Chicken and Rice Soup

I am slowly falling in love with my crock pot. It is steadily making my life SO MUCH EASIER.  Like last night.  I tried this Chicken and Rice soup recipe and adapted it.  Basically I made an adaptation of an adaptation and ran with it.

Here is the recipe from the blog Pearls, Handcuffs and Happy Hour (a blog I have started going to A LOT for recipes).  Afterwards I'll let you in on what I did differently.

What you need:

1 rotisserie chicken

1 box {32 oz.} chicken broth

1/4 cup lime juice (2 limes)

1 cup salsa

1 can diced tomatoes with onion

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen chopped veggies (celery, green pepper, and onion)

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

1/3 cup Mexican cheese

1-2 boil-in-a bag bags of rice

What you do:

First up, bring chicken broth, lime juice, and salsa to a boil.

Add in the diced tomatoes, frozen corn, and frozen chopped veggies. I definitely let the frozen items thaw out before I tossed ‘em in. Cook on medium high heat for about 10-12 minutes, reduce to low and add the shredded chicken. Cover and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your rice. I’m a cheater and I always use the boil-in-a-bag version. I boiled 2 bags for this recipe. Drain and return to pot. Now take a spoonful{ish} of rice and dump it into your bowl.

Spoon a very generous helping of the soup mix on top of the rice. The more rice you add, the thicker your soup will be, so proceed with caution.

What I did differently:

First off I put all of the ingredients, other then the rice, in a crock pot and let it cook over night on low. 
I did not use the can of tomatoes/onions.  I just diced a little bit of onion instead. 
I used an Archer Farm (Target) brand salsa.
I used frozen peppers (red, yellow and green) instead of frozen celery, onion and peppers.

 

It was SO good! And when you add the rice you have plenty enough for lunch the next day!

 

Crock pot phenomenon.

*picture via*

I am probably the last one to jump on this bandwagon.  As a newlywed I thought a crock pot was just something I needed to put on the registry.  Every good bride did.  It was kind of symbolic that I was going to take care of a family in the future and even on crazy nights there would be something hot and nutritious to eat.  I've used our crock pot MAYBE eight times in almost five years.  Yeah, crock pot user fail. 
Since I go back to work in,well, less time then I'd like. It's going to be crazy. I have three hungry people to feed with real food.  None of us will get home until right around 6.  Teagan goes to bed at 7:30pm.  What am I going to do? I plan to use the crock pot. 
To be honest, it kind of scares me.  I'm not really sure I like the idea of leaving something cooking and plugged in while I'm nowhere near my house.  But, I've been assured it's very safe and so I'm willing to try it.  However, if I come home to my house burned down then I'm coming after those of you who provided me with safety assurance.  Just sayin'. 
All that said simply to ask for help.  What are some of your favorite crock pot recipes?  Go easy on me now.  I like simple. I am a crock pot novice after all...

Ella's Kitchen

Can I just tell you how much we LOVE Ella's kitchen products?  At the risk of sounding like a teenage girl, OMG. Teagan is almost 2 and we still use them.  Who needs crackers when you have these pouches of sweet nutritional goodness?
Let me just tell you a few things about Ella's Kitchen products.
A sweet daddy, Ella's daddy, started the company when he wanted to make yummy food that was also good for his kiddos.  The actual products have no added sugar, salt or preservatives.  No egg, wheat OR gluten.  They come in handy BPA free packaging.  The food is %100 organic and Orthodox Union Kosher, which I didn't realize until today. We usually find the yumminess at Target or Babies-R-Us but you can find it at Kroger and buybuyBaby as well.  
If you want to keep updated on whats going on in the Ella's kitchen, kitchen, just like them on facebook or sign up on ellaskitchen.com for their newsletter. 
Usually I make my own baby food but it's not always possible and now that we're on baby number two I'm going to have less time then I did with Teagan.  That doesn't mean I don't want Kyra to eat as good as Teagan did.  So, I have a feeling we will be turning to Ella's kitchen quite often when Kyra gets to that stage in her life.  I'm sure Teagan will be snacking on a pouch or two at the same time!

Thankgsiving.

Thanksgiving this year was a total blur. I'm learning quickly that a lot of days are like that when you have a one month old and a 22 month old.  It was a happy blur at least.  I took no pictures but it was one of those days where it was okay.  I was just happy enjoying the company of family, some of whom we don't see that often. 
Josh and I are lucky enough to have parents that genuinely get along with each other.  So, Thanksgiving for our families is quite easy.  We rotate. Every year it's either at our house, my parent's house or Josh's parent's house.  This year it was at Josh's parents house.  His mom is the kinda lady who can do everything. Literally. The woman made my wedding dress. Enough said.  So, the food was amazing but it wasn't the best part.  The best part was seeing Teagan running around being loved on by everybody and having Kyra be passed from loving arm to loving arm.  There were times when my arms were empty but my heart was about to burst.  We are so blessed with two amazing little girls but even more so with a family who loves them more then they'll ever know. 

Try this. You'll love it.

We are very blessed to have found a great church home with friends that just kind of came with the package.  Our community group tries to get together as much as we can.  This week we had family dinner and we volunteered to host.  I made the decision I would try and make baked ziti.  I had never tried it before and figured friends were the best guinea pigs so I went for it.  I found a really easy recipe here but I'll lay it out for you after the pictures too.  We had a great time and everybody loved it.  Even Josh, who I call (lovingly), my toughest critic.  And of course Teagan chowed down, ate more then I did and had a ziti grin from ear to ear.  I didn't take a picture. Fail.  

But I did manage a picture of the finished product before we chowed down! We also had a great home-grown lettuce salad that almost looked too fresh and green to eat!

Ingredients


1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream (I left this out. I hate sour cream. Not really sure what the point was but it was great without it)
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used more and just sprinkled as much as I wanted on the top)


Directions


1.Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
2.In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
3.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
4.Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.