Great news! The house is all back together. In addition to hot water and heat, we now have plenty of propane as well. My stove and I will be getting re-acquainted over some minestrone today and possibly some brownies. Yippee! Zena (my cat) is pretty psyched as well — she may never leave her spot in front of the fireplace again. She was quite vocal about missing that this week. God bless the Siamese. They sure can make their needs known.
Many thanks to all who sent me alternate recipe ideas while I was without a stove. It is much appreciated. I have lots of great tastes to try in the near future. This recipe is from my friend, Janine. I modified it a bit to fit my family’s tastes (i.e. crushed pineapple instead of chunks, and I omitted the zucchini). Then, stumbling over a long-forgotten spaghetti squash in the pantry, decided to cook that up and serve the chicken on top.
Everyone love this. It is saucy with a sweet/spicy flavor, and is so easy to make that I feel a little guilty calling it ‘cooking.’ With only three ingredients going in the crock pot, the most time-consuming part was trimming the chicken. I am kind of particular about that because I like to eat just the chicken, not the pieces of skin, fat, and sometimes cartilage left attached. Ick. If this is you, do what I should have done and just buy chicken cutlets instead of boneless chicken breasts. So much simpler!
Pineapple Salsa Chicken over Spaghetti Squash
Serves 6
1.25 pounds boneless chicken breasts
24 ounces of a fruity tomato salsa (like Santa Barbara Mango & Peach Salsa or Newman’s Own Mango Salsa)
8 ounces crushed pineapple, undrained
1 small spaghetti squash
Put chicken in the bottom of a crockpot. Add salsa and pineapple. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours. When chicken is fully cooked, remove them from the crockpot and transfer to a large cutting board. Shred the chicken breasts with two forks, then transfer the meat back to the crockpot. Stir to combine. Cover and leave on low to heat through.
Cut the spaghetti squash lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a large spoon. Place both halves, cut side up, in a microwave-able dish with a little water in the bottom of it (I use an 8×8 glass pan, and cut one of the squash in half to make them fit). Cover loosely and microwave on high for 10 minutes. When done, you should be able to scrape the squash easily out of its shell with a fork.
Serve chicken atop squash, or add a layer of baby spinach if you like.
Just made this in the InstaPot putting chicken in bottom and covering with salsa and pineapple, then split squash on trivet and set to 3 minutes. Easy and delish!
What a tasty and healthy meal! My cats both take turns laying in front of our fireplace… it’s their favorite spot.
I feel famous all of a sudden. We are huge fans of zucchini and summer squash, so we add a lot! Glad you enjoyed the recipe, check out Skinny Ms on Facebook, they always have something in the crockpot and it is ‘clean’ cooking, whatever that means!
Janine- thanks so much for the recipe idea! Will check out Skinny Ms.
I have never cooked a spaghetti squash – now I know how!! Can you tell me how the zucchini was supposed to be in it? THANKS JULES!
Go for it! The original recipe said to add zucchini 30 minutes prior to the end (2 zucchinis, sliced into rounds). That sounds like a lot of zucchini to me 🙂
That is sooo me. I love that I receive these in the morning….it inspires me to have some fun in the kitchen with the day to mull it over. Keep ’em coming!
Thank you, Kristi – that is exactly why I post early in the morning 🙂 I would love it if someone would do the same for me when it came to approaching household chores. “Today, Julie, you will be tackling the upstairs bathroom, two loads of laundry, and the dishwasher. Ignore the crunchy kitchen floor and the pile of crap on the counter. That is on the agenda for tomorrow.”