Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops and Crock Pot Mashed potatoes!

I found this recipe from realmomkitchen.com

The original recipe was for pork chops, which I did do the first time.  We loved them!  YUMMY!  This time I didn't have pork chops, so I made it with chicken and Justin loved it even more.  He prefers chicken over pork though.  And the gravy from the meat is awesome on the potatoes!

Here's what I did:

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops or Chicken Breasts

4-6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick or boneless chicken breasts
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
2 (10 oz) cans Cream of Chicken Soup
Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours or 3.5-4 hours on high for chicken.

Did you know you could do mashed potatoes in the crock pot?  Yep!  That's right!  This is my new favorite thing to do because you don't have to watch them and make sure they don't over boil and make a mess and constantly check them to see if they are done!

 Crockpot Potatoes:
2.5 lbs potatoes peeled and diced (I used about 10 red potatoes)
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup chicken broth (I use water and chicken bullion)
milk and salt
Place the potatoes in the slow cooker.  Pour chicken broth over and top with butter.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours.

I used a small slow cooker for my potatoes (see picture below) so my potatoes were done in 3 hours!

 I'm not sure how many quarts my small slow cooker is, but my big one is 7 qt. So, I took this picture to give you an idea.

Add milk to desired consistency as you mash them and salt to taste.  You can add other seasonings too like garlic or cheese, even sour cream (at the end.)  Get creative!

Chicken n Dumplings in the Slow Cooker

This is one of our new favorite recipes for the slow cooker!  It's so good that I'm going to have to double it for my big family so that we actually have some leftovers!  YUM!  I found the recipe HERE.  That recipe calls for the grands flaky refrigerator biscuits, but those aren't in my budget and I don't really care for them to begin with, so here is what I did. 

Total cooking time 4 hours on high (the original recipe calls for 4-6 hours on high, but I find that the chicken is dry if you cook it that long.)

2-3 Large boneless skinless chicken breasts 

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth (I always use water and chicken bullion because it's cheaper and easier on my storage space.)

1 onion diced

1 tablespoon dried parsley
1-2 cups frozen veggies (we always add extra peas, yum!)

Dumplings:

2 cups Bisquick (I would have used my Jiffy Mix, but I was out.)

1/2 cup Milk
Mix Bisquick and milk together to form dough.  Powder your hands with some Bisquick flour and roll out dumplings.  I usually make mine about the size of a small bouncy ball.  I make them ahead and put them in the fridge just so that when it's time to put them in they are ready.

 Put the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker and the butter on top (I was doubling it, but it ended up being too much chicken)

 Pour the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth on top

 Add the veggies and mix a bit and cook on high for 3 1/2 hours

 Shred the chicken then...

 Add the dumplings

After I put the dumplings in I try to cover them with sauce.  (these look extra big because they start to expand right away, but I made them about the size of a small bouncy ball.)  Place the lid back on for 30 minutes and serve.

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

 I made this soup last night.  Knowing my family and hoping it is super yummy I doubled it.  I had a small freak out right before serving realizing that I made A LOT of soup so if they didn't like it I was in big trouble!  I found the recipe HERE.

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I of course changed it a bit, so here is MY version:
Cream Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients:
4 cups water with 4 tsp. chicken bullion
1 cup water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package of Farm House long grain and wild rice (because my grocery store didn't have the Rice-a-Roni kind) 
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
2 cups half and half 
1 cup grated carrots (I diced mine)
1 cup diced celery

Directions:

Combine broth, water, carrots, celery, chicken and rice (along with seasoning packet) in a large slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. 

Take out chicken and shred with two forks and then add back into slow cooker. In a small bowl combine salt, pepper, and flour. In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour mixture by tablespoon to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Stir cream mixture into slow cooker and then let cook on low for 15 more minutes.  I ended up doing 3 hours 30 minutes on high, because I was low on time and knew that every time I do chicken in the slow cooker it gets over done.  I shredded it, added the roux and only ended up putting it back in for another 10 minutes.  My roux was a little extra thick because I only had 3 cups of half and half instead of 4 (I doubled the recipe remember.)  So, my soup turned out extra thick.

See how thick it is?  We loved it!  But, when I went to reheat it for my kids lunches today I had to add water!  If you don't want it so thick, use 2 cups of water instead of 1 and use all the half and half when making your roux. :)  It took some convincing to get my kids to try it, (see how hard my life is, lol) but, once they tried it they loved it!  I served it with cornbread! YUM!