Recipes

I've promised several people several recipes lately, and I can't remember who I've promised what. So hopefully if you've been waiting on something, you will find in here!

I absolutely LOVE this new recipe I have for chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

4 - boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 - TBSP chicken baste (this comes in a little glass container and can be found near bouillon cubes)
2 - 32 oz containers of Swanson chicken broth
4 - cups of milk
1 - 12 oz bag of egg noodles
1 - family size can of cream of chicken soup
1 - can of cream of celery soup

Directions:

Cook chicken in chicken baste in crock pot until tender and falling apart (in my crock pot this was about 4 hours on high). Shred chicken and return to crock pot leaving all juices. On the stove top combine chicken broth and milk and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add egg noodles and cook until tender. Pour this mixture into crock pot with chicken. Add cream of chicken soup and cream of celery soup and mix well. This completely filled my crock pot. I have the oval kind that holds 5 quarts (I think). The mixture will be very soupy. Cook in crock pot on high about another 3 - 4 hours until soup reaches desired thickness.

I've only made this recipe once. I had it first at my SIL Heather's house. It was sooooo yummy that I could not wait to have it again! Thanks, Heather!!! I've changed up the recipe up a little bit not because it needed changing, but just because I seem to always do that. The original recipe Heather gave me called 6 chicken breasts, and I'm always looking for ways to save a little. It also called for you to combine the soups to the mixture on the stove top and bring it all to a boil together. I didn't do it this way because I don't really have a good size stock pot to do that. I can't really say I notice any difference in with these changes. I might even make another shortcut next time I make it and experiment with skipping the stove top part all together. I'm going to try to just dump in all together in the crock pot after cooking and shredding the chicken. I've cooked noodles in the crock pot before so I think this will work out. I'll let you know when I try it this way. If you try it this way first, please let me know how it turns out. Hope you all enjoy this one as much as we did!

Here's the next one:

Potato Soup

Ingredients:

2 - bags frozen hashbrowns the cubed kind - thawed
4 - cans cream of potato soup
8 - cups skim milk
onion flakes (I just pour some in, probably 4 TBSP)
pepper (same as above, I just shake some until it looks right - sorry) :)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a crock pot (again this mixture completely fills my oval 5 quart crock pot). Cook on high about 6 hours until desired thickness is reached. Serve with all the fixin' to top it with - shredded cheese, bacon bits, chopped green onions, soup cream, and of course bread on the side! UMMMM, UMMMM, GOOD!!!

The potato soup recipe is extremely modified from a recipe I got out of a magazine a long time ago. It's so modified that I proudly consider it my own creation. It took several not so great tries to get this one just right. We all really love it, even the kiddos!!

Alright, just one more tonight.

Life Changing Nachos

Ingredients:

1 - lb ground beef
1 - pack taco seasoning
1 - diced onion
1 - diced green bell pepper
1 - bag of saffron rice (yellow foil bag)
tortilla chips (scoops)
banana peppers
1 - diced tomato
shredded cheese
sour cream
black bean and corn salsa

Directions:

Brown meat, drain. Cook the rice according to package directions while cooking the meat. Add peppers, onions, and seasoning to meat and cook until onions and peppers are tender. Preheat round pizza stone in oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. When stone is hot, layer chips, meat, rice, banana peppers, tomatoes, cheese. Cook until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes or so. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Let your life be changed!!!

OK, that was was the original unchanged version and it really is the best. However, I sometime short-cut. In a hurry you can leave out the onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes and it still taste amazing!!! It just saves a lot of time dicing all that stuff up, however it also hurts it's nutritional value so consider that. Also I (big gasp here) don't currently own a stone at all. So I if you are in the same boat I'm in, it also works great to cook it on cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (easier clean up). I don't heat up the cookie sheet, just throw it all on there and pop it in. I also use the Great Value tortilla rounds instead of Scoops because they are so much cheaper. Also I only put banana peppers on the about half, because I'm not so sure how the kiddos would do with banana peppers. Do yourself a favor and prepare this one according to the original recipe the first time and be sure you have it with the black bean and corn salsa!! There you have it! When I first served this one to my family, they all agreed it was life changing well at least moment changing for sure!!

I'll add some more favorites another time, and maybe next time I make these I will take some pictures to add. We generally come home on Sunday's for lunch and these are some of our Sunday lunch favorites!!! With crock pot meals, I usually mix everything up in the crock pot the night before so on Sunday morning all I have to do is pull it out of the frig and turn it on. You would have to start a little earlier on Saturday night to have the chicken noodle soup one all mixed and ready the night before. With the nacho recipe, I dice everything and cook the meat and rice the night before. Then when we get home from church, I layer everything on my pan and pop it into the oven. I takes a minute or two longer in the oven since the meat was cold, but I can still walk in the door and have it on the table in like 15 minutes tops! Wesley and the kids come in and change into something comfy and get to the table just in time!!

If you have any questions about these, please let me know!