Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup

Crockpot Ham and Potato Soup

3 cups water
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
3 chicken bouillon cubes
4 - 5 small red potatoes, peeled if desired and coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
3 -4 large green onions, with some of the green part, chopped
1 can corn, drained
1 cup diced ham
1/4 tsp dried mince garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients except pepper in a 3 or 4 quart crockpot.  Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours, or until vegetables are tender and flavors have melded.  Season with pepper before serving.

Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, bacon bits and green onion if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

Using up fresh tomatoes....

I have a good recipe for pasta sauce, but it relies on canned ingredients.  This past Friday, we visited with DH's brother and sister in law, and they shared bags full of garden bounty with us.  Hubby will not eat fresh tomatoes and I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat all of them before they went bad, so I went on a hunt for ways to use them up in something that we would both enjoy.  I combined a bunch of ideas and this is what I came up with.  It smelled amazing while it was cooking. We ate it over spaghetti, and found it really tasty.

Crockpot Tomato Pasta Sauce, (using fresh tomatoes)

1 to 2 tsp of olive oil
Minced garlic to taste, fresh or dried, (I used 2 tsp dried minced garlic)
2 or 3 small white onions, finely diced (any sort of onion would work),
5 to 6 cups of chopped tomatoes, (I seeded mine, but it isn't necessary)
1 medium zucchini, diced into small pieces
1 large carrot, shredded
1/4 cup of red wine (I think you could probably leave this out)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp each dried fennel seed, thyme, and rosemary
1 tsp salt (more if desired)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, more if you like spicy sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste


I used a 5 quart crockpot, which would have been able to handle double of this recipe.  Turn it on high, and add enough olive oil to just barely cover the bottom.  Toss in the chopped onions and garlic, give it a good stir to coat everything with oil, and put the lid on the pot.  Let this cook while you prepare the tomatoes.   After a while, this will start to sizzle and the onions will brown a bit.  (This step isn't necessary, but it brings out the taste of the onions and garlic.)

Meanwhile, wash and chop the tomatoes and zucchini.  I seeded the tomatoes, (hubby's request), but did not peel them.(I would add some chopped fresh green pepper, and maybe some mushrooms, if I were the only one eating this.). By this time the onions in the pot should be sizzling nicely.  Add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot, except for the fresh basil.  Stir well.  Cook on high for an hour or two.  Once it is boiling, turn the pot to low and let it simmer for 3 to 4 hours.  It will likely be somewhat thin, so at this point, I turn it back up to high, add the basil, and uncover it about halfway so that some of the liquid evaporates.  I have an oval shaped crockpot and I just turned the lid sideways.  When it has reached the desired consistency stir in the tomato paste.  It took a couple of hours for the sauce to get nice and thick. This would probably vary, depending on the type of tomato used, and the consistency desired.

I think that this would freeze well, although I haven't tried it.

It was my plan to let the sauce cool and then run it through the blender, (a food mill would work too), as hubby does not like lumps in his food.  Surprisingly, he told me not to bother.  He even had two helpings.

Easy Mexican Lasagna

The chicken filling for this recipe is made in a crockpot, but the dish is finished in the oven.

Ingredients for chicken filling:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, (frozen is okay)
1 cup salsa
I can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1/4 cup water
I medium onion, chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube, crushed
1 tsp dried minced garlic
2-4 tsp chilli powder, or even more, depending on how much heat you like)
1-2 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
Black pepper to taste

Other ingredients:
flour tortillas ( any size will work, you will just need more if you choose a small size)
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or substitute cheese if your choice)

Combine all filling ingredients in crockpot.  For frozen breasts, cook 5 to 6 hours on high, or until you can easily shred the chicken.  (It will require less time for thawed chicken.). If the mixture seems too wet, keep heating on high for another 30 minutes or so.  Reduce crockpot to low and keep filling warm until ready to assemble casserole.

To complete dish:
Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Line with a layer of flower tortillas, ripping them as needed, to fit. It's not neccesary to have every single inch of the bottom covered.  Cover tortillas with half of the chicken mixture and sprinkle with one cup of cheese.  Repeat tortilla and chicken layers once more.    Cover with another layer of tortillas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Let sit for a minute or two and cut into squares to serve.  Garnish with sour cream, lettuce and diced tomatoes.  Serves 6 to 8.

You can't believe everything you read!

You know that belief that it takes 21 days to create a new habit?  Well, let me just say that it's not true. I've been working on exercising daily for 22 days now, and it is most definitely not a habit!  it still feels like an unwelcome task.  Wonder what that says about me?

Last Minute Chicken Pot Pie

This evening we had planned to go to a dinner at church, hosted by the youth group as a fund raiser.  The dinner was cancelled because of the snowy weather, but not until after 4. I hadn't planned anything for dinner. Hubby suggested going out, but it was cold, snowy and just generally nasty out there, so I whipped this up instead, from stuff I had in my pantry.  I happened to have a jar of turkey gravy that I had purchased for Thanksgiving, "just in case" that I wanted to use up, and I usually have canned chicken in the pantry.


Last Minute Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
Filling:
2 or 3 medium potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 large carrots, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube
12 oz jar chicken gravy
12 oz can of chicken breast, diced or 1 and 1/2 cups leftover cooked chicken, diced
Pinch of thyme
Sprinkle of dried chives
Black pepper to taste

Biscuit Topper:
1 and 1/8 cups biscuit baking mix ( like Bisquick or Jiffy)
1/3 cup milk
Sprinkle of dried parsley, optional

Method:
Place potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and bouillon cube in saucepan. Cover vegetables with water and cook until tender.  (I'd add some frozen peas to this if my hubby would eat them.). Drain the vegetables and stir in the gravy and the chicken.  Add thyme, pepper and chives.   Pour into a two quart casserole dish.

Combine biscuit mix and milk.  Mix in a little dried parsley for color if desired.  Knead the resulting dough a few times and flatten it into a large biscuit that is the size and shape of your casserole dish.  Place this over the chicken mixture and slash it with a sharp knife in a few places to let the steam out.

Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, until the biscuit top is done, and lightly browned.

Serves 4.

I love Pinterest......but..........

First of all, I have exercised more than 150 minutes a week for each of the last two weeks.  They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit. We'll see.  Right now it's more like a job than a habit.



Recently I saw a Pinterest pin that informed me that a packet of Koolaid powder would clean the hard water rings out of my toilet with hardly any effort on my part.  Well, the "no effort" part got my attention right away.  It just so happens that I have a lot of little packets of Koolaid. (My grocery store used to give them away free with a sugar purchase a couple of times each summer.  We don't drink Koolaid, but hey!  It was free!). Anyhow, the picture with the pin showed yellow Koolaid and the blurb said that it was actually the citric acid in the stuff that did the cleaning.  I only had red Koolaid, but citric acid was the first thing on the ingredient list.  So, following the directions from the pin, I sprinkled my red Koolaid all over two of the toilets in my house.  It said to let it sit for an hour or longer, so off I went to the grocery store.  When I got back to those bathrooms a couple of hours later, the Koolaid had solidified and I had to scrub for quite a while to get it all off.  At this point the toilet looked like someone had bled to death in it.  It took several flushes to get the water clear enough to enjoy the sight of my toilet bowl without the hard water ring.  (After all, that's what the after picture on Pinterest promised.)  Uh oh!  The very pale tan ring was gone, and in its place there was a pink ring.  Pink is prettier, right?  Wrong!  It looked much dirtier than it did before.so I ended up scrubbing toilets in the usual way.  The kicker?  I did this in two bathrooms.  The moral of the story?  If it sounds too good to be true, it  probably is.  If I had thought before I leaped, I would have tried it out in one bathroom first.  The bonus?  The bathrooms now smell fruity..., with just the slightest essence of artificial flavoring.

Oh well, I still love Pinterest........

Better Habits in 2016

I've been pretty quiet here this past year. I haven't done a lot of crafting, but I did manage to read over 140 books.  I'm feeling the urge to make things again though, so maybe inspiration will strike and some new patterns will appear in 2016.  However, this post hasn't about crafting. It's about new beginnings and trying to get healthy.

I'm a registered nurse and work in critical care.  I am required to get continuing education credits to maintain my license.  Yesterday, I stumbled on a couple that included strategies to prevent diabetes and heart disease, both conditions that are not only increasing in our society, but are also appearing in younger and younger patients, and are leading causes of death, disability and health care spending. Surprisingly, I learned that currently, more women than men die of heart disease in the US. Much to my dismay, once I actually saw these things in black and white, I realized that I actually fit into the higher risk categories for getting a serious, chronic disease. My list of risk factors is impressive, and there are probably some that I missed.   I'm post menopausal, over weight, apple shaped, sedentary, have a family history of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, my diet isn't the best, and I rarely get enough sleep. I generally think of myself as pretty healthy...but this was a huge wake up call for me.

In the past I've focused on weight control as my primary strategy for being healthier, but I haven't been motivated enough to maintain this, probably at least in part, because a healthy lifestyle encompasses a lot more than just this one thing. In 2016, I'm going to focus on creating healthy habits, one habit at a time.

I'm planning to focus on activity first. This will probably be the hardest for me to start and maintain. My goal will be at least 150 minutes of actual intentional exercise each week. My current plan is 20 minutes on either the treadmill or exercise bike at least 5 days a week, plus two 30 minute walks a week. In addition I plan to park at the far end of the parking ramp at work, plus park farther away at stores, etc. As I get into better shape, I will take the stairs more. At this point more than one or two flights of stairs make me extremely short of breath. I will also set a goal of walking around 10,000 steps per day at least five days a week. I'll have to buy a better pedometer to track this though, or maybe a Fitbit. I'll be interested to see if increasing my activity will increase the quality of my sleep.

Another thing I've noticed is that my sense of balance is declining. For instance, I can no longer stand on one foot for more than a second ir two before I'm at risk of falling over. According to a physical therapist co-worker, this is a normal consequence of aging and it can be improved and prevented by exercise. Apparently there are some specific exercises, but she recommended exercises that strengthen your core, such as walking, biking, etc. So I'm hopeful that improvement in this area will also be a benefit of increasing my level of activity.

I'm putting this out here for several reasons. I want to be accountable and putting it out here will help me with that. I'm hoping my journey provides encouragement and inspiration for others. Lastly, I'd love to have company in this endeavor, so if anyone wants to join me, I'd love to hear from you.

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