Here’s an oldie but a goodie, a perennial favorite meal around Chez Recessionista but yet one we haven’t enjoyed in quite some time! Vegetarian BBQ chik’n and cornbread casserole always gets you where you need to go, and in record time, too.
Now, first, a full admission. I woke up this morning and was simply in No Mood to put together something for the Crock-Pot. “It’ll take too long,” I whined to the cat, who was lying next to me in the bed, too tired to even open an eye as I spoke. “I’m too tired. I just want to sleeeeep.”
Last night, you see, a dear friend of ours was visiting from France, and we had a wonderful evening of catching-up and visiting. We were out late, and then had to settle back down for a good long time before going to bed after the fact (I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time coming home from a fun night out and then immediately going to sleep!). So by the time I went to bed, it was after midnight, which made the 6:05 a.m. alarm come mighty early this morning. And the same goes for the 7 a.m. alarm, which I set after determining that the 6:05 alarm was a bunch of garbage.
My feelings had not warmed post-shower, but I decided to give the Crock-Pot the old college try anyway and reluctantly prepared tonight’s meal. And lo and behold, the prep work took all of 10 minutes! Ten minutes, and I had a wonderful dish for dinner tonight. You can’t ask for more than that!
As ever, I used this recipe I found over at $5 Dinners about a hundred years ago, and it’s never let me down. I use only one box of the corn muffin mix for the topper and have never had a problem with it – it’s always plenty of cornbread to go with our barbecue chik’n! (On the flip side, sometimes I’ve used two boxes’ worth, and the middle turned out undercooked, even 10 hours after the fact! So use your best judgment.)
Anyway, all it takes is a mix of chik’n strips, barbecue sauce, frozen corn, and diced sweet potato, topped with the corn muffin mix (mixed up, of course, not just dry!). Flip the slow cooker to Low, then move on with your life for the workday!
By the time I got home, the house was filled with the aroma of barbecue, and all I had to do was toss a quick salad before we were ready to eat! The cornbread topping was perfectly cooked – slightly brown around the sides of the crock and golden in the middle – and the underlying chik’n mixture was thick, sweet, and incredibly flavorful. The sweet potato was soft to the touch of the fork, and the corn was perfectly crisp. What a wonderful flavor combination, indeed!
We mowed down a couple of servings apiece – plus a lot of salad, I’m not gonna lie – and were very pleased to know that we have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week. And looking back to this morning, I’m very, very glad I talked myself into getting up to add everything to the Crock-Pot despite my initial laziness. It was worth it in the end!
:)