Easy crockpot Hawaiian chicken

This is a "set and forget" type of meal, perfect for a busy day (or a lazy one).  The end result is a sweet and savory dish, delicious served over white or brown rice, maybe with some broccoli (or broccolini) on the side.

Ingredients
3-5 boneless chicken breasts
1 cup diced pineapple
2 cups chopped red and/or green peppers
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups of honey barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle)
3 tablespoons honey
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 diced jalapeno pepper (optional)

Salt and pepper

Directions

A note on the jalapeno pepper: if you want *some* heat, you should stem, seed, and remove the ribs from the pepper because it reduces the heat. If you like it hot, just stem the pepper prior to dicing.

 
1)  Generously salt and pepper both sides of chicken.

2)  Put all the ingredients in the crockpot and stir well.

3)  Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours.
4)  Serve over a bed of rice.

Adapted from RecipeZaar.

Last night I had the strangest dream...

Obviously the Fat Tuesday pub crawl was fresh in my mind, because a group of us were going from bar to bar.  At each place, two guys would come in, one with a knife, and poke or cut one of us in the back of the neck.  We'd try to tell the guy to take it easy, what's the problem, we can work out whatever the problem was, but no, he'd kill the person as soon as we tried talking to him.  

This happened at three or four different places, then our group started making quick exits from places as soon as we saw these two appear.  They did not target any other groups, just ours.  It was like we couldn't get away from them, and we couldn't avoid them killing one of us.

There was a whole other part to the dream where these two guys were in one of our houses, but I barely remember that part except for that someone's dad was killed.

WTF?  I didn't like it.  I know dreams are supposedly our minds working through things, but ... huh?  This was just too weird, gruesome and scary.

I'm dedicating this post to Sarah Frances Herring and her parents, Kristi and Brandon.  At only 23 weeks, Kristi was diagnosed with pPROM and with almost no amniotic fluid.  She was hospitalized with no progression toward labor for 31 days...and then her placenta began to separate from the uterine wall.  On July 21, at 27 weeks and 3 days (remember a full term pregnancy is 39 weeks), Sarah was born.

By all measures, Sarah is a miracle.  She succeeded at every step (with a few setbacks along the way) with  (literally) hundreds of people following her story and praying for her continued growth.  At 109 days old, Sarah was sent home with mom and dad!

Kristi and Brandon's friends, family and followers continue to keep up with Sarah's story and wish the family well on their journey. Please read more of Sarah's story here on my friend Kristi's blog.

Alright, so I guess I'm going to do this.  More as a journal for my crazy mind than for your entertainment, though the two may wind up going hand-in-hand at times.

Just a warning that this is going to be filled with the random shit I think of while I'm lying awake in bed at 2am and my mind is racing.  And then because I am some sort of freak, I get to a point where I (need) to trace back and figure out how I got to my current thought from where I started.  You thought I was kidding when I said I have a crazy mind?  I don't make this shit up.

PS, don't let your kids read this over your shoulder.  I swear like a sailor.

Which brings me to another point.  Why does every mom start a blog as soon as she has a kid?  I don't get it.  Didn't you have anything to say about anything before you had a kid?  No offense meant to my mommy friends out there; this is just an observation.

While I'm being random, let's discuss the fact that at 33-years old I am finally employed in a job I enjoy, doing something I believe in, working with people I like, close to home, and having a blast doing it.  For the last 12 or so years (fuck, I am old!) I've been kind of wandering around "doing stuff" as it presented itself, making money, going to work everyday, but so.not.happy.  Always good at my jobs but never happy or fulfilled or challenged or even excited by the work.  But now I am.  I am so excited to go to work everyday because I truly have no idea what the day will bring but I know I will laugh, I will help people, and I will accomplish at least one thing I am proud of.  Undoubtedly you will be regaled with many stories of the people who turn up when we turn on the "crazy magnet".  More on that later!

OK - that is enough mental spew for one post.  My first real post!

Later gaters.