Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE slow cooker recipes.  It's so simple yet so so yummy.  It also doesn't need a slow cooker to cook, I just find it easier to make it in one.

I'd roasted 3 chooks in my slow cookers the day before so I had plenty of roast chicken.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

 Ingredients-

Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned Corn- drained (optional)
Tinned Kidney Beans- drained (optional)
Salsa
4-6 C Chicken Stock
Roast Chicken
Diced onion
Taco Seasoning (either store bought or make your own)

To Serve
Corn Chips
Sour Cream/Greek Yoghurt
Guacamole
Cheese
Olives

1. Chuck everything in the slow cooker.  Let cook for 6-8hrs on Auto or Low.
2. Serve topped with whatever you desire.
3. EAT!

 Seriously, I love this soup! It freezers really well and you can chuck it on top of rice as well for something different.

Don't be afraid to tweak the recipe either! Adding jalapenos or chilli seasoning would add a terrific bite if you prefer yours food hotter.

Enjoy!

Cheese Muffins

This is one of my favourite throw together recipes because it's so easy to modify!

What you need for this recipe is-

• Self Raising Flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup cheese *

1) Preheat oven to 180C and spray a muffin tin (either standard or mini).
2) Mix egg and milk together.  Add milk & egg mixture to flour and mix until just combined. 
3) Add cheese, and fold in.
4) Spoon mixture into pan
5) Bake until toothpick comes out clean (approximately 10-15mins)

* There are a lot of different options for fillings.  This base works best for savoury fillings.

• Zucchini and Cheese: Grate 1 Zucchini, squeeze out liquid.  Add to batter with 1cup of grated cheese
• Feta, Salami and Sundried tomato: Dice 100g feta, 50gs of Salami and a half dozen sundried tomato and add to batter.
• Corn and Cheese:  Drain a 200g tin of corn, and add to batter with 1/2 cup of cheese.
• Tuna, Corn and Cheese: Drain small tin of tuna and a 200g tin of corn, add to batter with 1/2 cup of cheese.
• Garlic and Parmesan:  Add 1/2-1tsp garlic powder to batter with 3Tbs of grated Parmesan cheese. 

Be as creative as you want with these!  

Mac and Cheese! Kinda...

We got to dinner time the other night and I could not work out what to have, so that meant I went through the kitchen going what can I defrost quickly, and what else can I add together.

I ended up with-

• ham
• peas and corn
• cheese
• pasta

Which adds together to make Mac and Cheese!  Kinda..

So onto the ingredients!  

What I used (I'll mark which is optional with an (O)):

• Pasta (though pre-cooked rice would work as well.  You'd just put it in at the end instead of adding the cooked pasta)
• Cheese
• Milk
• Flour
• Cream Cheese (O)
• Onion (O)
• Ham (O)
• Frozen Peas & Corn (O)

1) Cook the pasta as per the instructions.
2) While that's cooking, if using ham and onion, heat a saucepan and brown onion and heat the ham. Remove ham & onion.
3) Next step is we make a white sauce.  Mix approximately 1TB flour with enough milk to make a smooth paste.  Gradually add enough milk to bring up to 1cup.  Add to the saucepan, and cook over a medium heat, until thickened.  Make sure you stir regularly!
4) Add approximately 1cup of  cheese to sauce pan and mix through.  If adding cream cheese (I used about 1/2cup), add now.
5) A couple of minutes before the pasta finishes cooking, add the frozen veg to the water to cook.  Drain when done and add to cheese mixture.
6) Mix through and serve!

(I still can't get the pictures to go in their rotated format!)

What happens when I don't follow my meal plan: Savory Mince

Welcome to the first post of "What's Cooking?" also known as "What on earth can I do with these two mushroom, half a tomato, a zucchini and some salami?".

Before starting this blog, I want to point out I generally have a sort of well stocked pantry/freezer.  At any one time is it rare to find my kitchen without kidney beans, tinned tomato, cous cous/pasta/rice, frozen veggies, some form of frozen meat, flour and yeast. This isn't to say that I sometimes don't have them, but more often then not I do.

I also have a lot of additions like sun dried tomatoes, olives, picked onions, pickled carrots and other random stuff sprinkled through out the pantry and fridge.  My advice before anything else, if you know there are a couple of tinned staples you and your family will happily eat, stock up on them! With a tin of kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, some spices and some cous cous or rice, I can put a really basic, but still reasonably tasty Chilli Con Carne type dish together very quickly.

So on to last night's dinner!

This post is what I'm dubbing "When I don't follow my meal plan".  We were supposed to have hamburgers for dinner last night, but honestly, I could be bothered making them.

 So we had Savory Mince with Rice.

(I appologise profusely for image quality. I was taking these photo's on the phone.  Hopefully I'll find my camera soon!  I also don't know why the image is sideways.)

 

So  basically what makes up this dish is-

Onion (diced)

Garlic 

Mince

Mixed frozen vegetables

Tinned tomatoes

Beef Stock (1 cup)

Flour

Salt & Pepper

Rice to serve.

1.  Brown onion and garlic in a pan, and add mince.  Cook until mince is done.  

2. Chuck in tomatoes, frozen veg and beef stock. Let cook until the veg is done.

3.  Mix approx 2 Tbs flour with water to make a paste, and then add to the mince mixture.  Allow to thicken (should only take a couple of minuets).  Season to taste.

BAM! You're done!

And so ends the first post of "What's Cooking?".