Creamy Herbed Chicken & Pasta

Slow cookers are my best friend. Granted, I am home all day, doing nothing, so its not like they help me out in the 'I have no time to cook' department. I'm just lazy. I spend all day just playing with the boys, waiting for the hubs to come home. It just mostly happens that around the time I would usually start cooking dinner, both boys need to be fed/bathed/paid attention to so its always difficult to prepare food with them crying and running between my legs in the kitchen. Again, slow cookers are my best friend.

This recipe is altered a bit. I found a recipe for creamy herbed chicken in my Taste of Home Slow Cooker magazine I picked up while waiting in the checkout line at Walmart. I couldn't find the specific packet of seasoning that was called for in the original recipe, so after about 20 minutes of looking and 30 curse words later, I gave up hope and went in search of the next item on my list. Turns out, in the dressing aisle, Kraft has pasta seasoning packages! Not exactly what the recipe called for, but I'm going to say it was a very successful substitute!

Ingredients:

* 1 lb chicken breast (I use the packages of 3)
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
* 1 package garlic and herb pasta seasoning (Knorr brand used in original recipe)
       My substitute: Kraft Parmesan Seasoning Packet in Rosemary and Garlic
* Salt and Pepper
* Pasta of your choice

To Make:

* Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray
* In a medium bowl, combine soup, milk, thyme, parsley, and herb seasoning packet. Whisk together until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste
* Add chicken breasts to slow cooker. Pour soup mixture over chicken
* Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked
* Cook pasta according to package directions

I also added a little flour mixed with cold water to the liquid after pulling the chicken out of the slow cooker to thicken up the sauce so it could be poured over the noodles. I used fettucini noodles, but since it was a parmesan based seasoning package, it could very well have worked over some cheese tortelloni or something like that... delicious!

No Bean Chili

Chris hates beans in his chili.
I enjoy beans in my chili.

Guess who won that battle?

Ok, let me rephrase that...
Guess who is the better of the two spouses and would willingly make sacrifices without complaint for the other's happiness?

That's right... I'm that selfless spouse :) Hence the title of the blog being 'NO BEAN chili'

I didn't take a picture of the final product (topped with sour cream and mild grated cheddar) because we were all too busy woofin' it down. Whoops.

I've made my fair share of chilis, but this was BY FAR my favorite recipe because it had the most veggies in it, and didn't have that greasy, heavy feeling- it was about as light and healthy as I can see beef chili being :) Originally, this chili is a stovetop chili, but I made the crockpot version because there is nothing better than your house smelling like amazing chili all day. Scentsy should make that into a new scent... just sayin'.  If you don't want to/or have a crockpot, the stovetop edition of this recipe can be found on the link to the original recipe below.

No Bean Chili
Recipe adapted from Deep South Dish.

Dry Seasoning Ingredients:
* 1 tablespoon ground cumin
* 1 tablespoon dried oregano
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning (why did we never own this sooner?)
* 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Wet Seasoning Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
* 2 tablespoons Kitchen Bouquet (I omitted this)
* Coupld dashes hot sauce (I omitted this as well)
* 1 6-oz can tomato paste
* 2 cans diced tomatoes (not in original recipe, I added these on my own)

Chili Base Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 medium yellow onion, diced
* 1 medium green pepper, diced
* 1 medium red pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup green chilies (I used 2 jalapenos)
* 2 lbs ground beef
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 cups beef stock or broth
* 2 bay leaves
* salt and pepper to taste

Crockpot directions:
* Brown ground beef in skillet over medium-high heat. Drain. Transfer to crockpot. Add the dry and wet ingredients, veggies, and the rest of the chili ingredients. Stir well. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.

Crockpot Sunday: Classic Potroast with Garlic-Thyme Gravy

First of all, thank you to my friend Emily for sending me a subscription to Cuisine at Home magazine. I like this for many reasons. I like this because I've known Emily since kindiegarden and we were BFFs throughout our youngin' years and its awesome she still thinks of me from time to time! I also like this because I love me some magazines in the mail (I get that from my mama), food magazines the most! I also especially like this because this months issue came with a 'Back by Popular Demand Slow Cooker' magazine! Jackpot!

I decided to start out my new series of Crockpot Sunday recipes with the cover recipe because it looked Oh-So-Good. I made this last Sunday and not only did it make my entire house smell of delicious beef (because we all know thats one of the best smells on earth- Yankee Candle Co. should make a potroast candle... I'd buy it...), but it was fall-apart tender and reminded me of a middle of winter dinner.

It did steer away a bit from the tradition potroasts I've grown up with in one way: the gravy. The gravy includes tomato paste, which I'll tell you, isn't a bad thing at all. It adds a sweet tangy quality to the dish that you don't get with regular gravy!

P.S. I also apologize for the picture. I was in such a hurry to sit down and eat it, I forgot to make it 'pretty' on my plate for a picture. Instead, I just threw it all on the plate and smothered it with gravy. Sorry. Wait, I'm not sorry. It was delicious, and I refuse to apologize for delicious food, no matter how off-putting it looks.

Truly unappetizing photo,
but truly mouth-wateringly good!

Cuisine Slow Cooker Potroast with Garlic-Thyme Gravy

Ingredients:

* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 3-4 lb. boneless chuck roast, trimmed, seasoned with salt and pepper
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1/2 cup dry white wine (I omitted because I was cooking for 2 preggos and you can never be too sure)
* 1 1/2 cup beef broth
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (just as hard to spell as it is to say!)
* 2 cups sliced onions
* 6 medium carrots, cut into 2-to-3 in. pieces
* 3 large celery ribs, cut same was as carrots
* 5 cloves garlic
* 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
* 2 dried bay leaves

To Do:

* Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Brown roast on all sides, about 10 minutes total (I kept mine on a litttttttle longer to create more browning in the pan to make a richer gravy). Transfer roast to slow cooker.

* Stir flour into pan and cook for one minute. Add tomato paste and cook for one more minute.

* Deglaze saute pan with wine (I just used addition beef broth since I didn't cook with the wine), cooking until liquid evaporates. Stir in beef broth and Worcestershire and bring mixture to a simmer. Be sure to scrape up any browned bits from the roast.

* Transfer broth mixture to the slow cooker. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves.

* Cover and cook on high setting for 4-5 hours or on low setting (I used this one) for 8-9 hours.

* I pulled the roast onto a serving plate (well, tried, it was so tender it kept falling out), as well as the veggies. I discarded the thyme and bay leaves. To thicken the gravy I added a cornstarch mixture (2 tablespoons cornstarch, two tablespoons water mixed together and then added to the hot liquid in the crockpot), and mixed it with a whisk until it was the right consistency.

My usual potroasts include small red potatoes in the crockpot, but this time I opted to make mashed potatoes for on the side. I mean, come on- I had a crockpot full o' gravy... mashed potatoes are mandatory in situations like that!

Snow Day Beef Stew

I am a Montana girl. For winters as far back as I can remember, there was a blanket of snow, a need for mittens and scarves, and you could see your breath outside from the months of September through May. When we moved to Mississippi, I can say it was the one thing I didn't think I would miss. Come Christmas time, as I set up my tree, and made Chris venture on our rickety ladder to hang the lights, I found myself missing the winter wonderland I had grown accustom to. I prayed for one day, just one day, so it could feel like I was home again.This past year, my prayers were answered and we were thrilled to have three whole snow days in our current-hometown of Columbus. It only seemed fitting I whip out my crockpot to make some hearty beef stew, throw some apple cider in a pot on the stove, and shove my newborn into a snowsuit so we could play outside. There's nothing like coming in from the cold to a house that smells like heaven, and to unthaw your hands around a bowl of toasty stew!

You can smell it from there, can't you?

Ingredients:

* Small bag of baby carrots
* 1 onion, chopped
* 4-6 celery stalks, chopped
* 1 lb stew meat
* 7-8 small red potatoes
* 1 large carton beef stock
* 1 small can tomato paste
* salt and pepper to taste

To Do:

* Brown stew meat in a skillet on the stovetop. Drain excess juices.
* Throw stew meat and veggies into crockpot
* Mix enough beef broth to cover veggies and mix with tomato paste
* Pour liquid over meat and veggies in crockpot
* Cook 5-6 hours on high, or 7-8 hours on low