I'm pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but I'm not really one to love cooking. I love to provide healthy and nutritious meals for my family, but I like doing so in the quickest and easiest way possible. And that, my friends, is where the frozen and pre-made meals come into play. #keepingitreal
Tonight while the girls were in their dance class, some of us moms were talking about new recipes and I mentioned that whenever I do take the effort to cook I always make double and freeze extras of things like chicken pot pies, lasagna, and spaghetti sauce. Then my sweet friend asked me about my spaghetti sauce recipe. Um, recipe? Doesn't everyone use jar sauce and just add to it a bit? Well apparently not. That got us all to cracking up. In my opinion, Ragu has perfected the art of spaghetti sauce making and who am I to mess with a good thing.
That got us on to the topic of other foods like soups now that the weather is cooling off. They were rolling on the floor when I admitted to "cooking" the Publix lobster bisque and a salad for dinner on Sunday. You know what, it was really good and I'm sure it was a heck of a lot better than I could have made from scratch.
At this point I'm totally owning it and the icing on the cake was that I told them for dinner last night hubby and I had TGIFriday's potato skins. From the freezer section. They are pre-done so all you have to do is heat them up in the oven and they.are.awesome.
No shame here. I'm happy to mix in pre-made meals with some homemade ones to make my life a little easier and I was pretty sure that Jen shared my feelings. I was texting with her last night and gave her a brief description of the conversation that happened at dance. I knew there was a reason she was my BFF. She also thinks that Ragu from a jar is the way to go and we both agreed that we are the last people who need to be giving cooking advice or recipes. Here's a little screen shot of our conversation.
Honestly though, that is whole point of our "Kitchen Confessions." We are not professionals (obviously), but we are both busy moms and when we come across a recipe that is easy to make and a crowd pleaser, you better believe we are going to toot our own horn and share it with y'all! And if it comes from the crock-pot, well that is even more reason to share. Especially since Jen mentioned buying a new one on Instagram yesterday and it appears that lots of you ladies share the same love for yours.
So, here is my favorite crock-pot recipe. It's called a "soup" but it's more like a chili or stew consistency, just FYI.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans whole-kernel corn
2 cans black beans
1 jar black bean salsa
Place chicken breasts on the bottom of a crock-pot and cover with remaining ingredients. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove chicken breast and shred with two forks. Then return shredded chicken to the crock-pot and stir. When serving, top with shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream and a side of tortilla chips.
My kids love this because they can scoop it with chips and everything is more fun to eat with chips, right? I love it because I literally just dump it all in the crock-pot in the morning and it is ready for us that night. It also freezes really well, so I often will make and freeze extras. It's perfect for cool fall and winter nights and if you are a don't-love-to-cook-mom like us, you will feel all warm and fuzzy about your homemade meal!
Its funny you mention those potato skins ... I picked up a box of them a few weeks ago and figured I could throw those in the oven for a quick "dinner" on a busy night. I really enjoy yall's kitchen confessions and I have already made your chicken salad and chicken rollups -- both were hits! I think I will try this tortilla soup soon too.
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