Creamy Southwestern Chicken Soup - Crock Pot Time!

Image from Google (unable to find Original)

Stop 3 is a CROCK POT soup – yaaahooo.

Creamy Southwestern Chicken Soup

Ingredients

1 Can of rotel

1 Can of Corn

1 Can of Black Beans (drained and rinsed)

2 Large Frozen Chicken Breasts

8oz Cream Cheese

1 Packet of Dry Ranch Dressing

1 tsp Cumin

2 tsp Onion Powder

2 tsp Chili Powder

2 Cups Chicken Broth

Salt to Taste

Directions

Throw everything in the crock pot, set to low and cook for 6-8 hours. Before serving pull out the chicken and shred. Mix it back in to the soup and serve.

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First, who doesn’t love a good crock pot recipe? The key is with it being good. I actually have this perpetual fear of crock pot recipes. I know, I’m weird… I just can’t feel comfortable having no control over a recipe until its done and little can be helped to save it. The original recipe for this had some definite differences, but the big problem being the original had no broth. If I would have let things be as the inspiration for this recipe said, it would have been taco or fajita mix, not soup and I wanted soup dang it! I think that’s my biggest fear with crock pot recipes are whether or not the liquid levels are what they need to be. Seasoning can sort of be adjusted but liquids, man o man you are SOL on that end. So that whole “Fix It & Forget It” mentality yaaaa that does not work for this girl… there is NO FORGETTING!

Well, after 6-8 hours of pure fear the soup was ready and I was just happy it was over. But then I was happy because this easy little number was delicious! I did take a whisk to it just to get everything nice and smooth. If you like your soup really soupy you may want to add more chicken broth, but you can wait till it's ready to add it in if you feel the need to wait and see.

But I would happily without too much anxiety make this recipe again and even double it!

Noming Score: 3.75/5

Herb Grilled Chicken with Creamy Broccoli Orzo

Original Recipe & Photo by Smells Like Home

2^nd Stop on the food tour of the week….

Herb Grilled Chicken with Creamy Broccoli Orzo

Ingredients

For the creamy broccoli orzo:

• 16 oz orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 ¼ cups plain fat-free or low-fat Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
• ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan plus extra for sprinkling
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup reserved pasta water

For the herb grilled chicken:

• 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ½-inch thickness
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp herbes de Provence
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid before draining.
2. Drizzle the olive oil over the chicken and season both sides with herbes de Provence, salt and pepper; set aside.
3. Heat the grill medium-high heat.
4. While the grill heats and right after you drop the orzo in the water, heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic, and saute until tender and fragrant, about 1 ½ minutes. Add the broth and tomatoes and scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan. Simmer the tomatoes until they are tender, about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Start grilling the chicken while the tomatoes cook, turning after 4-5 minutes and grilling for another 3-4 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165° F.
6. Stir the yogurt, cream and broccoli into the tomato mixture. Add the drained orzo and toss to coat. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the Parmesan to the pasta mixture and toss to coat. Stir the pasta mixture until the sauce coats the pasta thickly, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to maintain a creamy consistency. Season the orzo with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle on extra Parmesan, if desired. Serve with the grilled chicken.

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This is another recipe worthy of being on anyone’s table. 

Some small tweeks on my end included not having a shallot so instead adding extra garlic and half of a small/medium onion. I also ran out of greek yogurt in the process so ended up with a little less than the recipe required. Another small tweek was not having herbs de provence so I just threw some good ole herbs on it… thyme, oregano and rosemary which is the essentials of herbs de provence anyway, plus a little s&p for good measure. 

Big tweek wise – I steamed my broccoli ahead of time, not cooking it before hand just sounded wack to me. I then patted it dry and proceeded to give it a good chop on the cutting board in order to spread it more thoroughly throughout the orzo.

Logan loved this one and I love that I cooked an entire box of orzo so that it would be feeding him for more than one meal – HALLELUJAH! So yes the amount of orzo you will have cooked is enough for a school cafeteria, or one Logan – so be prepared. Logan says it reheats well, I couldn’t tell ya – I never really had a chance at a round two (wonder why).

So for an easy, yummy BIG meal this is definitely the way to go.

Noming Score: 3.5/5

Blackened Chicken & Cilantro Lime Quinoa

It’s been a make something new every day kind of week around here. So I’m about to plunder you with recipes and delicousness so hold on tight, and grab a bib if you are known to drool.

1^st up on the food tour is…

Blackened Chicken Breast and Cilantro Lime Quinoa with Greek Yogurt Avocado Puree

Original Recipe From Baking with Blondie.

Ingredients

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
½ Teaspoon of Paprika
¼ Teaspoon of Salt
¼ Teaspoon of Pepper
¼ Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
¼ Teaspoon of Onion Powder
¼ Teaspoon of Cumin
1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil
2 Cups of Low Sodium Chicken Stock
1 Cup of Quinoa
Juice and Zest from Two Limes
A Dash of Salt and Pepper
2 Tablespoons of Cilantro, chopped
2 Avocados
½ Small carton of Greek yogurt

 Teeny bit of milk to thicken sauce to desired consistency

Directions

Combine all the dry seasonings in a small bowl. Mix them together and then season both sides of each chicken breast. 

Add the teaspoon of olive oil to a large pan or skillet. Heat the olive oil for a minute over medium/high heat. Add the chicken breasts to the pan. Cook for seven minutes on each side with the lid on.

Add the chicken stock and quinoa to a medium sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium/low heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes with the lid on, until all the stock has been absorbed.

After the chicken breasts have cooked all the way through, remove them from the pan and let them rest for seven minutes before slicing them.

Add the warm quinoa to a large bowl. Toss in the lime zest, lime juice, salt and pepper, and chopped cilantro. Mix to combine.

Serve the sliced chicken breast on top of the quinoa. If you find the blackened seasoning too spicy, you can add a quick and easy avocado cream sauce to cool it down.

 *to make avocado sauce, combine avocado, greek yogurt, teaspoon of lemon juice and a little cilantro in a mini-food processor. Add milk to obtain desired consistency.

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Oooh baby was this yummy. The quinoa reminded me of Chipote’s rice which I could probably stuff my face with all on it’s own. But the tenderness and yumminess of the chicken with the quinoa snaps anyone right out of Chipotle’s rice dream world and into a delicious real life dinner. I opted out for the avocado sauce because I had purchased Trader Joe’s plain Greek yogurt which tasted very vanilla-y to me and was not realized until tasting the pureed avocado sauce. Promise it was plain, I double and triple checked out of pure astonishment of how vanilla this plain yogurt was. Logan persevered and repeatedly told me he couldn’t taste the vanilla-ness when he ate it with the quinoa and chicken, but I refused to succumb to the wrongness that Trader Joe’s had inflicted on me.

No changes to report with the exception of I used less cumin, as cumin and I are barely friendly with each other – I just hate the stuff honestly. But other than that this was delicious and for sure going to make an appearance on our table once again!

Noming Score: 4/5

Hibachi Noodles

Original Recipe & Photo from Best Veg

Alright, since we are long overdue I’ll get straight to it…

Hibachi Noodles

 

Ingredients

Japanese dried noodles (wound in circles)

1-tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

8 tablespoons splenda

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons pure sesame oil

1-teaspoon garlic chili

Directions

Cook noodles according to package directions.

In a jar combine the remaining ingredients and shake well to combine.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ½ the sauce to the hot pan, immediately add noodles, add remaining sauce, and toss well for 2 minutes.

Okay, so as always I had to make changes in part because I didn’t have these exact ingredients and also because I didn’t want to disappoint you :)

First, I bought Chinese Noodles aka Chow Mein Noodles because they were what looked best at the store I was in at the time. I’m pretty sure you could get away with any kind of noodle and I may even dare to say regular noodles (spaghetti) but I don’t want to lead you astray. Let’s see, I also used Sugar instead of Splenda because we do not use splenda and instead of Garlic Chili I opted for straight up garlic (2 large cloves per sauce batch) and some Siracha for a kick. Finally, as an unintended change I used toasted sesame oil because even though I went to the store to specifically buy NON toasted sesame oil I came home with toasted. Now before you blame me for not reading the label I did and it said “Natural Sesame Oil” no mention of toasted. Yet, when I poured the oil for the recipe I was like “Wow that’s pretty toasty smelling” so I rechecked the label and then read the ingredients… “Toasted Sesame Oil” – RATS!!

Oh last little change was that I made 1.5 times the sauce since we like our food pretty strong, and boy I’m glad I did!

The end product was goooooood stuff. It actually tasted like we ordered in! Ya – that good. Logan devoured his and said he could eat it again tomorrow. If you are a meat eater I would definitely see pairing this with some sesame beef for example… or you can be a little piggy like us and just eat a large bowl!

*On a side note: if you happen to go to the original location of any recipes, this recipe in particular is being advertised as Vegan-Friendly. I want to point out that this is NOT the case and in fact Oyster Sauce is anything but vegan. Just a heads up in case eating vegan is something you are looking for.

Noming Score: 3.5/5

Tuscan Tomato-Basil Cream Pasta & Gaaarrrlicc Bread (sort of)

Om nom nom nom… Om nom nom nom… Om nom nom nom. Oh sorry… I was uh remembering our dinner and fell into a food coma. It was such a wonderful food coma too!

Before I send you into your own food coma, I have to admit we ate our dinner on the floor tonight. We like to call times like these “picnics.” Sometimes we do this by choice, other nights – such as tonight, without much choice. You see, I have decided to take over the kitchen table with crafts. And once I get started crafting, well I’ll be at it for awhile – so you could say picnics are going to be pretty common around here for awhile. Oh well, Winston (our friendly household rabbit) sometimes likes to join us on the ground for our meals. Now and then he even brings his own noms – hay.

So even though we ate on the floor tonight Logan said he still felt “special” aww I know I’m amazing – go ahead you can say it. I really didn’t go out of my way and I cook every night so nothing was very special about this meal except for maybe how yummy it was. We had ourselves…

Tuscan Pasta with Tomato-Basil Cream

Original Recipe from My Recipes 

Ingredients

1 (20-oz.) package refrigerated four-cheese ravioli

1 (16-oz.) jar sun-dried tomato Alfredo sauce

2 tablespoons white wine

2 medium-size fresh tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Garnish: fresh basil strips

Preparation

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, pour Alfredo sauce into a medium saucepan. Pour wine into sauce jar; cover tightly, and shake well. Stir wine mixture into saucepan. Stir in chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup chopped basil, and cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Toss with pasta, and top evenly with 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Garnish, if desired.

Om nom nom nom… Om nom nom nom… Oh! Sorry!

This recipe is uber easy to make. I do recommend though going the extra step to buy quality tomatoes as they are definitely a big part of the flavoring. Now if you are like me and unable to find sun-dried tomato Alfredo after searching half a dozen stores – I’ve got the next best thing for ya… sun dried tomato paste! I got mine at Meijer – so no specialty stores needed for this one. Granted I will admit I bought pesto instead of paste and it all worked out in the end, but I would definitely go with paste if I would have reread the dang jar. I saw the price and a word starting with “p” so naturally because we are talking about me here, it was the wrong one. I would add maybe 1-2 Tbsp or more depending on taste and how much you love yourself some sundried tomatoes. Heck you can buy and cut some packed sundried tomatoes and throw them in. Just please buy the vacuum sealed and not the stored in oil ones… oil packed baaaaaaadddd!

As for the Alfredo you could also easily make your own, which really isn’t hard to do if you’ve never done it before and tastes a MILLION times better as well – but store bought worked for me tonight.

Only changes I made beside the previously mentioned, was salt & pepper to taste (which I feel does unsaid for every recipe on the planet) and I mixed my drained ravioli into my pan of sauce and let it cook for another 5 minutes to get the flavors melded a bit more.

To go with our meal I also roasted a few bulbs of garlic. If you haven’t hard roasted garlic on warm buttered bread you haven’t lived. It’s easily one of my top 5 favorite things to eat EVER!!!!!! It’s sooo simple too. How I do it is to…

Roasted Garlic on Buttered Warm Bread

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the tops off an entire bulb of garlic so just the top of the cloves are now exposed. Lightly brush olive oil on top and wrap in tin foil. Repeat for each bulb. Then simply throw into the oven. *If your bulbs are funky shaped or small you can place them (still wrapped in tin foil) into a muffin pan while they cook to keep them standing. Cook for approx. 30 minutes. You want them to be translucent and a little golden on top. 

Then butter your warmed bread and smear on some garlic lovin!

So if you haven’t figured it out by now dinner was nom nom gooood! And frankly I can’t wait to eat leftovers tomorrow because I know it will be even better!!

Noming Score: 4/5