It has been quite some time since my last post, and while I took a vacation from blogging I have not had a hiatus from cooking! I have been busy teaching fifth grade for 12 weeks, then first for another 3. I adored my fifth grade class and wish that could have been a full time position, but that was not in the cards. Now as I face another bout of day to day subbing, I better get working on my cookbook, which of course is going to be my claim to fame, my million dollar check in the bank and lead to my own food network show...or maybe I should keep on the teaching track. Either way, working full time with children at this time of year leads to two things; exhaustion and germs. I just am not in the mood to cook an extravagant dinner when I get home, and by 5pm J wants it ready to eat ASAP. It's not fun when I have to tell him it will be at least an hour. So began my love affair with our crock pot! I can prep before work while I am waiting for my coffee water to boil and my bagel to pop out of the toaster, leave it all day and have not only a dinner ready when I get home, but an amazing dinner ready. J has been loving chicken in the crock pot, which is great because chicken and I have not been seeing eye to eye since my electronic meat thermometer decided to go to you know where in a hand-basket.
I have always been nervous about leaving anything plugged in with the switch in the on position when I leave for work. My mom did a good job raising a girl who triple checks whether or not the hair straightener is plugged in before I leave the house, and probably running back in for a fourth check once I am already in my car. I have even driven half an hour back from work because I left the refrigerator door ajar and I was petrified my cat would crawl in, shut the door and be a cat-cicle by the time I got home.--thanks mom. But here is the great part about having a guy who works the midnight shift...if the crock pot goes up in flames he will be home when the alarms go off and either fix the problem or watch the house go down in crock pot flames from the front yard, neither situation do I want to come home to but it has eased me into leaving the crock pot to do its job while I'm not home.
I have made two amazing crock pot meals with chicken, the first a chicken and dumpling dish, and the second an italian chicken meal which made the most amazing gravy for mashed potatoes!
Chicken and Dumplings:
3-4 chicken breasts uncooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
carrots sliced
other veggies if you would like: chopped onions perhaps?
6ish cups of chicken stock/broth: enough to cover the chicken.
1-2 tubes of refrigerator biscuits
Add all of these yummy fixings to your crock pot, cover and set on low for 8 hours
Now go to work!
8 hours later walk into an amazing smelling house!
Now you need to tear refrigerator biscuits into small chunks and submerge in crock pot. Let cook 20-30 minutes until they are not overly doughy on the inside. That's it!
This one is so satisfying for a cold night or soothing for when you have a cold!
Italian Chicken:
4 chicken breasts uncooked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 8 oz container of cream cheese
1 packet dry Italian dressing mix
chicken stock
Combine the cream cheese and soup in a saucepan..
I did this the day before because oops I realized my chicken went south after I started my meal prep.It was perfectly fine when I used the combined mixture 24 hours later!
Add chicken, soup mixture and Italian dressing packet to crock pot
Pour enough chicken stock to cover chicken
I gave mine a little stir to combine all of the fixings
Put a lid on it set to low for 8 hours and walk out the door.
The sauce from this recipe is ridiculously yummy and I served it over garlic mashed potatoes!
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