Loaded Potato Soup

My kids and I are huge fans of potatoes, though hubby isn't the biggest fan. Still, I had to try this loaded potato soup when I saw a recipe for it. Even hubby thought it sounded good, so that was a perk.

I tweaked the recipe some, especially since it didn't give a guesstimate weight for the potatoes and potatoes vary in size, but there are still some recommendations I would make different than what I did. Please see recommendations at the bottom of the recipe.

This is the recipe as I made it:

Loaded Potato Soup
variation of this Momspotted recipe

• 3# golden potatoes (peeled and cubed)
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1t pepper
• 4c chicken stock
• 1.5c heavy cream
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Crumbled bacon
• Dried chives to garnish

1) Add potatoes, onion, garlic, chicken stock, and pepper to crock pot. Cook on low for 7 hours.

2) Add heavy cream and puree using an immersion blender. Cook on low for another 30 minutes.

3) Add desired toppings and enjoy!

Don't mind my ancient, burned-up counter top. It's on the "replacement" waiting list!

RECOMMENDATIONS:

- First, I thought this tasted good, but more like onion than not. I would strongly recommend using have the amount of onion, or even completely omitting the onion in the soup and just using chopped green onions atop the soup as a garnish.

-Another alternative would be sauteing onion slices and adding them to the soup as you puree (to add a different flavour), or dicing the onions, sauteing, and adding as a garnish on top.

- The cheese on top was good, but I really think it could have used some cheese inside the soup, especially with omission of the onion.

I would recommend something more along these lines:

Loaded Potato Soup

3# golden potatoes (peeled and cubed)

1/4c chopped onion (or complete omission of onion)

4 cloves minced garlic

1t pepper

4c chicken stock

1.5c heavy cream

2c shredded cheddar

Garnish

Shredded cheddar cheese

Crumbled bacon

Chopped fresh green onion

Greek yogurt or Sour cream

Same instructions except I would add the 2c shredded cheddar after pureeing the soup, stir well, and let cook another 30min on low. 

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Crock Pot Lamb Roast & Sauce (original recipe)

The other day I saw a whole lamb roast marked down for quick sale (due to date) at the local grocery. We had them cut it and wrap it into 3 separate roasts for us, each weighing a bit over 2.5 lbs. The mark down price brought it out to be roughly $3.25/lb, and that's not bad at all! Of course, we can't eat that much considering we are a family of 4, and only two of us eat any decent-sized serving, so we froze two and made one that night.

We paired the lamb with this delicious veggie pilaf, and it was a great combo! The kids both ate well, and Bobble even begged for more lamb and dressing.

Sadly, I didn't think to take a picture when it was in the crock pot, or even on a full plate of food. I grabbed a dish after the meal was over, set it up for a picture, and then put it away. We were stuffed!

CROCK POT LAMB ROAST

• 1 lamb roast
• 1 onion (chopped)

Sauce (all ingredients are to taste, not measured):

• Juice from lamb*
• Red wine vinegar
• Heavy Cream
• Lemon
• Parsley
• Sage
• rosemary
• thyme
• Salt
• onions from roast

*Leave enough juice to use with pilaf if desired

Instructions:

Spread onions across bottom of crock pot.
Brown lamb roast on stove and then place on top of onions.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

When roast is done, remove from crock pot and set aside.
Take onions from crock pot, some juice, and other ingredients listed for the sauce, and put together in a bowl. None of it was measured, but there was roughly 2T of cream and approximately 2t of lemon. Just add to taste.
Blend with immersion blender.

Slice lamb and serve with sauce.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables Pot Roast (GF)

I love my crock pot. A lot. It's no secret that it is one of my favourite kitchen things EVER. I've made roasts in it and they've been good, but this MOMables roast was something else. My goodness, was it delicious.

I don't do gravy often, and most "beef" gravy I tend to dislike. The ingredients for this roast were simple enough, but also had a few things that made me feel like this might be better than roasts with gravy I've had in the past.

I was right.

Pot Roast without gravy and some of the non-pureed veggies on the side

 

Pot Roast with Gravy (and some of the non-pureed veggies on the side)

Hubby and I worked together on this one. Basically I chopped a few things and read out what we were supposed to do since we were juggling the children between us while prepping the meal. Squiggle wanted to be held a lot and my carrier was in the car. Since I had help, though, I didn't mind.

The meal turned out FABULOUS. Both children enjoyed the food, and so did hubby! (Obviously, I liked it too!) I planned on using the leftovers for another MOMables meal, but we enjoyed this so much we just wanted to eat it this way.

We didn't puree all the veggies (as you can see from the pictures), and we served it with couscous. If you're curious, the gravy didn't taste super tomato-y, though it does look it. This is actually really awesome, because I hate tomatoes. (Yes, I know.. picky picky!)

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables (GF) Ham & Bean Soup

My husband told me he was craving ham and bean soup earlier this week, and I just so happened to get a Ham & Bean soup in my MOMables email recently. I had a slice of ham (ham steak) from a local farmer in the freezer so I picked a nice, chilly day and busted out the crock pot!

The prep work for the soup was very minimal, resulting in chopping a couple veggies, the meat, and getting some beans ready. We also had a package of lima beans from the farmer's market that we added in to use up. The big challenge with this recipe was waiting while it cooked. It smelled very good!

The recipe suggested an immersion blender if you didn't want the soup chunky. I am totally okay with chunky. In fact, I think I would prefer that. My children, however, would not. The soup would be splattered everywhere and the chunks tossed about, most likely. Okay, maybe not... but it would still be easier for them to have it a bit thicker.

Ready to start cooking! (with giant lima beans)

We mixed it up with the immersion blender, but it didn't look as pretty anymore.

There were lots of left overs, too! Hubby and I both ate 2 bowls. Squiggle just had a tiny bit (maybe a tablespoon) because she had other food, and Bobble ate about 1/4c of soup (he also had other food). I never trust the kids to eat soup too well. Too much splashing temptation!

We still filled our 2 quart glass storage dish with the leftovers. Yay for leftovers... I know what's for lunch tomorrow!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Meat Cooking Tip

If you're looking for a simple way to add a bit of flavour to a thick chunk of meat, regardless of the type of meat you're working with, try the following:

Cut up some fresh garlic cloves. (slice across the width of the cloves to make several thin slabs)

Slice various spots of the chunk of meat before cooking, and stuff pieces of garlic clove in it.

Cook as normal (including searing before cooking if that's what you usually do).

Easy to do but adds a great flavour to the meat!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Thursday Tips: Summer Crock Pot Cooking

Sometimes there is a recipe I really want to make, and it's just so darn hot outside that I cringe at the thought of using my crock pot and heating up the house even more. I love that the house smells so great, but the extra heat? Yeah... I could do without it.

Simple problem, simple solution!

We set our crock pot in our mudroom or our garage in the summer time when we use it!

Our mudroom is closed off from the main part of our house via a door, and the garage obviously is, too. Of course, you want to make sure you have the garage door shut, or you might attract pests with the delicious aromas!

Do you have any crock pot tips?

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Turkey Chili (crock pot)

I've been looking to try something new as of late, and our local grocery store gave me the perfect opportunity with some reduce-priced meat (sell-by date). I had never cooked with just a slab of turkey breast before, but the price really couldn't be beat! I decided to try my hand at making some turkey chili!

The following recipe was definitely a hit with the family. Bobble ate it (which meant it wasn't too spicy), hubby ate it (which meant it wasn't too bland), Squiggle ate it (...which really just meant it was food. She loves food!), and I ate it. The fact that I ate it says a lot, with as picky as I am.

I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, as I had never really had chili with poultry before. The more bites I took, the more I enjoyed it. It is especially good with corn bread, and I absolutely enjoyed every bite I sopped up with the corn bread!

I actually chopped up my peppers and threw them in the crock pot for storage while I prepped the other items. It doesn't really matter if you throw the beans and peppers in the crockpot (OFF) to wait for the other stuff, or if you chop them and throw them into the pan with the tomato mixture (after you turn that off). I was just trying to save counter space and dirty less dishes.

Turkey Chili

•     2 cups cannellini beans (or 1 can)
•     2 cups garbanzo beans (or 1 can)
•     1 tbsp oil
•     3 shallots, finely chopped
•     1c celeriac, chopped
•     2 tbsp minced garlic (or roughly 6 cloves)
•     1 tbsp cumin
•     2 tsp dried oregano
•     1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns
•     Zest of 1 lime
•     2 tbsp fine cornmeal
•     1 cup veggie broth
•     1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes with juice
•     1-2 lbs skinless boneless turkey breast, cubed
•     2 cups cut green beans
•     1 tbsp chile powder, dissolved in juice of zested lime (or roughly 2 tbsp lime juice)
•     2 bell peppers, diced - any colours (Ideal would have at one of them green)
•     1 chilaca pepper, finely diced (If not available, substitute a poblano [slightly less kick])

1) Heat oil in a large pan (I used a 5qt. T-fal Jumbo Cooker w/lid ), and add shallots and celeriac. Saute for about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic, stirring well.

2) Combine ground pepper, cumin, oregano, and lime zest. Add to pan, stirring well to fully coat. Add in cornmeal, coating well.

3) Add in broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and pour into 6 qt. crock pot.

Broth added (tomatoes not added yet)

4) Stir in beans, bell peppers, chilaca, lime juice/chile powder mixture, and turkey breast.

5) Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with cornbread.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. This is an original recipe, and all opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Savoury Whole Crockpot Chicken

Looking for a delicious chicken recipe that doesn't take much time? This recipe is for you! It's very simple and only takes minutes to throw together, but your whole house will smell fabulous, and you'll have  juicy, fall-off-the-bone chicken for dinner! As you've probably noticed, I really get a lot of use out of my 6qt. Crock Pot!

You can add more or less of anything in the recipe to taste, and I never actually measure out the herbs, but this is a guesstimate. :)

Savoury Whole Chicken [Crock Pot]

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken
• 5 ribs celery
• 1 onion
• 1T dried thyme
• 1t dried oregano

Directions:

1. Slice the onion in half, an then into long strips. Separate the onion and place half of it across the bottom of the crock pot bowl.
2. Chop 3 ribs of up celery into small pieces. Cut the other 2 into snack-sized sticks. Spread chopped celery across the bottom of the bowl with the onion. 
3. Place spices in spice grinder or quickly grind with a mortar and pestle.
4. Get chicken out and remove innards and neck. Stuff with the other half  of the onion and celery and place top the chopped onion and celery in the crock pot.
5. Take dried spices and rub all over the body of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on size of chicken.

   

   Ready to cook!

Not only do you have some delicious chicken this way, but you have some cooked veggies to eat (if you choose) or throw into some other dish the next day.

Ready to eat!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for all content in this post. These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Crockpot Cooking

You may have noticed that I have a little bit of love for my crockpot. It's a Hamilton Beach crock pot, and it's a good crockpot that is reasonably priced and holds a good deal of food. I frequently make whole chickens in it, and that says a lot to what it can hold!

(What's left of) a whole chicken [4.75 lbs] in our Hamilton Beach Crockpot

For our little family of 4, a 6 quart stockpot is the perfect size. It allows us to cook a whole chicken or cook a dish that will feed us all an leave us with a good amount of left overs, too.

You certainly get a lot for the money, and it's easy to transport if you need to make a dish to take somewhere. I love that it's easy to clean and easy to transport. If you're in the market for a crockpot, check out the  Hamilton Beach Slow Cookers selection at Amazon.com!

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings [From Scratch!] (Original Recipe)

This went over so well that it has been requested again in the future while it was still being eaten! Thanks to the lovely autumn-like weather we've had the last few days, it felt right to make Chicken & Dumplings. It doesn't hurt that it gave me most of what I need to make the Vegetable Stock, either.

My big problem with many recipes for "Easy" chicken and dumplings is that they call for those pop-open biscuits from the store, and I'm sorry, but have you ever looked at the ingredients on those? The only ones I've found without artificial flavouring is at Trader Joe's, and we don't have one close to us, so we rarely have them on hand. I decided to make my own dumpling recipe. It's super simple, easy to make, and delicious. The kids can even help out with them if you want! You can let them make little balls of dough to drop in!

This recipe is a delicious, savoury dish that isn't salty. The dumplings have a salty taste to them and perfectly compliment the stew. If you are making this with store-bought biscuits instead (though, really, the dumplings are SUPER easy to make!), you might want to add a bit of salt to the crockpot mixture or just sprinkle some in the bowl after you serve it up. These dumplings were made to compliment the dish, though, and they do so very nicely.

The thing that took the most time was chopping the fresh veggies, so if you have the chance to cut them in advance, that will take away most of your prep time.

I also made some more of the cream of chicken soup to use for this.

It was super easy. Place in chicken, pour in other stuff, cook!

 

After you shred the chicken:

Then just make your dumplings:

Drop them in and cook (covered)!

Raw dough balls ready to cook!

That's it! Of course, you need to eat it, too!

 

Easy Crockpot Savory Chicken & Dumplings (from scratch!)

Ingredients:

• 5 ribs celery (2c)
• 4 carrots (2c)
• 2 small onions (roughly 1 1/2c)
• 1c chopped mushrooms (just shy of an 8oz package)
• 3 ears corn (cut corn off cob into container)
• 3 chicken breasts (about 1 lb)
• 3c chick.broth
• 2.5c cream chix soup
• 1/2t oregano
• 1/2t thyme
• Dumplings (recipe at the bottom)

Directions:

1) Chop vegetables as small as desired and set aside.
2) Make Cream of Chicken Soup.
3) Place chicken breasts in the bottom of 6 qt. crock pot. Top with chopped vegetables. Pour in chicken broth and cream of chicken soup. Add Oregano and Thyme. Stir well.
4) Cover and cook on LOW for 6 - 7 hours.
5) Shred chicken* and stir back into crock pot.
6) Make dumplings** and add, in spoonfuls [or balls], to crockpot mixture. Cover crockpot and cook another hour. (Dumplings will be done much sooner than that, maybe 15-30 minutes depending on size of dumplings, I just use this time to clean up and set the table.)

Notes:
* To shred, simply remove chicken breast from mixture, place on a plate or bowl, and pull in opposite directions with two forks. Chicken could be cubed or diced before cooking if you prefer not to shred.
 ** An alternative to the dumplings would be covering the top with biscuits (in the last hour) and cooking until biscuits are done, or making biscuits in the oven and then topping them with the crockpot mixture. Another option is to use gnocchi (either make your own, or buy prepackaged) cook according to directions, and add in and let cook the last 30 minutes in the crockpot.

DUMPLINGS:

• 1 1/4 cup flour       
• 1 tsp. sea salt       
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda       
• 2 tsp. baking powder       
• 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary (I ground mine up with my mortar and pestle)       
• 2 tablespoons butter       
• 1/2 c. milk

1) In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and rosemary.
2) Cut in butter.
3) Slowly add milk until the batter is well mixed. Batter will be thick.
4) Add to recipe

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Crockpot Casserole (Original Recipe)

Looking for something simple and delicious to throw together for dinner? With minimal ingredients, and even less prep work, this recipe is a great way to get dinner ready without the use of bag or box mixes.

Dice your onion:

Cube your chicken breast!

Add homemade cream of chicken soup (very easy to make, and without the garbage added into the canned stuff!)

Stir in corn (we had grilled corn on the cob the night before, so we cut it off the cob and just stirred that in):

Cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. 

Add in rice and (rinsed) beans, stirring well. Add in  cheese and stir up, letting it cook another 30 minutes or so (just to warm the newly added ingredients and melt the cheese). Serve up hot and top with freshly chopped green onion (if desired).

Cheesy Chicken Crockpot Casserole

• 1 lb. chicken breast, cubed
• 2 cups corn
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cups cream of chicken (give or take... I used a bit more than 2 cups, or one batch of this recipe)
• ½ cup milk
• 1 ½ (dry) cups rice (which is 2 scoops in our rice cooker) *can make ahead the day before
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 can black beans
• Diced green onion to top (optional)

1. Dice onion and put in the bottom of the crock pot
2. Cut chicken breast into cubes and place atop the onions
3. Cover chicken and onions with cream of chicken mixture
4. Add corn and ½ cup of milk to crockpot and stir well
5. Cover and turn on to low heat for 6 hours
6. An hour before eating, start the rice in a rice cooker.
7. Add cooked rice to crock pot as soon as it is done and stir in, along with the black beans and cheddar cheese.
8. Let cook another 30 minutes.
9. Serve topped with fresh green onion (optional)

Tip: For a bit of a kick, add 1 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper to the mixture before cooking, or add in some diced chilies along with the corn. 

Rice can be made ahead and just added 30 minutes before serving instead of cooking and adding.

MOMables Recipe Review (6)

I tried a MOMables crock pot recipe for dinner on Monday, and I must say I was pleased! First, I've never made a dinner in my crock pot. In fact, I had only ever tried to make a baked bean recipe in it and it turned out horrible. Man, have I been missing out on crock pot cooking! Dinner was Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore, and it was another great MOMables recipe! For more information on what MOMables are, check out my info post and giveaway HERE!

Since this recipe is not one of the free recipes, the actual recipe itself will not be shared. 

The recipe was easy to follow, and the prep time was minimal. I sliced the fresh veggies, at that was pretty much the bulk of the work. No, seriously. It was. Slice, add, turn on the crock pot, voila!

Pre-shredding the chicken

 I left the crock pot to do its thing, and the house started smelling wonderful a few hours later. 5 hours later, and I boiled a bit of pasta to complete the meal. While the water was heating, I opted to shred up the chicken (you don't have to, but it works great!). The pasta finished and everything was ready to eat!

Shredding the chicken (in a dinner bowl so I don't have to dirty the cutting board)

After adding the shredded chicken back in

Everyone liked it, though hubby thinks it would have been better over rice. I could see that, so next time I think I will just make rice to go along with it. It would also have been yummy in a little tortilla.

Dinner is served!

All in all, I think I had 20 minutes of prep work and then the time it took to boil the pasta (which I had the chicken shredded well before that water even boiled). Very quick meal, very delicious!

Disclosure: These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.