Easy Slow Cooker Recipe #4: Chicken and Dumplings

Recipe:

Quarter 1 package of BSCB and place them in the pot with 2 tbsp butter, 2 cans of cream of chicken, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder.

Add about half a can of water (or half and half, or a mix of the two), just enough to cover the chicken.

Cook on high for 5 hours, or on low for 7-8 hours.

For the last hour of cooking time, add in torn pieces of biscuit dough (2 rolls worth).

For a healthier option, you can use fat free soup and low fat biscuit dough. Serve this with egg noodles.

My adaptations:

I used only water, but I did use full fat soup and biscuits (I try to watch sodium more so than fat). BTW, it’s unclear what exactly a “package” of chicken is in this recipe…but with two whole cans of soup I assumed it was a bag, not a tray.

Level of Ease:

1–the soup had pull-tabs and I didn’t bother quartering the chicken. (I keep telling you not to underestimate my laziness).

Level of Tastiness:

3/4 (we had a divergence of opinions)

Kitchen Notes:

So, I forgot about putting in the biscuit dough until it was almost done. Oops. So I just baked them in the oven the regular way and served the chicken over them. Honestly, I can’t imagine putting something that already has two cans of dough in it over egg noodles–carb city. If I were to do this again, I would go big with the biscuits: big as in high quality. At least the kind that come in the bag frozen as opposed to canned. I would also add some veggies to this, maybe peas and carrots (not corn–ugh, stop the madness), to make it more like a pot pie. P liked it more than I did, and T only ate a little, but not because he didn’t like it. He was really busy putting the dinosaurs in a line that day.

Credit: beckysrecipeoftheweek.blogspot.com

Easy Slow Cooker Recipe #3 – Creamy Chicken

Recipe:

Put bag of frozen chicken breasts (3 lb) in the crock pot.
Put 8 oz block cream cheese on top of the chicken (NOT nonfat).
Dump in one can black or pinto Beans, drained & rinsed
Dump in 1 can drained corn.
Dump in 1 can Rotel

Cook on low for 6-8 hours, Shred chicken, let sit for 30-45 minutes.

My adaptations:

I used black beans, and I did not drain and rinse them. I think the bean juice (ew?) adds a little extra flavor.  Also, it eliminates the need for added table salt. I also cut the cream cheese into chunks, the better to space it more evenly over the chicken.

Level of Ease:

1

Level of Tastiness:

4

Kitchen Notes:

This recipe was the Pin that started it all–now this is what I’m talking about when I say easy; the entire recipe was right in the description! However, it wasn’t until a few weeks into my meal planning frenzy that the stars aligned to have all the  ingredients in the house at once. It was lucky that I managed to get it together to make it that morning, because on the way home from work my dad called to say he’d be dropping by (I know that if there’s anybody you can get away with not impressing, it’s your parents, but I always like to have something to offer anyway. Knowwhatimean?). Dad and I ate ours over brown rice, while P ate his as a burrito (he’s of the school of thought that there’s very little a tortilla can’t improve). I only have one caveat with this meal: the Rotel made it a touch too spicy for T. If you’re cooking for kiddos, I recommend using the mild version, mild salsa, or maybe just diced tomatoes and omit the peppers altogether. But overall, it was extremely delicious–although it must be said, not that pretty to look at.

Maybe P is onto something, hiding it in a tortilla. (source)

P.S. Have you heard about how it’s unsafe to eat tomato products from a can? Something about BPA and fruit acid? I use plenty o’ canned tomato products in my cooking, so it’s something to think about. Lay it on me, are YOU worried about this issue?

Easy Slow Cooker Recipe #2: Pork Tacos

Recipe:

1 pork loin

1 cup of salsa

½  cup of brown sugar

Cook on high 4-5 hours, shred. Serve on taco or tortilla shells with your choice of toppings.

My adaptations:

I made this recipe once before, and based on that experience, I decided to cut the brown sugar. Sweet tacos? I don’t know, to me it was weird. I also didn’t bother measuring the salsa—I just dumped in an entire container of the Kroger fresh salsa (found near the cheese), which we love and eat all the time. But the biggest change was unintentional: P brought home pork loin chops instead of a pork loin. But since I like to award A’s for effort (and I didn’t have the time), I decided to make due rather than exchange them.  Big mistake.

Level of Ease:

1

Level of tastiness:

5 / 1

(explanation of scoring here)

Kitchen Notes:

I go straight from the first recipe I tried to the latest—this was dinner last Saturday night. Right now you’re thinking, 5 and 1? What in the world? And I am saying to you that what followed the making of this dinner was the biggest drama since the lasagna pie fiasco of 2012. As indicated, this was brain-numbingly easy. I threw the whole thing into the big slow cooker because the smaller one is currently housing leftover Easter candy. I set it and forgot it. I took T to the park and when we returned for dinnertime, the house smelled wonderful. I gave the pot a little stir and removed the bones (you’ll remember this was chops). I’ve made a few successful slow cooker recipes with bone-in meat before, and this was even better than most. The bones fell right off clean as a whistle, the meat was so tender. Awesome!

We put it in tortilla shells with shredded cheddar and it was delicious; even Baby T who is currently enjoying a picky phase was chowing down. All of a sudden, P freezes mid-bite. Then he emits this loud, caveman-like, guttural shout and runs to the trash can and starts heaving and gagging. “OHMYGOD, WHAT’S WRONG?!?!” I screeched, frantically turning this way and that trying to remember where I left my phone, since it was clear I needed to be dialing 9-1-1. (T meanwhile, is still sitting in the chair, with a look on his face that could only be translated as, ah yes, another day at the Young household). “It’s a BONE! IT STABBED ME IN THE MOUTH!” P shouted, from his crouch on the kitchen floor. I opened his tacos and fingered through the meat (this was no time to be not-gross), and sure enough, I found one or two more small, but not microscopic, bone slivers hidden among the shreds. I’ll spare you the details of the ensuing argument; I believe it’s commonly referred to as The Blame Game. Even though a thorough inspection revealed T’s half-eaten taco to be clean, as was mine, we decided it was really a nice night for a dinner of frozen yogurt.

So that’s how we ended up at SwirlyTwirl eating chocolate-almond-gummy bear yogurt twenty minutes before bedtime, and this recipe gets a 5 / 1.

I definitely recommend this recipe, with my adaptations, and the small but very significant recommendation that you use BONELESS meat.

Lazy Slow Cooker Recipes – a Series of Reviews

Last month our schedules got a double whammy when I started rehearsals for Jekyll & Hyde and P started school—all this after a full day of work for both of us.  We needed to figure out a way to get food on the table in the evenings that took, like, zero minutes. Enter: the slow cooker.

I’d dabbled in crock-pottery before, but making it a habit seemed like the ideal way to feed all of us during this extremely busy time. The idea was that I would plan meals a week ahead or so, buy the groceries each Sunday for my chosen recipes, and prepare them at night after I got home from four hours of rehearsing. Then P or I (or my mom, who at this rate is beginning to replace us as parents) would have a hot delicious dinner all ready whenever we got home. Are you laughing yet?

You should be, because as you know—or you do now—I hate cooking. I’m not bad at it, I just don’t like it. Whenever I search for new recipes, I scan them for certain immediate disqualifiers. For example, ingredient lists more than 10 items long (including seasoning), prep times of more than 10 minutes, and of course, any of the kitchen curse words:

Janie’s four-letter kitchen words

• Peel
• Dice
• Soak
• Shred
• Overnight
• Flatten
• Reduce (which is…what exactly?)
• Pat dry

But I don’t need to worry about that for slow cooker meals, right? I mean, practically every recipe in the Crockpot cookbook begins with the word “easy.” Wrong. It only took ten minutes of surfing on Pinterest to come to the horrifying realization that like, 50% of slow cooker recipes require some kind of cooking before you put anything in the pot.

WTF?

Not only that, but another 30% of them require some additional cooking or prep after it’s finished! So—prep for 30 minutes, cook for 8 hours, then prep for another 30 minutes? Then clean up that biotch?!? HAAAAIL no.

So I took the 20% of crock pot recipes that were left after those exclusions and tested them out. I have two crockpots—one that I “inherited” from my grandparents is deep and rather small, good for chili, stew, etc., and a second, wider pot that I bought with the rest of a Costco gift card that my boss gave us for Christmas.  I want to share with you, TA-DA style, the recipes that worked—that were [actually] easy and [actually] tasty.

Doubtless you’re thinking, wow, Janie! That must mean your plan really worked! Hm. Let’s not get carried away here. Incorrect ingredients were bought, menu plans were forgotten, Sundays slipped by without grocery shopping, pizzas got ordered. But you can read the whole sordid tale for yourself on each review, which I will be posting weekly at whatever rate I feel like (Hey. Tech week is about to start).

I’ll try to post a relevant picture when I can, but I’m not a food photographer (plus, I usually wasn’t even home when the dish was served) so none of them will be of my actual creation. Below is the scoring key I applied to each of the recipes.

Key:

EASE

1 – Next time T’s making it

2 – Clairol Nice n’ Easy

3 – Bearable (or worth the work)

4 – I’m starting to get irritated

5 – Too lazy to make this again

TASTE

1 – Gross

2 – Meh

3 – Good-not-great

4 – Yummy

5 – SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS

Recipe List

Honey Chicken

Pork Tacos

Creamy Chicken

Chicken and Dumplings