Spicy Crock Pot Chicken Spaghetti

This is a recipe that was partially invented by my husband. He doesn't cook much, mostly because I take over in the kitchen since it's a hobby for me, but when he tries, he can cook pretty well. He decided he wanted to cook for me one evening. Since I love both spaghetti and chicken parmesan, he decided to come up with a chicken spaghetti sauce that he thought I would like. The spicy part he added because he likes spicy things. I ended up adapting his recipe by adding some small tweaks and adapting it for the Crock Pot, since I love the way chicken falls apart and is tender when slow cooked.
If you are not a fan of spicy things, but you think the idea of chicken spaghetti sauce sounds good, make the recipe just as is, except eliminate the crushed red pepper.

Spicy Crock Pot Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients

1 jar pasta sauce

½ of an 8 oz. jar sun dried tomato pesto sauce

2 tsp. Garlic powder

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

2 tsp. Crushed red pepper

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 tsp. Sugar

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions

Stir together all ingredients except chicken in Crock Pot. Place chicken breasts in sauce and cover with some sauce. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and stir so shredded chicken blends thoroughly with sauce. Serve over prepared spaghetti noodles or other pasta of your choice.

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients (For broth)

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

2-3 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

Ingredients (for dumplings)

3 cups four

¾ tsp. salt

¾ tsp. baking soda

5 Tbsp. shortening

1 cup milk

Directions

In a Dutch oven, stir together chicken broth, water, cream of chicken soup, onion, celery, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Add raw chicken breasts. Bring to a boil, cook until chicken breasts are cooked all the way through. Reduce heat to medium. Remove chicken breasts, shred, and return to pot.

In the meantime, mix flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture with your fingertips. Add milk ¼ cup at a time, and stir until a ball of dough just begins to form, being careful not to over-mix. Roll out the dough onto floured surface that you don’t mind cutting on. Roll about ¼ inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into strips, then cut across the other way to form rectangles about 1-2 inches wide. Drop dumplings into simmering chicken mixture. Cover and simmer for about 20 min., or until dumplings are cooked through.

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

I adapted this a bit from a recipe I found for a baked potato casserole. It turned out to be a great side dish, but it is hearty enough it could also be served as a main dish. 

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

Ingredients

5 large baking potatoes

1 cup evaporated milk

¾ cup sour cream

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 tsp. Garlic powder

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Pepper

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

4 green onions, chopped

Real bacon bits

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Poke holes in potatoes with a fork, wrap in foil, and bake for one hour. After taking potatoes out of the oven, reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Leaving the skins on, mash potatoes with a fork. Add the evaporated milk, sour cream, butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and one cup of the cheddar cheese. Mix together with a hand mixer. Do not overmix. The consistency should not be creamy like mashed potatoes, but thicker. Spread potato mixture in a 9 x 13 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with remaining cup of cheese, chopped green onions, and bacon bits. Return to oven and bake for 5 addition minutes.

Stromboli Bake

Stromboli Bake

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury crescent rolls

1 lb. Italian sausage

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 (14 oz.) jar pizza sauce

1 package sliced mozzarella cheese

Pepperoni

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread one package of crescent rolls across the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Place the Italian sausage, onion, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning in a skillet and cook until sausage is browned. Spread sausage mixture on top of the crescent rolls in the 9 x 13 baking dish. Next, cover the sausage mixture with a layer of pepperoni. Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the top of the sausage/ pepperoni. Lay the cheese slices over the top of the pizza sauce until completely covered. Spread the second package of crescent rolls over the top of the cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil, then bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Breaded Cheddar Chicken

 I finally have a new recipe up. I apologize for the long delay. What happened was, I am pregnant now, and for the first few months, I have been so exhausted that even when I did have the energy to cook, taking the extra steps to type the recipe, take the pictures, etc. was too much. Combined with the fact that I was having some food aversions and only wanted to eat the same things for awhile, it just really wasn't the best time to be blogging about food. But, now, I am in my second trimester, I am feeling better, and for now it seems the aversions are gone, so I am back at it again, Unfortunately, I missed the holiday season, which is a great time for cooking, but I will get over than and just move on to more new recipes.
So, here is a delicious one I made last week...

_{Breaded Cheddar Chicken}

_Ingredients

_{2 cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs}

_{2 cups shredded cheddar cheese}

_{1 egg}

_{2 Tablespoons milk}

_{4 uncooked chicken breasts}

_{4 Tablespoons butter, melted}

_Directions

_{Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray non-stick cooking spray in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix breadcrumbs and 1 cup of the cheese in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together egg and milk. Dip the chicken in the egg/ milk mixture, then roll in the breadcrumb mixture. Lay in the baking dish. Top each chicken breast with remaining cheese. Drizzle melted butter over the top. Bake for 40 minutes.}

Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup

I found this recipe for a cheesier version of chicken tortilla soup, tweaked it a little, and it was really good. It was also pretty quick and easy.

Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning
2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Diced
1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. Butter
⅓ cup Flour
2 cups chicken broth
8 oz. (¼ block) Velveeta cheese, cubed
8 oz. Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1 jar salsa

1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chiles
1 cup milk
Crushed tortilla chips

Directions

In a skillet, add 1 Tbsp. taco seasoning and diced chicken. Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Drain, and set aside.

In large pot, saute onion in butter. Stir in flour until blended, then gradually stir in the broth. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for two minutes longer, or until thickened slightly. Add Velveeta, shredded cheese, remaining Tbsp. taco seasoning, salsa, and green chiles. Cook on medium/low until cheese is melted. Stir in milk. Add the chicken Stir. Heat through, but do not boil. Remove from heat. Serve each bowl topped with crushed tortilla chips.

Crockpot Pizza Casserole

 

A friend of my mom's had made something like this for her a few weeks ago, and she gave me some to try. I liked it, so I looked online for a recipe, and I found a few different ones that seemed similar. Most of the ones I found didn't have enough water in the recipe, or were cooked too long, and people who reviewed them said they turned out very dry. So, taking the basics from those recipes, I increased the water, reduced the cook time, and added a few tweaks of my own, and what I came up with turned out great.

Crockpot Pizza Casserole

Ingredients 

1 box Rotini Pasta, uncooked 

1 pound Italian sausage or lean ground beef ( I used sausage) 

1 onion, chopped 

1 tsp. garlic powder 

1 tsp. Italian seasoning 

1 green bell pepper, chopped 

1 cup sliced pepperoni 

1 ( 32 oz.) jar pasta sauce 

4 cups water 

1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions : Spray Crock Pot with non-stick spray. In a medium skillet, brown the ground beef or sausage with the onion, garlic, green bell pepper, Italian seasoning, and pepperoni. Drain excess fat. In the meantime, pour the jar of pasta sauce and the water into the Crockpot. Stir in the uncooked pasta.  Once the meat is browned, dump meat mixture into Crockpot and stir well.  Cover and cook on low for 2.5 hours. Fifteen minutes before serving, top with the mozzarella cheese. Once cheese is melted, it’s ready to serve.

Note: At first, it will seem really soupy, but all of the water will be absorbed by the time the pasta cooks and expands, and it will be thick and casserole like in texture.