Slow Cooker Pineapple Barbecue Sauce Chicken

We did celebrate Father's Day with a barbecue but not on the grill.  The US Open was held this past week at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont PA and my son-in-law attended while my daughter did her weekend shift.  My husband and I together with our other daughter baby sat their almost four month old baby boy and the almost three year old daughter.  The baby was a handful and my husband and I took turns taking care of this cute but colicky boy.  We were busy so I decided to turn to my slow cooker instead of the grill to prepare this barbecue dish.

I used chicken for this dish though I would have preferred to use pork but my daughter does not like eating the latter.  So I adapted the recipe I found online for the slow cooker pineapple barbecue sauce pork chops found on the taste of home website. I tweaked the recipe by substituting plain barbecue sauce for the honey kind.  I also used catsup and red pepper flakes to substitute for the chili sauce in the original recipe.  Since I was busy I used dry onion flakes instead of fresh onion slices. I also substituted skinless chicken thighs for the pork chops.  I served it with white rice and steamed vegetables.  My husband and my daughter loved it.

Fast and delicious crowd pleaser.  Two picky eaters liked it.   Another no sweat recipe that calls for six ingredients and the cook and forget it method.

Slow Cooker Pineapple Barbecue Sauce Chicken

• 3.5 lbs chicken thighs, skin removed 
• 1-8 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 1/4 cup catsup
• 2 tbsp dry onion flakes
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes 

Combine all the ingredients in the slow cooker and mix them so the chicken thighs are covered with sauce. Cook for 6 hours at low setting or 3 hours at high setting.  I cooked mine in an Aroma Brand rice cooker/slow cooker for 2 hours at slow cooker setting.

Serve it with rice and a green salad or steamed vegetables.

Pineapple Carrot Coconut Snowballs

These coconut snowballs are "healthy-fied" with the addition of carrots and raisins to the pineapple cream cheese mixture.  They are melt in your mouth morsels which are not very sweet.  I consider it a perfect dessert to give to my granddaughter Maddie who loves carrots.  It will also appeal to her mom, my daughter Wendy, who prefers that her daughter not get used to desserts that are too sweet. 

Maddie at one year old with me.  I do have a  piece about Maddie and Me in this blog.

I have made Green Ice Cream for Maddie which she loves.   I incorporated spinach and cucumber in the list of ingredients.  At that time when she was barely one year old, Maddie was not into vegetables except for carrots.  Right now, she loves green beans and even ate my spicy Kale and Butternut Quesadillas with a lot of cute contortions of the face of course because it was spicy.  I have, however, discovered that at one and half years old, she has very unpredictable taste in food in the sense that she might shun what she had liked before.  Liking carrots, however, is a constant.

Maddie in her cute surprised pose.  Her latest adorable antic.

When I was developing this recipe, the handling of the cream cheese pineapple mixture was difficult when it comes to rolling it into balls even with refrigeration.  I decided to add a tablespoon of coconut butter to the mixture and that really helped.  I also mixed half of the carrot coconut mixture to the cream cheese pineapple blend and that further made the rolling into balls much easier

Pineapple Carrot Coconut Snowballs

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup of unsweetened crushed pineapple, well drained

1 tbsp coconut butter (optional but it really helps in rolling into balls easier)

1/4 cup raisins (you can use half this but the ball will not be as sweet)

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup dessicated sweetened coconut flakes

For topping:

1/4 cup more shredded carrots

1/2 cup more dessicated sweetened coconut flakes

Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl.  To this mixture, add the raisin, 1/4  cup shredded carrots and 1/2 cup coconut .  Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes.

Mix the topping mixture consisting of 1/4 cup more shredded carrots and 1/2 cup more coconut in a bowl. 

Roll the refrigerated mixture into small balls (about 1/2 inch diameter).  Roll the balls in the carrot/coconut topping.  You can place them in mini cupcake paper holders for ease of handling.   The balls are still soft and melt in your mouth beauties.  Enjoy.