Meals as a Mrs. ~ Honey Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken

The other night a friend from college, her husband, their adorable 13 month old son (Henry), and their dog (Gadget) stopped by for dinner as they traveled from Pennsylvania to Cincinnati.  It turns out we were nowhere near along the way but they took a detour to dine with us.  The night went by way too quickly but we enjoyed the fellowship and laughs.  Gadget was a hoot, especially watching him climb the stairs from the basement to the first floor.  Henry had the cutest expressions and it's always good catching up with Kelley and Christopher!

Not only was this dinner and visit occurring on the one month anniversary of our wedding date but this family was also the first dinner guests we entertained since tying the knot so I wanted to prepare something extra special!  It's not every night that we can say we had our first dinner guests over as husband and wife.  ; )  I chose to set the table using our wedding colors of light green, purple, and a splash of hot pink.  However, last week was a busy one with also volunteering to teach arts and crafts at Vacation Bible School from 8:30 - 12:30pm each day so when planning for the dinner, I knew I would need something relatively quick and easy.  Out came the crock pot and a note asking Adam to place the chicken and sauce I had prepared the night before into the slow cooker around 10:30am that morning.  With a cook time of six hours, dinner would be ready right on time.

The recipe I selected was Honey Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs.  You can find the recipe here.  As usual, I made some tweaks along the way.  We had chicken breasts in the freezer so I opted to make Honey Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts instead...haha.  Also, since four adults (and one baby) were planning to eat, I added six pieces of meat rather than the four as called for on the recipe.  Therefore, I increased each ingredient slightly to adjust for the increased meat.  The result was a savory flavorful chicken dish that was served with a Caesar salad, sweet corn, mashed potatoes, and buttered potato rolls. 

For dessert, we served one of Adam's specialties:  Chocolate Creme Dessert Pie!  However, after sinking our teeth into the first bite, we realized that we had forgotten to bake the crust so we improvised and enjoyed the creamy chocolate pudding made from scratch topped with the homemade whipped topping garnished with chocolate shavings that was oh so delicious!!  I can't access the cookbook right now as our kitchen wallpaper is currently being removed (HIP HIP HOORAY!!) but here is a similar dessert pie recipe I found online if you would like to try your hand at the dessert.  Just remember to bake the pie crust!  ; )