Crockpot Recipe: Mexican Chicken

This recipe was given to me by the lovely Kiwigirl Cooking. I use it at least once a month and have shared it with almost everyone that I know. Almost.

I've tweaked the original recipe a bit so I'm going to give you the original recipe and then tell/show you what I do.

Mexican Chicken
Place:
4 frozen chicken breast or 8 frozen chicken tenders in the crockpot
Cover with 1 can of rinsed black beans and 1 can drained (or 1 cup frozen) corn
Dump 1 jar (about 2 cups) of favorite salsa on top (Mango and peach salsas are superb! HH doesn't like those kind so I stick to our usual (Kirkland Organic), so you'll have to make it with the fancy salsas so I can live vicariously through you. Thanks!)

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

At the last half hour of cooking add 1 cube of cream cheese. Shred or sliced chicken breast when fully cooked.

If you'd like, add 1 cup of cooked rice.

Serve over rice, over chips, on salad, or in a tortilla.

This recipe is delicious as is. I first decided to tweak the recipe because I wanted to freeze it and was unsure of how the cream cheese would hold up. So I omitted the cream cheese and we just top ours with shredded cheese.

Then I started to use less meat in most of my recipes to save money and because we don't need to eat as much meat as we were. I substitute with extra beans, beef it up with a few other ingredients and end up with enough for two meals instead of one. I don't know if I've really made this the same way more than once.

Here's what I did last time I made it:

2 frozen chicken breast
2 cans of black beans (drained)
1 cup of frozen corn
1 can of diced tomatoes (drained):

2 cups of salsa:

Cooked and shredded:

This time we had nachos:

The kids love this meal:

I usually make this up for dinner and freeze the left overs for another night.

I didn't add rice this time and I still had plenty for all 6 of us to eat, Nathan's lunch for work, and enough for another meal.

So far, everyone who has tried this recipe has loved it.

Crockpot Recipe: Cheesy Broccoli Soup

This last Thursday I had a morning full of school and kids with an afternoon full of appointments. My dinner plan for the night was Cheesy Broccoli soup (that I didn't have a recipe for) and bread. I forgot to start the bread on Wednesday and didn't think about my lack of dinner prep time until Thursday morning. I decided that bread was an easy fix since I was stopping at the store, but I needed to make a quick decision about the soup. I decided to take a chance on throwing a bunch of things in the crockpot, letting it cook all day, and figuring out what to do with it when I got home.

We got home at a quarter to five and the house already smelled like broccoli soup. I was relieved that "the cards fell in my favor" and got to work finishing dinner. It was delicious! And super easy, too. Try it!

You'll need:

5 medium potatoes (peeled and chopped)
2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 pound broccoli florets
(size doesn't matter since you will puree the soup)
32 oz veggie broth
4 cups water or until almost covering veggies

Place the ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours.

When down cooking, add 1 cube of cream cheese and 1 up of shredded cheddar. Let the cheeses melt a little and then puree the veggies and cheese together. I found that this to be a better way to incorporate the cream cheese.

Stir in 1 can of evaporated milk. Salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Bonus: This soup freezes well.

This recipe was an experiment and so I didn't think to take pictures. I'm sorry that I robbed you of my awesome photography skills. I'll work on that.