Crock Pot: Day 14 ~ Chicken & Green Chiles over rice

So I was perusing Facebook the other day and a friend posted that she was going to throw something in the crock pot. Someone responding asking her what she was making on that snowy day. She replied with a recipe and then I snagged it, modified it to the way I cook and voila...new recipe.

Chicken & Green Chiles over Rice

Ingredients:
2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup
3 c of Chicken broth
10 Garlic cloves pressed
1 Onion chopped
1 can of Green Chiles
2 boneless, skinless Chicken breast
Salt & Pepper to taste
Flour & Milk (to thicken)

Cast of Characters

Put all the ingredients in the crock pot (except for flour & milk) on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

30 minutes prior to serving, remove chicken breast and put it on a cutting board. Whisk equal parts milk & flour (I did 4 tbsp of each) until smooth. Pour slowly and stir into crock pot. Shred chicken and return it to the crock pot to cook for the final 30 minutes.

After the chicken is shredded 

Serve over rice.

Dinner

Crock Pot: Day 13 ~ Beef Stroganoff

I got inspiration for this recipe, Beef Stroganoff, from the Tastefully Simple website. I've never made beef stroganoff. Though I love cooking, this is just one thing I've never made our family. This is a new recipe as well as a crock pot delight.


Ingredients:
-6 Garlic Cloves minced
-1 Tbsp. Tastefully Simple Spinach & Herb Dip Mix
-2 lbs. cubed beef stew meat
-1 Chopped medium onion
-1 Package sliced mushrooms
-2 c beef broth
-2 Tbsp. Flour
-2 Tbsp. cold water
-8 oz. chive and onion cream cheese spread
-Prepared hot egg noodles

Cast of Characters

Combine garlic, Spinach & Herb Dip Mix, beef stew meat, onion, mushrooms and beef broth in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. 


Combine flour and cold water; stir until smooth. Whisk mixture into crock pot until thickened about 30 mins to an hour before serving. 


Add cream cheese 30 minutes before serving and stir until blended. 


Serve over hot noodles.

Yum

Okay, so the kids and I loved this...hubby not so much (which explains why I've never made it). So though it's a great recipe, I'll probably won't put it into our regular rotation...

Crock Pot: Day 12 ~ Salmon & Green Beans

I found this recipe idea from the blog Crock Pot 365.

This was not a total success for us but we thought of ways to improve it.

Totally new recipe as well as a new technic. I've never tried to make fish in a crock pot. I did a lot of research online before I attempted this. I would not recommend this for those new to crock pot cooking.

Ingredients:

-Salmon
-Green Beans
Sauce:
-1/2 c Soy Sauce
-1/2 c Tastefully Simple Pomegranate Chipolte Sauce (link to purchase this item) *this is a new sauce for me to try.
-1/4 c Lemon Juice

I got this at Sam's Club

1 Package of fresh green beans also from Sam's Club

Place beans in the bottom of the crock. Place salmon on top of the beans. Pour sauce over the salmon and green beans.

I used 5 Salmon filets and had to layer them.

Cook on low for 2-3 hours.

All cooked up nicely.

I served this with garlic mashed potatoes that I seasoned with salt, pepper, Tastefully Simple Onion Onion and Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon.

Dinner was a hit!

I used frozen salmon. It really needed to be thawed before cooking so it took much longer for it to cook. When the salmon was finally cooked, the green beans weren't cooked enough for our family so I cooked them in the microwave with the sauce. (I never microwave food so this was a bit disappointing.)

The family loved this meal and I will make it again with a few changes. I will probably start the beans with the half of the sauce and cook them a couple hours longer on low before adding the thawed salmon and the other half of the sauce to the crock. It was fun trying something new in the crock pot.

Crock Pot: Day 11 ~ Chicken & Potatoes

Chicken & Potatoes

This is a new recipe but I just made it up. It turned out great. The chicken was really soft and tender and the potatoes had a great favor.

-2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (this was enough for our family of 6)
-Potatoes (1 per person plus 1...for our family of 6 I used 7 potatoes)
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic Pepper
-Basil
-Thyme
-Rosemary
-Oregano
-Olive Oil

Cast of Characters

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of the crock pot, coating the sides and bottom. Slice the potatoes about 1/2 inch thick and toss into the crock pot. In a small bowl, mix a heaping tsp of each of the spices. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and toss 1/2 the spice mix over the potatoes & mix. Use the other 1/2 of the spice mix to toss over the Chicken. (My chicken breasts were frozen so I used a little oil to make the spices stick). Place Chicken on top of the potatoes.

Sliced Potatoes

 Turn crock pot on low for 5-6 hours. Occasionally check to make sure the potatoes are not sticking to the sides or bottom of the crock. Remove chicken and slice.

Hubby thought I should take a picture with his Irish beer being this was meat & potatoes.

Tonight we served this with green beans cooked with Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon (link to purchase this item) & a pad of butter as well as fresh homemade bread.

Yummmmmm

Crock Pot: Day 10 ~ Teriyaki Beef Stew

Okay this is a new recipe as well. It turned out great.

Ingredients:
-4-5 Celery Stalks (including the leafy tops)
-3 Carrots
-1 Onion
-8 Garlic Cloves
-1 package Sliced Mushrooms
-2 c Broccoli
-2 lbs Stew Meat
-1/4 c Flour
-Salt
-Pepper
-2 c Beef Broth
-3/4 c Teriyaki
-1 tbsp Sriracha (doesn't make is spicy just gives it a nice full flavor)
-Rice

Put the beef in the crock pot on low.

Beef in the Crock Pot

 In a small mixing bowl, mix flour, salt & pepper and then throw the mixture over the beef in the crock pot and stir it coating the beef.

Flour, salt & Pepper coating the beef

 Cut up the veggies (I cut them all on the bias...a diagonal cut) and throw them in the crock pot (with exception of the broccoli).

The Veggies

Stir the beef broth, teriyaki & sriracha together and pour over the beef and veggies. Cook for about 6 hours on low stir on occasion. 30 minutes before serving, throw the cut up broccoli florets in the crock pot. The nice thing about a crock pot is if hubby works late (like he did tonight) it will still be yummy at the 8 hour mark. Serve over rice!

So yummy!

Crock Pot: Day 9 ~ Nacho Meat

This meat can be used for tacos or nachos. Tonight, we did build your own nachos. It was a big hit. The kiddos liked the idea that they were making their own dinner.

Ingredients:
-1 lb Ground Beef
-1 can Rotel
-1 tbs Tastefully Simple Onion Onion
-1 tbs Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic
-3 tbs Taco Seasoning
-3 c Water

Throw it all in the crock on low for 4-6 hours. You don't need to cook the beef in advance, in fact you can put it in frozen (if you do, you'll need to put it on high and check it after an hour).

Meat all seasoned

Kiddo 1's nacho's

Kiddo 2's nachos

Kiddo 3's nachos

My nachos

Crock Pot: Day 8 ~ White Chili

I love this recipe! This is a family favorite in my house. This is a chicken white chili. I've done a white chili before but this is a new twist on an old favorite using a new spice (Tastefully Simple Wahoo Chili).

Ingredients:
-2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
-2 cans of Garbanzo Beans
-2 cans of Diced Green Chili
-1 qt Chicken Broth
-8 Garlic Cloves Minced
-1 Onion Diced
-1 tsp Cayenne
-1 tsp Cumin
-1 tsp Chili Powder
-1 tbs Tastefully Simple Wahoo Chili (Link to purchase spice...only available till 3.11.12)
-16 oz Sour Cream
-8 oz Whipping Cream

Cast of Characters

Throw all the ingredients (with exception of Sour Cream & Whipping Cream) into the crock pot on low for 6-7 hours.

Throw it all in the Crock Pot

After the chicken is cooked, remove it from the crock pot. Add the sour cream and the whipping cream. Shred the chicken and throw it back into the crock pot. Cook for another 30 minutes and serve.

Yum!

Sometimes we serve this with grated cheese and sour cream. It is not very spicy...my kiddo that can't handle spice eat it all up. The others in the family have to add chili oil to spice it up. It is a nice and hardy dinner.

Crock Pot: Day 7 ~ Butternut Squash Soup

This is a crock pot recipe and a new recipe. I once again looked at several food blogs and then just went with my instincts. This was an easy recipe and a wonderful crowd pleaser. I made it for my family and then again for our life group.

Ingredients:
-3 lbs. Butternut Squash
-8 Cloves Garlic
-1 qt Chicken Broth
-8 oz of Cream Cheese
-1 c Whipping Cream
-Salt
-Pepper
-Parmasen Cheese (for garnish)

I found this pre-cut Butternut Squash at Sam's Club. It made this REALLY easy.

I put the squash, garlic cloves, salt, pepper and a quart of chicken broth in the crock pot on low for 5 hours.

Squash straight out of the package...all cut up & skinned!

After the squash is tender, I spooned it out with a slotted spoon into my food processor. Processed the squash & garlic. Pour the squash back into the crock pot with the brick of cream cheese & turn crock pot on high. Occasionally stir the soup till the cream cheese is completely melted. Stir in whipping cream. Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

So yummy!

This was a wonderful dish. I tasted along the way and salted and peppered to taste.

Crock Pot: Day 6 ~ "Stir Fry"

"Stir Fry" in the crock pot isn't really stir fry but it was really good. I checked out a few other food blogs to see what people did to make "stir fry" in the crock pot and then used my own recipe. I used this blog's "Stir Fry" recipe as an inspiration. Therefore this is one I am considering a new recipe.

Ingredients:
-1 Red Bell Pepper
-1 Orange Bell Pepper
-1 Yellow Bell Pepper
-1 Onion
-6 Garlic Cloves
-1 8 oz Package of Sliced Mushrooms
-3 cups of Broccoli Florets
-3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Cast of characters

Dice the raw chicken and throw into the crock pot. Mince garlic and throw into the crock pot. Dice all the veggies and throw into the crock pot (hold back the broccoli). Turn on low for 6-8 hours.

Look how beautiful the peppers are!

More veggies

The Sauce:
-2 c Water
-1 c Soy Sauce
-1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
-4 tbs White Vinegar
-2 tbs sriracha sauce
-2 tbs Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic (Link to purchase this spice)
-4-5 drops of sesame oil
-2 tbs Flour

Pour the sauce over the chicken and veggies.

Whisk the sauce

Add the broccoli 30 minutes before ready to serve.

Add the broccoli at the end

Serve the wonderful "stir fry" over rice.

Served over sticky rice

This dish had a wonderful flavor. Usually when I make stir fry, I marinate the chicken for 24 hours. Doing this dish in the crock pot, there was no need for that. The meat was flavorful and tender. The family loved it!

Crock Pot: Day 5 ~ Chili

This is another easy crock pot dinner. I made an all meat chili to be served over homemade mac 'n' cheese (or rather pasta & cheese being I am using ziti today) for a wonderful chili mac dinner.

The ingredients:

-2 lbs ground beef (or another ground meat)
-Rotel (I use 1 can per pound of beef, so 2 today)
-Tastefully Simple Wahoo! Chili (link to purchase this spice...only available till 3.11.12)
-Tastefully Simple Onion Onion (link to purchase this spice)
-Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic (link to purchase this spice)
-seasonings

The spices

Put beef in the crock pot and turn it on high and brown meat in the bottom of the crock pot, stirring occasionally to get all the meat cooked equally. I am using frozen beef so it will take about 2 hours.

Beef in the crock pot with the spices

After the beef it browned turn crock pot to low and add Rotel, garlic, onion and seasonings. For today's chili, the seasonings I am using are: chili powder, Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic, Tastefully Simple Onion Onion and Tastefully Simple's Wahoo Chili seasoning. This is my first time using Wahoo Chili seasoning and it was a wonderful blend of savory seasonings.

This all meat chili is a wonderful topping on pasta and cheese.

I also roasted some broccoli in the oven as a topper to the meal. Roasted broccoli is a family favorite in our house.

To make roasted broccoli:

You need:
-Olive Oil

-Kosher Salt

-Broccoli Florets

Roasted Broccoli

Break up the broccoli in small bits (the smaller the better) onto a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt over the broccoli and toss (I use my hands). Pop into the oven at 325˚ for 40-50 minutes or until the broccoli browns and crisps. Serve on top of the pasta and chili.

Broken up broccoli on the cookie sheet

Dinner...cheesy pasta, meat chili and roasted broccoli

Crock Pot: Day 4 ~ Broccoli Cheese Soup

I have not found another recipe done this way, this is just how I do it. It turned out so good and was such a family favorite that they have not stopped asking for me to make it again. I thought this would be the perfect time to make it again.

The ingredients:
-1/4 lb of Butter (1 stick)
-1 Onion (I used yellow)
-1/2 c Flour
-1 tbsp Salt
-1 tbsp Pepper
-A pinch Nutmeg
-Broccoli (I use 1/2 or so of the bag I buy from Sam's Club which is a 3 lb bag so about 1-2 lbs of broccoli)
-1 qt Heavy Whipping Cream (can use 1/2 & 1/2)
-2 c Milk
-3 c grated cheese (today I'm using Irish Dubliner, Cheddar & Parmesan. I don't use equal parts. I used mostly Dubliner today)

Cast of yumminess

*Remember, I'm a cook so I don't really measure. These are all approximates. I'm trying to see about how much I use along the way so that you can follow my "recipe".

Saute onions in butter until they are translucent.

Don't be scared to use this much butter...it will make the roux.

Then add about 1/3 cup of flour to the butter and onions to make a roux. Cook for 1 mins or so and then add to the crock pot.

Add heavy whipping cream and milk and stir.

Chop broccoli finely (I don't blend my soup but I don't like it really chunky so I chop my broccoli) and add to the crock pot.

Chopped up broccoli.

 Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Cook on high for 4-6 hours.

20-30 minutes before serving, add cheese.

Serve.

YUMMY Soup

Tonight we ate it with steak and served it with crusty bread and Roasted Garlic Infused Oil (link to purchase this...only available till 3.11.12) and Tuscany Bread Dipping Mix (link to purchase this...only available till 3.11.12) Seasoning from Tastefully Simple but we've eaten it as a meal by itself. It's a nice hardy soup and a crowd pleaser in our house. What's especially great is there is enough soup leftover that I won't need to cook tomorrow.

I think everyone was saying "Mmmm" the entire dinner. Steak cooked to perfection by hubby.

Crock Pot: Day 3 ~ Meatloaf

So I did a little research online and found several recipes for meatloaf in the crock pot. The only thing I took from them was the amount of time AND I needed to spray my crock pot with cooking spray. Other than that I just used my meatloaf recipe.

If you don't have a meatloaf recipe, here's mine. If you do, make your meatloaf. Put it in your crock pot that has been sprayed with cooking spray for 6-8 hours on low. It seems that the reviews I read said that it is best to not put the meat loaf right against the sides of the stone (I made my loaf in the bottom & then put my hands around the side and smashed it towards the middle).

*This recipe is some of my mom's and some of one she and I found years ago and some of just being a cook and trying things out. It has morphed over the years and I don't always make it the same.

Here's what you need:
1.5 lbs (or so will feed our family of 6) of ground beef (I use 90/10 you don't want too lean or too fatty)
1 onion (color doesn't matter, I used yellow)
7 (or so) cloves of garlic (don't be afraid to use this much garlic)
2 eggs
1 can of tomato paste
2-3 tbsp of bacon bits (I use Tastefully Simple's Bacon Bacon (link to purchase this spice)- you can use real bacon but I have a pork allergy so we use fake stuff. If you use the real stuff you need to cook it in advance)
Salt (maybe a tbsp or so)
Pepper (also maybe a tbsp or so)
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Bread Crumbs
Cheese (either graded or shredded-I used provolone leftover from yesterday's Italian Roast sandwiches)
1 can of french cut green beans (I think french cut & canned work best for this recipe)

I'm getting better about getting all the ingredients out at the beginning.

Put the ground beef in a large mixing bowl.

Finely chop garlic and onion. I used my mini chopper to do this (mostly because you get a great small chop with it and my slap chopper broke last year and I never got around to replacing it).

Finely chopped garlic.

I only put in 1/4 of the onion at a time in my mini chopper.

Mix the eggs, tomato paste, bacon bits, salt & pepper in a small bowl.

Tomato mixture.

Put tomato mixture, garlic and onion in with the ground beef. Here's for the gross part (at least for me)...get in there and mix it all up with your HANDS. There's no better way to do it.

Once it is well mixed, I add about a cup or so of bread crumbs. You want to "dry" it out a bit but you don't want to mixture to be so dry it crumbles. If you add too much bread crumbs, throw in a tbsp of milk. (I promise it is okay to put milk in your meatloaf). I usually add a little bread crumbs at a time till I get it right. This is one of those moments where I am a cook and don't really know how to do that whole measuring thing!

Split the meat in half and put half down in the bottom of the greased crock pot. Make the meat into a "bowl" shape.

Meat "bowl" in the bottom of the crock pot.

Put a layer of cheese in the "bowl" (if using sliced 3-4 pieces).

3 pieces of provolone in the meat "bowl"

Put in the can of green beans (make sure you drain them first).

1 can of french cut green beans on top of the cheese.

Put on more cheese (I used 3 slices on the bottom and 4 on the top).

Another layer of cheese.

Put the rest of the meat on top, making sure you seal the layers together to the cheese does not stick out. Sprinkle the top of the meat with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder (it is kind of like a meat rub on top).

Top coated with spices.

Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.

It is meatloaf but it is like a casserole with the beans & cheese.

*Optional variations:
Dice up bell pepper for the meat mixture
Put bacon on top
Put ketchup on top
Put Soy Sauce in the mixture
Put Worcestershire sauce in the mixture
Make it mexican style with Rotel, taco season, corn in the center and mexican cheese.