New Recipes

I've been doing a lot of cooking with the crock pot/trying new recipes lately. Somewhat in an attempt to eat up what we have in the freezer & pantry. Somewhat out of boredom with our current "cycle" of meals. Somewhat because I'm usually to tired to actually cook by dinner time!

I've also tried my hand at making pumpkin pies - one of my recent cravings! They turned out pretty good, even with store bought crust! (I'm feeling adventurous, but seriously, I do have a 1 year old!) :)

Here are some of the recipes that we tried and really liked. Most are from one of the blogs that I follow - Melissa's Bargain Blog, which can be found in my list of blogs to the right!

Cream cheese chicken (slow cooker) -

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper (to taste)
2 pkg. dry Ranch or Italian dressing mix (Melissa recommended only one packet of seasoning...I'd have to agree!)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz. cream cheese – cut into cubes (I use the 1/3 less fat kind)
½ c. chicken broth

Directions: Brush chicken with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in crock pot and sprinkle 1 pkg. dry mix over all. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours. (Recipe doesn't call for adding liquid initially to the crock pot, but we thought that some what definitely needed to keep the sauce from burning on the bottom of the crock pot.) About 45 minutes before serving, add soup, second packet of dry dressing mix, cream cheese, and chicken broth. Cook until smooth.
Serve over rice or pasta.

Creamy potato soup (slow cooker)

Ingredients:
5 lb of potatoes, peeled, raw, and diced
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 pound cooked bacon (I left this out since we didn't have any. It wasn't missed, but would be a nice addition.)
1 package cream cheese
1 onion

Grease slow cooker. Place diced potatoes on bottom. Cube the cream cheese and place the pieces on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle the bacon on top. Add the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth. Cook for 7-8 hours in crock pot on low.

Crispy ranch chicken - This is another carry over from last week - I found this recipe on Marci's blog, too. I've got a bunch of Rice Krispies from the Randalls cereal deal a few weeks ago, and I figured this would be a great way to use them and something my kids would like.

Ingredients:
-2 c crispy rice cereal
-1/2 c grated Parmesan Cheese
-1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix (1 oz)
-2 egg whites
-8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Combine cereal, cheese and salad dressing mix in a large bowl.
-Place beaten egg whites in a medium bowl. Dip each piece of chicken in the eggs and then in the cereal mixture to coat evenly.
-Arrange the coated chicken on the baking sheet. Bake until golden and juices run clear, 20-25 minutes.

Pizza rigatoni (slow cooker) - This recipe is from Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds bulk Italian sausage
3 cups uncooked rigatoni or large tube pasta
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 small onion, chopped
2 cans (one 15 ounces, one 8 ounces) pizza sauce
1 package (3-1/2 ounces) sliced pepperoni
1 can (6 ounces) pitted ripe olives, drained and halved

Directions:
In a skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink; drain. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

In a 5-qt. slow cooker, layer half of the sausage, pasta, cheese, soup, onion, pizza sauce, pepperoni and olives. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Rachael Ray's Italian Style Chicken Noodle soup - I found this recipe a couple of years ago - it is a nice change from your standard chicken noodle and my whole family loves it!

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
5-6 ribs celery from the heart with leafy tops, chopped
3-4 medium size carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups chicken stock
1 can tomato sauce (8 ounces)
1 can red beans (15 ounces), rinsed
1 can chickpeas (15 ounces), rinsed
1/2 pound whole wheat penne pasta
1 pound chicken tenders or chicken cutlets, chopped
2 cups parmesan pita chips, for garnish
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (a handful)

Place a large soup pot over medium-high heat and add the EVOO. Add celery, carrots, onion and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper. Cook vegetables to make tender, 8-10 minutes.

Add stock, tomato sauce, beans and chickpeas, then bring soup to a boil. Stir penne into soup, cook a minute or so then stir in chicken and simmer 5-6 minutes more.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with some parmesan pita chips and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Melissa's variation: I make this in the slow cooker. I put all of the ingredients but the pita chips, the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and the noodles into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour before I'm ready to serve, I cook the noodles and add them to the mixture.

Lemony chicken breasts with rice (slow cooker) - This recipe came from All You Magazine (they now have a searchable recipe database with over 800 recipes, which is awesome!) We really liked the flavor of this, but the rice didn't seem to get cooked enough.

Cost per serving: $2.25

Yield
4 Servings

Ingredients
•4 tablespoons unsalted butter
•1 onion, finely chopped
•2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
•4 boneless chicken breast halves
•Salt and pepper
•4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth
•1/4 cup lemon juice
•2 cups long-grain rice
•1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Preparation
Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Scrape into slow cooker.

Sprinkle chicken with salt. Melt remaining 2 Tbsp. butter in skillet over medium high heat until foaming. Add chicken breast halves and cook until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to slow cooker.

Add 1 cup broth and lemon juice to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan. Add to the slow cooker, along with remaining broth, rice and 1 tsp. salt. Stir, cover and cook on low until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender, 2 to 3 hours. Remove chicken, stir parsley into rice and season with salt and pepper. Divide rice onto 4 plates and top each with a piece of chicken; serve immediately.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 534 Fat: 15g (sat 8g) Protein: 20g Carbohydrate: 80g Fiber: 2g Cholesterol: 54mg Sodium: 323mg
All You, MAY 2008

Creamy Ranch Mushroom Pork Chops - Chris & I absolutely LOVED this recipe and will make it a stand by! The pork chops literally fell apart in the crock pot!

Ingredients:
4 boneless pork chops
1 packet ranch seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can chicken broth
1 block cream cheese

Spray a crockpot with cooking spray, and put all ingredients but cream cheese in. Cover, and cook on low "all day" (I did 10 hours, but you could do less). Before serving, stir in cream cheese until melted. The sauce is also delicious with veggies!