Pot Roast & Veggies

I put this in the crock pot this morning before heading out the door to work!

I cut up carrots, onion, and red potatoes this time, but you can do it with any combination of veggies. I put the veggies in the bottom of the crock pot and added 1.5 cups of beef broth. I sprinkled some garlic and wine seasoning over the veggies (I got the seasoning at The Melting Pot in our NYE gift bag). I put the chuck roast on top and sprinkled more seasoning, along with salt & pepper.

It cooks on low for about 8 hours. I have to get someone to run by the house and turn it down to the "keep warm" setting around 2-ish to avoid it getting overcooked. (Thank you, Dad, for doing this for us today!!)

It's so great to come home to a great smelling house and delicious meal, already cooked and ready to eat! :) This is also a relatively cheap meal for a whole family. You can buy chuck roast at a really great price at Sam's (package of 2 for only $11 - cook one now and freeze one for later). We had enough food to feed all 3 of us, plus Grandma & Pa Pa, and there are leftovers for sandwiches tomorrow. :)

No Peek Chicken

Ingredients:

1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups minute rice
3/4 cup milk
2 lbs chicken (I like breast halves or boneless, skinless chicken tenders)
Aluminum foil

Mix the cream soups, minute rice, and milk together in a bowl. Pour into 9x13 baking dish. Place raw chicken on top. Sprinkle onion soup mix over chicken. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake on 325 for 2 hours.

No peeking!

Ranch Chicken

This is probably the easiest thing in the world to make. It comes in a close 2nd to the chicken spaghetti in Jamie's book. The prep time is literally 5 minutes or less.

I use boneless, skinless chicken tenders, but you can really use any part of the chicken. Put the chicken in the crock pot. Then add one stick of butter (I cut it up into smaller pieces and spread evenly over the chicken). Combine one envelope of Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix with one cup of milk. I mix that with a wire whisk. Then pour over the chicken. That's it! I let it cook on low for around 4 hours. Cooking time will vary depending on your crock pot, though, so keep an eye on it until you figure out how it's going to cook. Also, if you use larger chicken pieces, such as whole breasts, it will need to cook a bit longer.

I serve it over rice, but it would also be good alone with veggies or over noodles. I love it with rice, because the melted butter, milk, and juices from the chicken make a really yummy broth. We cut up the chicken into small pieces (it practically falls apart) and mix with the rice and broth for a yummy chicken & rice type dish.

We had it for dinner tonight, and I think it was one of the better batches I've made so far. And now we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. :)

Elise doesn't appreciate the greatness of ranch chicken yet, so she had mac & cheese and yogurt. Go figure!

Vegetable Beef Soup

This is one of the better things I make, but the recipe is kind of hard to write since I don't measure any of the ingredients. But here's what I do.

Ingredients:

• Stew beef
• White onion, chopped
• Mushrooms
• Corn - This & the tomatoes are the only canned products I use. The rest are fresh ingredients.
• Diced tomatoes
• Celery, chopped
• Carrots, chopped
• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Miniature pasta (you can use ABCs or regular noodles)

I cook the meat on the stove top first. This creates a nice beef broth to be a base for the soup. When you add the diced tomatoes, you don't drain them. The combination of the tomato and beef is a yummy broth. Once the beef is cooked, I add all the veggies. Then I let it simmer for a few hours. I add the pasta last and only cook for about 20 minutes afterward. If you cook much longer, it gets soggy.

I serve it with cornbread and it's great comfort food. It also freezes well.

I am making this tomorrow, because we can eat it as leftovers next week. I'll do 2 pots at the same time and freeze one of them for later.

Chicken Spaghetti (Jamie's Favorite)

This is Jamie's favorite thing that I make. It's a variation of a casserole that my mom used to make when I was a kid.

1 package skinless, boneless chicken tenders (or you can use breasts or thighs)
1 package spaghetti noodles
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Boil the chicken, then dice into cubes. Cook, drain, and rinse the spaghetti noodles (I let the noodles cook while I cut the chicken). After draining noodles, put them back into the pot and add the cream soups, along with 1 can water. Mix while adding chicken. Once the noodles, cream soups, water, and chicken are all mixed, I put them into a 9x13 dish and top with the cheddar cheese. Then I bake on 325 until the cheese is thoroughly melted. It is usually around 15 minutes or so.

This is a dish that is even better the 2nd day. We always eat the whole thing - sometimes we each have it 3 times before it's all gone.

We had this tonight. It takes about an hour to prepare, so I normally make it on a Sunday afternoon, so we can use it for lunches and dinners during the week. Today I happened to make it home a little early, so I had time to make it on a weeknight.

Elise, you told me tonight that you didn't want any of that stuff that is yucky (in reference to my casserole). I just know that one of these days you are going to like it! When grandma made it for me when I was little, she used to put mushrooms in it. I don't make it that way, because Coach doesn't like mushrooms very much.

Mexican Rice

Here is the rice that I made to go with the Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken. Thank you to Lisa for this recipe!

1 cup white rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cilantro cube

Brown rice in pan. Add onions and continue to brown. Combine rice and onion in pan with tomato sauce and water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Let sit 15-20 mins with lid on after simmering.

Lisa said that she also puts chopped bell pepper in her rice, but I left this out because I didn't think Jamie would like it.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Here is what we had last night. It was really good!! This is also from Mommy's Online.

1 package of chicken tenders
1 jar salsa (I used Central Market organic salsa in mild)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (condensed)
1 package taco seasoning

The recipe also calls for a jar of black beans, but we are not a big fan so I left it out.

Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours, then bump up to high for the last hour (3 hours total). Alternatively, you could probably cook it on low for 4-6 hours (depending on how quickly your crock pot cooks). I never have the time, though!

I served this with Mexican rice, which my co-worker taught me how to make. We also warmed up some refried beans (but those were just canned). I had sour cream (for Jamie) and shredded cheddar cheese on the side.

I recommend having tortialls or tortilla chips on hand also. We really wished we had tortillas last night so we could make burritos. I went out and bought some and Jamie had the leftovers for lunch today. I think he liked it better in the tortilla, but he said he liked it without as well.

I've also heard that the chicken is good when drained, shredded, and served over chips to make chicken nachos.

Elise would not touch this, so she had PB&J. What a surprise!