Beef n' Black Bean Soup - crockpot

BEEF ‘N’ BLACK BEAN SOUP

1 pound ground beef

2 cans (14 ½ ounces each) chicken broth

1 can (14 ½ ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

8 green onions, thinly sliced

3 medium carrots, thinly sliced

2 celery ribs, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ½ teaspoons dried basil

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon chili powder

2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 ½ cups cooked rice

            In a skillet over medium heat, cook beef until no longer pink; drain.  Transfer to a slow cooker.  Add the next 12 ingredients.  Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.  Reduce heat to low; cook for 4-5 hours or until the vegetables are tender.  Add the beans and rice and cook 1 hour longer or until heated through.  Yield: 10 servings (2 ½ quarts).

Dec 7^th 2013 – can’t find my notes but I made this a week or so ago. Its okay, but only okay. I liked it more than Lance. 

Cream Cheese Ckn Chili

We made this in 2012 (Between Jan-April) – it was okay but nothing special. We’d rather make something else but hey it is a recipe that wasn’t awful.

Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
adapted from Tried and Tasty
(Printable Recipe)

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1 can black beans
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained
1 package ranch dressing mix (used “dip”)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder (we used 2 tsp not very full)
1 tsp onion powder (3 tsp chopped dried onion)
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts

Drain and rinse black beans. Place chicken at bottom of pot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken. Stir together and serve.

We did 3 hours on high and put cream cheese in and cooked another hour on low 

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

Creamy Crockpot Chicken (pg 88 of AF 37^th ward cookbook)

1 envelop onion soup mix

2 C sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom soup

6 chicken breasts

Mix everything except chicken, and then push chicken down into mixture. Cook 8 hours on low in crock-pot. Serve over rice or noodles.

We never wanted to eat this again because it made so much. 

Orange Ckn

Notes: this was the best one we’ve had so far but we still aren’t big fans of it. Orange chicken just might not be our thing. We may give it one more try – with orange juice to lessen the strong flavor.

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

(Recipe from Team T Adventures)

Ingredients:

• boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks (I used about 4)
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 Tbl. salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbl. ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 Tbl.  brown sugar


In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup.  Pour the flour in a small bowl.  Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.


Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken.
The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.

After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.

Serve over rice and even add veggies if you want a healthier meal.

Blogger said: I am crazy about Chinese food!  I always feel so guilty after I chow down on a three-course orange chicken meal at Panda Express (yes, I get the same entree 3 times because I love it so much),  so I thought this might be a better option for me.  It was so easy!  My family loved it.  I could have gone with a little less "orange," but other than that, it is a keeper!

Six sisters stuff

Crockpot Green Beans

 10 oz green beans (so a rounded half pound J like a heaping tablespoon)

2 TB dried choppedOnion

1can ckn broth

One lady said 6 is good 10 hrs is like butter

¼ cup water

¼ tsp pepper

3 T onion dried

14+oz green beans

Skewers, Rice & Brocooli

I'm not typing these recipes out, although they are both in my OBB cookbook. They have more info and professional pictures PLUS they get paid and I don't. I will probably make this meal again sometime when I have bacon I need to use up. I also want to try the rice the real way sometime. I didn't have crushed pineapple so I tried to get the taste by taking the pineapple juice from my 20oz can (also bigger than skewer recipe calls for but it helped stretch it further and gave me the bacon free option) and using that as part of the water I cooked the rice in. Wasn't very good rice. I would have preferred plain. But I still feel like I need to try it again just to know. If and when I do I will remove this/put an update if the feelings change. I also made the marinade with out the ground ginger and it was still good.

Last night we had Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with steamed broccoli and Lime-Cilantro Rice with Pineapple

 Mommy and Baby G had the bacon free version. 

I put a radish on Baby G's skewer to protect him. He kept poking it into his adorable fat thighs. But then he became curious about that and kept taking it off and trying to eat it. He didn't think it was spicy hot so we're just glad he tried radishes for about the 3rd time. We hope he likes lots of different foods/flavors. 

The many bacon wrapped kind. My hubby loved the 2nd batch we had was actually down in the marinade for hours. The ones we cooked first were just on top and only had the marinade drizzled over them  so the flavor wasn't soaked up and as delightfully strong. This batch got an "oh yeah!" out of my man. 

The first six we cooked got a little burnt so we had to cook more. 

German Apple Pancake

This recipe comes from pg 31of the "keeping up cookbook" that we got for our wedding. Yes that is the title - the entire book is all lower case. It drives my husband NUTS. I'm not a fan of it but it has produced "hits" often so I figure we can handle a little all lower case style.

German Apple Pancake
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 Tb sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk or half & half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 small or 3 large apples, peeled and cored
3 Tbs butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
powdered sugar for dusting

Whish together flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. Combine drya dn wet ingredients, whisking until well combined. SEt aside.

Cut apples into quarters, then slice into 1/2 inch slices. Heat butter in a 12-inch overproof skillet (preferably non stick) over medium-high heat. Asd apples, brown sugar and cinnamon. cook until apples turn golden brown, stiring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Rwmove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Quickly pour batter over apples and put hot skillet into a 425 degree oven. Bake until sides have risen above edges of skillet adn are golden brown. 12 to 19 minutes. Remove from oven and loosen edges with a spatular. Invert onto a serving try, slice into wedges and serve dusted with podered sugar. Deliciosu with maple syrup, caramel sauce or buttermilk syrup.

 

After I put it in the oven Baby G tried to look inside. He has never done that before and was delighted that a light turned on so he actually could see something.

 

 Trying to get a closer look.

 Hot...he says softly as he steps back. Too cute!

 

Luckily it really doesn't get HOT. But he says that about anything even "warm" these days and refuses to eat his food until it has cooled off entirely. This morning his dad said he must be like Grandpa G, he doens't mind his food cold either and sometimes prefers it that way. Not a "my son" moment for my husband who heats up everything. I mean the man refuses to eat cold pizza, which I love. Anyway!

I did used to worry that the lower oven would be too hot and Baby G would get hurt. We tested it out a few times to make sure. We're safe! I'm glad too because the top oven cooks even more unevenly that the bottom and I'm tired of it ruining our food. Now my only fear is Mr. Curisoisty/Baby G trying to touch anything when I open it. I told him not to touch and that it was hot as I opened it. Hopefully that little reminder keeps working. He is a crazy kid but a cautious one too.

Personal notes: I didn't peel the apples and it was still delicious (with added...or is it origianl... benefits :D) & it wasn't until typing this up I realized I forgot to do the lemon juice step. Oops! Oh well. Also, we don't have the kind of skillet called for so I used a glass baking dish (11x8?? Not sure. It came with our "furnished" house here in NY). I hope that if I can ever bake it their way it will turn out as pretty as it sounds. For now we will take the simple, make do, still taste yummy way.