Chicken Noodle Soup

I love soup in the winter. Actually, I like soup all year round, it just feels cozier in the winter. I came across a recipe for chicken noodle soup and made just a couple of changes to jazz it up a touch.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cans chicken, drained (I use Member's Mark from Sam's Club) (if you use small cans, use 3)
26 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 boxes chicken broth
1 cup celery, sliced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch rosemary (rub between fingers to break up)
1 package egg noodles

Place all ingredients except noodles in crock pot, stir well and cook on High for 2 hours or on Low for 4 hours.

Cook your noodles separately and add when soup is done.

* I like to add noodles to each bowl instead of into the soup. This prevents the leftovers from having mushy noodles and also not everyone likes the same amount of noodles. You can also use rice (our favorite). I use the brown and wild rice mix from Whole Foods in their bin area.  Change things up for variety. Try using leftover rotisserie chicken. Try putting in some of the wonderful dried mushrooms from Whole Foods. (Rehydrate first). Make it yours! Enjoy!

Fran's Eggplant Casserole

Before I retired I worked in an all female accounting office. We all loved to cook and some loved to bake so we had potluck office meals fairly often. This dish started out as a simple casserole of my boss, Fran. As the recipe got passed around, almost everyone added something to it or made a variation of it. So it ended up being a potluck dish! I love it and every time if cook it, the house smells wonderful!

Fran's Eggplant Casserole

1 whole eggplant, peeled and sliced thin
3 zucchini, scrubbed and sliced
3 yellow squash, scrubbed and sliced
6-8 ounces sliced mushrooms, canned or fresh
1 bell pepper, chopped (use any color you want)
15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
Parmesan cheese (non-vegan), optional OR
nutritional yeast (vegan), optional

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray cookie sheet with Pam, spread eggplant slices, and spray slices with Pam. Bake for 15 minutes to help tenderize the eggplant.

Prepare the other vegetables and place in oven-proof casserole dish. When the eggplant is ready, place in casserole dish and mix with the other vegetables. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a dash of red pepper. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast, if using. Cover and bake at 350F for 1 hour, until vegetables are tender.

Notes: 1. You can use flavored diced tomatoes and any other seasonings you wish to vary the dish. For example, use basil, oregano tomatoes and Italian seasoning (my favorite), or chili powder and Rotele tomatoes for Mexican, etc. Greek would be good too!
2. This is easy to make in the crockpot. Place all ingredients in the crockpot, stir, cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Chicken Stew

I had plans the other afternoon and knew I wasn't going to feel like cooking when I got home. So my first thought was...crockpot! What else?!? So look through my cookbooks. Here's a good one...nope, don't want that. There's a good one...don't have all the ingredients. {sigh} What to do? I know! I'll pretend I'm my Mom and dump stuff into the crockpot and see what comes out! Well, what came out was chicken stew! So delicious that I just have to share it!

Chicken Stew

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (can be frozen)
frozen corn
frozen baby carrots (or fresh)
onions (frozen or fresh)
frozen sliced mixed peppers
2 cups chicken broth
1 envelope beef bouillon (I use Herb-Ox sodium free)
1 capful of Kitchen Bouquet
salt, black pepper, garlic powder to taste

Place chicken in the crockpot then put vegetables on top. If you want different veggies or more veggies, go for it! These are what I had in the freezer, so that's what went in the stew. Add the chicken broth (I just made mine from a couple of packages of chicken bouillon), the beef bouillon and the Kitchen Bouquet. Stir.

Set crockpot for high for 1-2 hours, then turn down to low for the rest of the day. When you're ready to eat, if you want to thicken the gravy, turn the crockpot up to high and add a little cornstarch (mixed in cold water). Stir while it thickens. We enjoy juicy gravies, so I didn't thicken mine.

Salsa Meatballs

Looking for something to take to the Superbowl party? Want to make sure you have a protein to eat? I got your back! Salsa meatballs! They are so yummy and so filling! Are you ready for some football (and meatballs)?!!!

While we're on the subject of Superbowl parties, here's a couple of hints for you.

   1. Look at all the food available before you put even one thing on your plate. Then decide what you really want and take a small amount of just a few things.
   2. Remember to eat mindfully. Have a great time, but remember that you are consuming food and that the calories, fats, and carbs will still count even though you are watching THE GAME.
   3. Remember to have fun; don't let the fear of dealing with all that food throw you. It's a buffet...choose what you want to eat and enjoy yourself! Then leave the food alone!

Salsa Meatballs

1 package frozen meatballs (about 64)
1  12-16 ounce jar salsa
1 jar sugar free peach preserves (I use Smucker's)

Put preserves in a small saucepan and turn fire to medium low. When preserves start to melt, add the salsa. Cook for a couple of minutes until preserves are melted and mixed well with the salsa.

Add the meatballs to the crockpot and pour the sauce on top. Stir to mix. Cook on low 8-10 hours or on high about 5 hours.

Keep warm in the crockpot during the party and be sure to root for the winning team!!!

Crockpot Mushroom Chicken

Busy times for women call for choices...1) eating out, 2) a husband and/or children who will cook dinner, 3) a crockpot, 4) a pressure cooker. I utilize all of the above. Today we're gonna talk about crockpots. I don't know who invented them, but they were a genius and I hope they are living in luxury somewhere. Is there anyone in America who doesn't have at least one? I have three! I know the newest thing is digital and yes, they are really cool looking. That's one of my three. But if I had known then what I know now, I would not have bought it. I thought that since it was digital, you could set it to go from high to low to warm. Not so. I still had to be home to turn it to a different temperature. The digital was really just a fancy timer. Set how many hours to cook at which temperature. It would countdown then just shut off. That's not what I needed! And I had stuff actually burn in my crockpot. They seem to be getting hotter and hotter the last few years. So I got tired of that and got a new one.  Love it! It cooks low and slow! No more burned food in the crockpot! Yea!!! I still have to turn the knob to a different temperature, but at least if I leave it on low all day it won't burn!

Well, now that I've finished my "rant" about crockpots, how about we talk recipe. I was looking around the BariatricEating.com message group and "Mark from Chicago" mentioned he had this in the crockpot and was looking forward to dinner that night. Well, you know of course that I immediately wrote to him asking for the recipe. So here it is! And believe me when I tell you that it is so delicious it will make you drool!
                    
Crockpot Mushroom Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 medium onion , chopped
8 ounces canned mushrooms (I slice up a few baby portobellas)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup

Combine ingredients in crockpot and cook on low all day.