Chicken Pot "Not Pie" Soup

I am not a huge fan of Chicken Pot Pie, but Kyle loves it. After making those mini Pot Pies, I decided this soup would probably be better. This recipe will make a lot so I would cut the recipe in half if it's just 2 or 3 of you eating it.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Flour

2 cups Water

4 cups Milk

1 large Celery stalk (I used 4 pieces from a container)

1/2 medium Onion

2 Chicken bouillons

1 tsp. Thyme

1 can of Corn

1 can of Peas

3 large Carrots; peeled and sliced

2 Potatoes; peeled and cubed small

1 bunch of Green Onions; chopped

16 oz. cooked Chicken breasts; diced small (I used 3 Chicken breasts)

Salt and Pepper

1 tsp. Cayenne pepper

1 tsp. Chili powder

What To Do:

• Cook your Chicken breasts if you haven't done so already
• Dice Chicken into small pieces (I set some aside for mine and shredded it)
• Pour 1 1/2 cups of water and your milk into a large pot and slowly bring to a boil
• Add celery, onion, carrots, potatoes, chicken bouillons, and thyme and return to a boil
• Partially cover and simmer on low until veggies are tender (About 10 min.)
• While veggies are cooking, in a bowl, combine the rest of your water- 1/2 cup with the flour and whisk until well blended; set aside
• Remove lid and add corn, peas, green onions, salt/pepper, cayenne pepper, and chili powder (cook for another 5 min.)
• Add chicken and slowly whisk in your water and flour mixture
• Cook another 2 minutes until soup thickens

Crock Pot Ravioli Casserole

Italian night at our house and what better way to cook than using the crock pot!! Thanks to Becoming Betty for this delicious recipe!

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 Onion; chopped

1 clove Garlic; minced

1 (15 oz.) can Tomato Sauce

1 can Stewed Tomatoes

1 tsp. Oregano

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

10 oz. frozen spinach (I used fresh Baby Spinach)

16 oz. Bowtie Pasta; cooked

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese; shredded

1 1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese; shredded

*For the Italian seasonings, I just used Parsley, dried Basil, Thyme along with Cayenne Pepper

What To Do:

• Brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic
• Once browned, put in the crock pot and add sauce, tomatoes, and seasonings
• Mix well
• Cook on low for 6-7 hours 
• Add the last 4 ingredients during the last 30 minutes of cooking and turn to high (I set the crock pot for 6 hours on low so that it would turn to warm once the 6 hours was up. When I got home from work and we were ready to eat, I turned the crock pot to high and added the last 4 ingredients)

Baked Tacos

Yes, I might know what you are thinking. Why baked tacos when tacos are so easy to make? Sometimes I want to add a little something different to just the easy, normal things to make. Thanks to a recipe online, I made tacos a different way!!

**The full recipe below will make around 18-20 tacos depending on how much you put in each shell. I halved the recipe and was able to make 10 Tacos.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Ground Beef

4 tsp. Dried minced Onion

3 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Cornstarch

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Ground Cumin

1/2 tsp. Dried Oregano

1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

1 (8 oz.) can Tomato Sauce

1 (16 oz.) can Refried Beans

2 cups Shredded Colby-jack Cheese

Taco Shells (18-20 for full recipe/10 for half)

Optional Condiments:

Lettuce

Salsa

Guacamole

Pico de Gallo 

**When I halved the recipe, I used more for the seasonings so that I could make it spicy!

What To Do:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• In a pan, brown your ground beef and then drain any excess liquid
• Add refried beans, tomato sauce, and all the seasonings
• Mix well
• Spoon the taco meat into your taco shells (as much as desired) and place into a casserole dish (I used the shells with the flat bottoms so that they would stand on their own)
• **If you like your shells a little crunchy, make sure the shells are not touching
• Sprinkle the cheese on top of the meat
• Bake at 400F for 10-12 minutes
• Remove and top with any of your condiments!!

Beef & Vegetable Soup

Fall is here so now that means I am pulling out warm soup recipes as well as looking for some new ones! Since I am wanting beef all the time, why not make a beef vegetable soup. I decided to just throw in ingredients like a stew and just go with it.

After cooking all day in the crock pot, it turned out good, but I could have used just a little bit more of a kick of spice! Feel free to take out or add any other ingredients that you think would be good!

Make sure you brown your beef, so you may want to brown it the night before you plan to make the soup.

The beginning when I had just mixed everything together!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. cubed Steak (for stew)

1/4 cup Flour

1/2 medium Red Onion; chopped

2 large Carrots; peeled and cut

2 large Potatoes; peeled and cut

2 cans of Diced Tomatoes w/ garlic; undrained

2 cans of low-sodium Beef Broth

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 Tbsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1/2 Tbsp. Cayenne Pepper

1/2 Tbsp. Oregano

1/2 Tbsp. Thyme

1/2 Tbsp. Basil

1/2 Tbsp. Parsley

What To Do:

• Place flour and cubed steak in a Ziploc bag and shake so that the flour coats the steak
• Put oil in skillet and heat oil over medium-high heat
• Add steak and brown all sides; set aside once browned
• Peel and cut up potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic
• In the crock pot, add all the ingredients together, mix together and cover/cook on high for an hour
• Reduce heat to low and cook for 6-7 hours (depending on how soft you like your veggies)

Slow-Cooked Pork Chops

Found this recipe on a magazine site for some amazing pork chops that are supposed to be soooo tender. Well, I have to admit, these pork chops were very tender & I barely did anything. 

I was running behind one morning (I didn't have time to brown both sides of pork chops) so I decided to come home later in the day to put these in the crock pot since it gave the time as 6-7 hours on low or 3 1/2 hours on high! Love having the option.

Yes, it is another dish that cooks with rice so I just have to mix it up with my greens for another side.

Yes, the picture stinks. I should have done it differently, but I was starving!

Ingredients:

6 lean Pork Chops

1/2 cup Flour

1 (10 oz.) can of Chicken and Rice Soup

1 tsp. Dry Mustard

1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

I also added:

2 tsp. Chili Powder

a dash of Cayenne Pepper

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 

Salt and Pepper to taste

What To Do:

• In a baggie, combine flour, salt and pepper, dry mustard, and garlic powder (add Chili powder and Cayenne pepper if you decide to use these) and then shake to mix up
• Add pork chops to the baggie to coat both sides
• In a pan, add olive oil and brown both sides of the pork chops
• Add browned pork chops to the crock pot and cover with the Chicken and Rice soup (add Worcestershire sauce at this time too)
• Cover and cook on low for 3 1/2 hours or on high for 6-7 hours

Forgotten Chicken

First, sorry I haven't been posting as much as I would like too. With being pregnant and all the Holidays right around the corner, I keep turning to my comfort food along with fitting in all my cravings without overdoing it!

Thanks to Pinterest and Darling Doodles Blog, I found another recipe that seemed simple to just throw together! You make it with rice so you only need to make one other side!!

**HELPFUL HINT -- although the recipe is simple, it does take awhile to cook so just a heads up!

I will tell you in the steps how to not make yours so brown on top!

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless Chicken breasts (I used 4)

Minute Rice (I just white rice)

1 pkg. Onion Soup mix

Can of Cream of Chicken soup

Can of Cream of Celery soup

Water

What To Do:

• Preheat oven to 375
• In a bowl, mix together cream of chicken and celery soups, 1 can water and 2 cups of minute rice (uncooked)
• Grab your cooking dish and butter the bottom and a little bit of the sides
• Pour your mixture into the buttered dish
• Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture
• Sprinkle onion soup package on top (Make sure you sprinkle over the entire dish-I didn't read right and poured it only on the chicken...hence the dark outer layer)
• Cover with tin foil & don't forget this step
• Cook for 1 hr. 15 min.