Taco Soup? Yes Please!

I got my crockpot back! My wonderful nephew brought it back the other night so.. time for the recipe I have been waiting all week to cook!! TACO SOUP! I have never had it. Honestly I have never heard of it but let me say this.. mmmm..mmmm..good! Zak and I had Lauren and Jason over last night for dinner. What a perfect time to cook some goodness. 

When I was getting all the ingredients out I realized that I did not have any taco seasoning.. No worries, Mady to the rescue! We made our own. and let me add, I she nailed it!! My recipe below.. It was better than any seasoning pack for sure!!

Pour in bowl, add sour cream and cheese, (I added red hot hot sauce.. my fav on everything!) Serve with chips

Slow Cooker Taco Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (16 ounce) can chili beans, with liquid
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans with liquid
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, with liquid
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 cups water
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
• 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix

Directions

1. In a medium skillet, cook the ground beef until browned over medium heat. Drain, and set aside.
2. Place the ground beef, onion, chili beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato sauce, water, diced tomatoes, green Chile peppers and taco seasoning mix in a slow cooker. Mix to blend, and cook on Low setting for 8 hours.

Tweaks and Notes 

• I crossed off the ingredients that I did not use. I used pinto beans instead of kidney beans but I only used about a third of the can
• I, of course, add garlic powder
• I used frozen corn instead of caned corn. Cooked the corn first though
• I added a tad bit more water since I did not have "can corn juice"
• I used my own taco seasoning!

Mom and Madz Taco Seasoning

Ingredients (these are a guess of each amount.. I kinda just added by taste)

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion minced
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Mix all together and set aside until time of use 

By the way, I am going to stop linking my recipes because I get the majority from allrecipes.com. I look at a few different, take what I like from each or just one and make it my own.

Kayla's BBQ Chicken

I found a recipe for BBQ chicken somewhere online a couple weeks ago. I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients a few days later. I lost the paper in which I wrote down the exact ingredients and measurements and could not find the recipe online when I decided to cook it. All I remembered is it had Worcestershire sauce in it. So I added that along with other sauces and spices I had in the kitchen. I have no measurements, just estimates. (Sorry)

Ingredients:

Half a bottle of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s)

5 good splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Few spoonfuls of minced garlic

2 squeezes of Lawry’s Sesame Ginger marinade

Salt and pepper
Dash of Chili pepper flakes

2 boneless frozen chicken breasts

3 boneless chicken tenders

Whole wheat potato rolls

Directions:

1. Combine everything and cook for 7-8 hours on low.

2. Serve on potato rolls

I thought it turned out great for combining delicious sauces all together. The remaining leftovers were gobbled down within two days! I wish the sauce turned out a little bit thicker, so maybe next time I will save the actual recipe and try it that way.

Verdict: A

-Kayla

Not a crock pot, still a recipe

This weekend I made the BBQ Pork (recipe here) for my sister in law's bday party. I was nervous since I don't cook for "other" people. THEY LOVED IT!! To the point where they want me to make it for a couples wedding shower! That night, I left the crock pot over at my nephews house. B.U.M.M.E.R... I had 2 recipes for this week that involve the pot! (CROCK POT.. that is)

So, tonight I went back to good old fashion cooking..

in the oven.. on the stove..

Tonight I made stuffed peppers. I do not like peppers but the husband loves them. We had lemon burnt tilapia with it. My own recipe, my own name. YUM! Back to the peppers. Most recipes call for ground beef in them but ground beef and fish don't sound very good to me. After searching my fav. site, I found one without meat!! RESULTS: (sorry about the camera phone pics, all I had in the kitchen with me)

I ended up adding more peppers and onions to it after the picture. I was only making 2 and the recipe is for 4 but come to find out I cut everything in half except the rice.. Live Cook and learn

   before they went into the oven                           after oven but before cheese melted.  

Here is the recipe:

(allrecipes.com)

Stuffed Peppers no Meat

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 green bell peppers
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces textured vegetable protein
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine rice and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
3. Cut tops off peppers, seed insides, and arrange peppers in a large baking dish. Chop usable portion of the tops.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute chopped peppers and onions in oil until soft. Stir in textured vegetable protein and parsley. Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Mix in cooked rice and 1 1/5 cups tomato sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the peppers, and top each with remaining tomato sauce.
5. Cover, and bake about 45 minutes. Uncover, top each pepper with mozzarella cheese, and bake until cheese is melted.

Tweaks and Notes

• I added garlic powder
• This time I did use ground pepper since I wasn't going to be eating it
• I did not know what or where vegetable protein so I didn't use it
• I only used 1 cup of tomato sauce in step 4, since I didn't want to open another can
• Next time I will use brown rice for a little more "healthiness"

Crockpot Barbecue Pork for Sandwiches

Yummy * Yummy * Yummy!

Crockpot Barbecue Beef Pork for Sandwiches

found here

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 to 3 lbs lean chuck roast or bottom round

1 1/2 cups ketchup

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup wine vinegar

2 tablespoons spicy mustard or Dijon

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

Place beef roast in crockpot. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over roast. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours. Remove roast, shred meat. Place shredded meat back in crockpot; stir to coat well.Spoon barbecued beef onto toasted sandwich buns and serve with extra sauce, if desired.

Serves 6 to 8.

NOTES and TWEEKS: 

• First, I used pork not beef
• I added 1 cup of ketchup and 1/2 cup of bbq sauce.
• The wine vinegar makes a huge difference!
• The liquid smoke is pretty intense sooo.. I would make sure you dont over measure it. I added less
• As always, I left out the pepper

My pork and pot

I know it is yellow, setting were not right for the pic 

Well doesn't this look "YUMMY"

OMG.. so Yummy!

And of course she has to make something! Slaw.. don't worry Mady's got you covered!

OK. so far this is my favorite out of my crockpot recipes. OMG! The bbq sauce is a.m.a.z.i.n.g! The cook time is perfect as well, the pork was cooked to perfection. I shredded the meat 5-10 mins till serving time. Toasted buns.. heck yea!! I also made slaw for it.  

Donna's Turn

So, I've had the same crockpot for 27 years. Not only did my girls get new crockpots for Christmas....I did too! I am excited to share in the adventures of "crocking" along with my daughters.

This following is my first recipe in the new crockpot. (Click on the title for the link)

Slow Cooker Pork Chops and Rice

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, center cut pork chops
• 1/3 cup uncooked brown rice
• 2/3 cup uncooked white rice
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup butter
• 8 ounces green peas
• 1 (5 ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup water
• 10 ounces beef broth
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, brown pork chops on both sides.
2. Lightly spray the slow cooker with cooking spray. Then place brown and white rice, onion, butter, peas, water chestnuts, and mushrooms in the slow cooker. Pour in water, broth, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir in onion soup mix, season with pepper, and top with pork chops.
3. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 7 to 9 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 5 hours.

My Tweaks

1. Used 3 large center cut pork chops.
2. My rice was a mixture of brown, white and red.
3. Doubled the rice, mushrooms, water, beef broth and Worcestershire.
4. Placed 2 of the pork chops in the rice mixture and one on top of the rice. The one on top was a bit more dry than the other two. I would suggest placing all pork chops within the rice mixture.

Final Thoughts: This recipe was great. It was lacking on the seasonings so I would certainly spice it up a bit and definitely add salt.

Verdict:  A- (based on the actual recipe) and an A (after I tweaked it)

Kayla's First Crock

It was my first time using a Crockpot and I decided to cook shredded buffalo chicken. It was a great turn out and I will definitely cook it again and again. I found the recipe from:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Buffalo-Chicken-Sandwiches/Detail.aspx

The recipe from the website calls for:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 (17.5 fluid ounce) bottle buffalo wing sauce, divided

1/2 (1 ounce) package dry ranch salad dressing mix

2 tablespoons butter

6 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise

How I tweaked it:

2 frozen chicken breast halves and 4 frozen chicken tenders

1/2 bottle of buffalo wing sauce

1/2 package dry ranch

2/3(ish) cup warm water

Butter

Whole wheat potato rolls

Directions:

1.     Spray crock pot

2.     Put in chicken, buffalo sauce, dry ranch, water, and butter

3.     Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I did a full 8 hours)

4.     After about 7 hours, use fork to shred apart chicken then let cook for another 30 minutes-1 hour

5.     Put chicken on rolls and drizzle ranch on top

Note:

I added too much water and it came out soupy. I would probably only use ¼ cup of water next time. However, the chicken came out very tender and juicy and was incredibly delicious!

I took a picture of the final product still in the Crockpot. The picture of the sandwich was from the same website and looked most similar to my ending product.

Verdict: A+

-Kayla

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

A few nights ago I made a chicken and dumplings recipe. It was soooo very yummy. For some reason I did not take any pictures of it. Let me tell you though....THIS IS ONE YOU SHOULD TRY!!

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Directions

1. Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover.
2. Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. About 30 minutes before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

NOTE:

I like the chicken torn up in my chicken and dumplings, so about an hour before I served it, I cut the chicken up (while in the crock pot)

I did not use 1 full onion. I just used one slice, then chopped up the slice. It wasn't enough to even add to the recipe I don't think. I don't like onion in certain things.

I like my chicken and dumplings a little thicker than watery. I saw that there was a ton of liquid towards the middle of cooking time, so I poured a little flour in it. This probably did not have to be done since when it was time to serve it had thinkened up quite a bit. Next time, I won't add flour or maybe not as much.