Taco Soup

I have never been a fan of taco soup, until now!  I had a friend share this recipe with me and the whole family LOVES it!  I think it something to do with Hormel Chili in it, our favorite canned chili.  I usually have to double it for my family of six, giving me a little bit of leftovers for lunches the following day. The recipe comes from here.  It calls for chicken, but I have left that out and just added an extra can of black beans when I make this.  Doing it this way also makes for a quick prep time if you want to do it on the stove top.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 (16 ounce) can chili beans (I use Hormel Chili with beans)

1 (15 ounce) can black beans

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 C Beef Broth

1 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained

1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning

3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I make it without the chicken and add one more can of black beans.)

shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)

sour cream (optional)

crushed tortilla chips (optional)

cilantro (optional)

fresh lime juice (optional)

Instructions:

1.         Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, broth, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

2.         Remove chicken breasts from the soup and shred. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips cilantro, and lime juice, if desired.

Salsa Chicken

 My sister called me the other day and mentioned that she was trying this new recipe.  I told her to let me know how it turned out.  Yep, good enough that I got a phone call saying I had better try it!  So here it is. Thanks for sharing Cozy!!  The recipe came from here, and I switched out the creamed soup for a GF version.

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts 
1/3 C  creamed soup mix (found here)
1  1/4 C water
1-2 tsp GF chicken bullion or chicken paste
1 cup salsa
1 TB taco seasoning
1/2 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup sour cream 
optional: grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top when serving

Directions: 
Add dry soup mix, water and chicken bullion on stove top and cook until blended and thickened slightly.  Place chicken, soup, and salsa in slow cooker. Sprinkle taco seasoning over everything. Cook on low for 6 hours. If shredding the chicken, pull the breasts out and shred; return back to slow cooker. Stir in sour cream and continue cooking until everything is heated through.  Serve over rice.

Chicken and Ham Veggie Soup

I love soup on cold days and I was looking for a way to use up some of our leftover ham from the holidays.  This is a very flavorful soup.

4 C chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
1 large onion chopped
3 celery ribs chopped
1 C carrots chopped
1 14 oz. package frozen corn
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1  can petite diced tomatoes
3/4 C chopped ham
1/4 C ketchup
1/2 TBS sugar
3 TBS red wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp dried marjoram (I used Oregano)
2 TBS taco seasoning.

Bring chicken broth to a boil in a large pot.  Add uncooked whole chicken breast, onion and celery.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add carrots, continue simmering for 15-20 more minutes.  remove chicken from pot and let cool slightly.  Shred chicken and put back in pot.  Add all remaining ingredients, cover and simmer on low for 30 more minutes.

***Crockpot version
Cube chicken and brown in frying pan.  Place all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until veggies are tender.

Chili Dip

This recipe is one you can adjust to the size of crowd you would be feeding. (With what is listed below, I served 5 people - 1/2 C serving  each and had about 2 C leftover)  

3 cans of Hormel Chili (with beans)

1 8oz. Cream Cheese (cut into smaller chunks)

2 tsp. Taco Seasoning

Grated Cheddar Cheese

Chips for dipping

Add chili, taco seasoning and cream cheese chunks into crock pot.  You are only cooking it long enough to melt down the cream cheese.  If you are in a hurry, put it on high.  I like to simmer mine for about three hours on low, stirring every thirty minutes.  Before serving you can add grated cheese to the entire batch, or serve it separately on the side.

Crockpot Peanut Clusters

2 lbs salted dry roasted peanuts
4oz Bakers German Sweet Choc
1 12 oz pkg semisweet choc chips
2 ½ lbs of white almond bark ( I used white baking chips)
Cupcake or candy liners

Put the peanuts in bottom of a 4 quart crock pot. Layer the chocolate over the peanuts starting with the
German sweet choc, choc chips, and then the almond bark. Cook on low for 3 hours.

DO NOT STIR MIXTURE

After 3 hours stir mixture with wooden spoon until smooth. Drop the candy into cupcake liners (I  used
candy liners)  Allow candy to cool completely before removing liners.
Makes 30 to 40 pieces with cupcake liners.
( I made half a batch and filled small candy liners with 1 TBS of peanuts.  I didn't count, but it was enough to line an entire cookie sheet.)

Tuscan Pumpkin Soup

The name and color of this soup was very daunting to me but I really wanted to try it. It was actually pretty good. You don't really taste to much of the pumpkin, more so the chicken broth.  It tastes very similiar to chicken noodle soup, only orange!

Tuscan Pumpkin Soup

2 TB Olive oil
2-4 cloves minced garlic
2 celery stalks chopped
½ large onion chopped
6 C chicken broth
1 15 oz. canned pumpkin
2 C cut, cooked chicken or turkey
1-2 cans great northern white beans (rinsed and drained)
Parmesan cheese

Sauté in olive oil:
Garlic, celery and onions

Smooth together:
Chicken broth and pumpkin

In large pot, add chicken/turkey and beans with all other ingredients and heat thoroughly. Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

**After following the first two steps, I combined mine in the crock-pot and let it simmer for a few hours.

Santa Fe Chicken

I can't believe that a whole year has passed since I started posting recipes.  My goal for this coming year is to  meal plan for the entire month and to try at least 4 new recipes a month.  Wish me luck! So here is recipe #1 for the month of January. I will be the first to admit that this is one of those meals that is hard to make look good in a picture, but it definitely tasted great.  It has a little bit of a kick to it.  I served mine with rice and tortilla chips and sprinkled it with cheddar cheese. 

4-6 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 can corn rinsed and drained
1 jar of mild green salsa
1 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese

Place everything in the crockpot and cook on high for 5-6 hours.
We sprinkled ours with cheddar cheese and added tortilla chips on the side.

**This is half of the original recipe and it still made ALOT.  Plenty of leftovers!

Crock Pot Ribs

Crock Pot Ribs

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs. baby back ribs (We use boneless pork ribs)
¾ tsp. black pepper
¾ tsp. white pepper ( did not use)
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
1½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 cup dark brown sugar ( I used light brown)
¾ tsp. ground oregano
1 T paprika
1½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. sugar
¼ cup barbecue sauce

Directions:

Cut ribs into sections small enough to fit inside your crock pot. Mix all remaining ingredients except barbecue sauce to create a dry rub. Rub all over the ribs and place them in the crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove ribs from crock pot and brush with barbecue sauce.
Serve with extra napkins and try to wait until you get to the table before digging in.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork or Chicken

This meal requires a few hours in the kitchen, but well worth the effort! I came across this recipe on another blog I was reading, Family Favorite Recipes. It is not a GF blog, but a lot of the recipes could and can be converted to GF. My husband likes pork and the kids and myself like chicken, so the first time I made this, we used pork and then tried it again another night with chicken. Both were a success. My mom has tried it using a roast and said it tasted great. We made it tostada style as well as taco style. With the tostada style, I lightly browned the tortilla on a griddle until crispy, and then topped with rice, beans, meat, cheese, tomatoes and sour cream.

This one is with the pork, served with the Cilantro Ranch and tortilla chips.

SWEET PORK
2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce (I used Rosarita, medium spiciness)
1 c. brown sugar

Corn Tortillas for serving finished pork on

Put the pork in a heavy duty Ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 C of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

CILANTRO-LIME RICE
1 c. uncooked rice
1 tsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

BLACK BEANS
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 c. tomato juice
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro. (**NOTE** we added a can of corn, drained, to the beans with a dash of cumin and chili powder, it was AWESOME! We recommend doing this even though it's not "traditional Cafe Rio")

CILANTRO RANCH
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno (we like it SPICY so we kept the seeds in it, if you like it mild, just remove the seeds)

Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!

For the taco style, I warmed the tortilla up on a griddle, filled it with rice, beans, meat and cheese. I then folded the tortilla in half and placed in the oven on a baking sheet and broiled it on high until it was golden brown. I removed it and topped it with tomatoes.

Sweet and Sour Smokies

This recipe is a 'however much you want' recipe!

Smokies

Barbeque Sauce

Pineapple chunks, tidbits or crushed ( I even use some of the juice)

Place everything in the crockpot. Cook until heated through.

Homemade Chili

It's cold outside, so that means we are having soup! Tonight I made up some homemade chili. Back in the day I used Bush's Chili Beans, but they have wheat in them, so I have adapted my own version. We like it and hope you will too! I like to make mine in the crockpot, but I'm sure it can be done on the stovetop.



Homemade Chili
1 lb. gound beef, cooked and drained
2 cans pinto beans rinsed and drained
2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce plus 2 cans of water
1 medium onion chopped
1 celery stalk sliced
1 tsp (generous) minced garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
Grated cheddar cheese

Add browned beef, beans, onion and celery to crockpot. Combine tomato sauce, water and seasonings and then pour over meat and beans. I cook mine on low for 6 hours.
Add a handful of grated cheese into chili before serving. Serve with more grated cheese on top. Some of us like cornbread with our chili and the rest of us like tortilla chips.

Creamy Italian Chicken

Italian Chicken Sauce

1. Cook 3 chicken breasts in crock pot on high for 3 hours with ½ bottle of Italian salad dressing. ( I like the Zesty Italian)

2. Shred chicken. Discard juice, and set aside.

3. Heat together on stovestop:

1/3 C dry creamed soup mix plus 1 ¼ C water
1 C of water + 1 tsp chicken bullion (GF)
1 pkg. Cream cheese
When all blended together, add chicken.

4. Serve over hot GF noodles
Our favorite is the Trader Joe's brown rice Penne noodle.

This will feed our family of five with one leftover serving. This recipe can easily be doubled.

Sal Picon

This meal is a great way to use up any leftover roast beef or brisket. It tastes great with either beef or chicken.

Sal Picon

8-10 Chicken Tenders cooked and shredded
(Can be done in the crockpot with chicken bullion (GF) and cumin-just a sprinkle)

OR

2-3 pounds of beef cooked and shredded
(Can be done in crockpot with GF Beef bullion )


Add the following to you cooked meat of choice:

1/2- 3/4 cup Italian dressing
To taste:
Green onions
Tomatoes
Jalapenos
Cilantro
You want a ‘slightly wet’ mixture.

Get a corn tortilla warming on a griddle, sprinkle some cheese on it and then add a spoonful of the meat mixture. Fold in half. Toast both sides and serve with sour cream and avocado’s.

I replaced the jalapenos with green chilies, and used a half a can of petite diced tomatoes and only ½ cup of dressing.

White Chicken Chili

I am a huge fan of soup when it is cold outside and yesterday was one of those days. When I googled this recipe, I found many variations. I just went through and picked out the ones that I had the ingredients for and then made up my own. I kept it very simple so the kids would not complain. It worked because they all had seconds!

5-6 chicken tenders cooked and cubed
2 cans Chicken broth
2 cans Northern White Beans rinsed and drained
1/2 can diced Green Chilies
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
Oregano (I just put in a few pinches)
Sour Cream
Grated Cheese
Tortilla Chips

I browned my chicken and then cubed it. Add chicken, green chilies, broth and seasonings to crockpot. Cook on low for three to four hours. This is really just to let everything simmer together. One hour before you want to serve it, add beans. Right before serving add sour cream. I added about 1/2 -3/4 Cup, it's really however much you want. Serve with grated cheese (I used Colbyjack) and tortilla chips. This generously served all five of us and one bowl of leftovers for Jon's lunch.