Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

You know the recipes that YOU really want to try, even though you’re not sure how well the rest of the family is going to like it?  That was these Pesto Ranch Crock Pot Chicken Thighs.  I like pesto better than anyone else in the family, and the recipe was delightfully easy (if you don’t count trying to trim the fat off of the thighs–and please insert whatever joke I’m too tired to come up with here _____), so last night I got out some boneless skinless frozen chicken thighs (gotta love Costco) to thaw.  When we got home from church I went to town on the trimming, getting them into the crockpot slightly ahead of schedule.  (Go me!)

And then, of course, I ignored them until dinnertime, which is the very best feature of a crockpot meal.  I was even super lazy and paired them with frozen green beans and a package of flavored instant mashed potatoes.  (I can take or leave potatoes, remember, and peeling them makes me sneeze, so don’t judge me.)  The verdict?

Wow.

The chicken got a thumbs up from everyone (except me, maybe–I was feeling more thumbs middle), and my middle even decided she liked the fake mashed potatoes and ate them WITHOUT COMPLAINT.  (Friends from Idaho–try not to groan so loudly that you wake the baby up.) This is earth-shattering!  The boy had barely touched lunch–Sundays are hard that way–and he just kept eating, and eating, and eating. What’s not to love about a dinner that successful–and easy?  I even bought a Costco jar of pesto and froze the rest in three different containers, so A)I can make it again more easily if I so choose and B)I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a 6 oz jar of pesto.  The one thing I would watch out for is the saltiness–pesto is salty to begin with, and if you just use bouillon granules and water for the chicken broth, it ends up on the salty edge of what I prefer.  Low sodium chicken broth would be better.

There you have it, folks.  Easy-peasy!