Crockpots+ Chicken= Awesome Easy Dinners

A very sweet Friend sent me some chicken crock pot recipes, they are simple, easy, and quick three of my favorite things :)
I have a picture of the Chicken Stroganoff, we had it over some Spaetzle noodles and I added some Mushrooms to the recipe. I can't seem to make stroganoff without mushrooms, it just doesn't seem right :)

Then we tried the Honey Chicken recipe, and it was yummy.
I added in 1/2c. shredded carrots to it when I added the sauce in.

Quick and Easy Crock Pot
Chicken Recipes

From Jenn B.

Basic Recipe: Start with 2 lbs frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts (4 breasts). Cook in the crock pot on high for at least 4 hours (no pink in the middle). I like to cook 1 diced onion and 1/8 c of minced garlic along with the chicken breasts. Adjust the amount of chicken and other ingredients according to the size and taste of your family. Four chicken breasts serves 6-8, depending! After cooking and preparing the chicken, stir in any of the following combinations of ingredients and change the crock pot setting to low for a few hours until serving.

Taco Chicken: Shred chicken breast. Stir in ½c taco seasoning and 1c water. If you prefer, you can add the taco seasoning with the frozen breasts. You can also add into prepared beans 1-2 cans (15 oz) (pinto, refried, kidney, black) and/or salsa, chopped green chile peppers. Serve as you would taco meat.


Honey Chicken: Shred chicken breast. Stir in 1c honey, ½c butter, ½c French’s mustard, 2tsp curry powder. Serve over rice.

Teriyaki Chicken: Chop chicken. Mix in a bowl: ¾c soy sauce, ¾c sugar, 2Tbs. red wine vinegar, 3tsp vegetable oil, ½-1tsp ground ginger; stir in with chicken in crock pot. Serve over rice.

Spaghetti Chicken: Leave chicken breast whole or chop to desired size. Add premade spaghetti sauce (approx 9c) or your family’s favorite spaghetti sauce ingredients. Serve over noodles. You can also put the sauce in with the frozen breasts.


Chicken Taco Soup: Reserve 2 breasts. Chop or shred chicken. Stir in ¼c taco seasoning, ¼c salsa, 2-3 cans of beans (15oz) (black, pinto, kidney), 1 can (15oz) chopped tomatoes, 1 can chopped green chile peppers, cilantro and 4-6c liquid as desired (water, tomato sauce, or chicken broth). Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream, and fresh diced avocados if you like!

White Chicken Chili: Reserve 2 breasts. Chop or shred chicken. Stir in 1 can diced green chile peppers, 2tsp ground cumin, 1tsp dried oregano, ½-1tsp cayenne pepper, 3 (14oz) cans chicken broth, 3 cans white beans. Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese and sour cream, if desired.


BBQ Chicken Sandwiches: Shred chicken. Stir in one bottle of BBQ sauce (approx. 3c) of your choice or use your favorite recipe. Serve on buns.

Chicken Stroganoff: Add ¼c butter and 2 (.7 oz) packages dry Italian style salad dressing mix, with the frozen chicken breasts. After chicken is cooked, cube chicken, add 16oz cubed cream cheese and 2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup, stir. Cook on LOW for 2 hours or HIGH for 1 hour. Serve over noodles.

How long to you keep Leftover Turkey?

I was given strict orders to leave the leftover turkey alone, no cooking it up into casseroles or soups. Hubby insists that leftover turkey needs to be eaten slowly over the course of the next 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS!?!?! I don't think so, I told him he had ONE week to get his fill in then I was using it up, he has one more day. And as long as no one tells him I will let you all in on a little secret- I used some of his leftover turkey to make this-

I have been wanting to try this, I had actually been planning on making it with chicken but then remembered I had LOTS of leftover ready-to-go turkey in my fridge, begging to be used. And what Hubby doesn't know, won't hurt him :)

Turkey Basil Pate

Ingred;
1c. cubed white turkey meat/ or chicken
1/2c. mayo
1t. Mrs. Dash onion and herb seasoning
1t. onion powder
1/4t. each- salt & pepper
1t. minced basil

Put all into a food processor and blend until smooth. Line a small bowl with plastic wrap, press the mixture into the bowl, wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Tip it out of the bowl onto your serving dish and remove the plastic wrap, serve with crackers or toast points.

You can definitely trade out the turkey for chicken and all the seasonings are optional, you can sub other things or use only the salt and pepper. This was very quick, easy, super good and our little secret ;)

How long do you keep leftover Turkey around? What about leftovers in general?

Chicken & Broccoli Shells

Ingred;
1 box of lg pasta shells, cooked & drained
1c. chopped broccoli
2 pkgs Knorr four cheese sauce mix
3c. milk
2T. butter
1c. cooked cubed chicken

Heat oven to 350
Prepare the cheese sauce following pkg directions, when ready remove 2c. of the cheese sauce & set aside. Into the remaining sauce add the broccoli and chicken, heat through. Stuff shells with this mixture and place into a 9x13 pan. Pour the 2c. of cheese sauce over top. Cover the top with tin foil and bake about 30 min.

The kiddos enjoyed this, the cheese sauce wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked so next time I will try something different for the cheese sauce.

Crispy Chicken Flatbread Wrap with Nellie's Avocado Salsa

I got the idea for this from the Blog What's for Dinner? She posted about Chicken Strip Tacos a couple weeks ago, I think, and I have been craving them ever since! Not only is she a great cook she is also one organized Lady I tell ya, if you need help organizing your pantry or figuring out weekly meal planning she is the Woman.

Crispy Chicken Flatbread Wrap
Ingred;
flatbread, I used whole wheat
cooked, still hot, crispy chicken strips, sliced
lettuce
shredded cheese
ranch dressing
Nellie's Avocado Salsa

I heated the bread in my microwave for about 15 sec, so I could wrap without it tearing, then placed in my lettuce, cheese and chicken squirted on some ranch. Then I added on top some of the avocado salsa and set some on the side for dipping. You could add in any sliced peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, the list could go on and on.

This was sooooo yummy, it had me wishing I had bought that spicy ranch dressing that caught my eye last week. It was wonderful without it though. This makes a pretty good sized sandwich, so unless you're REALLY hungry I would suggest you slice this in half and share with a friend :)

My little sister came up to visit and she made this delicious salsa for me, we dipped pieces of flatbread in it, heaven!

Nellie's Avocado Salsa
Ingred;
2 avacados, finely chopped
1 med. tomato, finely chopped
2 T. lime juice
1/2t. garlic salt
1/2t. onion powder

Stir all together and serve. This would be a great make ahead appetizer, this picture was taken a day after she made it and it held up really well. Good stuff.

I feel like Chicken tonight.....

This is a great no fuss meal that we enjoy, & I thought I would share with you all.

Mexi-Chicken

Ingred;
5 chicken breasts
olive oil
salt & pepper
1t. each minced basil, parsley & oregano
1 can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies

Oven 350.
Place chicken in a 9x13 pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Place pan in the oven. Stir together the herbs and tomatoes. After chicken has cooked for 1/2 hour take out & top with the tomato mixture then return to the oven. Cook for another half hour, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.

The leftovers from this are wonderful in wraps or in chicken tortilla soup, which is what I plan on doing with mine tomorrow.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is the first time I have made this, so I will need to do a bit of tinkering I think. It was pretty good, not quite perfect yet though. I am entering this in the Souper Sunday over at Kahakai Kitchen. :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingred;
8c.chicken stock
3c. shredded chicken
3c. corn
2 cans black beans, drained
1 large jar of salsa
1/2c. diced onion
1/2c. diced carrots
2 cloves minced garlic
2T. tomato paste
3T. corn starch+ 1/4c. cold water
cumin
chili powder
salt & pepper
minced cilantro
sour cream
tortilla chips shredded cheese

Saute onions and garlic in 1T. olive oil, add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and add chicken, beans, corn, carrots, salsa, & tomato paste. Simmer for at least an hour, season to taste. Stir in the cornstarch/water and simmer 30 min.
Place some crushed tortilla strips in the bottom of your bowls, ladle soup over. Serve garnished with cilantro, sour cream, tortilla strips and shredded cheese.

Graduation Fun

Graduation was Wonderful, the BBQ was a bunch of fun, AND we found a house, whew- big sigh of relief. Now I just have to pack up our 5 bedroom, 2 story house in 2 weeks, no biggie, cause I'm super mom ;)

I actually have a lot of the packing done already, so there isn't too much left, I have a few fun pictures to share.


Also three quick recipes-
BBQ Shredded Chicken
This is just the crockpot bbq chicken recipe I have posted here.

Parmesan Garlic Orzo with Grilled Chicken
The recipe for the Orzo is on allrecipes, I topped it with grilled chicken.

Garlic Chicken Marinade
1T. white vinegar
2T. olive oil
1T. minced garlic
1T. Johnny's garlic spread mix
1/2c. warm water

Mix all together and marinate chicken for 4-12 hours.



Pumpkin Pancakes
Ingred;
3c. flour
1/2c. sugar
4t. baking soda
1t. baking soda
1t.cinnamon
3T. oil
2 eggs
1/2c. pumpkin
1 1/2c. milk

Whisk together the dry ingred. Slowly incorporate the wet ingred. Cook on a hot griddle :)

Happy Thursday!! :) :) :)

Dinner, Dinner, what's for Dinner.......

I have been slacking in the dinner making department lately, in fact I think they might have fired me if they had that option. I haven't had a lot of desire or enthusiasm to make much of anything. But today, after a trip to the grocery store, I decided to make a soup that I have had on my mind for awhile.

Chicken & Orzo Soup

Here is our line-up of suspects-
Here I have my kitchen slaves pulling the stems off of the spinach, muhahahaha!

(See how scared the little one is, she knows I mean business)And while they did that I took a break and ate some of these, the bottle was already almost empty when I started, I swear.
Now surprisingly the Kiddo's all gave this a thumbs up, I did suspect I might have a bit of a fight what with the spinach floating in their soup, but they all ate it right up. I must say bribing them with fortune cookies probably helped ;)

My only problem with this soup was that there were no leftovers for my lunch tomorrow :(


Chicken & Orzo Soup

Ingred.-
8c. chicken broth
1c. orzo, uncooked
1/4c. minced fresh parsley
1c. cooked diced chicken
1c. chopped spinach

Bring your chicken broth to a boil, add in the remaining ingred. and simmer for 15 min.
Enjoy, this served my Family of 6 perfectly.

3 Recipes & a Picture

Leftover Beef Stew

Ingred-
Leftover Beef skewer ingred.
Leftover Vegie Tray remains
Water to cover

Cook on low all day, than enjoy :)



I had a lot of leftover vegies and beef chunks from our BBQ so I threw it all in the crockpot the next day for dinner. Yum :) Things were so busy that I didn't get to take any food pictures but I have a couple recipes for you.

Super easy crock pot shredded BBQ Chicken

Ingred.
5 frozen chicken breasts
1-2 bottles bbq sauce

(how easy is that huh? :)

Now I put my ingred. in the crock pot the night before, about 11pm, on low and left it overnight. At about 11am I opened it up, removed the meat, shredded it with a fork, then added it back in for a couple more hours on low. Because the chicken was frozen I didn't add water, I didn't want it to get too runny. It was perfect served on large kaiser buns. There was none left after the bbq.

Now for dessert my Hubby wanted Tiramisu, But I couldn't find ladyfingers when I went to the grocery store that usually has them & I didn't feel like driving all over looking for them so I concocted my own recipe that my sis named-

Black & White Trifle

Ingred.-
1 pkg chocolate wafer cookies
1pkg softened cream cheese
1 small pkg white chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 cold milk
2 containers cool whip

Beat the cream cheese, slowly beat in the pudding mix, then the milk.
Beat until smooth, fold in 1 cont. of cool whip, whip it :)
Place a layer of cookies on the bottom your trifle bowl, add a layer of the cream cheese mixture, than a layer of cool whip, than a layer of cookies. Repeat until ingred. are gone.
Top with crumbled remaining cookies and keep overnight in the fridge.

This turned out really good, next time I make it I think I will double all my cream cheese ingred. except the cool whip. The way it was it only went about 3/4 the way up in my bowl. Because it sat overnight the cookies softened up, this reminded me of like a cookies & cream pudding or ice cream. Yummy :) Next time I will take pictures I promise!

Chicken & Rice- Rice & Chicken

One of our favorite, OK, maybe not favorite- lets say easy, quick staple meals :) Is baked Chicken with rice. Which I always have to cook separately because I am not capable of cooking them together and having it turn out. Very simple basic recipes, but I thought I would share my Rice recipe with you all.


Here is the line up of ingredients-
8c. boiling Water
4c. Rice
2t. vegetable bouillon
1T. dried Parsley
1t. Alpine Spice

Bring the water to a boil, add all but Rice, stir to dissolve Bouillon then stir in the rice, cover and turn to low. Let cook for about 20 min, stirring about half way through time.
And here it is all done-


Wa-La! :) Chicken and Rice. And tomorrow it could be as complicated as something like..........
PB & J! :) Happy Tuesday!