Boys of Bean Town Stew

A couple months ago I went to see New Kids on the Block with my sisters and some friends. I gotta say, after 20 or so years, they still have it!! I wanted to swing from the rafters to get to Jordan Knight. Oooh wee!

In honor of those awesome boys from Boston, I renamed one of my favorite recipes Boys of Beantown Stew. This recipe is actually called New England Baked Bean Stew, and little sister made it for me one night when I was staying with her and her family. I put the original recipe on Pinterest, but when I make this recipe I usually just use it as a loose recommendation.

This is my go-to for last minute easy dinners because I always have the ingredients on hand. I make it for guests, and have yet to meet someone who does not like it. I even made it for my picky eater vegetarian friend Brandon, and he ate the whole pan!

To make it, chop up an onion, green pepper, and a kielbasa. Saute them on the stove, and when the onions become translucent, stir in two cans of diced tomatoes (juice and all), a can of rinsed Great North Beans, a can of rinsed Kidney Beans, and ¼ cup brown sugar. Let that simmer for a while until everything gets nice and mixed together. 

That is it! It is so easy and off the charts delicious! Enjoy!

Hawaiian Chicken

Monday Monday, Can’t trust that day…
Why do Mondays get such a bad reputation? I personally love Mondays; it is my favorite day of the week. I love Monday especially for two main reasons: 1 – everyone at work is scrambling to catch up on stuff from the weekend so it is fairly relaxed for me, and 2 – I usually spend the evening with my favorite friend Heather.
A few months ago we agreed to start what we call, “The New Monday,” where we go to each other’s houses for dinner and TV instead of out to a restaurant. That worked really well during The Following but eventually we fell back into, “The Old Monday.”
Not this week! I invited Heather over for dinner on Sunday for Monday so I would have zero excuses for not being ready for her to come. The question was: what to cook? Heather is always willing to try whatever kooky concoction I whip up and give good feedback for it, but on this Monday I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. A quick look in the fridge revealed some chicken I needed to cook and I just took it from there. 
Hello Hawaiian Chicken! I had a pin on Pinterest for Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken, but after reading some reviews the recipe seemed to be a dud. I decided to build my own around the basic ingredients of the whack Pinterest recipe. {My original plan was to make Hawaiian Chicken Salad, but dropped a piece of chicken in the chopped shallot I was planning on using in the dressing, so the salad was clearly out.}
This whole recipe took about 20 minutes from start to finish, including prep time and it was so good we both went back for seconds! Because Heather is not a big fan of soy sauce, I kept it to minimal amounts and added more brown sugar instead… that’s a taste upgrade if you ask me!

If you want to try it, click here for the recipe!