Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

Are you looking for a quick, easy, good tasting meal?  One that makes your taste buds water?  Look no further, I've got a wonderful recipe for you!  I made this for dinner Saturday night.  Mom came over to eat with us and she loved it too.  This is one of those easy crock pot meals that I'm now obsessed with.  It's somewhat spicy, so if you like spicy, this is a good one for you to try.  It's really tasty too.  The only thing really to say about this one is YUM!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  I found the recipe here, but I made one change to it, I used a whole cup of sour cream instead of just a half cup.  It made it much better in my opinion.  Next time I may even live more dangerously and try it with 2 cups of sour cream.  I love sour cream.

Crock Pot  Salsa Chicken
From recipes.sparkpeople.com

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package taco seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1 cup sour cream

Add chicken to slow cooker.  Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.  Mix salsa and soup together and then pour over chicken.  Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.  Remove chicken and cut in pieces or shred it with two forks.  Add sour cream to the crock pot mixture and stir until completely blended.  Now place the chicken back into the crock pot and mix.  Serve over rice or noodles.  I served it over rice and thought it was delicious that way.

Homemade Potato Soup

I've been wanting to make Potato Soup lately, but didn't want to take the time to peel the potatoes.  I decided today was the day I was going to take the time.  My mom used to make Potato Soup that was so good, so I tried to find the closest recipe that reminded me of the soup she used to make.  I found one and just used it as a basic guideline.  I made several adjustments to it, so I could adjust the flavor to be how I remember her Potato Soup tasting.  It wasn't exactly like hers, but it was pretty close, plus it tasted good too. 

Homemade Potato Soup

6 large potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, chopped
5 Tbsp butter or margarine
4 chicken bouillon cubes
6 1/2 C water
2 C milk
1/2 C flour, mixed with water
salt and pepper to taste

Put potatoes, onion, butter, bouillon and water in the crock pot and cook on high for 8-9 hours or until potatoes are tender.  Then thirty minutes to an hour before serving, add flour mixture and milk and stir in to thicken the soup.  Once the soup has thickened, you are ready to eat.

HOMEMADE MACARONI AND CHEESE

I took this recipe to yesterday's church pot luck dinner.  I made a large pot since we were having a big gathering.  There was only about two or three spoonfuls left in the pot when it was all said and done.  I believe everyone enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share another easy recipe.

Jen's Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

1 lb shell macaroni
1 1/2 sticks butter
5 1/2 C milk
1 lb Kraft Velveeta cheese (cubed or sliced)
salt to taste

First, cook macaroni (any kind you want, I just like the shell) according to the package.  After that is finished, remove from stove top, but do not drain yet.  In another pot on stove top, add butter and milk.  Turn heat to medium high.  Once that gets hot, add your sliced Velveeta cheese and start stirring.  Stir constantly so it won't stick to the bottom.  Once that has all melted, remove from stove.  Now drain your macaroni and place in a large crock pot.  Pour over the melted cheese and keep in crock pot on low until ready to serve.



I love to cook food for large groups, but then when I only have to cook for my family, it is hard for me to figure out how to get the appropriate serving size fixed.  I tend to have a lot of left overs from everything I end up cooking.  Oh well, one day I'll learn.

Another Church Pot Luck Dinner

I took this to one of our church pot luck dinners several months ago.  After we were cleaning up the kitchen, a few women came to me to ask for the recipe.  Several of their kids liked it, so they wanted to prepare it as a side dish for their family.  I'm glad they enjoyed it, it makes me feel good when people are fond of a dish that I brought.  I think it is one of those dishes, that you can eat a little bit and be satisfied for a long time, but it is good while it lasts.

I received this recipe from a girl at work last year.  I made a few changes to it though, because I wanted it to taste a little spicier than what she had made it.  Here is the recipe once I changed it up a bit.  It's  another easy crock pot recipe that I hope you enjoy.

Crock Pot Spicy Cheese Cream Corn

2 blocks (one 8 ounces and one 3 ounces) Philadelphia cream cheese (softened or cubed)
1 stick of butter
1 can Frito Lay jalapeno cheese dip
3 (16 oz) bags of frozen corn
salt to taste

In a 3-4 qt slow cooker, combine all the ingredients.  Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until it is heated through and the cheese is melted.  Stir well before serving.

Where Did All the Little Smokies Go?

I took this next recipe to a get-together after our evening church service this past New Year’s.  It’s really simple and it’s a yummy appetizer to most people.  However, my family eats it as a meal most of the time because they love these little things!  My son and husband can eat two entire packages of little smokies between them, I’m lucky if I get a few.  No joke!  Last time I made them for my family, I put them in the crock pot to cook when we got home from church one Sunday afternoon, so they would be ready that evening for dinner.  I decided I needed to do some grocery shopping, which actually turned into just plain shopping of every kind, but that's not the point..........anyways, my husband and son decided to stay home.  When I returned there were only 6 little smokies left in the crock pot for me to eat.  I said, "Where did all the little smokies go?" and my son replied with, "Uh...........daddy did it."  How funny is that, blame it all on dad.  I had to share that though, because it was too cute to pass up.   Apparently, they were hungry for something to snack on and didn't realize that was going to be our dinner..........so they ate them.  Silly boys!

You might already know how to make these, because I think this is just one of those recipes that gets passed around quite a bit, but I’m going to share it with you anyways.  Hope you enjoy them!  :-)

LITTLE SMOKIES

2 (13 oz) packages of Hillshire Farms lit'l beef smokies

1 ½ cups of grape jelly

1 (12 oz) bottle of Heinz chili sauce

Mix the grape jelly and the bottle of chili sauce in the crock pot.  Add the packages of little smokies next.  Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, depending how cooked through you want them.  Eat and Enjoy!

My Obsession With The Crock Pot

I can’t stand it any longer, I just have to share.  Lately I have been loving to cook different recipes in the crock pot.  I ABSOLUTELY love it!  I mean ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY LOVE IT!!!!  It’s easy, it’s not a hassle, it makes roasts super tender and the food just tastes great.  What isn’t to love about the crock pot?  I mean come on, right? 

Well now I just have to share another recipe I made over the weekend.  I found it on this website a while back when I was searching for Barbecue Chicken recipes.  For some reason, I never have good luck making any type of baked chicken in the oven, the chicken always turns out dry and I hate dry chicken!  I know I overcook it every time, but I don't want to eat undercooked chicken, so I always seem to go overboard when cooking it.  I just want to make sure the chicken is well done.  However, this is an easy chicken recipe I found that you can make in the crock pot and it turns out moist and cooked every time.  I believe it is a CROCK POT MUST KNOW RECIPE!!!!  So hold on tight, this will blow you away………it’s that good, in my opinion anyways. 

Zesty Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken
source from allrecipes.com

6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (12oz) bottle barbeque sauce

1/2 cup Italian dressing

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Place chicken in the crock pot.  Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl, then pour it over the chicken. Cook on high 3-4 hours or on Low 6-8 hours.  Remove the chicken from the crock pot and place on a large plate, take two forks and shred the chicken before making your sandwiches.  We just eat them on hamburger buns, but you can eat them on any type of bread you like most.  Hope you enjoy!