Crockpot Noodle Casserole

This recipe is basically an adaptation of my Tuna Noodle Casserole recipe that I made in the crockpot and substituted chicken and turkey instead of tuna. It was an easy two-hour meal in my pressure cooker crockpot, and turned out tasty and filling. I didn't have fresh chicken handy, so I used a can of chicken and a can of turkey for the meat. I also used a can of roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup instead of plain, which gave it a wonderful savory flavor!

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk or 1 can of evaporated milk mixed with water
1 cup water
1 cup shredded cheddar or fiesta blend cheese, divided
3/4 cup peas, frozen or canned
Garlic powder, seasonings as desired
1 1/2 cup cooked chicken, turkey, or tuna
3 cups dry medium egg noodles

Mix the soup, milk, and water together in the crockpot. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese with the peas, seasoning, and meat, and mix thoroughly. Add the noodles and stir to cover the noodles with the liquid mixture. Cook on low setting for 4 hours or high setting for 2 hours. Check that the noodles are tender and most of the moisture is absorbed, if not cook longer. Top with the other 1/2 cup cheese and cook for another half hour. Serve and enjoy!

Crockpot Lasagna

One of my favorite sounds to hear is the tone of my hubby's voice when he tries a meal that I've made for the first time and likes it...actually LIKES it - not just okay, but good! I got one of those moments yesterday when I made lasagna in the crockpot, and though it was a little bit of work, it was definitely worth it for a meal that we both really enjoyed!

I used Barilla oven-ready lasagna noodles, which don't require cooking first - they absorb moisture and expand as the meal cooks. However, since they are flat instead of ridged like most lasagna noodles, I used a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs for the inside layers to give it a more interesting texture. You could always cook a pound of ground beef and mix it with regular spaghetti sauce for the inside layers, but this way was a lot simpler.

Ingredients:
1 15oz container ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
Dash garlic powder
1 jar meat-based spaghetti sauce
1 jar spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs
1 box Barilla oven-ready lasagne noodles
Mozzarella cheese

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and seasonings thoroughly. Set aside.

Pour enough of the meat sauce into the slow cooker to cover the bottom of the pot, about 1/3 of the jar. Lay noodles on top, breaking to fit the shape of the pot. Divide the ricotta mixture in half and smooth half of it evenly over the noodles. Place more noodles on top. Pour half of the jar of mini meatball sauce on top, making sure the meatballs are evenly distributed, and top with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Place more noodles on top, and repeat the ricotta and meatball layers. Place more noodles on top and pour the remaining meat sauce over them, ensuring that all the noodles are covered. Top with another layer of mozzarella.

My Farberware 7-in-1 cooked it in 2 hours on slow cooker setting, so a regular slow cooker could probably cook it in 3 hours on low setting. When noodles are soft, cheese is melted, and sauce is hot and firm, serve warm and enjoy!

Nacho Chicken Bowls

This recipe was birthed from a recipe I had planned to make in the oven during home time: baked chicken with a cheesy corn and bean sauce, to be served over taco rice. Instead, I ended up making it on the road, in the crockpot. It turned out much less visually aesthetic, but oh so yummy and very filling, which are the main requirements for food in our family. The first day we scooped it out of the pot and wrapped it in tortillas for burritos; the second day we warmed it up in bowls and added extra queso and fritos on top. Either way, it's delicious and easy!


Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can Rotel, partially drained
1 package dry taco-flavored rice
1 jar queso blanco sauce

Cut chicken into smaller pieces for faster cooking time, if desired. Place chicken in crockpot with corn, beans, and Rotel. Cook 2-4 hours or until chicken is completely cooked. Shred chicken, add rice and cook another hour, checking regularly and adding water if additional liquid is needed. About 10 minutes before serving, add queso blanco and stir thoroughly. Serve with tortillas, Fritos, or tortilla chips, and additional taco toppings if desired. Enjoy!

Chicken Enchiladas: Crockpot or Oven

I have been craving chicken enchiladas lately, but since my toaster oven is very unreliable, I had no way to bake them. Instead, I figured out how to make them in the crockpot!

I'm going to give you the base recipe and then directions to modify it for either crockpot or oven cooking. Keep in mind, the crockpot version gets kinda messy - I wouldn't serve it to company - but the flavors are oh so good!

The crockpot version is a little messy but so tasty!

Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup red or green salsa
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 jar queso blanco sauce, divided
1/2 package taco seasoning
1/2 package dry ranch mix
1 cup cheddar or monterrey jack cheese
1 pound cooked shredded chicken
Flour tortillas (3 for crockpot version, 8 for oven version)

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, salsa, soup, and 1/2 cup queso sauce together. Add seasonings and cheese and mix, then add chicken and mix thoroughly.

Crockpot:
Tear 3 tortillas into strips. Smooth a few spoonfuls of queso sauce on the bottom of the crockpot and lay one tortilla worth of strips on that. Pour half of the filling mixture on top, place more tortilla strips above it, and repeat with the other half. Pour the rest of the queso sauce on top and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Cook on low for about 2 hours and serve.

Oven:
Preheat oven to 375. Mist a casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and smooth a few spoonfuls of queso sauce on the bottom. Evenly divide the filling mixture between 6-8 tortillas, then roll into firm cylinders. Lay each tortilla roll in the dish with the seams down. Pour the rest of the queso sauce on top and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Bake about 30 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

Chicken Chili

After being out in snow and subzero temperatures this weekend, I came down with an unpleasant cold (is there any other kind?). Between the frigid weather and my sore throat, something warm and soft was definitely in order - and chicken chili hit the spot.

The nice thing about this recipe is its flexibility. Most of the ingredients are nonperishable, which means I can keep them on hand until I'm ready for them. It can also be made mild or spicy depending on your choice of ingredients. We use plain diced tomatoes, but using a can that contains chilies will add a zip to your chili.

 It can be made with raw or precooked chicken; simply adjust the cooking time appropriately. For raw chicken, plan to leave your crockpot on for 4-6 hours on high, or 7+ hours on low. For precooked chicken, however, an hour or two is plenty.

Also, if you're one of those people who is picky about leftovers, let me assure you that this chili is absolutely just as good the next day, or even better! The longer it sits, the more the flavors mingle and marry, resulting in leftovers that surpass the original concoction.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, raw or cooked
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can each: black beans, northern beans, and corn
1 8oz package of cream cheese
Dry taco seasoning
Dry ranch dressing mix
Optional: shredded cheddar cheese

Place the chicken in the crockpot and dump the can of tomatoes on top. Drain the excess fluid out of the beans and corn, then add to the crockpot. If using precooked chicken, add the cream cheese; if using raw chicken, wait till later. Add about half a package each of the taco seasoning and ranch mix. Stir everything together. For raw chicken, cook as directed above, and add cream cheese to the last hour of cooking. For precooked chicken, let all ingredients simmer about an hour. When ready to serve, stir thoroughly and garnish with shredded cheddar cheese on top. Enjoy!

Three Package Roast

Have you heard of the 3 package roast? It's a recipe that has been going around a lot lately and I decided to give it a try for our Christmas dinner. It came out great! The meat was tender and flavorful, and the juices were scrumptious. I'm a firm believer in plain buttered mashed potatoes, never ever any gravy, but I even poured some of the roast juices over my potatoes! The juices come out thin, but a little flour and cornstarch whisked in could easily make a delicious brown gravy.

A few quick notes before we begin. You can sear the sides of the roast before putting it in the crockpot if you like, but it isn't necessary. I didn't sear ours and it came out adequately tender. Also, it does not need salt - the mixture of seasonings in the packages are plenty. In fact, I recommend using low sodium versions, if available.

Christmas dinner

Ingredients:
1 3lb roast (any beef roast will work)
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1 package dry ranch mix
1 package dry brown gravy mix
2 cups water

Whisk together the 3 packages of seasonings and the water in the crockpot. Take the roast from its wrapping and rinse off any excess blood. Place the roast in the crockpot and use a spoon, ladle, or baster to thoroughly coat it in the seasoning mixture. Let cook on high for about 5-6 hours, basting it in the juices every hour and periodically flipping it over to ensure it cooks evenly. When it is tender enough to easily pierce with a fork, pull it out of the crockpot. Slice it, baste it in the juices, and serve. Enjoy!

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Crockpot Casserole

With colder weather setting in lately, we have been in the mood for comfort food. And I'm not sure what says "comfort food" better than chicken and rice, in a warm casserole-type dish. It's too thick to be called soup but too soft to be much else. If you find a better name for it, let me know!

On a side note, I used minute rice because it's easy to keep on the truck. You can use any brand of minute rice, or simply use cooked regular rice. Either way I'm sure it will be delicious! 

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breasts 

Can cream of chicken soup 

Can cream of cheddar soup

Dry ranch dressing mix 

Box of minute rice 

1 cup sour cream

Parmesan cheese to taste

Dab a little soup on the bottom of the crockpot. Lay chicken breasts on top and spoon the rest of both cans of soup on top, sprinkling in the dry ranch mix. Let cook in crockpot 3 hours on high, or whatever your crockpot needs to thoroughly cook chicken, while stirring occasionally. About half an hour before serving, use a fork or spatula to shred the chicken. Add the rice and sour cream and mix everything together. Let cook for another half hour to warm the rice. Serve and top with parmesan cheese. Enjoy! 

Easy Crockpot Ham

Our Thanksgiving was spent on the road, in the truck...but together, which is the most important thing! There is much that we have to be thankful for. I'm also thankful for the ability to cook for us in the truck. It is usually a challenge, but I have found ways to modify recipes and adjust cooking times to match the resources I have available. And of course, Thanksgiving was no different. We used pre-packaged Bob Evans mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, picked up at WalMart (which I highly recommend, by the way! Very tasty and they keep well for a few weeks - something that is important when you visit a grocery store only once a month!).

Thanksgiving dinner

In an effort to have something special for the holiday, I decided to cook a quarter ham in the crockpot. Well, technically it's a 7-in-1 cooker, but it has a slow cooker function. Anyway, after a bit of research, and borrowing brown sugar from my mother (quite conveniently, we were sent to California about a week before Thanksgiving!), I decided to give it a go. The result...super amazingness. It was wonderful served hot on Thanksgiving, and it was great cold as sandwiches for the next week. It stayed moist and tender...in short, the perfect, easy ham!

Quick note: make sure it is a sliced, fully cooked ham that simply needs to be warmed up. If it is an uncooked ham, a quick Google search should reveal easy cooking methods.

Ingredients:
1 quarter ham
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar

Spoon about a quarter of the applesauce on the bottom of the crockpot and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top. Add the ham, rind side up, and allow any juices in the package to run into the crockpot. Spoon the rest of the applesauce over the top of the ham and add the rest of the brown sugar. Let the crockpot cook for about 3 hours, periodically spooning more sauce over the top of the ham to keep it moist. When fully warm, separate the slices and make sure each slice gets dipped in the sauce as you serve it, to keep it moist. Enjoy!

Salsa Taco Chicken

Another easy recipe for the road - or anyone with a crockpot who likes easy, no fuss meals! This recipe is very similar to the Shredded BBQ Chicken. It can be easily modified by using mild or spicy salsa and taco mix, and adding whatever toppings you like to the finished product. I highly recommend wrapping it in tortillas and adding cheddar cheese, sour cream, and taco veggies!

Ingredients:
1 jar salsa, any flavor
1 packet taco seasoning
2-4 chicken breasts

Pour about a quarter of the salsa jar into the crockpot and sprinkle a quarter of the taco seasoning. Lay the chicken breasts on top. Cover with salsa and taco seasoning, adding salsa and seasoning between layers if layering is necessary. For 2 chicken breasts, half of the jar of salsa and half of the taco seasoning is sufficient; for 4 breasts, use all of it.

On a crockpot, use the low setting for 2 hours or the high setting for 45 minutes. On our Farberware 7-in-1, the chicken setting pressure cooks the chicken in 25 minutes. Once thoroughly cooked, use a fork or spatula to shred or chunk the chicken. Stir it in the salsa seasoning mix and let simmer another few minutes to absorb more of the sauce. Taco night, here we come!

Shredded BBQ Chicken

I'm all about simple recipes, and this one may be the easiest I've posted yet. Though it is easy, it is delicious! Whether at home in a crockpot or on the road in our Farberware 7-in-1, the smell of cooking will have you drooling by the time it's ready.

You ready for this?

Ingredients:
1 small bottle Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce
3 chicken breasts or 6-8 chicken tenders, raw boneless
Any other seasonings desired

Squirt sauce around the bottom of the pot until it is nearly covered. Lay raw chicken on top. If you need to layer chicken, squirt sauce between layers. Squirt more sauce on top to nearly cover the chicken. I usually use about 3/4 of the bottle altogether.

That's really it, folks. Use the low setting on the crockpot for a couple hours, the high setting or the chicken setting on the 7-in-1 for 30 minutes. Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, shred the chicken (still inside the pot), stir in the sauce, and let simmer another 15 minutes. It will absorb a lot of sauce!

Serve over rice or with pasta. It's a little sloppy for sandwiches but a piece of bread to sop up the sauce always helps!

Pork Chops and Potatoes

For my first time cooking on the road, I decided to make a very simple recipe - just 4 ingredients! It turned out perfect. The potatoes were tender, the meat was falling apart, and I was drooling after 2.5 hours of driving while smelling it cooking!

I used my trainer's Roadpro Lunchbox cooker, but it can easily be made in a crockpot, or even in the oven at home. This serves 2, so feel free to double as needed.


Ingredients:
2 pork chops
3-4 small red potatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 package garlic and herb dry salad dressing mix
Splash water

Scoop a third of the can of soup onto the bottom of a meatloaf sized foil baking pan, splash a little water, and sprinkle some of the dry soup mix. Place pork chops on top and repeat the soup and dry mix. Clean potatoes (I leave skins on) and chop into bite-sized pieces, and place on top. Add the rest of the soup and dry mix and another splash of water.

In a lunchbox cooker, 2.5 hours (checking every hour) was perfect. For crockpot or oven cooking, check every half hour. When potatoes are tender, sauce is thick and bubbly, and pork chops are cooked through, stir and serve.