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Chicken Salsa in the Crock Pot

June 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Setting up my menu this week, I knew that I had a package of thin sliced chicken breast that I needed to use.  Also knowing that the weather forecast called for brutally hot temperatures, and still dealing with my very own “Hell’s Kitchen”, I really wanted to use the crockpot. I used my old friend Google and found the most ridiculously easy recipe I have ever seen in my life.  It called for a jar of salsa and a package of chicken breast, tossed into the crock pot and cooked on low.  And while I usually eschew jarred anything, there is one condiment that I almost never make myself and that’s simple salsa.  In our supermarket there is a refrigerated salsa that they stock in the produce department.  It’s always 2 for $5 and it’s so delicious that I really find it hard to make it homemade. It’s called La Mexicana and it’s so fresh and delicious that people don’t believe me when I say I didn’t make it myself. You’re welcome.

chixsalsasals 300x249 Chicken Salsa in the Crock Pot

I decided that we’d make this a sort of “deconstructed chicken taco salad”.

You’ll need:

  • 1 package of chicken breasts (I used thin sliced, there were about 6-7 cutlets)
  • Approximately 24 oz. of salsa (jarred or home made), as long as you have enough liquid to cover the chicken, you’re good to go.
  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 2 small tomatoes
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 head of iceberg lettuce, shredded
  • sourcream

I put half of a container of salsa on the bottom of the crock pot, added the chicken and poured the rest of the salsa over the top.  I thought that it didn’t look like enough, so I used half of another container as well.

chixsalscrck 300x200 Chicken Salsa in the Crock Pot

I set the crock pot on low, timed it for 6 hours and forgot about it.  That’s a lie right there.  I can’t forget anything that’s cooking for six hours, so every so often I would check on it to make sure it wasn’t drying out.  It didn’t, I could have forgotten about it.  Again, lying… you might be able to forget about it.  Me? not so much.

When the chicken is done, turn off the crock pot and let it sit.

There is a lot of controversy in guacamole. Personally, I think however you like it is the right way to make it, but I will say that I was taught to make guacamole as well as margaritas in quite possibly the best Mexican restaurant on the planet;  El Mariachi in Rockville Centre, NY.  So, mine’s good.  That’s all I’m saying. *Disclaimer, that was 173 years ago, I have no idea if the same people own it today as I live 3 million miles from there and as such, have no idea if it’s still good.  My friend Jill might chime in in the comments though, so look there.
Hi Jill! :heart:

Cut and peel the avocados (here’s a great tutorial)  and mash with a fork. Chunky is good, don’t get hung up on it being completely smooth. Dice the onion and tomato, and lightly toss it in, squeeze the lemon on top and toss once more.

Transfer the chicken and liquid to a glass dish and shred the chicken with two forks right in the bowl.

On each plate, put a pile of lettuce, spoon some chicken and liquid over the lettuce, spoon guacamole and sour cream onto plate and eat.  So easy, so delicious.

chixsalsaplate 300x217 Chicken Salsa in the Crock Pot



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Tomato Sauce

June 7, 2009 By 1 Comment

I know this isn’t going to be a popular thing to say, but I’m not a huge fan of the cook all day tomato sauce and don’t hate me, but I don’t even like meat sauce… I know! Terrible right? However, there’s nothing better than a quick tomato sauce and it’s so versatile! I’m going to illustrate that here, by making a dinner for four and then lunches for my husband for the rest of the week. Ready? Here we go! Hint: It’s cheap too!

Ingredients for quick tomato sauce:

2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 small onions chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 32 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato paste
1 lb. linguini
Dried red pepper flakes (optional – to taste)
freshly grated parm. cheese (we used locatelli)

Additional ingredients to make lunches:

2 lb. mixed pasta
1 32 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 package frozen okra

Heat a medium pan on med. high.  When hot, add the olive oil.  When it “ribbons” add the onion and cook till it’s glossy and translucent.

sceonion 300x204 Tomato Sauce

add the garlic and saute for a minute or two, basically until it smells so good you can’t stand it.   Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and pepper flakes and let cook for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare the linguine according package directions.

scepan 300x199 Tomato Sauce

Drain the pasta and separate into bowls, spoon some sauce on top, sprinkle with cheese and enjoy!  Add a salad and easily feed a family of four.

scedish 300x199 Tomato Sauce

Put up another pot of salted water to boil, add the other can of tomatoes to the sauce and add prepare the mixed pasta according to directions.  You can use whatever you like, but my husband found DeCicco pasta misto for very cheap, so we used that.  2 minutes before time’s up, add the frozen okra.  Cook till done and drain.

sceokra 300x199 Tomato Sauce

Transfer to a large bowl and pour the sauce over the pasta and okra.  Combine.  Let cool and transfer to storage containers.

scelunch 300x199 Tomato SauceSo what did we spend? Less than $10 for dinner and lunches.  And it’s really delicious.



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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, Healthy, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , ,

Soup or Stew or Stoup in the Crockpot

May 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago we roasted a couple of chickens for the husband’s lunches.  When he had taken all the meat off the bone, we decided to make stock in our effort to be more frugal.  We used rosemary, carrots, onions, etc. and we were very proud of ourselves, we skimmed off the fat, let it cool, put it in containers and froze it. I put it in the fridge last night so that I could make soup today – for the very first time, I might add.  I had planned a vegetable/noodle soup in the chicken stock but it didn’t quite work out that way.

I chopped a bunch of celery, three onions and some baby carrots and put them into the crockpot.  I took the chicken stock out of the fridge and was a little dismayed to see so much fat in it.  I opened the lid and didn’t like the way it smelled, so unfortunately I had to toss it.  If you knew how much I hate waste, you’d know how hard that was for me.  But I don’t ever take a chance with food, if I’m a little iffy about it.

What to do?

I already had a beautiful trinity of carrots, onions and celery and I was determined to have soup on this rainy, chilly, lazy day.

stoupveg 300x198 Soup or Stew or Stoup in the Crockpot

I opened the pantry and saw that I only had one container of chicken broth, I poured it over the vegetables, but it barely covered them.  Hmm. With an adventurous spirit, I grabbed a bunch of stuff and decided to just play. Here’s what I did.

1 package of chicken broth 32 oz. (or homemade if you’re better at that than I am)
2 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
1 bunch of celery, washed, trimmed, chopped
Carrots – I used baby carrots, about 20 of them, sliced
3 med. onions chopped
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 big pinches of dried parsley
1 box of Ditalini

Put carrots, onion, celery, chicken broth, and tomatoes in crock pot.  Set it on high and let it cook for an hour.  After an hour, add the garlic powder and parsley. Let cook for 4 hours.

From the research I did, most of what I read said to cook the pasta in a separate pot and then add to the soup, but to me that sort of seemed like it defeated the purpose of the crock pot.  This is supposed to be a one pot meal, right?  So I added the pasta – still keeping the setting on high and after about 15 minutes, the pasta was done, but you couldn’t really call it “soup” anymore.  I set the crockpot on warm, stirred it and then decided what to do next.  There were a couple of different ideas, but I decided to just plate it, add some salt and pepper, grate some parmesan cheese on top, and eat it.

stoup 300x214 Soup or Stew or Stoup in the Crockpot

It was delicious.

Perfect if you have small children or aren’t a huge fan of spicy foods.  Next time I think I’m going to chop fresh garlic into the vegetables at the beginning and maybe add some hot sauce.  And instead of parm, maybe sour cream… and a handful of fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime.  There are so many things you could do with this.

Eating it is the best thing to with it though. :tongue:



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Filed Under: Crockpot, Easy Dinner, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , ,

Southwest Pasta Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing

May 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Chipotle Ranch Dressing:
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 scallion, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoon white vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
About 15 shakes of Chipotle Tabasco sauce (use more or less to taste)
Mash the garlic and salt to a paste, we used a mortar and pestle, but you can use the side of a knife too.

swpassalgarl1 Southwest Pasta Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing

In a medium plastic container, whisk together the garlic, mayonnaise, buttermilk, parsley, chives, scallion, vinegar and pepper to taste. If the dressing is too thick, add a little more of the buttermilk.  Add the tabasco to taste.  Hint: If you make sure that all of the ingredients are really cold, then tasting it will yield a better idea of adjustments.  Tasting it a little bit warm, it’s not as good.  Close the container and put in the refrigerator to combine the flavors for at least an hour.

swpassalranch1 Southwest Pasta Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Pasta Salad:
3 lbs. Gemelli pasta (or whatever you like, I find that the Gemelli is hearty enough to stand up to this)
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced (if tomatoes are in season, use whatever you have on hand)
1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 big handful of fresh chopped parsley
1 bunch scallions chopped.

Cook the pasta according to directions, then rinse and cool (I just run cold water over it) and drain thouroghly.  Add all the ingredients to a very large plastic container (I buy the rubbermaid containers at the supermarket whenever they’re on sale).  Add the dressing and toss thoroughly to combine.  I like to put the salad in the fridge for a bit to chill a little, but you could certainly serve it at this point.  Serves a whole lot of people and hold up very well for up to 3 days in the fridge.

swpassal1 Southwest Pasta Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing

This recipe can be halved, doubled, tripled, whatever you need, it translates very well.



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Filed Under: All, Condiments, Easy Dinner, Party Food, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , ,

All Kids Hate Vegetables

April 21, 2009 By 6 Comments

At least that’s what Chef Boyardee would have you believe.

This annoys me on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.  Yes, I’m aware that it’s only a commercial, and that Chef Boyardee is not evil.  Believe it or not, I actually let my children eat this once in a while, but the whole idea about kids refusing to eat it if they ever found out there were vegetables in it is insane.  Guess what.  Kids like vegetables.  At least, all the kids I know do.  Of course not everyone likes every vegetable (or any anything for that matter), but this blanket statement is the crux of our children’s health issues, of our nation’s health issues if I might be so bold.  The fact is, young tastebuds need to try things on average of five times before they become accustomed to the taste. We start out with about 10,000 taste buds and by the age of 60, we’re down to less than 7000, making  the younger palette more sensitive and therefore more apt to turn away from strongly flavored foods.  Training your child to eat a well balanced diet is not hard, however and will be one of the most beneficial things you ever do for him or her and for the whole family.

The more I thought about this, the more I realized that there is a bit of an art to getting your family eating well.  I hope that the suggestions here help a family or two with this struggle.

  • Start slowly and whatever you do, don’t make a big deal about it.  In our house, we have a rule about dinner.  You don’t have to clean your plate, but you must try everything. Just a bite.  If you don’t like it, don’t eat it, but I won’t be making a special meal for anyone, so eat or starve, the end.
  • Start with the easy vegetables: tomatoes, carrots, corn, gradually add the stronger flavored ones into the mix.
  • Toss green vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, spinach) into pasta with a garlic and oil saute.
  • roast potatoes with green beans  and quartered onions- drizzle a little olive oil on raw veggies, add salt, toss and put in a 400 degree oven for an hour.  They come out crispy and sweet and delicious – experiment with other roasted vegetables.
  • pasta salad – this is the easiest way to get kids eating veggies.  I use whole grain pasta and make my own vinaigrette for the healthiest version. (Ex. Virgin Olive Oil, white balsamic vinegar, shallot and a little honey) We put in tomato, scallion, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, celery, asparagus, etc.  blanch or steam the broccoli, carrots,  and asparagus.
  • Use the internet, find recipes that interest you.  Subscribe to a food blog or two, expand your horizons.  A Veggie Venture, A Year of Crockpotting, Cleaner Plate Club, Smitten Kitchen, The Amateur Gormet and Thursday Night Smackdown are a few of my favorites, but visit Alltop for the mother lode of food blogs.

See?  That’s not so scary, right? It’s so worth it.  I mean who wants to find a delicious looking recipe only to not be able to try it because your kids won’t eat it?  And that whole making two separate dinners thing?  Who has time for that? I won’t even address the idea of making purees and hiding them in brownies.  That’s just wrong.

A final note about the commercial.  How old is that kid that he can’t read the label sitting right next to his plate, for himself?



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