bay leaf into the liquid mixture. Cover and cook the roast for 8 hours on low.
Remove the bay leaf and set the roast aside on a plate. Mix 1 tsp of corn starch with 2 table spoons of cold water in a small bowl. Stir the corn starch and water mixture directly into the slow cooker, mixing with the broth and veggies. This will help to thicken the gravy. Add the roast back to the slow cooker and cook on high for 30 minutes to 1 hour until the gravy has thickened.
Slice the roast and serve over mashed potatoes or with a nice piece of crusty bread.
