italian chicken soup

You may have figured it out by now: my husband doesn’t much like soup.  There are exceptions.  I’ve had great success getting him to eat pasta e fagioli ~ as long as I leave out most all of the beans.  Which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.  But for the most part he feels that soup is an appetizer, not a meal.  Or in other words, soup doesn’t fill him up, and he’s hungry again an hour or two later.  But I like soup.  Oldest likes soup.  And on cold nasty days like we’ve had around here lately, soup is quick, warm and comforting.

So, because I’m such a kind and selfless wife, I decided to try a new soup recipe I found (where else) on Pinterest.  SO happy I did.  Wow is this soup good.  I made a few adjustments to suit myself my family ~ Middlest and Littlest won’t eat tomatoes, so I replaced half of them and used bigger tomatoes for the ones I left in so that they could pick them out easier; you KNOW I left out the onions; and since I’m not supposed to eat celery right now (and because I didn’t have any in the house) I opted to use celery flakes instead (in the hopes that they would be ok...).  But whether it was the modifications I made or that the original recipe was just that good, this soup is The Bomb.  And it’s not just me who thought so.  My husband came in from shoveling snow, loaded up his bowl, and then proceeded to tell me that this is now is favorite soup.  Didn’t even complain that he had to eat soup.  In fact, he went back for seconds.  And thirds.  ‘Nough said.

Italian Chicken Soup

serves 12

(enough to feed my animals and then have leftovers to freeze)

adapted from thirty hand made days

16 ounces pasta (I used rigatoni)

4 cups shredded chicken (I used frozen, shredded rotisserie chicken)

8½ cups chicken broth

4 stalks celery, diced, or 2 tablespoons celery flakes

2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes

2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 tomato sauce can of water

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon Chef Tess Romantic Italian, or Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste

season salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot combine chicken broth, water, chicken, tomatoes with their juice and tomato sauce.  Add in herbs, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to al dente directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

Remove soup from heat; add in pasta and cream.  Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

easy peasy creamy crock pot chicken lite

If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know that I’ve been crazy busy lately.  And on top of that I’ve been trying to lighten up our diet.  On that note, I decided to try lightening up one of our family’s favorite recipes that I call creamy crock pot chicken.  I just found out that (one of) its real name(s) is Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken.  At least on the website I nabbed the picture from.  (Crazy busy, remember?  Didn’t even take the time to take a photo.)  I originally got the recipe from a church function, and my family really likes it, but with cream cheese and cream of chicken soup it was swimming in fat.  So I decided to try to lighten it up a bit by using Chef Tess’s  wonderful homemade cream of... soup recipe again, and here’s what I came up with.  Mmm.  Family didn’t even notice that the fat was missing.

easy peasy creamy crock pot chicken lite

8 ounces cream cheese (I used the real, original, Philadelphia, but if you want to go lighter you could try a low-fat version, or Neufantel)

1 package dry Italian dressing mix (I used this)

½ cup flour

2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules (I used this - they have low-sodium, non-MSG varieties too)

2 tablespoons dry onion flakes (I used a little less onion powder)

2 teaspoons Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice)

4 cups low or non-fat milk

2 bay leaves

4-6 frozen chicken breasts

Turn crock pot on high and dump in the cream cheese so it can start to soften.  Mix the dry Italian, flour, bouillon, onion flakes (or powder) and seasoning.  Pour onto cream cheese and stir to mix.  Slowly whisk in milk.  Add the frozen chicken, and carefully place 2 bay leaves into the sauce.

Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6 to 8 hours.  Serve over rice or noodles.

We ate it with brown rice (this is my brown rice of choice, but I can’t find it anywhere anymore, so I used this, and it wasn’t a bad alternative) and broccoli.  (If you use brown rice, keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to cook ~ ours took an hour on the stove top ~ so plan your time accordingly.)  Everyone snarffed it up.  I doubled the recipe, planning on freezing the leftovers, but my husband ~ who hates leftovers ~ asked if we could eat the rest the next day.  Some days it’s not so bad being the cook.

lightened up chicken divan

Yes, yes I do intend to keep blogging.  It’s been so long since my last post that I was starting to wonder myself.  I’ve been a little crazy, what with Oldest’s 11^th birthday and then my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary.  But I have to say I was pleased with how they both turned out.

This is Oldest’s cake.  He is obsessed with everything Titanic, and in honor of the one-hundreth anniversary of its sinking, he asked for a Titanic cake.  Needless to say my little heart fell.  I had no idea how I was going to pull it off!  But if you ignore the fact that the window gel ran (they were supposed to look like portholes, since I was too tired to make little yellow squares) I think I didn’t do too awfully bad a job.  He loved it and said it was the best birthday ever.  Yay mom!

And this is the table and one of the centerpieces from my parents’ party.  Due to a schedule conflict with the party planner I was going to hire, I ended up doing all the decorations myself.  So grateful to my brother and his wife for doing the food, the music and the video presentation.  I think they had fun.

Needless to say, with all the partying (not to mention the clean-up, put away and recovery) blogging just hasn’t been much of a priority.  To be honest, dinner hasn’t either.  But I found myself seriously craving my mom’s chicken divan.  Since my husband is trying hard to eat healthier ~ and the rest of us could seriously use some of that too ~ I looked up a couple of lighter recipes on the internet.  None of them were even close to my mom’s version, and not what I was craving.  Must have been the curry.  So I pulled my mom’s recipe out and tried to figure out how I could lighten it up a bit.  Thanks so Chef Tess’s wonderful homemade cream of... soup recipe this tasted... well, divine.

Lightened-Up Chicken Divan

20 ounces frozen broccoli

2 cups cooked diced chicken (I used this)

½ cup flour

2 tablespoons chicken boullion granules (I used these)

2 tablespoons dry onion flakes (I used 1 tablespoon of onion powder)

1 teaspoon Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice)

½ teaspoon curry powder

1 cup light or better for you mayonnaise (I used this)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

low-fat milk (I used 2%)

1 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella

½ cup bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook broccoli; layer in bottom of casserole pan.  Mix flour, boullion, onion flakes (or powder), seasoning and curry powder in a medium-sized bowl.  Stir in mayonnaise and lemon juice.  Add enough milk to reach desired consistency.  Stir in chicken and layer over broccoli.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Mix butter and bread crumbs and sprinkle over top.  Bake for 30 minutes.

healthy baked chicken nuggets

I’m not quite sure what makes these chicken nuggets healthier than others.  They seem to have the same ingredients.  Maybe spraying the oil on top?  Whatever the reason, these are really quite yummy and I highly recommend trying this recipe.  I didn’t actually do “nuggets” ~ I made mine from frozen chicken tenders, and they turned out moist and yummy.  I decided to make it into an easy chicken parmesan: I took the baked chicken out of the oven and turned it off, put a piece of parm on each piece of chicken and stuck it back in the cooling oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melted.  Then you just add noodles and pour on some marinara and voilà.  The whole family really really liked it, and it didn’t take much time to make.  (Always a bonus for mom!)

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets 
serves 8
source: skinny taste 

32 ounces skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into even bite sized pieces

salt and pepper to taste

4 teaspoons olive oil

12 tablespoons whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

4 tablespoons panko

4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 425°.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray.

Put the olive oil in one bowl and the breadcrumbs, panko and parmesan cheese in another.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, then put in the bowl with the olive oil and mix well so the olive oil evenly coats all of the chicken.

Put a few chunks of chicken at a time into the breadcrumb mixture to coat, then on the baking sheet.  Lightly spray the top with olive oil spray then bake 8-10 minutes.  Turn over then cook another 4-5 minutes or until cooked though.

I didn’t have any Italian bread crumbs, so I crumbled some whole wheat Ritz crackers with my fingers into my mini food chopper until I had about ¾ of a cup (12 tablespoons).  I tossed in the parmesan and 1½ teaspoons of Chef Tess Romantic Italian Seasoning (or use ¾ teaspoon dried basil and ¾ teaspoon dried oregano) and “processed” everything until the spices and cheese were blended and the crackers were nice and crumbly.  Mmm, homemade Italian “bread” crumbs.  I didn’t have any Panko either, but I had some of this and it seemed to do the trick.  I actually saw some Panko in the Asian section at Wal-Mart later, and I think it would probably make the coating a little more crunchy, but no one seemed to mind the lack of crunch at my house.

mediterranean chicken

It was one of those days again.  I know I don’t need to go into detail.  We’ve all had ‘em and we’re all going to have ‘em again.  Run run run like crazy and then wonder what you could possibly make for dinner because you didn’t prepare when you had time.  I was wracking my brain, flipping through recipe books (wasting more time) when I remembered I had one of these babies in my cabinet.  Campbell’s to the rescue this time.  And it was actually culturally stimulating (not to mention really yummy.) 

Mediterranean Chicken

serves 6

source: Campbell’s Fabulous One-Dish Recipes

1½ cups bulgur wheat or regular long-grain rice, uncooked

1 can (about 16 ounces) stewed tomatoes, cut up

1 can (10½ ounces) condensed chicken broth

½ soup can water

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup sliced pitted ripe olives

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon pepper

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1½ pounds)

½ teaspoon garlic salt

paprika 

In a 3-quart oblong baking dish, combine bulgur wheat, tomatoes, broth, water, parsley, olives, lemon juice and pepper. 

Arrange chicken on bulgur mixture; press each chicken breast into bulgur mixture, covering halfway.  Sprinkle garlic salt and paprika over chicken.  Cover with foil. 

Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.  Uncover; bake 10 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink.  Garnish with additional parsley and olives, if desired.

I decided I better double the recipe, but how was I going to do that when the biggest baking dish I have is a 9x13 incher?  It just so happened that my clean electric fry pan was sitting on the counter waiting to be put away (it looks something like this, but bigger ~ a great huge mondo thing) and I figured what the hay?  Popped all the stuff in there, stuck the lid on and cranked it to 375°.  It worked great!   

I’ve never tried bulgur wheat before, have you?, but it just so happened that I had some in the house that I apparently bought for another recipe and forgot about.  Very easy, and if you’re like my friend Renée (hi Renée!) who’s afraid of brown rice, this is a great alternative.  It cooked up really easily and was soft and had a similar flavor to brown rice.  I’m going to have to use bulgur more often!  Might even try some for breakfast one of these days.  And although I did use the bulgur, I also made some modifications.  (Of course.)  I didn’t have any stewed tomatoes (nor would I have wanted to cut them up if I’d had them ~ probably wouldn’t have needed to anyway) so I used diced (just 1 can since Middlest doesn’t like tomatoes much).  No cutting necessary.  I didn’t have any parsley, so I added a little dry basil.  Love basil and it goes well with tomatoes and chicken.  Even though my husband doesn’t like olives much, I did pop open a can and sliced them with my handy dandy egg slicer.  (Ever tried that trick?  Works amazingly on olives.  Easy peasy olive squeezy, hehe.  But be careful with the cheapy ones, olives can bend the wires.)  I didn’t feel like climbing on a stool and trolling through my spice cabinet either, so the paprika may have felt a little left out.  It still tasted wonderful, and much to my surprise, everyone ate it and loved it.  Seems I’m turning my family into adventurous eaters after all.

cheesy chicken enchilada soup and the hurry, rush, scuttle, sprint, no time, stress mom out kind of day

Have you ever read this book?  I haven’t either.  But at some point in my elementary school experience I had it read to me, and although I really can’t remember much (if anything) about the book itself, the title has stuck with me over the years and pops into my head from time to time.  Usually on “those” days.  Listen to this excerpt I found online: “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”  Isn’t that great?  Isn’t that just a perfect summation of one of “those” days we all have?  The kind where we just wish we had never bothered getting out of bed.

Why do I bring this up?  Because it was fast shaping into one of those days and that title kept popping into my mind.  Ok, ok, it wasn’t actually a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, although it certainly could have become one.  All of my sweet animals attend a charter school and there are no busses, which makes pick up quite the experience.  Not a bad experience, necessarily, but different from many other schools where bussing and walking are part of the home-going process.  Anyway, I was lined up with the other parent cars to pick Littlest up from school and he didn’t come out when it was his turn.  The teacher sent a few more kids out, their parents buckled them in and pulled around me and still Littlest didn’t come out.  The teacher shrugged at me to let me know she had seen me but wasn’t quite sure why he wasn’t coming out and sent a few more kids to their respective cars.  By this time there were fairly few parents in cars still waiting, so the teacher came to my car to let me know that she hadn’t forgotten me.  She had me pull forward out of the way (like they do at McDonald’s when you have a special order that’s taking a bit too long) and told me that she would have someone check in the bathroom for him.  I was a bit embarrassed, since quite often I do kindergarten pick up in my pajamas, but I smiled and said ok.  So I waited, and waited, and still no Littlest.  The teacher came back to make sure that he wasn’t in the car.  Nope.  We were both getting a little nervous now.  She ran back to check the school again, and I got on the phone to see if, by any chance, my mom had come to pick him up.  She, of course, wasn’t home, although if she had picked him up enough time had passed by now for her to have made it home.  Ug.  Just as I was about to panic ~ and just as I noticed all three kindergarten teachers, the janitor and the principal heading toward my vehicle ~ my cell phone rang.  My mother had picked up my son and was sitting in my driveway wondering where the heck I was.  (She was supposed to pick him up tomorrow, but got the days mixed up.)  Whew!

So, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day averted.  Substitute hurry, rush, scuttle, sprint, no time, stress mom out kind of day.  On top of all the time lost trying to find my Littlest, it was scouts night, and my husband ~ the assistant scout leader ~ requested before he left for work that if possible dinner be ready early so that he could dash off to scouts with a full belly.  So rush home to get dressed, feed Littlest lunch, swish a dish or two and we were off to car pool, that request weighing heaver and heaver with each passing minute.  Of course, Middlest had to go potty, and Oldest and Car Pool Buddy took their sweet time getting out to the car, and I was about a quarter of the way to our buddy’s house when I realized that it was piano day and I was supposed to drop Oldest off at his lesson before taking anyone else anywhere else.  Quick detour to our house to pick up his piano books (which I had forgotten to put in the car and he had forgotten to put in his backpack).  More hurry, rush, scuttle, sprint, no time, stress mom out kind of day.  (We did actually manage to get to his lesson right as the clock struck four.  Really quite an amazing feat considering where I was when I turned the car, and the fact that we had to stop at home first.  You should be impressed.)

By now I was really low on time, so I hopped on the freeway in an attempt to get Car Pool Buddy home a little quicker and give myself a little more possibility to get dinner started  (and finished) on time.  (Can I just take a moment here to give our buddy a heartfelt public acknowledgement of thanks for keeping his mouth shut and not complaining at the delay in getting him home?  Didn’t even bat an eye ~ at least, not that I noticed while keeping my eyes on the road.  I hope his future wife appreciates his ability to keep calm in the face of unexpected events.  Way to go Drew!)  For reasons I don’t want to get into right now, Car Pool Buddy lives quite a ways from our house, and the round trip takes a good amount of time.  Even taking the freeway, by the time I walked into the house it was 4:45 and dinner was supposed to be ready and on the table at 5:00.  I was cursing my husband under my breath (yes, I have just publicly admitted that I have a problem ~ they say that’s the first step), juggling the paraphernalia of the day, trying to herd the animals into their respective corrals or harness them to their yokes and feeling every minute tick tick ticking by.  This was turning into one of those hurry, rush, scuttle, sprint, stress mom out kind of days from heck, and mom was about to blow.

It may surprise you to learn at this point that I actually did manage to have dinner ready and on the table at 5:00.  It certainly surprised me!  Especially since I had done nothing to prepare for said dinner beforehand.  Had I been a wiser, more prepared mom I would have tossed something in the crock pot or at least have something defrosting, but the day had a will of its own and I was sorely unprepared.  So how awesome was this recipe for coming to my rescue?  Totally awesome, that’s how awesome!  Just open, dump and heat and I had a hot “homemade” dinner on the table in less than 10 minutes!  Hoorah!!

Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup

serves 6

source: pillsbury.com

2 cans (10¾ oz each) condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

9 ounces cooked southwestern-flavored chicken strips

¾ cup crushed tortilla chips

In 3-quart saucepan, mix all ingredients except tortilla chips.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.  Top individual servings with tortilla chips.

This is what it looked like simmering in the pot.

It was actually quite tasty, before I put the cheese in.  Of course, I did things a little differently.  I actually did use cream of chicken (not substituting cream of mushroom as I am wont to do), but I didn’t have any canned enchilada sauce, so I used a packet of this and a 15 or so ounce can of tomato sauce, 1½ cups water and 2 cups of milk.  I also substituted two cans of this for the chicken strips.  It tasted really yummy ~ quite enchilada-like ~ before I put the cheese in, but the cheese made it rather bland.  If (when) I make it again I think I’ll put in an extra packet of enchilada seasoning.  (It might be wiser to add less cheese, but I just can’t bring myself to consider that alternative.)  My bestest also suggested that I try Fridos for a little extra flavor instead of regular old tortilla chips.  Oldest really liked it, said he could eat it every day.  Good to know...

Guess somebody liked it.  This is all that was left!

I hope this recipe comes to the rescue on your next hurry, rush, scuttle, sprint, no time, stress mom out kind of day.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Fall is in the air.  At least around my house.  And while the days are still in the 80’s, my Oldest has started talking about getting out the Halloween decorations and having a Halloween party.  (I let him have one last year and apparently now it’s a tradition.)  And with fall and the cooler weather comes a craving for soup.  I don’t eat soup a lot, but I do like soup and dippy roll when it starts to get cold outside.  Not to mention that it’s easy to make.

Not too long ago the girlfriends and I went out for a pedicure and lunch.  Now that is a tradition for me, and one I’m not going to give up anytime soon.  (It can be hard to get my girly groove on in a house full of males.)  Since it was a celebration of my friend’s birthday, we went Mexican and I “let” her talk me into trying tortilla soup.  She makes it for her family, so I knew she knew what it was and that she liked it.  Now she and I don’t always agree on what’s yummy, and I tried the soup with a bit of trepidation.  But I liked it well enough to be interested in trying to make it myself when I came across this recipe.  You know by now that I “adapted” it to suit my taste of course.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

serves 4

(I tripled the recipe, which was a good thing, since there was nothing left in the pot!)

source: allrecipes.com

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I used 2 cans of this)

½ teaspoon olive oil (I used about 1 teaspoon of this even though I wasn’t cooking the chicken ~ just wanted a little olive oil for nutritional value...)

½ teaspoon minced garlic (pulled out my supply of this and used a heaping tablespoon full ~ what can I say, I love garlic!)

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn kernels

1 cup chopped onion (I dumped in a decent amount of onion powder...)

½ teaspoon chili powder (I will probably cut back on this next time)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup chunky salsa (I liked the flavor the salsa added, but we usually buy medium-spicy ~ I only used 1 cup for the tripled recipe, but it was still a bit spicy)

8 ounces corn tortilla chips (these are my favorites)

½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional) (of course I opted for the cheese but I didn’t bother to measure it ~ just sprinkled on as much as looked good)

sour cream (optional)

In a large pot over medium heat, sauté the chicken in the oil for 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cumin and mix well.  Then add the broth, corn, onion, chili powder, lemon juice and salsa.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Break up some tortilla chips into individual bowls and pour soup over chips.  Top with the Monterey Jack cheese and a little sour cream.

My husband loved this soup.  He ate a huge bowl and then went back and finished off the leftovers.  The little ones (and who am I kidding, me too) thought it was too spicy, but otherwise quite liked it, so adjust the heat according to your family’s taste.

Creamy Chicken & Potatoes

Have I already mentioned how crazy my life is now that my baby is in kindergarten?  I left the house at 7:50 this morning, spent the morning volunteering at school, grabbed my littlest, had lunch at McDonald’s in Wal-Mart and shopped for a birthday present and milk while they changed the oil.  Now I’m trying to rush this blog post off before running to pick up the rest of my kids, dropping off our carpool, taking my oldest almost back to school for a birthday party (what are they thinking, having a birthday party from 4:30-8:30 on a Wednesday?!?!?), and then rushing home to try to scrape up something for dinner before homework and baths, and then back to almost school again to pick my oldest up from the party.  Whew!  So if you don’t hear from me for a while, I’m off in a crazed-induced coma getting some much needed down time.

Anyway, is it any big surprise that I just shoved a bunch of stuff in the crock pot yesterday and cranked my bread machine to dough for rolls?  (They almost didn’t get done – I was still rolling the dough into rolls to rise when I was supposed to be leaving to pick up kids.)  Not that anyone complained.  They seemed to think it was one of the best dinners ever invented.  So it’s definitely worth trying on those days you know you’ll be running yourself ragged.

Creamy Chicken & Potatoes

serves 6

2 cups peeled baby carrots (half 16-oz. bag)

1 pound red potatoes, each cut into quarters

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed with press

1 cut-up chicken (3½ to 4 lbs.), skin removed from all pieces except wings OR 3½ to 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper

10 ounces frozen peas, thawed

½ cup heavy or whipping cream

In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine carrots, potatoes, onion, and garlic.  Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables.

In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, with fork, mix chicken broth, cornstarch, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper; pour mixture over chicken and vegetables.  Cover slow cooker with lid and cook as manufacturer directs, on low 8 hours or on high 6 hours.

With tongs or slotted spoon, transfer chicken pieces to a warm deep platter.  With slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to platter with chicken pieces.  Cover platter to keep warm.  Stir peas and cream into cooking liquid; heat through.  Spoon sauce over chicken and vegetables on platter.

Ok, by now you know I didn’t exactly follow the recipe, right?  I’ll have to tell you the story of my baby carrots one day when we’re not talking about food.  Needless to say, I did manage to salvage just about 2 cups of them (pitched the rest in the trash, but, again, that’s a story for another day) which I dumped in the bottom of the crock pot.  They were a little fat, so they were still almost crunchy when the rest of the dinner was done, but I like them that way, and the rest of the fam seemed to as well.  Then I took about a pound and a half of potatoes and washed them.  One pound only turned out to be 4 potatoes.  Seemed pretty skimpy.  I quartered most of them, but sixthed (how are you supposed to say that, hexa-ed them?) the ones that were big and dumped them in with their skins on.  My husband doesn’t believe in potato skins, but I was in a hurry and there was no way I was going to peel them.

I have to admit I skipped the onion altogether.  When cooking a stew or something similar I usually just halve an onion and stick it in there (very easy for me to avoid eating) but I didn’t have an onion.  Forgot to add it to my shopping list.  I didn’t even use onion powder, just doubled up on the garlic.  Onion lovers didn’t even know the difference.  Placed about 6 pounds of thawed frozen chicken on top, which only came out to 6 very large chicken breasts.  And now I know why my sauce was so runny.  I decided to add a little extra chicken broth, but I thought the recipe called for 2 cups.  Oh well, the fam seemed to like it runny.  Mixed my broth and corn starch, but was in too much of a hurry to hunt down my time so I resorted to my old standby – you guessed it – season salt.  I even added a little more with the peas because it wasn’t quite salty enough.  Anyway, poured that over the top and turned it on.

When everything was done in the crock, I checked on my rolls and saw that they had actually risen!  Popped them in the oven, and it was time to mix up the peas.  Thought it was kind of stupid to pull everything out of the crock, so I just took out the chicken (the heavy part) and then held the lid on the crock fairly tightly with a couple of hot pads and poured the juice into a cooking pot, putting the chicken back with the veggies in the crock on warm.  Dumped my peas into the juice – they were in a 16 ounce bag, so I just used them all; seamed like the recipe was a little skimpy on the peas – and the cream and stirred until warm.  Had I felt like it I would have added a little more cornstarch to thicken up my thin sauce, but I was tired just didn’t want to.  So I poured all that back over the chicken and veggies in the crock.  Just in time to pull the hot rolls out of the oven, and everything stayed warm in the crock for my late husband while the kids and I ate. 

Totally yum for those of you who like chicken and don’t have a lot of cooking time.  Let me know what you think when you try it.