Coconut Shrimp, Cherry Ice Cream and Crockpot Apricot Chicken

I'll get back to my regular decor posts soon, I promise. I did a little streamlining and removed things, donated stuff and simplified everything. I'll share pics soon. (It's so much easier to dust now!) It's too many pics for one post, so I split it up into two. I'm sharing a few sneak peeks on instagram if you want to follow along @texasdecor

So anyway, I don't mean to keep tempting y'all with food, but here I go again. :) 

I've mentioned HEB's Meal Simple deals before and how much we love them. Basically it's a little meal all packaged up and ready to pop in the oven. They have steak, chicken, salmon, shrimp, meatloaf, stuffed mushrooms and a whole slew of other options. They come in an oven proof container and all you do is peel off the plastic and bake. So convenient. P.S. We've also gotten their made-in-store pizzas and they're equally good. 

This time around, we got the coconut shrimp and it was SO good!

The only problem was that I wanted tarter sauce and we were out. Usually I don't want tarter sauce on coconut chicken, but this time, I did. So I made my own. Are you impressed? Ha ha! I googled the recipe and had no idea it was so easy. I started with a basic recipe, then added my own twist. Here's what I came up with.

Lisa's Homemade Tarter Sauce Recipe

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup chopped pickles

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Dash of salt and pepper

1/2 tablespoon pickle juice

3 tablespoons chopped onion

1/2 tablespoon sriracha (optional)

Mix everything together and enjoy!

It was really good and I know I'll make it again. I did a separate batch at the last minute and added the sriracha we liked it that way too. I served the coconut shrimp with sweet potato fries and they were delicious dipped in the tarter sauce. 

For dessert, we had this...

Do you have Blue Bunny ice cream where you live? This cherrific cheesecake was divine! 

My aunt has been giving me the best crockpot recipes lately. I've made her raspberry sriracha pork chops and her honey garlic chicken and they were both really good, but this apricot chicken is my favorite...

I altered the recipe a bit because it originally had Catalina dressing in it, which I love, but some people around here don't like it, so I omitted it. Here's the recipe: 

Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken:

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 jar apricot preserves

1 packet Lipton onion soup mix

salt and pepper

garlic powder (not in the original recipe, but we love it)

1 cup Catalina dressing (like I said, we omitted this, but I bet it's good)

Place chicken in crockpot and sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix up onion soup mix and apricot preserves (and Catalina if you're using it) and pour over chicken and cook on low 6 hours. 

I'm telling you, my house smelled so good that I'm tempted to make this once a week, just for the smell alone! It was so good too. Tasty and full of flavor. Up until a few weeks ago, I'd never made anything with chicken thighs, but I'm now a fan. 

That's all for now. Y'all have a great day and be sure to check back for my new streamlined look. 

~Lisa