Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken... Oh Yeah.

This is one of those cool recipes that takes hardly any time to put together, and can be frozen for an awesome meal on a busy day too!

Customize this recipe as you see fit. Low carb? Ditch the pasta and have a salad with it. 

Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken

§  3 lbs. Chicken, cut into 1 inch or larger pieces
§  1 Small Onion, Diced
§  3 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
§  1 (8oz.) Pkg. Cream Cheese
§  1/3 cup Italian Seasoning
§  4 Small tomatoes, Diced

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Use fresh herbs at cooking time instead of dry Italian Seasoning. Also, 1 “Spaghetti Seasoning” Pkg. may be used in place of Italian Seasoning.

Serve over noodles or alongside garlic bread with a fresh green salad. 

The BEST way we’ve ever had this is over cooked shells with 2 cups mozzarella mixed in. Delicious!!! 

This recipe is part of my 7 Awesome Chicken Freezer Meals post. You can find a Visual Recipe printable, grocery list, and more chicken recipes HERE.

7 Awesome Chicken Freezer Recipes and printables

Okay, I am guilty.

I cannot pass up a deal on a quality brand of chicken that is on sale for super duper cheap. Price match, coupons....  come home with 15 pounds of it!

I had to develop a plan, and decided it was time to make some freezer to crockpot meals for the busy days ahead.

So I pulled this together and... TA DA!!!

I created a cool way for very VISUAL people like myself to follow a multiple-recipe-plan without messing it up or doing everything one recipe at a time!!!

Download and print out my color coded Visual Recipe Plan, and follow along to make 7 chicken meals super fast!

All of the ingredients to make these chicken meals are easy and usually cheap. All of the packaged seasoning mixes I suggest can be swapped for your favorite homemade version. In this season (no pun intended) of life I have been buying the packets.

I've also created a great Printable Grocery List that you can take to the store to make things even easier. And (for myself mostly) I added a DOUBLED quantity column to the list in case you feel like buying 30 lbs. of sale chicken one day! (It has happened before.)

It took me about two hours (the length of a quiet-time movie!) to complete the bags, and pop them in the freezer.

Here are the recipes. Find the printable version of this list HERE. Enjoy!

Crockpot Chicken Slow Roast

§  1.5 lbs. Chicken, Cut into 1 inch or larger pieces

§  1 Small Onion, diced

§  4 Carrots, chopped

§  3 Cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped

§  1 Pkg. Dry Onion Soup Mix

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Add quartered red potatoes at cooking time. (This recipe is written with adding potatoes in mind. Try serving over leftover mashed potatoes as another option.)

Simple Stir Fry (Skillet or Crockpot)

§  1.5 lbs. Chicken, Cut into 1 inch or larger pieces

§  1 Small Onion, cut into thin strips

§  4 Carrots, Thinly Sliced

§  ¼ Cup Soy Sauce

§  1 Pkg. Frozen Broccoli or Stir Fry Blend Vegetables

§  2 Small Squash (yellow or green),  sliced

§  1 Medium Bell Pepper, cut into thin strips

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Thaw in refrigerator overnight and cook in a lightly oiled skillet over med-high heat until meat is cooked through.

Serve over rice or alongside fried rice or noodles.

Teriyaki Stir Fry (Skillet or Crockpot)

§  1.5 lbs. Chicken, Cut into 1 inch or larger pieces

§  1 Small Onion, cut into thin strips

§  4 Carrots, Thinly Sliced

§  ¼ Cup Soy Sauce

§  2 T. Brown Sugar

§  1 Pkg. Frozen Broccoli or Stir Fry Blend Vegetables

§  2 Small Squash (yellow or green),  sliced

§  1 Medium Bell Pepper, cut into thin strips

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Thaw in refrigerator overnight and cook in a lightly oiled skillet over med-high heat until meat is cooked through.

Serve over rice or alongside fried rice or noodles.

Creamy ItalianCrockpot Chicken

§  3 lbs. Chicken, cut into 1 inch or larger pieces
§  1 Small Onion, Diced
§  3 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
§  1 (8oz.) Pkg. Cream Cheese
§  1/3 cup Italian Seasoning
§  4 Small tomatoes, Diced

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Use fresh herbs at cooking time instead of dry Italian Seasoning. Also, 1 “Spaghetti Seasoning” Pkg. may be used in place of Italian Seasoning.

Serve over noodles or alongside garlic bread with a fresh green salad. The BEST way we’ve ever had this is over cooked shells with 2 cups mozzarella mixed in. Delicious!!!

Bacon Jalapeno Crockpot Chicken
§  3 lbs. Chicken, cut into 1 inch or larger pieces
§  1 Small Onion, Diced
§  3 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
§  6 oz. Bacon, uncooked, chopped
§  3 Jalapenos, chopped, (may be seeded to reduce heat)

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Serve with cornbread.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken Bowls
§  3 lbs. Chicken, cut into 1 inch or larger pieces
§  1 Small Onion, cut into strips
§  1 Pkg. Fajita Seasoning
§  1 Small Pkg. Frozen Corn
§  3 Jalapenos, chopped, (may be seeded to reduce heat)

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Optional: Add 1 (drained, rinsed) can black beans at cooking time. “Taco” or “Mexican” seasoning may be substituted for Fajita Seasoning.

Serve in a bowl with tortilla chips, sour cream, and shredded cheese for toppings.

Crockin’ Fajitas
§  3 lbs. Chicken, cut into 1 inch or larger pieces
§  1 Small Onion, cut into strips
§  1 Pkg. Fajita Seasoning
§  3 Jalapenos, sliced or chopped, (may be seeded to reduce heat)

To Freeze: Assemble all ingredients in gallon sized freezer bag. Press out remaining air and seal bag. Freeze flat.

To Cook: Thaw in refrigerator overnight or bang frozen bag hard on countertop to break into pieces that will fit into your crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Serve in a soft tortilla with sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheese for toppings. Beans and rice make excellent sides. 

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The Fast and Easy Way to Cut Coupons

I stumbled upon the FAST way to cut coupons!!!

Perhaps this “hack” has already been discovered and I am way behind the times, but I was cutting out some memory cards for our school day yesterday, when I realized I could use our paper-cutter to cut out my printed coupons as well!

This saved me a LOT of time and headache. I regularly use coupons when I shop (combining them with sales) and cutting each one out was the part I liked the least!

Cut it out!

I have seen paper cutters like mine at schools and libraries. I have a (now retired) public school teacher for a mother in law and she usually had one around her house.

I have also been to garage sales of teachers and former teachers getting rid of their “stash” (homeschool alert!) and seen these big beefy paper cutters for sale.

Scrapbooking supplies stores and craft stores often have similar looking paper cutters and smaller versions that could be used for cutting coupons.

Perhaps on your next trip to the library, they would let you borrow their paper cutter to use.

Just be sure to line up all your coupons perfectly straight! When you print out 2 per page, it often aligns differently than it would at 3 per page! Happy cutting!

You can find this post linked up at:

Oceans and Beaches

I’ve got high hopes for this coming homeschool year. We are ‘gonna be ON. THE. BALL. I’m committed this year to lots of ideas too. Ideas like “staying on schedule” or “returning our library books on time.”

Just kidding. I haven’t even ordered the curriculum yet.

And our self-imposed first week of homeschool year begins Monday. 

Clearly I have procrastinated.

Therefore, I have hurriedly thrown together an emergency mini unit study to hold us over until I win an Ebay auction or bite the bullet and order new curriculum FULL PRICED from the catalog. It’s a beach/ocean theme using links for free printables, materials from the library, and free internet resources.

It can be used for about a week of study, or I supposed it could be stretched on and on with the ocean unit links included.

 Oceans and Beaches

Currently this unit is geared toward my four year old (kindergarten), and six year old (1st grade). Also, the books are really only based on what’s available at my small local library right now –surprisingly, not much. There are SO many other great books on ocean life out there!

I’ve got a few shelves full of random math workbooks, early readers, and living books that we’re also working with that aren’t ocean themed. That’s why this unit is missing a lot of math activities. Google it or get creative to fill in the blanks!

 Why did I choose the ocean? Well we’ll be packing up next weekend for a couple of days on the Texas coast. Complete with aquarium visit.

 Let’s call it a field trip. ;)

Kitchen Personalities

I’ve noticed something over the years of recipe-swapping, tip sharing, secret formula revealing among friends and relatives in the kitchen…

There are two kinds of cooks.

Meet: Mrs. Reliable Recipe

She’s the gal who loves to make the same tried and true recipe fifty times and has gotten the same results 99.9% of that time. She follows each recipe by flattening out the top of every dry teaspoon or cup with a knife and uses the correct size egg called for. She doesn’t attempt to make a recipe unless she has ALL of the required ingredients on hand and if she DOES need to substitute an item she researches an appropriate ingredient and measures this correctly also.

This lady may also be seen scooping tablespoon sized portions of cookie dough onto a baking sheet or measuring out the prescribed cups of diced onion required for a stir fry. She enjoys the science of cooking. She patiently waits for her pan of brownies to cool completely before cutting them into 18 equal squares.

She is happy to recommend a tested recipe to friends. When sharing a recipe, she’ll give you an exact copy of the way she made it. If there are alterations to the recipe those will be written down accordingly.

Now let me introduce you to: Mrs. Flexible Foodie

She loves the flexibility and creativity in the art of cooking and is sometimes frustrated when her meals do not turn out the same way twice. Her measuring cup is often seen heaping in one scoop and lacking in the next. She eyeballs amounts more than really measuring them anyway and is almost never concerned with having all ingredients on hand before trying a recipe. She often copies a dish without actually asking for a recipe and often admires only the photos in magazines and cookbooks.

This woman likes variety and her leftovers often get makeovers before hitting the table again. Her best dishes are impromptu pantry-cleaning-soups or random hit-the-jackpot casserole combinations.

She often shares her favorite recipes orally. Try and pin her down, but it is merely a list of ingredients that were used this time in the dish, and words like “a few,” “some,” or “a handful of” are the measurements. “You can add” and “you could make it with” are also common phrases.

Both cooks can be the best of friends, though recipe sharing and cooking together in the same kitchen can sometimes be frustrating between the two personalities. Sometimes people are a combination of the two, or may switch back and forth depending on the dish.

Both cooks make great meals and both have something they can learn from each other! What kind of kitchen personality do you have?

I finally tried Home Grown Spaghetti Sauce

Why did I think it was going to be harder than this? Was it years of ready-made spaghetti sauce commercials complaining about how it takes all day for grandma to cook her famous sauce?

And what about flavor? Could I really accomplish something tasty that compared to companies who’ve sold batch upon batch of sauce across the country? (I am not saying they’re good. I am saying they’re successful.)

In the past, I didn’t doubt my abilities...

 Preserve and can food… check. Grow a garden… check. Homeschool my children… got it. Maintain a house made out of a shipping container… no problem. But I didn’t think I was capable of making a good spaghetti sauce? Seriously?

Perhaps it really was the lack of a bumper crop of tomatoes until this year.

This summer, we’ve had more tomatoes than I was really prepared for. My 2013 garden tomato goals were to grow enough so that…

We wouldn’t have to buy any tomatoes for salads all summer.

We wouldn’t have to buy any salsa all summer.

We wouldn’t have to buy any canned, diced, stewed, and/or green-chili-style tomatoes all summer.

We would have PLENTY to give away all summer!

I’d say we’ve attained these goals quite well this season and really for the first time ever as a gardening family. We hit the sweet spot on the right number of tomato plants for our needs right now.

Here’s how I fearlessly made that spaghetti sauce:

I started with…

• About 25 lbs tomatoes
• 4-5 sweet or bell peppers
• 2 gigantic onions
• About 7 cloves garlic
• Oil for sautéing
• One generous handful each of fresh basil and thyme
• Salt, pepper, and/or sugar or sweetener to taste. (The sweeter AND saltier it is, the more it will resemble store sauce!)

Peel tomatoes easily by cutting a little “X” on the tops of each one and dropping in boiling water for one minute. Transfer tomatoes to a cool bath and remove to cool to the touch. Hold tomatoes firmly by the skins and squeeze so that your tomato slips out of its skin through the “X.”

After a quick bath, these guys just slip out of their skins.

Remove inner juices and seeds by further squeezing tomatoes in your hand until they are drained, or by using a spoon to scoop out the goo.

(I actually cut my “X” pretty deep on each tomato and was able to stick my fingers inside and slide out the goo that way!)

Chop up and start cooking-down tomatoes on a low heat while preparing other ingredients.

Peel and finely chop garlic, dice onion and peppers and sauté in oil until slightly translucent.

Add sautéed vegetables to tomatoes and add salt pepper and/or sugar at this time.

Cook on low, uncovered, for about an hour or maybe even two until tomatoes break down and the liquid reduces just a bit.

Add chopped basil and thyme just before turning off heat. Serve over pasta, chicken, or in a lasagna (this was especially delicious!)

Don’t faint if you are a recipe-follower and not an improvising type of cook. You can find hundreds of grandma-tested sauce recipes (with EXACT measurements) on the internet!!!  This is merely a guideline of how I made mine.

And oh how tasty and truly easy it was. I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Made homemade spaghetti sauce… check.

Expecting a finished sauce pic? It got eaten. Here's my son doing his favorite thing... rummaging through the cabinets.

Pegboard in the kitchen

Yes, we put pegboard in the kitchen!

Living in a small (TINY!) home, it is essential to be open-minded and creative with our storage.

Painted to brighten up our space. Mounted above the drainboard for easy drip-drying after dishes.

There are a million creative ways to hang pots and pans in a kitchen. Old ladders, magnets, baskets, etc… 

 Just ask Pinterest.

As I have mentioned before, our walls are tall, and when we look for more storage space, we typically look UP.

So naturally, we've been hanging pots on the wall handyman-style for years now.

This is what it looked like when we first put it up (about six years ago).

Funny how it’s usually a big part of everyone’s visiting experience. When someone comes over the first time, they usually say, “Oh look!” at our pegboard pots and pans!

Pegboard can be customized easily to fit any space, and the pegs can be re-arranged in any way to suit your storage needs. There are so many choices aside from peg hooks. Baskets, jars, clips, and shelving just to name a few!

Personalize it.

And it’s one of the easiest small home storage solutions we've implemented so far! 

Homemade Garden Salsa

There is nothing like a home grown tomato. For summer suppers, we usually eat them sliced as a side dish with a little salt and pepper. They come in from our garden, fresh-picked by a preschooler, still hot from the summer sun and slice up juicy, thick, dripping with tomato seed goo.

And yet as delicious as they are, this year has been bountiful (Thank you Lord!) and it is time to make salsa or they will all ROT! It is difficult to find a recipe that knows that the tomatoes are booming and the peppers are still slow, and we have run out of all but the egg-sized garden onions. I had to adjust a few recipes I came across in order to make garden-grown salsa based on what we had.

A few batches later and I had learned a whole lot about salsa. I also found out that it is sometimes difficult to get a really hot, firey (oh yeah) salsa, because peppers can be unpredictable.

But here’s what the processing of most of our batches looked like, with a few tweaks along the way.

Garden Salsa

Base Recipe:

4 quarts tomatoes, peeled, diced or blended, (drained in colander if too juicy)

1 cup chilies or any variety sweet peppers, diced

3 cups onions, diced

1-1/2 cups jalapenos, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cumin

1 tightly-packed cup chopped fresh cilantro

Combine all but last two ingredients in large pot. Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes before adding cilantro and cumin. Stir and simmer 5 minutes more. If very watery after cooking and a thicker consistency is needed, add 1-2 6oz. cans tomato paste. Process using a recommended canning timetable, freeze, or eat fresh.

(Makes about 12 pints)

First, I took our bucket of tomatoes and gave each one a boiling water bath for about a minute.

From there they were dunked in a cool water bath and stacked on the drain board to await their scalping. 

This loosens the skins and they then peel off very easily.

My girls did the peeling. They love gory kitchen activities like this.

We had a little fun too… as usual.

Next those were popped in the fridge. As it turns out, that is where they would remain until I got my hands on another good stretch of time. I could have done an efficient finishing of this salsa project later that evening, but I promised the girls they would be able to help me make it, so it waited.

Then I chopped the jalapenos and chilies, and had to pack them into a container for safe keeping in the fridge until the next day. (I can highly recommend doing this step days in advance of a predicted tomato crop. If you can have everything ready for the pot, your salsa can be thrown together in a quick afternoon of tomato processing.)

Chop the tomatoes for a chunky salsa or send them through the blender or food processor if you like a smooth restaurant style batch.

Put everything in the stock pot and simmer 5-10 minutes before adding fresh chopped cilantro and cumin.

For fresh eating, stop here.

For canning, check your acidity, warm up your jars, lids, and water bath, and see an official canning times chart for times. (I won’t go into a canning tutorial or a big food safety speech, but use your brain and don’t poison your family!)

Try THIS LINK for more safety tips and recipes.

I canned each batch using our pressure canner for the water bath job. We ate what didn’t seal and stored (and shared) the rest. It’s not going to last us long…

Note to self: Next year more salsa!

Using Restaurant Ware at Home

Ever teach a set of preschoolers how to do the dishes?

Ever seen a two year old fill up a drinking glass all by his self?

Can your current dishes stand up to years of daily use and abuse?

Does your family enjoy eating outdoors, but you find it hard to take “nice” dishes to the picnic table?

These are some of the reasons we chose to purchase restaurant quality plates, bowls, and cups to incorporate into our daily tableware.

A few years back I began teaching my then-preschool girls how to do the dishes. With teeth clenched in that smile all moms have when their babies do something that will surely have to be redone later, I realized quickly that if this were to become a daily chore, we were in for a shortage of dishes!

 I tried adding a few dollar store picnic-ware plates, but found these to yield to every fork mark and knife slice we gave ‘em. We needed something very childproof that wouldn’t have to be discarded in a few months! Already equipped with a practically invincible set of stainless silverware from our wedding, we found a box of restaurant-quality frosted plastic juice cups at a garage sale that passed the test. I was hooked!

After a few months, I had my eyes peeled for plates and found pastel divided plates at a thrift shop. Then we explored a used restaurant supply store and found a deal on plastic bowls and nostalgic looking lunchroom trays. They were previously used in an old school cafeteria, but in excellent shape!

For those seeking a pretty table, an elegant step up could include clear salad plates or solid white restaurant china. Or perhaps just look at different colors. I have found that in order to accommodate school colors and restaurant themes, restaurant ware can be bought in a variety of colors or even patterns that would match most kitchen décor. Think of it like you would your usual dishes and mix and match patterns and colors or select just one monotone for all of your dishes for simplicity.

Our choice is usually function over style, but I hope to be able to incorporate more stylish pieces as ours eventually disappear. (Here’s where you might notice I said that our restaurant ware will disappear before it breaks! So far, I lose more bowls to “feeding the cat a treat” than really wearing them out!)

They outlast cheap imported summer plastic picnic-ware by a mile.

What type of dishes does your family use?

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Weekly Homemaking Party