10/7/12 - Crockpot Orange Chicken over Brown Rice

Today was one of those days I look forward to all year long. Sever’s Corn Maze day!

I was up bright and early getting ready for the day. Much easier, might I add, without the girls running circles around me! I left the house at 9:30, stopped at the cash machine and picked the girls up from my mom’s. Of course, they had lots of stories to share about their night over at Grandma Mary’s house, and I can’t get enough of how excited they get to see me when I pick them up. It’s so heartwarming. We loaded up into the car, picked up Christian and were on our way.

We met the Altenbach’s at Sever’s and had our family fun day. Spent some time in the corn pool (my favorite activity there), played on the jumping pillow for a while (hilarious fun), hung out in “Parakeet Island” (a new feature this year, and I LOVED it), fed some animals in the petting zoo (Olivia loves feeding them, and always makes sure all the animals get some!), ate some lunch, ACTUALLY did the corn maze (our first time, and it was really fun), Olivia took a ride down the giant slide (which, she would do ALL DAY LONG if we let her) and they played on the giant tires for a while (DIRTY). They were finally exhausted, filthy and it was time to head out. Sad to think it’ll be another year until we visit again, such a great place!

Here is proof of our festivities...

Christian gave the girls a quick bath when we got home and put them down for a late nap. I washed some dishes, started laundry and got dinner going. We settled in to watch the Vikings game and relax (ANOTHER WIN, YAY!!). Dinner was ready when the girls woke up, so we ate, played for a while, watched some videos and relaxed. They were up a little later than usual, but they didn’t get up from their naps until pretty late, so it was expected. Luckily, no school tomorrow!

Tonight’s dinner was Crockpot Orange Chicken over Brown Rice. I have to say, we weren’t fans of this one. There are some things I would do differently, that would probably make it take better, but I don’t know that I’ll try this one again.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lbs Chicken (I used 3 frozen chicken breasts, I would definitely use more than that, at least 4 or 5, for this recipe, and make sure not to cut the pieces too small)
• ½ Cup Flour
• Olive Oil
• Dash of Salt
• ½ Can of Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate (make sure you don’t use too much)
• 3 tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 3tbsp Ketchup

• 2 Cups Dry Brown Rice
• 4 Cups of Chicken Broth (basic Rule is 2 cups liquid to 1 cup rice)

Directions:

Chicken

1. Cut chicken into pieces (like I mentioned, don’t do them too small), and coat in the four (I put the chicken pieces and flour into a ziplock bag and mixed them together).
2. Heat some oil in a shallow pan, and place the coated chicken into the oil. The chicken doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through, just browned all around.
3. Mix the salt, thawed orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar and ketchup in a bowl. Taste the mix and play with the ingredients if you want to adjust the taste of the sauce.
4. Add the cooked chicken to your crockpot, and pour the sauce mixture over it. Mix lightly. Cook for 6 hours low, or 3 hours high (I would NOT recommend cooking this on high. I would definitely do it on low, and make sure to on a regular basis for readiness.).

Brown Rice

1. Bring chicken stock to a boil.
2. Add the dry rice, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Do not uncover, stir, etc. during the cooking process – this will make the rice sticky and negatively affect the cooking progress.