Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This easy recipe came to me via email this morning from All Recipes and is probably going to be the answer to my "What are we going to have for dinner tonight?" question. That is, if I can get to the grocery store in time to start the chicken.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
2 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic

Put the chicken in the slow cooker. Top with the spaghetti sauce, green bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Cover, and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Serve over angel hair pasta.

Chicken Noodle Soup

This is very similar to the chicken with potatoes and veggies dish I last posted about.

Chicken Noodle Soup

6 chicken thighs (or whatever you like)
1/2 package angel hair pasta (or whatever kind you like)
Medium onion, diced
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a stock pot with water and onions, salt and pepper. Boil until it's done. In a separate pan, place the noodles and vegetables in boiling water and cook until it's almost done. Drain and return to pan. Serve together with the chicken and broth. When I cook chicken noodle soup, I usually keep the noodles separate from the broth because the noodles seem to want to soak up all the broth.

Deboning/cutting up chicken

We eat a lot of chicken so I was glad to find some great tips on deboning chicken thighs, deboning chicken breasts and cutting up a whole chicken at AllRecipes.com.

We buy a lot of bone-in chicken thighs since I prefer dark meat, thighs are easy to cook and eat, and of course, bone-in meat is cheaper. I normally don't take the bone out until it's completely cooked, but these tips say removing the bone reduces cooking time.

This summer I've been cooking our chicken either in the crock pot out on the back porch or on the stove in a pan of water. This winter I'll be able to turn the oven on and bake some chicken!

One Pot Chicken with Potatoes and Veggies

This can be served either as a wet dish or a soup. I gave it to the kids as a wet dish and ate it myself as a soup. Either way, it's delicious.

One Pot Chicken with Potatoes and Veggies

6 chicken thighs (or whatever you like)
12 small potatoes
Medium onion, diced
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a stock pot with water and onions and salt and pepper. Start it to boiling while you peel and chop the potatoes. I used the veggie chopper my grandma gave me for the potatoes and onions but of course a knife works just fine too. Put the potatoes in the pot and after a few minutes, add the vegetables. Cook until everything is done. Dish out with a spoon with holes in it for just a wet dish or use a ladle to eat it as soup.

Pasta with meat and veggie sauce

Here's something I threw together the other night with what I had on hand that could be cooked quickly. I had no idea how this would turn out but the kids devoured it and there wasn't anything left over. My 10-year-old niece, who is a very picky eater, seems to love all my one-dish meals made with whatever I have available. Hmmm.

Pasta with Meat and Veggie Sauce

Package of egg noodles

Sauce:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 medium onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the noodles on to cook and then start the sauce. Brown the meat with the onions, and then add other ingredients. Cook until vegetables are tender. Serve the meat and veggie sauce over the noodles.

Turkey patties (with oatmeal, shhh!)

I had heard of using oatmeal to stretch ground meat but hadn't ever tried it. I had a pound of ground turkey thawed with five kids to feed the other night, so I figured if there was any time to experiment with stretching meat, that would be the time to do it. I used both oatmeal and eggs in the ground meat and nobody knew! Everybody ate like they hadn't eaten a thing all day long so I figure that was a success!


Turkey Patties with Oatmeal

1 lb. ground turkey
1 cup oatmeal (old fashioned)
2 small eggs (or one medium egg)
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp. olive or safflower oil
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients well and shape into patties. Place in a heated skilled oiled with olive or safflower oil. Cook until middle is done.

While the meat was cooking, I cooked some egg noodles in some leftover chicken stock. When the noodles were done, I poured some of the stock over the done meat patties and tossed in a little flour in an attempt to make gravy. It didn't look all that great to me (lumpy gravy) but it tasted fine. There wasn't anything left.

Beefy Potatoes and Peas

Here's another hearty, one-pan comfort food dish!

Beefy Potatoes and Peas

1 lb. hamburger meat
1 pkg. frozen purple hull peas
3 medium potatoes
Small onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the hamburger meat with the onion. Take the meat out and place it on a paper towel and wipe out the skillet. Put the meat back in and add the frozen peas and salt and pepper. Cover the peas with water and start them to boiling. While the peas start cooking, peel the potatoes and chop into medium-sized chunks. Add the potatoes and cook until everything is done. It tastes better if it can simmer together for a while.

Serve with crackers. In the winter serve it over rice or with some fresh baked bread.

There are several variations for this recipe. If you use ground turkey, which is what I normally use, you can skip the draining step. You could also use any kind of frozen peas or beans. I thought the purple hull peas looked nice along with the potatoes, and they tasted really good together too.

I also thought this was delicious but the kids weren't so enthusiastic about it. (That's when they get the reminder about how fortunate they are that they have parents who feed them every day and that care if they eat or not, etc.!)