Slow Cooker Sundays: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Do you need a really good, really easy appetizer idea? Look no further because this recipe was fantastic!

I really love spinach artichoke dip. My family calls it Spin Dip for short. When we go out to eat and want an appetizer we usually order spin dip. We’ve bought spin dip from the stores, but there’s always something a little off. They either didn’t drain the spinach, there’s too much artichoke, too much cream cheese, etc. ok ok enough about me and my family. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

• 9 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 (14 oz) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
• 8 oz cream cheese – low fat works great
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of dried onion flakes
• 1/4 cup milk
• pinch of pepper and salt

Directions

• Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on high for one hour.
• After first hour, stir ingredients together.

Tips

• Cut up artichokes before adding to the crock pot. Even quartered they are pretty big.
• Squeeze out as much juice from the spinach as possible.
• Add extra milk to make it more creamy. I added 1/3 instead of the 1/4 at the start and added about another 1/4 cup after the first hour.
• Add extra Parmesan on top before serving. I thought there was plenty without adding more.

Bonus

• There were only two of us eating this so we had a lot of leftovers. The next night we grilled some chicken, put it on some toasted sourdough and topped the chicken with leftover spin dip. Fantastic!

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A+		Shouldn’t cost more than $10. Makes a pretty good sized batch.		Prep: 5 MinutesCook: 2 hours
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
Chop up artichokes before adding them. Even though the can is already quartered it’s still pretty big.
Overall Impression:
YUM! Just how I love my spin dip. We’ll be bookmarking this recipe and using it quite a lot in the future.

Football Season – Mexican Chicken in the Crockpot

Yesterday I meant to make some tacos for dinner. Once I got home from the food store my boyfriend and I decided that neither of us really felt like putting in the effort to cook. What’s that you say? “Sounds like our house”?

That takes me to Sunday. Who wants to cook on Sundays? NOT I. That’s why we have our segment: Slow Cooker Sundays. I’ve had pinned for awhile this recipe for Mexican Chicken. The instructions say that it can all be made in the crock-pot but the original recipe has it cooking in the oven. I decided to throw the ingredients in the crock pot and hope for the best.

Mexican Chicken: Chicken, Enchilada Sauce, Green Onion, Cheddar Cheese

Original Recipe with Oven Instructions:

MEXICAN CHICKEN
1 pound boneless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Seasoning for Tacos
Salt, to taste
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
3 green onions, chopped

Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with taco seasoning; grill or sauté. Cut the chicken into cubes and place in a greased 8×8″ baking dish; season with salt to taste. Add the enchilada sauce and toss to coat the chicken. Sprinkle the cheese over the chicken and bake at 350º for 10-20 minutes, until hot and bubbly. Scatter the green onions over the top.

Makes 4 servings
Can be frozen

Per Serving: 266 Calories; 12g Fat; 33g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

This makes a simple, tasty supper. It would be especially easy if you had leftover cooked chicken. I served this with Mexican “Rice”.

Altered Recipe in Slow Cooker:

Throw chicken, taco seasoning and enchilada sauce into slow cooker. I doubled this to keep the chicken moist. Cook on high 4 hours. Shred Chicken and stir back into sauce mixture. Once fully stirred, add green onions, cheese, and turn slow cooker to low. Let cook until cheese is melted.

Scoop onto tacos and enjoy!

Things I learned: Make sure the chicken is covered. I have a tall crockpot, so the chicken was sticking out from the sauce. Halfway through I needed to flip the chicken for the other side to cook. I also had to add more enchilada sauce than it called for. It barely covered the chicken.

Result: nothing like the picture. In fact it was pretty disappointing. I wish I had just followed the regular directions and not made in it the slow cooker.

RATING BELOW IS FOR ALTERED SLOW COOKER RECIPE

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
D		I just needed Green onions. This doesn’t cost much.		Cook time: 4 hours High 1 hour low.
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
Follow the original recipe. SKIP the slow cooker version.
Overall Impression:
Very disappointing. The taste was alright but I found it more of a hassle to make the slow cooker version than if I followed the original recipe.

Slow Cooker Sundays – Chicken Stroganoff

Grab those crockpots! It’s time for a new edition of Slow Cooker Sundays!

Today I bring you: Chicken Stroganoff. When I pinned this it came with the tagline “HEALTHY”. BAHAHAHAHA! Who are they trying to kid?… Take a look at the ingredients and judge for yourself how “healthy” this is.

• 1 can Campbell’s 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
• 16 oz fat free sour cream
• 1 envelope of Lipton onion soup mix
• 1 lb of frozen boneless skinless chicken breast

Alright, now that we have that out of the way it’s time to look at this as a great comfort food on a cold day to be eaten sparingly. Maybe once a month. Like all slow cooker recipies, this one is really easy to make. It’s also great for tight budgets.

1. Put chicken breast in crockpot.
2. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl and pour over chicken.
3. Cook on low for 7 hours.
4. Shred the chicken and stir back into sauce.
5. Serve over egg noodles.

This recipe is delicious! Perfect on a cold day, but it CAN use some changes. I let it cook all day and while the sauce was good it needed something else. I felt like the sour cream was in your face. It was just too tart for my liking. My dad puts Worcestershire sauce in the beef stroganoff he makes at home. I added about a tablespoon to this recipe and thought it really improved it. It cut in half that tart taste of the sour cream.

Another thing I would change is adding more chicken. We only had 4 chicken breasts left. It just wasn’t enough. The sour cream and soup make for a lot of liquid. I prefer to have almost equal amounts chicken to mixture. This was more like 1/4 chicken and 3/4 mixture. Maybe 6 chicken breasts would be a better amount.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
B+		approx $5 for sour cream and Lipton soup mix		7 hours on low
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
Add some worchestershire sauce. The sour cream is just a little TOO tart. Perhaps a little ketchup too? Trust me on that. We add both to a beef recipe we make and it’s perfect! I’d also add more chicken and maybe throw in some mushrooms with this.
Overall Impression:
Good but just a little off. That may be personal preference. A few changes and it’s perfect. It’s just want you need on a cold day when you’re looking for something different as comfort food.

 

Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff

This past weekend I was crazy busy. I needed a dinner recipe that was quick and easy to make. I looked on my Slow Cooker recipies board and found this gem: Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff. It has the comment “This is to DIE FOR!!!!!”. I was sold.

Ingredients:

• 1 can Campbell’s 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
• 16 oz fat free sour cream
• 1 envelope of Lipton onion soup mix
• 1 lb of frozen boneless skinless chicken breast

Directions:

Put Chicken in the Crock Pot

Mix all other Ingredients together and cover chicken.

Cook on Low for 7 hours.

Shred the chicken. Stir back in sauce and serve over pasta. We used egg noodles like the original recipe.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A+		<$10 (we had everything)		Prep: 2 Minutes Cook: 7 hours on Low
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
Find a low salt version of the lipton soup mix or a low sodium of the soup mix. All we had was regular.
Overall Impression:
It was pretty salty. If you could find one of the ingredients with low sodium it’d be perfect. I basically was perfect. Everyone wanted more and we all ate way too much. Even looking at this picture again makes my mouth water.

SCS – Balsamic Chicken

We were looking for a healthy dinner meal that was “different” from the usual foods we’ve been eating. I happened upon a list of 10 healthy slow cooker meals. We unanimously agreed that the balsamic chicken sounded delicious.

Balsamic Chicken Recipe

Yields 10 Cups | Serving size: 1 Cup | Calories: 190 | Previous Points: 4 | Points Plus: 4 | Fat: 6g | Saturated fat: 1 g | Trans fat: 0 g | Cholesterol: 53 mg | Sodium: 121 mg | Carbohydrate: 5 g | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 3 g | Protein 26 g

Ingredients

• 4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 40 ounces)
• 2 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced (Not chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (for gluten-free use White Balsamic Vinegar which doesn’t have caramel coloring)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp each: dried oregano, basil, and rosemary
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• ground black pepper and salt to taste

Directions

Pour the olive oil on bottom of slow cooker, and add chicken breasts.

salt and pepper each breast, put sliced onion on top of chicken then put in all the dried herbs and garlic cloves.

Pour in vinegar and top with tomatoes.

Cook on high 4 hours, serve over angel hair pasta. We were out of spaghetti so we used mostaccioli.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A		Free for me. If you have the basics, it shouldn’t cost much		Prep: <10 Minutes Cooking: 4 Hours High
Level of Difficulty:
Easy.
What I Would Change:
Eat with a piece of bread.
Overall Impression:
Very flavorful. We all really enjoyed this. I wish I had a piece of bread to eat with it. We would make this again.

SCS – Spinach and Tortellini Soup

I’ve hijacked Katie’s Slow Cooker Sundays once again! This time I wanted to make some spinach and tortellini soup. We had nearly everything and this looked too delicious to pass up!

Ingredients:

• 1-1 1/2 - 2 ounce envelope white sauce mix

• 4 cups water

• 1-14 ounce can vegetable broth

• 1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

• 1/2 cup chopped onion

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1- 7 or 8 ounce package dried cheese tortellini (about 2 cups)

• 1-12 ounce can evaporated milk

• 6 cups fresh baby spinach leaves or torn spinach

• Ground black pepper (optional)

• Finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:
1. Place dry white sauce mix in a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker. 
   Gradually add the water to the white sauce mix, stirring until smooth. 
   Stir in broth, mushrooms, onion, garlic, basil, salt, oregano, and cayenne pepper.
2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.
3. Stir in dried tortellini. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 1 hour more or high-heat setting for 
   45 minutes more.
4. Stir in evaporated milk and fresh spinach. If desired, sprinkle individual servings with black pepper
   and Parmesan cheese. 
   Makes 4 servings.

I had no luck finding the white sauce required. When I googled it, it said a country gravy is a great alternative, but chicken gravy also works well. Someone even suggested making your own white sauce mix. White sauce is just nonfat dry milk powder, flour, salt, butter/margarine/oil (optional, especially if you want to store it), and white pepper. I used this recipe to make it.

Measure 4 cups of water for the mix.

Mix together the white sauce (1 1/2-2 oz) and the water.

Add in the can of vegetable oil.

Then add in the 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms.

Add in 1/2 cup chopped onion, and 1/2 teaspoon dried basil.

Add in 3 cloves minced garlic (if you buy the jar, one clove is approx 1/2 teaspoon)

Add 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Add 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano.

Add in the 7 or 8 ox package of dried tortellini.

Once the tortellini has cooked for 1 hour on high, or 45 minutes on low, add 1 12oz can of evaporated milk.

Measure out 6 cups of baby spinach, or torn regular spinach leaves. Be sure to rinse it off before adding to the mix.

Add the 6 cups of spinach leaves to the soup and let simmer. We left for about 15 minutes.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A-		We had most of the basics. If you have all the spices and basics, it should be less than $10		4-6 Hours
Level of Difficulty:
Medium (There are a lot of steps)
What I Would Change:
Add more salt or pepper.
Overall Impression:
It was very good, but my family felt it was a little bland. I could really taste the dry milk. I would like to add all these ingredients and make it more into a pasta sauce and traditional pasta dish, rather than a soup.

Slow-Cooker Sunday: Carolina Pulled Pork

Let me start off by saying that I’m not totally sure what is going on with this recipe.  The link via the pin is just for the rub, and the comment on the pin has the sauce recipe.  I’m not really sure when (or if ever) sauce enters the equation with Carolina barbecue, but it sounded good enough for me to try.

First I mixed up the dry rub.  This is the first dry rub I’ve ever done, but I think it was a good one.

I covered every inch of that pork shoulder withe the rub and even got it into the nooks and crannies.  Then I covered it and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I whipped up the sauce according to the comment on the pin, and all looked well to me.

I plopped the pork into the crock, and poured the sauce over.  Nothing too fancy here.

This is how she looked after cooking. The meat fell apart easily and the house smelled insane. My boyfriend came home and begged to eat it (we actually had to go to a family dinner).

This made a ton of pork and we ate left overs all week. Sorry I don’t have a picture of it all pulled and made into sandwiches.  When you have pulled pork, the last thing you are thinking about is taking pictures.  You just want to eat.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
B+		It cost be about $10 because I had a lot of the spices already.		Prep: 20 mins Total: 8.5 hours
Level of Difficulty:
Medium – if you have to debone the pork first, Easy if you don’t.
What I Would Change:
What I wish I had done was trim the fat off the meat.  The resulting sauce/liquid was so fatty.  A possible solution to that is to also have a rack that holds the pork above the sauce a little.
Overall Impression:
There is nothing that gets the people in my house to the kitchen for dinner faster than pulled pork.  I usually use a tried and true Martha Stewart recipe, but this time I went with something new.  I’m not sure I loved the slow-cooker version as much as a roasted version. This was still pretty tasty and a good solution to a slow roasted pork when you can’t babysit it all day.

Slow-Cooker Sunday: Cranberry Sauce

As Thanksgiving approaches, I’ve been looking for a recipe that I can bring to my approximately 3 Thanksgiving engagements. I got to thinking where in that great traditional feast I could find something to improve.  As much as I like the canned cranberry sauce, it’s just not very Thanksgivingish to me.  It doesn’t resemble anything made from cranberries. You have to slice it.  America let’s class up November  (Canada, you can class up October) and make some homemade Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce.

Making this was crazy simple and everyone is going to be so impressed by you.  “Oh, you made your own cranberry sauce?  Did you change your name to Martha?”

Here is a quick note: 12 ounces of cranberries equals about 3 cups.  In this case ounces = weight, not volume.

I sorted out the soft berries and set the good berries aside.  I mixed together brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, orange juice and water. This is how the sauce should look at the beginning.

After cooking 4 hours on high.  The berries are very soft and this smells great!  I used my potato masher to mash the cranberries.  I left the lid off and cooked the berries for another 45 minutes.

I let the sauce cool in the slow cooker and put it in a container.  The last 45 minutes really helps the sauce to thicken.

Can we just talk for a second about how delicious this is?  Better than the canned stuff, and you know exactly what is going into it.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A+		The bag of cranberries cost me $5.  You could make this recipe 5 times with a bag this big.		Active: 3 minutes Total: 5 hours
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
This was so delicious and I could see using it on a cheesecake or in scones or even as a spread.
Overall Impression:
I will make this again for holiday meals or maybe just because.  This is just too simple to skip.

Slow-Cooker Sunday: Salsa Chicken

These days I want everything to be quick, easy, and cheap. I work full time and never have a free day on weekends so getting to do long projects or cooking that takes any amount of attention is pretty hard to squeeze in. This week I wanted to do something in the slow cooker that I could use in various ways all week. I saw this 2 ingredient slow cooker pin and knew I had found The One.

Brace yourselves, this is a doozy.

1. Put chicken in slow cooker

2. Pour salsa over the chicken

3.  Cook

4.  Eat (let me count the ways)

• On a salad
• In an omelet
• Over rice
• Burrito
• With Pasta
• In soups

Or really you can do with it whatever you want. It’s chicken, it goes with almost everything.  

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A		$7		Prep: 1 minute Cook: 6-8 hours
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
Nothing. I chose medium salsa because I like it spicy, but you can do mild…or hot if that’s your thing.
Overall Impression:
So easy. Beyond easy. Makes meals so quick and simple. Love love love.

Slow-Cooker Sunday: BBQ Chicken

Nothing gets people in my house more excited than meat in the slow cooker. I’m not sure what it is, but we love BBQ.  I periodically browse for new slow cooker recipes and this week I wanted something that was cheap and easy.  We got excited about the bbq chicken recipe found via this pin.

What I loved about this recipe was how few ingredients it required. First, chicken.

Then I mixed up a bottle of barbecue sauce with 1/2 cup Italian dressing.

To that I added brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce.

I whisked it up real good.

Then poured it over the chicken and set the slow cooker to High for 4 hours. Once the time was up, I took out the chicken breasts and shredded them with 2 forks.  I put all the chicken back in for about 30 minutes so the chicken could get nice and saucy.  I would have final product photos for you, but the chicken was swarmed as soon as I said, “Done.”  We served the chicken up on sandwiches and in tortillas.

Grade:		Cost:		Time:
A		$10		Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 4-6 hours
Level of Difficulty:
Easy
What I Would Change:
More chicken next time. I had a lot of leftover sauce.  I would say less sauce, but this flew out of the slow cooker so fast, it would have been nice to have leftovers.
Overall Impression:
This was such a hit!  I will definitely have to make this again.  They are begging me for it!