Slow Cooker Potato Soup

 This is one of our families favorite soups and it is so easy!  Now that the weather is getting colder, it is soup time again.  

Ingredients

1.   1/2 large onion, diced
2.   2 cloves of garlic, minced
3.   32 ounces of chicken stock (I use low sodium)
4.   1 30 ounce bag of frozen shredded hash browns
5.   3 Tbs. of butter
6.   1 Tbs. of flour (we use gluten free)
7.   1 cup of water
8.   1 cup of milk of your choice 
9.   1/4 tsp salt
10. 1/2 tsp of pepper (I don't measure this, I just added it to taste)
11. 1/2 Tbs. of onion powder
12. 1 Tbs. of dried parsley
13. 1/3 of a block of cream cheese, cut into cubes

Toppings:
Shredded cheddar, diced green onion, chives, bacon bits

Directions:

1.  In a small pan on the stove, or directly in your slow cooker, melt the butter.  Once the butter is melted, add in the onion and sauté until slightly softened, approximately 3-4 minutes.
2.  Add in the garlic and sauté  another minute, careful that the garlic doesn't burn.
3.  Add in the 1 Tbs. of flour and sauté   for another minutes.  Remove from heat or turn off the multi-cooker.
4.  Add in the broth, hash browns,  water, milk, and seasonings.  Stir to combine. Add the cubed cream cheese to the top. 
5. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

A lot of recipes don't add the cream cheese in during the cooking time, but wait until the soup is done,  You can do that, but I have not had any issues cooking it all at the same time.

Serve with you favorite toppings and enjoy.

Comfort Food!

Five on Friday: Soups and Stews

 

Now that the weather is getting cooler (it was actually 49 degrees yesterday afternoon), I'm starting to make stews and soups again.  The following are my favorite fall-winter soups/stews/chilis:

1. Italian Wedding Soup

Last year we went to a deli that served Italian Wedding Soup and it was the best I've ever had.  I've to tried to recreate it, but I just can't get it as good as theirs was.  But this soup is really good.  I usually use ground chicken for the meatballs to make it extra healthy.  I love having the leftovers for lunch.

2.  Tomato Soup

This soup is easy, delicious, and comforting.  Tomato soup always pairs well with grilled cheese and the grilled cheese recipe attached to this soup recipe is good too.  But honestly, I'm a grilled cheese purist.  I prefer American cheese even though I know it's processed cheese.  Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 70's/early 80's.

3.  Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Beef stew is so filling and comforting.  I love making it in the slow cooker.  It combines all the flavors so well.  This recipe is a simple and classic beef stew.  I do like browning my stew meat first.  I put it in a plastic bag with flour and salt and shake until the meat is covered in flour.  Then I use the browning feature on my slow cooker/multi cooker and heat up 1 tbs of oil.  Dump the flour covered meat into the cooker and brown on all sides.  Cancel the browning mode, add all the other ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours.  You can do the same exact thing with the pressure cooker, only the stew is done so much quicker (use sauté feature to brown the meat, then set the pressure cooker for 45 minutes and let it naturally vent).

4. Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

Baked potato soup is one of my favorites.  I love it so much that I could make it once a week.  Unfortunately, it's not the healthiest of soups, just the yummiest.  The recipe that I share above is my absolute favorite, but there are times I want to try to make it a little more "middle aged mom friendly" and I use this WW friendly potato soup.

5.  Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

We love this soup.  It's so easy and so tasty.  And I love using my slow cooker so it's perfect for an easy, quick weeknight meal.  I usually make this a few times in the summer also.  We love it that much.

The nice thing about soups or stews are that they can be very budget friendly.  The ingredients are usually lower in costs, and leftovers can be used for lunches.  Trying to keep the grocery budget down is especially important now with prices so high.  To make these meals extra filling, serve with bread, rolls, or corn bread.  

Menu Plan 9/23 to 9/29: Feeding the Family

I did another Aldi pick up this week via Instacart.  I thought it went really well until I realized that they charged me for the chicken I ordered, but that I didn't actually receive it.  That was such a bummer.  They immediately gave me a credit on my next order, but I still have to go out and get the chicken.  Not that big of a deal but I thought I was completely organized and I'm not.  

This is the last week of football practices.  I'm super excited about that.  But it's the final tryouts for basketball this week.  I think we get a week or two off before basketball starts.  At least there's that.  

Next week the oldest will be home from college for the weekend.  He has a weightlifting competition.  He will get to choose next weekend's dinner.  

This week's menu:

Friday:  Bow Tie Pasta with Asparagus and Fish Sticks.  I know, fish sticks. But sometimes mama needs a little help and a short cut.  

Saturday:  Pizza Night:  I'm making the Little Italy Pizza and the Fresh Ricotta Pizza from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again

Sunday:  BBQ Chicken Dinner from the Sisters of Notre Dame.  It's a fund raiser for the Sisters so we will pick up our dinners for takeout after football.  I also ordered an apple pie for Thanksgiving.

Monday:  Sausage and Veggie bake.  I have so many veggies and peppers from the garden, I'm trying to use up as many as I can.

Tuesday:  Mexican Chicken and rice (again, this recipe is from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again cookbook)

Wednesday:  Slow Cooker Pesto Ranch Chicken Thighs, rice, and vegetables: Recipe from picky-palate.com

Thursday:  Clean up day or sausage and veggie packets

Menu Plan 9/16 to 9/22

 This Thursday Autumn begins.  And I saw on social media that we have 14 weeks until Christmas. I swear the older I get, time flies faster than a rocket ship.  

And we have another week of meal planning.  Saturday night I planned for pizza since we finally celebrated M's birthday with his friends.  Unfortunately for him, his actual birthday was August 14.  That meant we were only back from vacation for 2 weeks, and I was trying to get two boys off to college.  I just could not add in another thing.  So, I promised him a 10th birthday party, but it would have to wait.  Saturday was the day and I think the boys had a fun.  I had Game Truck come for the party and the boys had a blast.  I've used them in the past for the older boys, and they have always done a good job.  But just like everything else, the price increased SIGNIFICANTLY.  I was really surprised.  

We still have football going on and now this week starts basketball tryouts.  I feel like sports just never end and I know I've said it before, but I don't like it.  I would put my foot down and say no basketball, but the therapist says that keeping him in sports, helps with his anxiety.  How do I argue against sports with that logic?  I guess I can't, and I just have to put my head down and plow through. But right now, I'm sports-fatigued.

The puppy and I spent the morning watching the Queen's funeral.  Such a historic event.  I'm sad it's the end of an era, but she lived such an amazing life of service.  Rest In Peace.  Job well done.

This week's menu plan.  I shopped at Aldi this week and supplemented at Giant Eagle for drinks and cake for the party (the $20 ice-cream cake is up to $27...oy)

Friday:  Slow Cooker Tomato Soup and grilled cheese

Saturday:  Sheet pizza for the party

Sunday:  Baked Chicken Thighs, pan fried potatoes, and tomato and mozzarella salad (tomatoes from the garden)

Monday:  Generals chicken with rice and broccoli

Tuesday:  Turkey tacos

Wednesday:  Turkey burgers and hot dogs on the grill, baked potato, and corn

Thursday:  Clean-up Day

I'm still working on getting my grocery budget down.  I'm trying different stores to see where the best place is to save money.  

And I'm toying with the idea of making Saturday night "pizza night" and trying out different pizza types (that I make myself).  But we'll see how it goes.

Have a blessed week ahead!!

Weekly Meal Plan 3/11/22 to 3/24/22: Feeding the Family

 I tried something new this week.  I did a 2-week meal plan vs a 1 week.  I was hoping to save money, but I'm not sure that is going to be the case.  I guess the good news is that it cuts down on my meal prep time. The bad news is that my family eats too much and I'm not sure I'm saving time and money.  But we shall see.

Friday:  Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup  and grilled cheese (on Aldi Sourdough Bread... so good!  GF flat bread grilled cheese for J)

Saturday:  General Tso's Chicken from Skinny Taste.  I modified this for our family and our food allergies.  I left out the egg and made sure the soy sauce and hoisin sauce were gluten free.  J has never had Chinese takeout, so I really wanted to do something special.  I also used jasmine rice, because my guys are not a fan of cauli rice.

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Monday:  Baked Salmon, Garlic Roasted Potatoes, and Green Beans

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

Wednesday:  Hamburgers on the grill, Vegetables  Clam Chowder 

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Corned Beef, Sauteed Cabbage, Potatoes

Friday:  St Patrick Irish Cheddar Soup, baked fish, and rolls

Saturday:  Eating Out (It's a surprise for the kids)   We were going to eat out, but we called the restaurant that we had eaten at last time we were downtown (pre-Covid) and they can no longer cook for food allergies.  No problem.  We had burgers on the grill before we headed out to the Cavs game.

Sunday:  Easy White Wine Sunday Chicken (from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner...Again cookbook.  I want to buy these books, but I can't find them reasonably priced, so I got this one from the library), Vegetable, Salad

Monday:  Old School Hamburger Stew (Same Food Nanny cookbook)

Tuesday:  Chicken Parm, vegetable, salad

Wednesday:  Clam Chowder, salad, rolls  😂 I can't remember 

Thursday:  Tamale Casserole (from the Food Nanny)  Chick Fil A takeout.

The second week, I'm making several recipes from the Food Nanny cookbook because I just got it from the library (after a 2 month wait list).  I will try and come back and post "after" photos of all the meals I make.  The oldest will be home from college for spring break so I'm trying to make filling, comfort food.  

I really want to get our grocery prices down, but I spent $291 at Aldi last week and I HAVE NEVER spent that much at Aldi...not even at Christmas time.  Prices have skyrocketed and I'm trying to work with that.  I know that if you are reading this, you are in the same boat.  All we can do it try to feed our families the best we can, within our budgets.  

Have a blessed and wonderful week!!

Weekly Meal Plan 2/25/22 to 3/3/22: Feeding the Family

 

Lent starts this week!  I'm actually very excited to start Lent.  I'll do a whole other post on what I'm doing this year.  It's actually quite scaled down.  I usually try to do too much, and I end up failing at most of it.  I'm getting wiser in my old age (lol).  This week is going to be incredibly busy too so the meal plan is a must for these people to eat.  One thing we all decided on, as a family, is that we will have two meatless days (and the Middle Son wants to do to one or both of those dairy free also.  We'll see...).

Friday:  Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup  This is the same one I make all the time.  It's a family favorite.  Because it was Friday, I did not include the bacon; rolls

Saturday:  Naan Bread Pizzas:  These are so easy, and everyone loves them.  I just purchase the naan bread and top it like I would a regular pizza crust.  This week we had red sauce with mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni, and a white pizza with olive oil, garlic, green pepper, onion, mushroom, and topped with mozzarella cheese.  I made a gluten free Dr. Schar pizza shell topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni for the Middle Son.

Sunday:  Oven Roasted Turkey Breast, Mashed Potatoes, and oven Roasted Asparagus:  I rubbed the turkey breast down with olive oil and sprinkled it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning.  Then I baked it in the oven at 400 until the internal temperature was 180 degrees F (about an hour and half).  It was like a mini Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm not a big turkey eater, so I added a salad to my plate.

Monday:  Lasagna (using GF lasagna noodles), salad, rolls

Tuesday:  Shrove Tuesday:  Pancakes, sausage, and hash browns.

Wednesday:  Ash Wednesday:  Spanakorizo and baked cod for the guys, rolls

Thursday:   Clean up or Poor Man's Meal

I didn't make anything extra this week for lunch or breakfast.  We still have quite a few egg sandwiches in the freezer, and we have a lot of leftovers, and we can have those for lunches. 

I did cut up a bunch of fruit to have with breakfast or as a snack.  We have a few containers of honey dew melon and pineapple.  

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week.  

Menu Plan Monday 3-22-21

 Happy First Monday Of Spring!  Weather here in Ohio is giving us total spring vibes.  It's perfect!!

Baseball has started for the Middle and the Little.  Weekends will be totally full until further notice (beginning of July)..  It's a LONG season.  But it's fun to watch the boys play.

Menu Plan for 3/22/21

Friday:  Fish, Veg, and Potato.  My grocery pick up only gave me 1 pound of cod vs. the 2 pounds that I asked for and there was no way that my 3 guys could share 1 pound of fish for dinner.  So we decided that the child with food allergies would get the fish and the rest of us would order take out.  Normally we have meatless Fridays, but this Friday was the solemnity of St. Joseph which is a celebration in the Catholic church so it ended up being a "Meat Friday" (yes, even during Lent).  The two guys still opted for the fish fry and I ended up having a chicken florentine flat bread.  It was HUGE and I only at 1/2 and the 8 year old finished the other half for lunch the next day (that kid can eat).

Chicken Florentine Flat Bread.  It's so good!

Saturday:  Hamburger and hot dogs on the grill; baked beans

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken with Cream Sauce, baked asparagus, and brown rice

Monday:  Veggie stir fry and brown rice (meatless Monday)

Tuesday:  Mexican Spinach Hamburger Casserole

Wednesday:  Middle Eastern Meatballs with Dill Sauce (I'll be using ground turkey), salad

Thursday:  Clean up day

Sunday Brunch:  Smoked Salmon, with bagels or gluten free toast

Lunches:  Left overs or sandwiches

Have a wonderful and blessed first full week of spring!!  Visit Org Junkie for more menu planning or organizing ideas.

Menu Plan Monday: February 1 2021

 What  I love about menu planning is that I have all the food on hand, a plan, but that everything can be flexible.  We had a lot of left overs at the end of last week so I took Thursdays meal (Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken) and moved it to Saturday and Thursday ended up being "left over day".  Wednesday's meal of mini meatloaves and mashed potatoes got turned into shepherds pie due to the fact that the slow cooker mashed potatoes were over cooked.  Although things don't always go as planned, everybody ate.

I was disappointed in the slow cooker mashed potatoes.  I've never had a slow cooker meal fail so miserably.  The potatoes burned to the side of the slow cooker.  I tried to mash them anyway, and I had to pull out the burned parts.  The potatoes themselves were thick and gummy.  But I turned the whole thing into shepherds pie and the family loved it.  I had never made shepherds pie before and they asked that I add it into rotation.

Friday:  Naan Bread Pizza

I made a white pizza with banana peppers and Kalamata olives, a white pizza with banana peppers, Kalamata olives, and feta cheese (the husband I don't eat meat on Fridays), and a traditional pepperoni for the 8 year old.  The middle son had his gluten free pizza.

Saturday:  Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Everything started off fine (first photo), but again the entire dish was just over cooked.  The chicken was so dry (it was so dry that I choked on it and it got stuck.  Things were a little scary but I'm ok).  So we figured out that the slow cooker is broken and just cooking everything on high instead of the low setting that I programed it for.  So now I'm on the hunt for a new slow cooker.

Sunday:  Garlic butter chicken, baked potatoes in the air fryer, and honey glazed carrots
No slow cooker involved so dinner turned out great.

I rubbed the potatoes with avocado oil and sprinkled with kosher salt.  I cooked them in the air fryer at 400 degrees F for 50 minutes. 
The chicken breasts were HUGE but I also had smaller thighs and legs.  I started the breasts 20 minutes ahead of the smaller pieces.   I melted butter and mixed it with chopped garlic then I brushed the chicken pieces front and back with the butter mixture and sprinkled with our favorite Greek seasoning.  I cooked the chicken at 400 degrees until it reached the internal temperature of 165 degrees. I steamed the carrots and melted 2 tbs of butter and mixed with 2-3 tbs of honey and poured it over the carrots.

Monday:  Red beans and rice with andouille sausage
I will use the ingredients I have on hand but this is the recipe from a Pinch of Healthy that I'm basing it on.

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Lentil Soup
I have a small slow cooker (my larger one is now in the trash) that I think I can use for this.  I have made this dish for so many years that I just do it from memory.  The recipe that is close to what I do is this recipe from All Recipes.

Wednesday:  Tater Tot Casserole (Cowboy Casserole) from the Cutting Edge of Ordinary.  This one is a family favorite.  I got this recipe over 10 years ago from Menu Plan Monday.  

Thursday:  Tacos

So that's our menu for this week.  It's a good thing I only had one slow cooker meal planned for the week.  If anyone has a slow cooker that they love and that works great for them, please let me know in comments.

For more menu plans and dinner ideas see Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie

Meal Planning: Week of 1/8 thru 1/14/2021

 We are only a family of five but I feel like I spend a lot of time buying food, prepping food, finding recipes, and cooking food. The only way I can keep everything straight is to meal plan.  I usually start doing this on Tuesdays by getting recipes together and figuring out what stores I will need to shop.  Because of the pandemic, I do a lot of pick up orders. Most of the stores didn't have a pick up option before Covid, but now that I've been doing it for a while, I prefer it to actually going into the store. 

I skipped doing any exercise this morning so that I could meal plan for next week and schedule my pick up order for Friday.  My meals plans usually run Friday-Thursday since my shopping day is typically on Friday.  

Cookbooks I used for next week's menu

Fridays are meatless at our house.  I try to make Saturday something fun.  And Sundays are comfort meals.  Usually Tuesday is something Mexican.  And every other day is just what works for that particular day.  We are not in sports season right now, but when we are, I plan many more meals that utilize the slow cooker.

This weeks menu was as follows:

Friday:  Fish, rice, and vegetables (ended up being Barramundi, rice, and steamed broccoli)

Saturday:  Chicken Lettuce Wraps from the Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cook book and left over rice

Sunday:  BBQ Pulled Pork from the same cook book.

Monday:  Left over BBQ Pork and Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Tuesday:  Quick Cajun Dirty Rice from Gwen's Nest

Wednesday:  Taco Bake from Spaceships and Laser Beams.  I will sub corn tortillas for the flour tortillas in the recipe so that this will be allergy friendly for our family.

Thursday:  Chicken Tortilla Soup from Baked By Rachel

Lunch is left overs, deli meat sandwiches, or salads
The only one who eats breakfast is the eight year old and he usually has pancakes, waffles, fruit smoothies, yogurt or toast.  I made a few Egg Cups last week for me to have at lunch, but he wanted to try them and he really liked them.  He normally does not like eggs so I was excited that he ate them.  I made him scrambled eggs this week and he was not a fan.  So I hope to make more egg cups this weekend for his breakfast next week.  I used to participate in Menu Plan Monday on Orgjunkie.com but I got out of the habit.  I hope to get back into it for 2021.  It helps keep me organized.