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. 

Creamy Beef Stroganoff

Yum....I haven't had Beef Stroganoff in a very long time. Plus, it always seems like the Hamburger Helper (yes sometimes I buy stuff that I can just throw together real quick) has a really strong distinct flavor to it. 

Yes, I am also on a CROCK POT kick right now :). It helps me not change my mind on what I want for dinner every 10 minutes and it keeps me from asking Kyle what he wants time after time after time haha.

My only suggestion for this recipe is to maybe not cook it quiet as long as 8 hours because our meat was so tender that is kept falling apart and for stroganoff, I like the chunks of meat.

Ingredients:

1 lb. cubed Beef Stew Meat

1 can Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 cup chopped Onion

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup Water

4 oz. Cream Cheese

Egg Noodles

*I added Creole and a touch of Cayenne Pepper to ours

What To Do:

• In a crock pot, combine meat, soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce and water
• Cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for about 5 hours
• Stir in Cream Cheese right before serving
• Cook Egg noodles on stove top
• Serve stroganoff on top of noodles

ENJOY :)

Crock Pot Meatloaf

So Kyle is not a huge fan of meatloaf because of all the onions. I found this crock pot recipe and thought it would be perfect because Kyle wouldn't get the overload of onions, but I could still get some from the salsa. Hmm..salsa in meatloaf. I have never heard of that, but that could be because I have never made meatloaf. My Mom makes really good meatloaf, but this recipe will get the job done. If you like your meatloaf kind of crunchy on the outside, then this is not for you. Since it cooks in the crock pot, the texture is really soft.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Lean Ground Beef

1/4 cup Milk

1 Egg

1/4 cup Salsa

2 slices of Bread; cubed

1/4 cup Ketchup

Salt and Pepper to taste

8 medium Carrots

8 small Red Potatoes

(Kind of reminds me of a pot roast w/ the carrots and potatoes)

Mix everything together in the bowl

Before I added in all the potatoes and carrots

What To Do:

• In a bowl, beat the egg and milk
• Stir in the bread cubes, salsa, salt and pepper
• Add the beef and mix well
• Spray the entire crock pot with cooking spray 
• Put beef mixture into pot and shape like a loaf of bread
• Spread the ketchup on top (I just squeezed the ketchup on top)
• Arrange the carrots and potatoes in layers around the meat

1. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour
2. Reduce heat to low
3. Cover and cook 7-8 hours

Creamy Chicken (Pasta)

So I started looking up recipes and found one that sounded good, but could use some changes to it. Since I made it with more sauce, I was going to serve it over pasta, but of course being pregnant now, my desire for certain foods changes quickly. I decided that I just wanted the chicken with some veggies instead of pasta. Next time, I will definitely cook it with pasta because of all the sauce it made.

Camera went dead so I had to use my phone (Not the best quality)


Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Packet Zesty Italian Dressing seasoning
1 (8 oz) Cream Cheese
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Garlic Clove; minced
1/2 cup Onion; chopped
1 tsp. Tony's Creole

What To Do:

• Cut the Chicken breasts in half (if serving w/o pasta)
• Cut the Chicken breasts in slices (if serving w/ pasta)
• Put Chicken in the crock pot
• Chop up your onion and garlic and add to pot
• Cut the cream cheese into smaller slices so that doesn't melt in one big blob and add to pot
• Pour the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot and mix
• Cover and cook on low for 4 hours

*If sauce is too thick for your liking, add a little bit of milk right before serving

Val's Teriyaki Chicken

Labor Day Family Dinner w/ Friends :)

Our close friends, Val and Del, invited us over for dinner last night since it has been awhile since we last did our Family Dinner w/ Friends. Val decided  to try out a new recipe in the crock pot and man was it good. The whole meal fed 3 guys, us 2 girls and then leftovers for 2 lunches...a perfect meal for a small group! We served it over brown rice, which was the perfect combination.

We decided to take a picture so that I could post it on my blog to share with everyone. You actually split this meal into 2 separate freezer bags to freeze and pull them out when you want them.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts

4 cloves of Garlic

2 large can of Pineapples (undrained)

Red Onion cut into large chunks

Large bag of medium size Carrots

1 cup of Teriyaki sauce 

What To Do: 

• Split all the ingredients into 2 batches and put in separator freezer bags
• Mix, lay flat & freeze
• Thaw out a bag the night before you want to cook
• Throw in crock pot, add an additional 1/4 cup of Teriyaki sauce and cook on low for 6-7 hours