Slow Cooker Chicken Rice Soup (non-cream)

Here I am, yet again, posting a soup that I love!  This is a soup I made sort of off-the-cuff, but it was delicious and the entire family gobbled it up.  I make a tasty cream of chicken rice soup and used that as the base for this non-cream soup.  You can play with it a little, adding or deleting veggies and/or seasonings that you prefer in your soup, but this is a great, basic soup for a chilly day.  (I tend to go a little overboard with veggies when I make soup; I always add more than it calls for.)  I also doubled this (other than the chicken; I just used 3 breasts) to maximize the use of my big crock pot.

Chicken Rice Soup

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts (I used 3 frozen.)

4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 package of Rice-a-Roni long grain and wild rice 
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper

1 Sazon Goya seasoning packet (see pic below, can be found in ethnic/Hispanic food section)
1 cup carrots, grated, diced, or chopped
1 cup celery, grated, chopped, or thinly sliced

Dump all ingredients into Crockpot. 

Cook on Low for 6 hours or High for 4 hours. 

Remove chicken from Crockpot and shred. 

Add chicken back to Crockpot. 

Let everything cook about 30 more minutes in Crockpot.

Serve.

(I’m Italian so I always sprinkle a little grated Parmesan cheese on my bowl of soup. Plus, everything is better with a little cheese, ya know. J )

Good 'ol Chili

Good ‘ol Chili

It's that time of year when you warm up with a cozy sweater and bowl of chili.  This is one of Joe's favorite chili recipes that he got from a co-worker several years back. We continue to make it a few times each fall/winter.  It makes a good amount and has lots of great flavor.

Ingredients

2 ½ lbs. ground beef (We usually use 1.5-2 lbs. only.)

28 oz. can Hunts diced tomatoes

15oz. can Bush’s chili beans

15oz. can Hunts seasoned, diced tomato for Chili (This can be difficult to find.)

20 oz. +/- Campbells Tomato Soup

15 oz. can kidney beans

1 pkg. McCormick mild chili seasoning (or hot)

½-1 bell pepper, chopped 

1 med. Onion, chopped

1 small jar jalapeno peppers (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Brown ground beef, drain, then add everything together.

Simmer on stove for 1-2 hours OR all night in crock pot. (I typically cook it in the crock pot on low for 8ish hours.)

Now, if you are an Aldi shopper, you can find most of these ingredients there, which will save you some money on ingredients.  If you don't see them in the regular canned foods aisle, check the aisle that has promotional food items.  Usually I can find the chili beans, seasoned diced tomatoes, etc. in one of those two places. 

Chicken Spaghetti

I was given this slow cooker recipe by my friend Holly and it was simple and delicious; even our 3 year old ate it!  It smells so good while cooking and it so easy to make in the afternoon.  

Chicken Spaghetti

2 chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 bag frozen bell pepper/onion/celery blend (Her orig. recipe called for pepper/onion but I couldn't find it at the store.)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper
3 cups cheddar cheese (separated 1 cup and 2 cups)
12 oz cooked spaghetti

Cook everything except 2 cups of cheddar and the uncooked spaghetti in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Take out the chicken and shred it. Return it to sauce and add the other 2 cups of cheddar and the cooked spaghetti. Cook for 15-20 more minutes on low. That's it!

I think this might also be good with a can of peas/cooked frozen peas mixed in during the last few minutes, too.

Sorry for the bad picture.  I didn't remember to take a picture until after we were done eating dinner.

Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken

You should know by now that I’m a HUGE slow cooker fan.  You can thank John Shaffer and Stephanie O’Dea for getting me hooked!  John is a guy we know from church.  While riding to a praise team practice together, Joe, John, and I got to talking about slow cooking.  In that conversation he recommended O’Dea’sbooks Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.  I quickly purchased Volumes I & II from alibris for a great price.  I’ve made countless recipes from these books.

This recipe is a mixture of O’Dea’s “Lazy Chicken” and a BBQ chicken recipe I found while doing a Pinterest search.  We were craving some Shane’s Rib Shack chicken, but I wanted to try and make something similar at home.  Behold, this had a lot of the same flavors and was super simple to prepare.  We loved this dinner (even the 3 year old) and will definitely be making it again!  I served it with baked potatoes and green beans.

As prepared, this made 4-6 sandwiches. This recipe can easily be doubled.  

Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken

3 large frozen chicken breasts

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 cup BBQ sauce of your choice, plus more to put on finished sandwich

¼ cup Italian Salad Dressing (I used Kraft Zesty Italian)

¼ cup brown sugar (unpacked)

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Place frozen chicken breasts in slow cooker.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken in crock.

In medium bowl mix all other ingredients.  Wisk for a minute to make sure all brown sugar is well incorporated. Pour over chicken.

Cover.  Cook 3-4 hours in high or 6-8 hours on low.
About a half hour before serving, take chicken out and shred.  Put back in crock and stir with the sauce at bottom of crock.  Cover and let everything cook together for a half hour longer.

Breakfast Bake

Although I haven't had a chance to write a lot lately, I've actually tried several new recipes that I've been wanting to post!  Hopefully I can get updated with that in the next week or so.  Today I'm going to post a super-simple breakfast bake we made for a Saturday morning breakfast.  This was kid-approved by our 2 year old and so easy that we'll definitely make it again.  It would also be great for a potluck or brunch!  

Easy Breakfast Bake

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk

16 oz refrigerated breakfast biscuits (I used the Buttermilk Grands.)

4 scallions or green onions, chopped small
1 onion, chopped (This is optional although I use it.)

1-1 1/2 cups shredded extra sharp Cheddar Cheese or Colby Jack cheese* (I used 1 1/2 cups of Colby Jack.)

Your choice of meat, optional (I used a precooked, diced bag of ham.)

9×13 baking dish prepared with cooking spray

Directions:

1. Mix your eggs and milk in a large bowl.  Cut each biscuit into fours and add it to the bowl.  Let the biscuits sit in this bowl while preparing the rest of the ingredients to give it a chance to soak up the eggs.

2.  Add everything else to the bowl with eggs and biscuits.  Mix so the egg coats all ingredients.

3. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Just make sure it isn't runny.

*You can use pre-shredded cheese, but if you shred yourself it melts much better and blends together well.  I always try to shred myself when making this dish.

I made a few changes to the original recipe found here.

Tailgate Dip

I found this dip on Pinterest a while back, and it’s been my go-to party dip ever since.  It’s extremely easy and great to feed a large group.  I have served it with Ritz crackers, Wheat Thins, pretzels, tortilla chips, carrots, celery.  If you make it a few hours ahead of time, the tastes blend together even better!

Tailgate Dip

1 red pepper

2 jalapenos, unseeded (optional)

1 can of corn (drained)

½  can diced olives (I find it much cheaper to buy a can of regular olives and chop them in my mini-food processor.  Sometimes I'll put the whole can in the dip, too!)

 16 oz cream cheese (softened)

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dip seasoning

Mix all ingredients. Serve with crackers. Delicious!

My thoughts:  I think it might be good with something like black beans, too, Or you could change it up and add spices or swap out the Ranch packet.  Lots of possibilities!

Tortellini Chicken Soup with Black Beans

Here’s another slow cooker soup I threw together yesterday.  I had most of the ingredients in the pantry, so it was something pretty quick and easy to put together.  This was one of those soups that you can just toss in a can of this or a cup of that if you have something you want to use up.

Tortellini Chicken Soup with Black Beans

Ingredients

1 can black beans

I can Rotel (I used Aldi brand.)

1 Can Mexicorn (I used Aldi brand.)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 onion, chopped or diced

1 small green pepper, chopped or diced

1 small red pepper, chopped or diced

2 32oz. chicken broth or stock

1 Ranch packet

3 Tbsp. garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. garlic salt (I added this about ½ hour before serving.  Add as much or as little as you like.)

1-2 Cups chicken breast, diced or shredded (I used 2 chicken breasts.)

1 bag frozen tortellini
Parmesan Cheese to sprinkle on top, if desired

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker except the tortellini.  Add the frozen tortellini to the soup about 30 minutes before serving.  In this final step, you basically just cook the soup until the tortellini is heated through.  Top each bowl with Parmesan cheese, if desired.  Enjoy!

I love simple recipes.  I really love simple slow cooker recipes.   

Slow Cooker Caribbean Jerk Chicken

Slow Cooker Caribbean Jerk Chicken

I wanted to use this new McCormick Caribbean Jerk Seasoning in a slow cooker recipe. I put together the following recipe and it was delicious! My husband was a HUGE fan of Red Robin’s Jamaican Jerk’d Chicken Sandwich, but they took it off the menu some time ago.  (He is forever disappointed about this.)  I was going to try to come up with a variation using some of the same ingredients.  This is what I came up with.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts (I used frozen.)

3 Tbsp. McCormick® Caribbean Jerk Chicken Seasoning

1 can chunk pineapple (drain, but save juice 4-5 Tbsp.)

Juice from 1 lime

3 tsp. garlic, minced

This is super easy!

Put frozen, yes frozen, chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Rub with Caribbean Jerk Seasoning. Squeeze lime juice over chicken. Spread garlic over chicken. Drain pineapple saving 4-5 Tbsp. of juice. Pour pineapple chunks over chicken. Pour reserved pineapple juice over everything. Cook on high 4-5 hours, low 6-8 hours.  I served this with red beans and rice and green beans.

Make At-Home Salsa

Tastefully Simple Salsa

Salsa is pretty much a staple in our house.  When we have something simple like sandwiches or hot dogs and don’t want to go to the store for something “extra” as a side, we just have chips and salsa.  It’s also great for an afternoon or after dinner snack.  J

We ran out of salsa today!  What a travesty!  I remembered we had a jar of Tastefully Simple Simply Salsa™ Mix in the pantry so that’s what we did.  I used two cans of diced tomatoes and approximately 1/3 cup of the Salsa seasoning.  The seasoning mix does have a bit of a bite to it, so I didn’t quite double the seasoning. 

It worked out perfectly to use the salsa jar we’d just finished and now we’re fully stocked again. 

If you're not familiar with Tastefully Simple products click on the "Tastefully Simple" label on the left side of my blog to see other posts where I used Tastefully Simple products.  I highly recommend them!

Easy Goulash

Ever looking for something that will cook all in one pot and be easy enough that you can have the meal finished in a half hour?  This is one of those meals.  Plus, it’s hearty and filling.  Pair it with some fresh cornbread and you’re good to go!

Easy Goulash

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 pound ground beef

1 cup uncooked pasta of your choice    I choose elbow macaroni.

1 can of Corn, drained

1 can of Lima beans, drained

1 can Diced tomatoes with Oregano and Basil

1 can Tomato Soup

Sauté onions and green pepper together.  Brown and cook meat.  Mix onions and green peppers together with meat.  Add corn, Lima beans, tomatoes, and tomato soup.  Cover, stirring occasionally until entire mixture is heated through.  While meat mixture is heating, make your pasta according to package directions.  Drain when finished.  Add pasta to meat mixture.  Stir and serve.  This one-pot dish is great served with fresh corn bread!

Dorito Taco Salad

My family first discovered this salad years ago.  My little cousin's grandmother brought it to a party.  She has since passed away, but we still remember her when we make this salad.  It's simple and good.  As stated in the actual recipe, do not mix the dressing until right before you plan to serve.  This is easy to take on-the-go, but it's best if you keep all the ingredients separate and just toss them together when at your destination.  The tastes all come together and the crunchiness of the Doritos really make this a great salad!  It's perfect for a summer BBQ, too!

Dorito Taco Salad

1 11.5 oz. bag Doritos (regular, red bag, Nacho cheese flavor)
1 can Black Olives, sliced or chopped
2 medium Tomatoes, diced
1 bag of pre-shredded lettuce (You can also shred a head of lettuce.)
16 oz. Green Goddess Dressing
1/2-1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese, if desired
Ground Beef (1 lb.)

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef. 
2. Mix beef, tomato, lettuce, black olives, Cheddar cheese in a large bowl.
3. When ready to serve*, crunch up Doritos and mix with beef mixture.  Mix thoroughly with dressing.
 
*It is very important not to pour dressing into the salad until ready to serve.  The dressing will make salad soggy if you aren't serving for a long time.

 Recipe Notes:

·         You can shred a head of lettuce if you don’t want the pre-shredded kind.

·         You can brown the meat with a packet of Taco Seasoning, if desired.

·         All ingredients can be adjusted to what you like.  You can add more/less/delete anything to your liking.

·         Mix ingredients in a LARGE bowl.  When combined, this makes a very large bowl of salad.

Ranch Cheeseburgers

In general I’m not a big burger fan; however, once in a while I get such a craving for a juicy burger.  It usually has to have cheese.   Everything is better with cheese.  While trying to come up with an easy dinner, I thought it would be great to enjoy the beautiful weather and get the grill fired up.  I didn’t want to buy a single ingredient.  I wanted something easy.   I wanted a burger.  Alas, I did some searching and settled on a simple ranch burger recipe.  This recipe has been around for ages, but this was the first time we’ve ever tried it.  We will definitely do this one again!  One of my favorite things about this is that the cheese is combined with the meat mixture.  Yummy!

Ranch Cheeseburgers

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 pound ground beef

4 hamburger buns

Preheat the grill or broiler.

In a large bowl, combine seasoning mix with the beef, onion, and cheese.  Mix with clean hands until incorporated. Shape the meat into four burgers about 1-inch thick. Grill the burgers to your desired preparedness.

Serve immediately on the hamburger buns.

Adapted from this Recipe.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Truth be told, the photos of this recipe didn't look super appealing to me, but I was looking for something to make using ingredients I already had in the house.  I had this one saved on Pinterest for a while and decided to give it a shot.  We were very pleased with how it came out!  We're already thinking about different variations we can do with the same concept!

It only requires six ingredients and I had all of them.  Woohoo for an easy, tasty meal--even for an 18 month old!

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts  (I actually only used two large breasts.)

1 large onion, chopped

1 -8 ounce box Zatarain's Yellow Rice Mix, cooked according to directions

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 - 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken soup (regular or fat free)

1 -15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

Instructions

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Scatter chopped onion over top. Spoon cream soup over top of that. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. 

A few minutes before serving, break up chicken a bit, add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese. Stir to combine. Cover and let cook 5-10 more minutes.  Serve hot.

UPDATE:  I made this again using Zatarain's Rice Pilaf, since I didn't have any Yellow Rice at home.  It was good, but the Yellow Rice box definitely gives a little more flavor.  Rice Pilaf made a good second choice, but the Yellow Rice is still #1.

Recipe found here.

It's time for Meatballs y'all

Growing up with an Italian family, there was never a shortage of meatballs with the typical Italian dinner.  However, I have always been intimidated by the meatball and making them from scratch was not something I thought I could do well.  Thanks to my sister Jane, I had a recipe in my recipe binder for over a year for a meatball recipe she found online.  I pulled it out the other night and decided to give it a whirl.  I’m glad I did!  They were delicious and my husband already wants me to make these again!

Mmm Mmm Meatballs

1 pound extra lean ground beef

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 small onion, diced

½ teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the beef into a mixing bowl.  Add sea salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix well.  I always find it best to mix with your hands!  Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs.  Mix until evenly blended.  Form into 1 ½ inch meatballs.  Place onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until no longer pink in center.

The verdict:  These were delicious!  I did not use any of the spicy ingredients that were listed in the original recipe.  I’m a baby when it comes to spicy.  Next time I might make a few the same way but add the spicy ingredients in for my husband who can never have things too spicy.  After making this recipe, I’m no longer afraid to make homemade meatballs; that’s for sure!

Adapted from the recipe here.

Bacon Potato Salad

Joe needed a side dish for a BBQ-themed work luncheon.  Once again I decided to pull out some of my Tastefully Simple seasonings for this easy recipe.  This is another recipe I found from the Tastefully Simple recipe database.  We really liked this potato salad, and although the Fiesta Party Dip Mix can be a little spicy, it made this salad delicious.  I don't like spicy at all, and I liked this salad.  Next time I’d use less than a whole onion since I think it was a little overpowering.  All in all, it was a great recipe to try! 

If you don't have Tastefully Simple brand seasonings, you can still play with the ingredients.  You could use a bag of real bacon bits and any fiesta-type seasonings.  The mixture of mayo and other ingredients was really good with this recipe.  

Bacon Bacon Potato Salad

Ingredients
5 large red potatoes (I used Russet since it's all I had.)
½-1 small diced onion (I used 1 whole onion and thought it was too much.)
2 cups real mayonnaise
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup Bacon Bacon™
1-2 tsp. dry Fiesta Party Dip Mix™
Ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Boil potatoes in water until tender; cool and dice. Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl; fold in potatoes. Refrigerate 1-2 hours. Makes 6-8 servings.

Variations:  The original recipe calls for dill pickle relish.  It would also be good with some diced hard boiled eggs.

I apologize that there is no easy way to make a photo of potato salad look appetizing. 

Recipe adapted from here.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

We have a huge bag of quinoa from Costco, so I began searching for some new recipes to try out on my family.  I also wanted to use up some green peppers that would be going bad soon, so my end result was quinoa stuffed peppers.   I substituted the rice for quinoa and they were delicious!  There are a few classic recipes when I’ll typically pull out my trusty ‘ol Betty Crocker cookbook (circa1971) and this is where I started for the dish. 

A few quick notes before I begin:  1.  My recipe called for 6 green peppers, but I only had 3.  I baked the extra meat/quinoa mixture in a ramekin along with the 3 peppers.   I also didn’t have tomato sauce, so I used a can of crushed tomatoes—worked like a charm.  3.  The recipe called for 2 Tbsp. of onion—I just used the whole onion, chopped.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

What you need:
6 large bell peppers

5 cups boiling salted water

1 lb lean ground beef

2 tablespoons chopped onion  I used a whole onion.

1-1 ½  cups cooked quinoa

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

1 clove garlic, finely chopped  I used ½ teaspoon garlic powder.

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (3 oz) I used shredded Parmesan.

Heat oven to 350°F.  Cut thin slice from stem end of each bell pepper to remove top of pepper. Remove seeds and membranes; rinse peppers. Cook peppers in the boiling salted water 5 minutes; drain.

Cook quinoa according to package directions.  I cook mine in broth for added flavor.

Cook/brown beef and onion in medium skillet until beef is brown and onion is tender; drain. Stir in quinoa, salt, garlic salt, garlic and 1 cup of the tomato sauce; heat through.

Stuff peppers with beef mixture. Stand peppers upright in ungreased 8-inch square glass baking dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce over peppers.  Cover tightly with foil. Bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes longer or until peppers are tender. Sprinkle with cheese.  I sprinkle mine with cheese right before putting back in oven for the last 15 minutes of baking time.

Adapted from the recipe here.