Once upon a time, on a blog far away (or maybe it was an ezine and maybe it wasn’t so far away) an organizer shared with her readers the joy she experienced each and every Monday, when without thought, dinner was effortlessly thrown into the Crock-Pot at the start of the day. By dinner time, a warm and delicious chicken dinner was ready for her family. She loved the simplicity of this meal, fondly known as Monday night chicken, and just wanted to share her joy with her readers, and suggest that they, too, take some of the guesswork out of weekly meal planning.
The organizer, however, never shared the recipe with her readers. Until now, months and months later, when a new (and very dedicated) blog reader named Stacy T. spent an entire afternoon reading the organizer’s blog. Stacy’s interest was piqued. “What is this Monday night chicken?” And so Stacy emailed the organizer to ask for the recipe. And so, here my friends, is the recipe for Monday night chicken, a token of appreciation to Stacy for spending so much of her day with me. Thanks Stacy…hope you enjoy. 😉
(The recipe, by the way, sounds horrible right now with this ghastly heat. But it’s extremely delicious in the winter.) None the less, here she is:
6 frozen chicken breasts*
2 cans cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper to taste
Put chicken in slow cookers and pour soup over top. Add salt and pepper. Place cover on slow cooker and cook on low for ten to twelve hours. Enjoy!
It seems a bit anti-climatic…but perhaps that’s the point. It’s really, really easy and it can strike one thing off your to do list each and every week. We usually have this with rice and a veggie. Yummy (when it’s cooler out) and my whole family loves it (another bonus). For variety try other types of soup … like cream of asparagus or cream of celery.
*Yes, frozen! You don’t have to defrost which makes it even faster and you can always have the ingredients on hand. I love that!
I have to say, I love my Crock-Pot. I love having dinner ready without having to get dinner ready at dinner time. Know what I mean? Do you have a super simple, go-to favorite for your Crock-Pot? Wanna share? I’m always on the hunt for really easy Crock-Pot dishes…and if you had one that tastes yummy even when it’s 100 degrees…now that would make my heart sing.
I LOVE my crockpot too!!! It totally saves me!
Let’s see, one CP meal we love is Amy’s Chicken, Black Beans & Rice (http://humblemusings.com/archives/2005/12/09/weekly-standby/). I also use the CP to make the meat filling for tacos. Of course there’s a bunch of other things I make too, I just can’t think of them right now, LOL.
One of the things that hubby uses the CP for is Roast. Either a pork or a beef roast, seasonings of choice, 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup and 1 can of water. Cook on low for 6-10 hours depending upon size of roast and whether it is frozen or thawed. It comes out tender and delish each and every time!
We love pulled pork sandwiches from the crock pot. I put some onion halves in the bottom, put a pork roast on top with some salt and pepper and a bit of water, and let it cook all day. When cooked, pull it apart with 2 forks and put barbeque sauce with it, put it on buns and yum, yum. 🙂
I would be seriously lost without my crockpot! We always make chili (with boca burger grounds, 2 cans of kidney beans, 2 cans of diced tomatoes and seasoning of your choice) and serve over rice or pasta.
Another favorite here is chicken breast with marinated artichoke hearts and black olives. Yum! The artichoke hearts turn kind of grey if you cook them too long so I add them about an hour before we’re ready to eat. Again serve over rice or pasta. I’ve also tried “fake” chicken (Quorn is a good brand) and that works well also!
I love my crockpot and use it as often as I can.. here is one of our favorite recipes and is actually on the menu for this week..
CROCK POT BEEF STROGANOFF
3 lb. beef round steak, 1/2 inch thick
1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
2 med. onions, thinly sliced and separated into rings
2 (4 oz. each) cans sliced mushrooms, drained or 1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 1/2 oz.) can condensed beef broth
1/4 c. dry white wine (optional)
1 1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. flour
Trim all excess fat from steak and cut meat into 3 inch strips about 1/2 inch wide. Combine 1/2 cup flour, the salt, pepper and dry mustard; toss with steak strips to coat thoroughly. Place coated steak strips in crock pot; stir in onion rings and mushrooms. Add beef broth and wine; stir well. Cover and cook on low setting for 8-10 hours. Before serving, combine sour cream with 1/4 cup flour; stir into crock pot. Serve stroganoff over rice or noodles.
I have a similar recipe for chicken but I use BBQ sauce instead of the cream of chicken. It works in the summer too, since it is BBQ. You put the breasts in frozen just like the recipe you use. Super easy and really good! Not as good as on the grill, but great for a night when you just need to eat and run.
I have two good ones for you. I love this first one but Dh hates it. 8( They both sound kind of strange but are so delicious. Of course right now it is much too hot for them.
Crazy Chicken
3 – 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
½ bottle of catalina dressing
2 pkg of dry onion soup mix (I use 1)
1 sml jar of peach preserves.
Put chicken into crock pot. Mix remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken. Cook on high 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours. I serve this over rice
Cheap roast
beef or pork roast
1 bottle barbecue sauce (I love Sweet Baby Rays)
1 pkg of French onion soup mix
2 cans of cream of anything soup
canned or frozen corn
canned or frozen green beans
1 cup of water
Cook low for 8 hours.
Served with mashed potatoes or on kaiser rolls.
Crock Pot Mac & cheese
1 lb elbow mac–cooked (should be REALLY al dente)
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup milk
1 can condensed cheese soup
1 cup shredded cheese (or more if you’re super cheesey!)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Cook on low 3 hours (my crock pot is super hot, so 3 hours gives me a firm mac & cheese.) Adjust the amount of milk to give creamier version or if you need to cook longer.
So glad to get some recipes for my lil’ crock pot!
I am interested in finding out what ezines, blogs you read for organizing info – always looking for more tips!
Something I did to broaden my crockpot horizons was to join a Yahoo group that emails me a new recipe every few days. If I like it, I file it on my computer and try it out. Hope that helps!
Here’s a quick and easy one, plus it has WW’s blessings. It looks a bit odd, but turns into a low calorie BBQ sauce.
Diet Coke Chicken
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, frozen
1 can Diet Coke
1 cup ketchup
Put all ingredients into the CP. Cook on low for approx. 5 hours (less time if chicken in thawed). It tastes great!
Here is a really GREAT and SIMPLE CP recipe. It might sound strange but it’s so yummy, a favourite at our house in the cooler weather. Not sure why I don’t make it more often? It would be so tasty on some crusty rolls with cabbage salad along the side. So simple:
Sprinkle pork roast with one package of dry French Onion soup mix. Spoon one can of Cranberry sauce on top of the roast. Cover and cook all day even from frozen. You can pull the meat apart and mix together or serve meat and sauce separate. – So tasty, enjoy!
Here’s mine and boy the crock pot is a life saver even on hot days if you aren’t up to heating up the kitchen or the grill in hot weather!!
EASY BEEF STROGANOFF (sp)
1-2 lbs stew meat
1 envelope onion soup mix (I use Mrs. Grass’ low sodium)
1 can of cream of mushroom (celery, chicken are okay too)
Add ingredients as listed cook on low 5-6 hours or high (if using frozen stew meat) 6-8 hours.
Serve over Egg Noodles with veggies on the side.
PS–saw your layout in SS Mag!!
This is so good seriously yum, if I have time I brown the diced chicken onion and bacon for extra flavour but it is not necessary and adds a dish ;P
400-500 grams diced chicken breast
1 onion diced
4 full rashers of bacon chopped (nb not streaky bacon but full rashers)
1 can 400ml condensed pumpkin soup
2/3 cup chicken stock
Cook on low 8 hrs high 3-4 serve as a soup or thicken with cornflour to stew style and serve with hash browns on top.
Seriously good sometime I even add extras such as kumara (sweet potato) you can add leeks (yuck)
I presume you can get canned pumpkin soup in the US otherwise pumpkin puree with extra stock would prob do.
Try it
Fiona
Love the crock pot too! We have Crock Pot Thursday.
I have a lot of my recipes on our family’s website. Feel free to check it out.
The username is Elmore and password is Family.
I *ADORE* my crockpot, and actually use it even more in the summer (when I don’t want to heat the house with the oven or stovetop). I often set it up outside 🙂 My standby this summer has been baked beans, which I’ve taken to every gathering/picnic we’ve had (and have repeatedly been asked for the recipe). The ingredient list is pretty long, but I promise they’re to die for: http://couchcushions.blogspot.com/2007/07/celebration-time.html
Honey Dijon Chicken is another one that’s yummy (and simple, too!): http://couchcushions.blogspot.com/2007/06/monday-recovery.html
Here’s a CP version of one of my Moms favorites.Chicken on Sunday:
3 lg chicken breasts
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup uncooked rice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
Place butter in warming CP,followed by chicken.Mix all other ingredients together and pour over chicken. Cook appox 2-3 hours on high. Add more water or broth as needed.
Enjoy!!
I love to do a roast with a packet of DRY onion soup mix….coat the roast with it, wrap it in foil and cook for 6-8 hours. Add veggies for a side. The foile keeps the clean up to a minimum!
Garlic & Chicken in foil is another good one!
BBQ pork, chicken or beef (use a roast) is awesome too…just meat and BBQ sauce and cook it all day…shred and put on buns.
LOVE to use the crock pot, but don’t near enough!
Soft Chicken Tacos
4-6 frozen chicken breasts
1 jar favorite salsa
Breasts in CP, dump in salsa, cook as long as you need it to.
Remove chicken fork shred, add some of the salsa juice if you want your meat a little more “wet”. Serve with traditional taco fixings.
Good anytime!
Here’s what I do for dinner and it goes something like this:
Hi Mr. Chinese Food Man, I would like Shrimp Stir Fry, Pork Fried Rice and a Cosmo to be delivered, thanks.
hehehe