I found this recipe on Six Sister's Stuff.  I love this blog and not only because it was created by 6 sisters but because they have a million really good, easy recipes.  I am always looking for good slow cooker recipes especially for chicken so I was thrilled to find this recipe.  I tweaked it just a touch to use less orange because the blog author felt it was too "orangey".  I think the adjustments worked out well because everyone in my family really liked this recipe.  I will definitely be making this again. (on a separate note I wish the picture was a better one....I'll have to take a new one the next time I make this)

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1/3 cup flour
olive oil (I used a combination of grape seed oil and extra virgin sesame oil)
1/2 Tbl. salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 Tbl. ketchup
4 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup water
4 Tbl.  brown sugar


In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, ketchup and water, set aside.

Pour the flour in a small bowl or a gallon sized ziploc bag.  Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.  Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken.
The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.

After the chicken is done cooking, put the pieces into the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with the sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.

Serve over rice.
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I have had my crock pot for years but I never know what to make in it.  It always seems to me that most of the crock pot recipes require a can of some kind of creamed soup and that wouldn't go over very well in my family.  So I don't use it as often as I would like.  It would be really nice to just throw something together in the morning and just forget about it until dinner time.   So I'm on the search for good slow cooker recipes.  If anyone has one please leave a link in your comment so I can try it out.  Having said that, this crock pot eggplant lasagna was delicious.  My husband really loved it and so did my 21 month old son.  I used eggplant in everyother layer inplace of the pasta to help "lighten" this recipe a tiny bit. 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of no boil lasagna sheets

1 medium eggplant sliced into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise

1 lb of ground beef (chicken or turkey would be good too)

1 1/2 jars of pasta sauce

1 small container ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

non-stick cooking spray (to spray inside of crock pot)

Preparation:

Spray entire inside of crock pot ceramic pot.  In a large skillet brown ground beef, drain off excess fat.  Add pasta sauce to meat and stir to combine, take off heat.  Mix ricotta cheese, egg and parmesan cheese in a small bowl and set aside. 

Assembly:

Spoon a couple large spoonfuls of meat sauce in the bottom of crock pot, next add a layer of pasta sheets (break them up to make them fit across the bottom of pot) Next add a layer of ricotta cheese mixture, sprinkle with a handful of mozzarella cheese. Spoon more sauce then add a layer of sliced eggplant, ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce.  Continue layering using pasta sheets and then back to eggplant until all ingredients are used up.  End with a top layer of mozzarella cheese.  Cover pot and cook on low for 4 hrs.

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