Crock-pot Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Tonight I promise you easy… easy like a sunshiney day easy.
((you know… I’ve never really understood that phrase… but I digress…))

Crock-Pot Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
serves: um… at least 6 lol
cook time: 6 hours total

Ingredients: 

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts	2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
2 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth	1 Can Mixed Veggies
Noodles (amount/type of your choosing)	1 1/2 Cups Water
2 Tbsp Thyme	1 Tbsp Parsley

Directions:
     1. In an at least 4.5 Qt crock-pot mix in the two cans of cream of chicken soup with one and a half cups of the chicken broth and the spices. Stick in the four whole uncooked breasts. Let cook for about four hours on high.

     2. Remove chicken from crock-pot and roughly cut it up. You don’t have to be all fancy like.

     3. Before replacing the chicken add in your water and and the rest of the chicken broth. Mix it up well. Add your noodles in too. And you can put that chicken back in now as well.

     4. Cook on high for 30 minutes (or until noodles are al dente). Then turn your heat to low. Let cook for an additional hour and a half, adding maybe a 1/4 cup water if it seems needed.

      5. About 30 minutes before serving add in your undrained can of mixed veggies.

Voila!

Easy and yummy and perfect for rainy, foggy days.

Recipe: Super Easy Fried Chicken

Not too much going on here. Well, that’s a sorta lie. Nothing big just that the pregnancy migraines have returned. Oh joy. I haven’t even been in enough of a good mood to go with the story and picture idea. I’m pretty nonfunctioning when I have migraines. I guess it’s because I’m such a big baby when it comes to any sort of headache since I rarely get them when not pregnant.

Well, I’m still all headachy but I just ate the most delicious chicken ever, and it was like so easy to make for fried chicken. You might be thinking “But Trish, I would think fried chicken is already easy to make?” You would be wrong. lol It’s messy, and you tend to get burned while making it. (At least I always do – I get burned a lot while making it) I can’t take full credit for this recipe, my mom was the one who told me how to do the actual cooking on this. The rest is me. (Though if you’ve ever made fried chicken some is like “duh…” lol)

Before doing anything – make sure that your chicken is completely thawed.

What you’ll need:
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast or tenders
3/4 cup flour
4 tbsp seasoning of your choice
vegetable/cooking oil
1 egg

1 large cast iron skillet/frying pan
1 small circular cake pan
1 large mixing bowl
paper towels and a surface to dry the chicken on

What you’ll do:
1. Pour enough of the oil into the frying pan to have about a 1/2 inch of oil in the pan. Stick the pan in the over and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. While the oven heats combine the flour and spices into the cake pan. Mix thoroughly so that the spices are evenly mixed in with the flour.

3. Whisk your egg in the large mixing bowl until the white and yolk are all mixed together and then add your chicken to the bowl. Stir them together until all the chicken is coated in egg.

4. Doing one tablespoon at a time, stir in 5 tablespoons of the flour/spices into the chicken and egg.

5. Once the oil and oven are heated remove the pan from the oven. Take your chicken and coat it in the flour mixture and then place the chicken in the pan. Put the pan back in the oven.

6. Cook the chicken for 20 minutes flipping the chicken after each 10 minutes. If after 20 minutes the chicken still doesn’t seem golden or isn’t fully cooked continue cooking and flipping the chicken at 5 minute intervals.

7. When the chicken is done take it out of the frying pan and let it drain for about 5 minutes.

There you go! There’s mine and my mom’s recipe for easy fried chicken. Enjoy!

Recipe: Crock Pot Pork Chops

Yummm…

What you need:

2 butterfly pork chops	2 cans golden mushroom soup
1 can sliced potatoes	1 tbsp flour
1 cup water	1 tbsp cooking oil

1. Heat your oil in a skillet on medium heat. While oil heats separate the halves of the butterfly pork chops, sprinkle with pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
2. Brown both sides of your pork chops until they are golden (insides will not be cooked). The time it takes to do this will depend on the size of the pork chops. Remove pan from heat, but don’t mess with it after that!!
3. Cut the pork chops into smaller pieces (I cut each into 6 pieces, you can do more or less depending on the size you want the meat to be) then place them in the crock pot.
4. Whisk your water and flour together until there are no clumps at all. Pour the water/flour into the pan you cooked the pork chops and turn the heat to medium again. Continue whisking until the bottom of the pan feels clear. Add the two cans of soup and whisk until mixed. Heat to boiling.
5. Pour all of the stuff in the pan into the crock pot with the pork, stir until it covers all the meat.
6. About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat add the potatoes and stir until they are coated.
You can cook it on low for all day, or high for about 4 hours. I cooked it on high for 2 hours and then on low for another 3.
Enjoy.


(You can find more recipes and other handmade stuff here:)

Yum-ditty, yum-ditty, yum, yum, yum. (aka Chicken Pot Pie)

Yummmm….
I know your taste buds are jealous of my taste buds because mine tasted the deliciousness of homemade chicken pot pie on Monday.

Yup, you heard me right. Chicken. Pot. Pie. ((aka heaven in your mouth))
Oh man my mouth is drooling in memory.

It’s very rare that I make something for dinner that everyone in my house likes. What can I say? We’re all picky eaters who are picky about different things. Zach doesn’t like spicy or tomatoes or beans. Ryan doesn’t like any green food except green beans, nor does he like rice (though I make him eat it often). John doesn’t like way too many things to list. Belly does not like smooshy food, pickles, cheese that is not mixed into things, or eggs not mixed into things. I don’t think I’m the least bit picky, but I could be wrong since my mom says I am a very picky eater. BUT I do the cooking in this house so it’s not picky if I just don’t make things I don’t like.

Everyone in my house enjoyed that chicken pot pie though. We were in hoggy-yummy-delicousness taste bud heaven. And yes, I plan on telling you how to make it, I just wanted to gloat a bit. This is a recipe that is a blending of two other recipes plus my own touches.

Firstly, since most instant potato directions are different, let me tell you that you will need to do the amount for 6 servings and will need the amount of chicken broth that it will take to replace the amount of water needed for the potatoes plus an additional 1 1/4 cups of broth.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked diced chicken	1 can mixed vegetables (drained)
chicken broth (see above)	1 egg (thoroughly whisked)
1 pie crust	3 tablespoons butter
instant mashed potatoes	2 teaspoons ground thyme
1 can cream of chicken soup	1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 can cream of celery soup	1/4 teaspoon salt

preheat: 375 degrees

cook time: roughly 40 minutes

1. Cook your whole uncooked chicken in 1 1/4 cup of chicken broth, 2 tablespoons butter, salt, pepper, and thyme. Bring to boil and let in sit at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes. Reduce to a simmer and let cook until chicken is done. (I used tenders and it took about 20 minutes.) Remove chicken and set it aside to cool. Strain fat from the broth and spices you cooked the chicken in and set the broth aside.

2. Mix together your instant potatoes (substituting chicken broth for water) then cook. Spread them in the bottom of a greased casserole dish. (lol I used more butter to grease mine since I was out of everything else)

3. In a separate bowl mix up the soups, vegetables, and chicken broth. Once chicken has cooled some cut it up into itty bitty pieces (or not so itty bitty – that’s up to you; just remember diced) and add to soup/veggies/broth mix. After you have the chicken well coated in it spread it on top of the potatoes.

4. Place pie crust over over top of mixture. (I had to stretch mine some by placing it on the counter and going over it with my rolling pin some) Melt your tablespoon of butter you have left and thoroughly mix it and the egg together. Get it as blended as you possibly can. Brush the crust with the egg/butter mixture until it’s almost all used. Then punch some holes in the center. (small ones – best tip, gently do it with a fork)

Let it cook until the crust looks all goldeny all over, mine took roughly 40 minutes. Make sure you rotate it once while cooking.

Happy eating and enjoy!

Recipe: Teriyaki Chicken

(I swear it’s good, and super easy to make)

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts cut in 1 inch strips then cut in 1/2
1/3 bottle teriyaki sauce

Pour some of the teriyaki sauce in the bottom of a 10 in. non-stick pan, place RAW chicken slices into pan then pour the remaining sauce onto the chicken. Turn heat up to 7 and flip the chicken every 5ish minutes until chicken is fully cooked.

That yummy fish

Yeah, my kids have no knack for remembering the names to food. lol Anyway, today I’m going to share with you the recipe for, a dish Ryan and Zach call, That Yummy Fish.

Ingredients:
4 Tilapia fillets
2 peices of bread
Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

(will also need aluminum foil)

Directions:
Lightly sprinkle bread with Italian seasoning and the onion and garlic powder, then broil in oven at 500 degrees until the tops are a light brown, take bread out flip over and season that side too, place bread back in the oven and broil again until light brown.
Switch oven from broil to bake at 425 degrees.
Get a bowl then rub the two pieces of toast together using the bowl to catch the crumbs, do so until you either run out of the bread or untoasted parts show through. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper, and a 1/4 cup parmesan then mix together.
Line a pan with aluminum foil and then spray with a non-stick thing (like Pam). Place the fish on the foil and then drizzle the oil over it. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture over it then flip fish over. Drizzle oil over this side too and sprinkle the rest of the crumbs over it. Lastly sprinkle the rest of the parmesan cheese on top.
Cook in the oven until the fish flakes easily with a fork. (About 10ish minutes.)

(*Note – since I’m cheap for the parmesan we just use the stuff that comes in the green can thing that you can sprinkle on stuff like spaghetti. Also, you can cut most of the steps if you buy Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs, but again, we’re cheap.)

Our Favorite Meal

So, this is Zach’s and mine’s favorite dish… its yumm-to the-y. It’s a ham, egg, and cheese casserole. Here are the directions and ingredients:

2 cups biscuit mix
1 cup water
6 eggs
1/2 medium onion (diced)
1 pound of ham (1/2 in cubes)
1/4 cup cheddar cheese

preheat oven to 400 degrees, mix biscuit mix and water, spray a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray and spread the biscuit dough across the bottom as evenly as possible. Cook until dough is 1/2 way cooked (about 5ish minutes)

increase oven temperature to 450 degrees after you take the dough out. mix together the eggs and onions then pour into the dish on top of the dough. put ham into the eggs trying not to put any on top of each other. then sprinkle the cheese across the top of it. cook for about 20 minutes, or until the top starts to brown and is puffy. it’s done when you can stick a knife into it and it comes out clean.

Don’t worry if you see some liquid come out of the top when you check it. It's just juice from the ham and will absorb into the biscuit as it sits.

Non-Edible Cookie Ornament Recipe

So I've been having lots of questions asked on how to make the ornaments the boys decorated for the tree, so I'm making a post to tell you how.
:)
Ingridents:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
Thoroughly mix together salt and flour. Once mixed add in water and until most is moist but all water is absorbed. Place dough on a piece of wax paper and then knead for about 10 minutes. Roll dough to a little under 1/2 an inch thick and then cut with cookie cutters, making sure to add a hole at the top for hook, and place on cookie sheet. Cook at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden. Let sit for a few hours then decorate!