Chicken & Cheesy Potato Casserole a la Crock Pot :)

Well I've been meaning to get this one up for a little while so to try and keep you all in new recipes as often as I can, I'm going to get this one up if it takes me all day... :)

I bring to you, for your dining pleasure, a yummy slow cooker recipe perfect for the cooling temps (but great on the warm day we had it too).

I found this recipe on recipe.com. It's originally "Smoky Chicken & ...." but I didn't do the "smoky" part.. :)

Smoky Chicken and Cheesy Potato Casserole

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 10-3/4-ounce can  condensed cream of chicken with herbs soup
1 8-ounce carton  dairy sour cream
6 ounces  smoked cheddar cheese, shredded (1-1/2 cups) (I used 2 cups nacho & taco cheese)
1 28-ounce package  frozen loose-pack diced hash brown potatoes with onion and peppers, thawed (I forgot the whole "thawed" part-mine were quite frozen and came out just fine!)
3 cups  chopped smoked or roasted chicken or turkey (I just poached a few breasts and diced it up)
Crushed croutons (optional) (I omitted)

Directions
1 Lightly coat the inside of a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. In the cooker combine soup, sour cream, cheese, frozen potatoes, and chicken.
2 Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours. If desired, top each serving with crushed croutons. Makes 6 servings.

This was easy and delicious and it would be Super easy to double for a bigger clan.
We all enjoyed it. I even managed to like it despite the peppers from the potatoes. I'm not a fan of cooked peppers in any sense, but they weren't completely horrible. :) Even Justice ate a little bit of it!! And that was rather shocking!

So...I hope you enjoy this one. We'll be repeating it this winter for sure! :)

Mo

Brown Sugar Spice Cake...Yummy from the crock-pot!

Well, it may or may not have escaped your attention, but I'm not a big baker.

(clip art courtesy of clipsahoy.com)

Pretty much not even occasionally. Rarely is probably the appropriate term. And yet, I love baked goods. I would love to have my house smell of something lovely baking in the oven. For some reason, it just seems to be one of those things that, whether actuality or not, I'm convinced it just takes so long to prep and so I can't bring myself to do it. (And, with Justice's allergy to ALL nuts, I can't buy most ready-to-bake items.) So....that means we do without. Which, nutrition wise, is perfectly fine and dandy! Plus, since my kids aren't allowed to eat cookies or cake on any kind of regular basis, it's not all that big an issue.
But still....it would be nice to have those delicious smells permeating our little apartment and being able to have some nice homemade treat every once in a while...

(clip art courtesy of clipartheaven.com)

Well...I managed to find a recipe that got me just those things! And I didn't have to bake it!
(Not in the oven at least)

I present.....
Brown Sugar Spice Cake   a la Slow Cooker! :) (found on recipe.com)
Yeah baby!

Ingredients
Vegetable cooking spray
1 can  (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Tomato Soup (Regular or Healthy Request®)
1/2 cup  water
2   eggs
1 box  (about 18 ounces) spice cake mix
1 1/4 cups  hot water
3/4 cup  packed brown sugar
1 tsp.  ground cinnamon
Serving Suggestion: Vanilla ice cream

Directions
1   Spray the inside of a 4-quart slow cooker with the cooking spray.
2   Combine the soup, water, eggs and cake mix in a medium bowl and mix according to the package directions. Pour the batter into the cooker.
3   Stir the water, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pour over the batter.
4   Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
5   Spoon the cake into bowls, spooning the sauce from the bottom of the cooker. Serve warm with the ice cream.

Just finished step 3

(So...I'm totally admitting it...I remembered to take a picture of the before, but completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Yep...Go me! Wooo!!!!
~sigh~
My apologies to you.)

This recipe had me very unsure. I mean......Tomato Soup in a cake mix??? Umm.........no thank you! But I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. And whadya know?! We were all glad I did. :)
This made our little apartment smell yummy and the taste was quite nice too.
Dominic commented that it would be great in the morning with some tea or coffee (so much so apparently that he keeps calling it coffee cake LOL)
Both kiddos enjoyed their little tastes of it as well. :)

I hope that you give this one a shot (despite the tomato soup weirdness). Easy to make dessert (or breakfast as the case may be) and you don't have to have the oven on heating up the house! Yay!

Enjoy!

Mo

Slow cooker Beef Stroganoff

Happy Monday to you. I hope that you had a nice weekend (hopefully it wasn't 80 degrees one day and snowing the next like it was here).
Well this evening we had Slow cooker Beef Stroganoff. I didn't think this meal was going to happen tonight, 1st because it just did NOT look like enough and 2nd because I realized all too late that I started it quite early. Well, all is well that ends well. It came out great and there was enough for leftover lunch tomorrow!Guess that just goes to show how much I know huh?!  ;)
Oh! And I just want to say; I absolutely remembered to take pictures of this meal, but alas, my camera decided that I should continue to look poorly organized and wouldn't allow it. So, sorry-I'll either attempt blackmail with new batteries and hope that works or I may just find a quiet place to bury it...
Here is the original recipe (courtesy of Mealplanningmommies) for you and when you try this one, feel free to post pics! :)

2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 3/4 lb. boneless beef round steak (I used 3/4 lb and it was plenty for 6 people or mix it up and just use ground beef) (I used 1 lb. lean ground beef)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water
1 envelope dried onion soup mix
1/2 cup sour cream
9 oz jar (can or fresh) mushrooms (we opted to not put these in our stroganoff) (I also omitted)

Step 1: combine 2 tbsp. flour, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder and 1/2 tsp. pepper in slow cooker
Step 2: Cut meat into 1 1/2 x 1 inch strips (or cubed like mine) and toss in flour mixture until well coated.
Step 3: Add mushroom soup, 1/2 cup water, and soup mix. Stir until well blended.
Step 4: Cover, cook on High 3-3/12 hours or Low 6-7 hours
Step 5: Stir in mushrooms, 1/2 cup sour cream.
Let the sour cream cook in the stroganoff about 10-15 minutes or until heated through
Step 6: Cook your noodles. I chose to eat our stroganoff over noodles, but it would be just as good over rice, bread or potatoes. (We also did noodles, but used spaghetti since we had plenty on hand)
Step 7: Don't forget your veggie for a side! We chose to cook some carrots (I stuck with the original here and steamed whole organic baby carrots)
Step 8: Serve and enjoy! Yummy! (We here carry that motion!)

This was enough to feed 4 adults, my little one that only ate the meat, and to have some for lunch tomorrow. I hope that you try this soon and enjoy it. We'll be having this one again.
Mo