Southern Style Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

I don't know about where y'all live, but it has been so hot and humid around D.C. lately. On days with temperatures above 90 degrees and air thick as water, I hardly want to eat, much less turn on the oven. My slow cooker and making salads or cold meals are a life saver on scorching spring and summer days.

Craisin Almond Chicken Salad

I have a weird relationship with mayonnaise. The thought of mayo almost always makes me gag. It's so white, plain, and...well...fattening. If I'm ever ordering a sandwich, I always, always make sure it doesn't come with mayo on it. I'll have mustard or hummus, please and thank you. Or if I ever do find a glob of mayo on my otherwise delicious sandwich, you better believe I'm taking a napkin to that bun and soaking up every little bit of it. I think my negative feelings towards mayo started when I learned how to read a nutrition label. As soon as I discovered that little label on the side of food, I quickly eliminated a lot of ingredients and products from my diet without even thinking twice. Darn you sneaky label with almost always disappointing information.

Healthy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

I love carbs: pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, corn, oats...the list goes on. If I had to pick a favorite carb, I'd have to go with freshly baked bread, with fresh pasta as a very close second. I seriously don't know how people not only accepted the low-carb fad diet that defined the 90's, but also somehow stuck with it. I might have lasted a few hours before caving. Meat and vegetables all day, every day? No, thank you.

Hawaiian Chicken

When it comes to cooking dinners lately, I've been pretty lazy. It seems like I haven't been home at all the past couple of weeks. My time has been spent everywhere but in the kitchen; I've been looking at condos, traveling, playing in the snow...you get the idea. But just because I'm lacking the time to invest in cooking dinner doesn't mean that my dinner has to lack flavor.

Healthy Chicken 'n' Dumplings

All of this snow and cold weather is making me miss the south. While "home" is only a four hour drive from DC, I feel like the weather is usually significantly different better. The sun always seems to shine, the temperature is always a good five or six degrees warmer, and there is hardly ever any snow or ice. DC...you should take lessons from the South. Work on this please.

Crock Pot Curry Chicken

One of the great things about Cooking to Perfection is that it has opened my eyes to many different ingredients, preparation methods, recipes, and dishes that I might not have ever come across. By meeting other bloggers, reading recipes posted on other websites and blogs, and asking friends and family about ideas of what they'd like to see on Cooking to Perfection, I've learned so much more than I ever would have without this blog. Growing up in a household that always made and ate homemade meals together and had the Food Network on all day long, I thought I knew a thing or two about cooking, baking, and all things related to food. While I feel like I am fairly knowledgeable, there are a lot recipes and ideas that I'm still discovering and am anxious to try.

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

I've been counting down the days until I go back to North Carolina for the holidays just about as soon as I returned to D.C. after Thanksgiving. There is something about being in NC with family that gives me a sense of comfort and pure happiness that no other place on earth has or can give me. And there is no denying that the southern hospitality and food have something to do with the happiness I experience.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

With the seasons and weather changing, I often find myself craving the utmost comfort foods around this time of year. With the days growing shorter by the minute and with it getting dark before I even leave work, some nights all I really want to do is curl up in a comfy sweatshirt and sweatpants, eat the most comforting meal (in this dream world, my meals would already be magically made), and watch a movie or my favorite shows all night without worrying about school, work, my to-do list, or any responsibilities. In short, these cold, dark nights make me downright lazy. Does anyone else feel this way?

Stuffed Chicken Meatballs

Looking for a quick, comforting, and delicious dinner? These Stuffed Chicken Meatballs fit that bill!

Buffalo Chicken Chili

Happy Monday! If you are anything like me, you see Monday's as only being good for a few things: feeling accomplished that you made it through the first day of the week alive, getting back in the gym to work off those sneaky calories that always seem to pile up on weekends, watching Monday night football and eating/drinking some of those calories that you just burned off at the gym (all while sulking because you wish the NHL lockout would hurry up and be over so you could flip back and forth between football and hockey), and being twenty-four hours closer to the weekend. Hate to say it, but Mondays you are not my favorite.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas (and FPP Reveal!)

Today is a big day for a few different reasons. First, this is my 100th entry on Cooking to Perfection! It seems like I've been blogging forever and just started yesterday all at the same time. This whole experience has opened so many doors, has been a great opportunity to learn many new things, and has been much more gratifying than I ever expected. I cannot wait to see what happens and what new things I'll learn come post number 200 or 500!

{Check out my new button! If you want one for your blog just because it's that pretty, scroll down and look on the right side menu to get the code.}

Mango Yogurt Chicken

Welcome to Day 4 of Greek Week and my first savory recipe using Chobani yogurt. As I've mentioned in the previous Greek Week posts, I used my Chobani giveaway win to challenge myself to create new recipes that use yogurt as a key ingredient. In addition to this challenge, I was also determined to find an easy and delicious dinner recipe that utilized one of Chobani's amazing products.

Summer Vegetables and Sausage

Does anyone else feel like it's already fall? I realize that technically fall does not start until September 22 this year, but I always associate the end of summer with Labor Day. (And yes...I know the exact date because I'm trying realllllllllllly hard to refrain from making anything with pumpkin until it's officially autumn.) To remind myself that we still have a few more weeks of summer left, I decided to embrace the fresh produce that will soon be limited in the cooler months. So on my last trip to the grocery store, I grabbed just about every fresh vegetable and fruit available.

Healthy Chicken Parm Patties

It's almost Labor Day weekend!! Yesssss. A long weekend could not have come at a better time; work has been a little crazy, my first class in a graduate certificate program is tonight, and I have a massive to-do list that keeps growing by the day. Needless to say, my life has been a bit hectic this week, so finding a new, quick, and easy dinner to try was a necessity.

The Best Marinated No Marinate Chicken

This recipe is a winner, hands down. With a prep time of less than 5 minutes, this no marinate chicken is full of flavor, can be used in salads or pasta dishes, can be served hot or cold, and makes great leftovers.