Baked Potato Soup and Salsa Chicken

As promised, I've been wanting to post some new favorite recipes. Both are crockpot recipes and super easy (my crockpot is my new best friend). Enjoy!

Baked Potato Soup (from A Year of Slow Cooking blog)
(this made a big batch- we ended up freezing quite a bit of it, and it was delicious the second time around as well!)

You will need:

• 5 lbs. potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• Salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
• Shredded cheddar and bacon bits for serving.

Peel and dice potatoes and put in crock pot.

Chop one onion and garlic and put them in the crockpot.

Add some salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.

Pour in 2 quarts chicken broth.

Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours. The potatoes should be very tender.

Mash the potatoes.

Add cream cheese, put lid back on and cook on high for about 30 minutes until cream cheese is dissolved. Stir a few times during the 30 minutes. (I would recommend taking the cream cheese out of the fridge and letting it soften a bit before putting it in... I took it straight from the fridge and it didn't disolve as well as I would have liked)

Serve with shredded cheddar and bacon bits.

Salsa Chicken (from Cooking with LT blog)
(I doubled the original recipe and froze the leftovers. I'm giving you the doubled recipe below.)

You will need:

• 5-6 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 pkg. taco seasoning
• 2 cups salsa (I've used picante sauce, salsa, taco sauce, or any combination of the three)
• 1 cup low-fat sour cream
• 2 cans reduced fat cream of chicken soup

Place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in bottom of crockpot.

Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.

Mix salsa, sour cream, and soup. Pour mixture over chicken.

Cook on low 8 hours.

Shred chicken then mix back in with sauce.

We ate this burrito-style in whole wheat tortillas with black beans (for Brett), and cheese. Delicious!

Slow-Cooker Lasagna and Banana Bread (or muffins)

Yesterday I decided to try a recipe I'd been eyeing for awhile. Mom actually spotted it first, in the latest issue of the Kraft Food and Family magazine. It's Slow Cooker Lasagna, and I was excited to just throw it all in the Crock Pot so it would be ready when we got home from running errands yesterday afternoon. It was sooo easy and quick to prepare, and quite yummy!! I don't think I love it as much as traditional lasagna, but it's definitely a quick fix, and I think with a little doctoring it could be absolutely delicious! I'll definitely try this one again :) Here's the recipe...

Slow-Cooker Lasagna (from kraftfoods.com)
You will need:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 container (15 oz.) Ricotta Cheese
• 1 pkg. (7 oz.) 2% Shredded Mozzarella, divided
• 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (I used dried parsley instead)
• 6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

BROWN meat and garlic in large skillet; drain.

Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, egg and parsley.

SPOON 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit; and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

(I definitely think 4 hours would have been plenty- I left it in for almost 5 hours and it was a little burnt on the bottom on a few spots. I think putting a little more sauce in the bottom might have helped this as well).


As if I hadn't done enough cooking for the weekend at this point, I decided to use the ripe bananas we had to make banana muffins last night. We had 7 bananas that needed used, so I doubled the recipe. The recipe I used was actually for Banana Bread, but I wanted to make muffins so that Brett could easily take the extras to football today. I pretty much followed the recipe to the T, except of course I used muffin tins (with paper cups in them) instead of a loaf pan, and I only cooked them for about 25 minutes. They are to die for...not too sweet, but have tons of great banana flavor. I think this is my new go-to Banana Bread (or muffin) recipe!

Banana Bread (or muffins) (from "Baking Illustrated")

You will need:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour,plus more for dusting the pan
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 6 tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess. (or, put paper muffin cups in muffin pan. I doubled the recipe and came out with about 30 muffins, so a regular batch would probably yield 12-15 muffins).

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside.

Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl.

Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. (or fill muffin cups- I filled them about 3/4 full).

Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (For muffins, I baked for 25 minutes, let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then removed from the pan to cool completely.)

Cream Cheese Bacon Crescents, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookie Pizza

So I've done a lot of cooking this weekend... laying on the couch sick for 48 hours straight earlier this week made me antsy, so by the time I finally started feeling better on Saturday I was ready to go.

Rock and Jessica came over on Saturday to watch the Mizzou game, and we decided to just do a bunch of appetizers and snacky stuff. Jess brought over some yummy treats, and I made Cream Cheese Bacon Crescents, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and a new recipe- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Pizza. The crescents and dip are favorites of mine, but I was anxious to try the cookie pizza! Let's just say I was not disappointed...

All 3 recipes were absolutely delicious, and so quick and easy. I only spent about an hour total cooking. Oh, and we got to see a great game, which made the day that much better!
M I Z.....

Here are the recipes:

Cream Cheese Bacon Crescents (from kraftfoods.com)

You will need:

• 1 tub (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Chive & Onion Light Cream Cheese Spread
• 3 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled
• 2 cans (8 oz. each) reduced fat refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Mix cream cheese spread and bacon in small bowl until well blended.

SEPARATE each can of dough into 8 triangles each. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise. Spread each dough triangle with 1 generous tsp. cream cheese mixture. Roll up, starting at shortest side of triangle and rolling to opposite point. Place, point sides down, on ungreased baking sheet. (In my experience, the crescents need to be straight out of the fridge when you cut them, otherwise they get too gooey and are really difficult to handle).

BAKE 12 to 15 min. or until golden brown. Serve warm.



Michaela's Buffalo Chicken Dip (from kraftfoods.com)

You will need:

• 2 packages (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Ranch Dressing
• 4 cans (5 oz. each) canned chicken
• 3/4 cup hot sauce (cayenne red pepper sauce)
• 2 cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, divided
• 2 large bags corn chips (I usually do one bag of Fritos scoops, and one bag of Tostitos scoops)

In a large skillet, add cream cheese, ranch dressing and chicken on medium heat. Stir until cream cheese is melted and chicken is distributed evenly.

Add hot sauce and continue to stir, finally add 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese and stir as well until melted.

Turn temperature to low after all is melted and mixed together.  Remove from skillet and place in a small slow cooker and spread on top remaining cheddar cheese, keep on low until ready to serve. (I always just put the entire 2 cups of cheese into the dip rather than melting some on top).



Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookie Pizza (from pillsbury.com)

You will need:

• 1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated chocolate chip cookies
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup Cool Whip, thawed
• 3/4 cup hot fudge topping

Heat oven to 350°F. In ungreased 12-inch pizza pan, break up cookie dough. With floured fingers, press dough evenly in bottom of pan to form crust. (I used a 9x13 pyrex dish instead, which worked just fine)

Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip.

Spread 1/2 cup of the fudge topping over cooled crust. Spread peanut butter mixture over top. Drizzle with remaining 1/4 cup fudge topping.

Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or until serving time. Cut into wedges or squares. (The only problem I had with this recipe is that the frosting was really gooey, I expected it to firm up a bit more. I did stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes before I cut it which helped.)