Crockpot Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large onion, chopped (I use Vidalia)
• 1 -8 ounce box of rice, prepared
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 – 10.5 ounce can cream of chicken soup (regular or fat free)
• 1 -15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

Instructions

1. Place chicken in bottom of crockpot.
2. Scatter chopped onion over top.
3. Spoon cream soup over top of that.
4. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours.
5. A few minutes before serving, add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese.
6. Stir to combine, put cover on for 5 minutes.
7. Serve hot

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This recipe is awesome! Super easy, relatively healthy and W scarfed it down.

This is another Pinterest one. I liked it because W loves chicken, it has rice in it to be filling and we actually rarely cook with corn so it gives W a new veggie to eat.

I am not a fan of the "large" onion. Don't get me wrong I really like onions and Vidalia is my favorite type of onion. But a large onion can mean very different things to people and my large onion was definitely too large. It was way too onion-y. In retrospect, a large onion for only 4 chicken breasts seems excessive anyway. I would recommend cutting it in half or using a small/medium onion instead.

The only other issue I had with it was the timing. I filled the crockpot just as it said to. I turned it on low. 8 hours later and the chicken was still pink inside and a meat thermometer agreed it wasn't done yet. I think it actually took more like 9-10 hours on low to fully cook. Once it was done, the chicken was super tender and pulled apart really, really easily. I pulled the chicken and mixed in the remaining ingredients and cooked for 5 more minutes.

W wasn't too sure of it at first. I think the onion was too strong. He did eat it warm the first day. But then the second day he refused to eat even a single bite. That got him mac n cheese and ritz crackers for lunch at day care. Smart kid :)

But then we tried it cold and he loved it. I didn't like it cold so much, but he ate a ton of it cold.

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Pros:
Few ingredients = cheap
Super easy to make
Relatively healthy

Cons:
Took way longer to cook than claimed
Too much onion

Give it a try!! I don't think you will be disappointed.

Vegetable Quinoa (with recipe)

The Sprout lunches I used to get for W had lots of grains and veggies in them. Most had quinoa and so when I searched for meal ideas and stumbled across a crock pot meal that was quinoa and veggies I was thrilled. Quick, easy and super insanely healthy.

I found this one on Pinterest as well. There is an awesome board of just slow cooker/crock pot meals so it is a go to place for me as I try new things.

Here is the recipe:



Doesn't it look good?

Ingredients
 1½ cups Quinoa
 3 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
 1 small onion, chopped
 1 tablespoon olive oil
 1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
 1 small carrot, chopped
 1 Cup Fresh Green Beans chopped
 2 garlic cloves, minced
 1 teaspoon fresh cilantro or basil (depending on your taste)
¼ teaspoon pepper

Instructions
 Rinse Quinoa Dump it into the crock pot. (I used 6 quart) Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to coat. Stir in broth, veggies, pepper and garlic. Reserve cilantro for before serving. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-4. The quinoa is done when you can fluff it with a fork and it is tender. Liquid should be absorbed into quinoa. Top with fresh cilantro and serve. You can mix in garbanzo beans or black beans to add protein to this dish and turn it into a meal

We debated about adding some chicken to it to make it a full meal for us and W. Anything that makes dinner quick, easy and healthy. But I like to make any new dish exactly per the recipe and then see what I think.

And I thought it was awful. I learned a good lesson that night. Always try it first before giving it to W. I sat down to feed W dinner and warmed up a plate of this for him. He took one tiny bite and refused to eat any more. So I tried it. And cringed.

I think it is because of the chicken stock. It just had a really odd flavor that didn't mesh well at all. It was fluffy and had lots of veggies in it, but wow was it gross.

Pros:
Easy to put together
Healthy
Most of the ingredients (minus the chicken stock) we already had on hand

Cons:
Horribly inedible

Go ahead and try it out if you want. Maybe you will like it, but none of the three of us could eat it and the entire thing ended up in the trash.