(Please refer to previous post for the instructions for cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot)
When you're done cooking the chicken and you've strained your broth and gleaned your meat, you'll have approximately 4-5 cups cooked chicken and (I get) about 8 cups of chicken broth. Here's what you'll need for 3 nummy recipes (go ahead and grab these when you buy your whole fryer chicken):
Shopping list:
1 large bag of frozen mixed veggies (the mix I like has green beans, peas, carrots, and corn)
1 pkg. of Pillsbury pie crusts (comes with 2 crusts)
3 cans of Campbell's "cream of" soups (I got 1 regular cream of chicken, 1 cream of chicken with herbs, and 1 cream of mushroom, but these can be substituted...will explain later)
1 pkg. Ritz crackers
1 pkg. frozen egg noodles
items you'll probably already have on hand:
white rice
milk
garlic salt
salt & pepper
Recipe #1
Individual Chicken Pot Pies (taken from a Real Simple magazine a few years ago)
8-12 ounces (that's 1 to 1 1/2 cups) of the frozen veggies, thawed
the piecrusts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
2 cups of your cooked chicken meat
garlic salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and defrost your veggies (microwave for about 2-3 minutes). Roll out piecrusts and cut into fourths. Spray the interior of 4 ramekins or small bowls with Pam, then place a quarter of pie crust in bottom. Mix your other ingredients together, then spoon into pie crust (divide equally between the 4 bowls). Top with the remaining quarters of pie crust and pinch together the 2 crust pieces. Cut 2-3 slits in the top of each pie crust. Place all 4 bowls on a baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. These are sooooooooooo good; one of Adam's favorite meals!
Recipe #2
Chicken and Noodles (my friend Dawn Hawkins taught me this one)
the chicken broth from your cooked chicken
1 bag of frozen egg noodles
about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of your cooked chicken
Take out the chicken broth you've saved in your soup pot in the fridge and place it on burner. If you want more brothy chicken & noodles, add 1-2 cups water; if you want thick chicken & noodles, no extra water needed (although I'd recommend a little bit of water...if you save some of this for leftovers, the extra water will keep noodles from absorbing all the broth and drying out). Heat on medium until boiling; add egg noodles and follow instructions on package (it usually says to boil uncovered for 20 minutes until cooked). When noodles are cooked, add your cooked chicken and simmer on low so flavors can blend. I usually bake a Pillsbury French Loaf and serve with green beans. You can also serve over mashed potatoes. Very Sunday-after-church kind of meal.
Recipe #3
Ritzy Chicken & Rice Casserole (I sort of invented this off of a blander recipe from allrecipes.com)
the remainder of your cooked chicken
8-12 ounces (1 to 1 1/2 cups) of your frozen mixed veggies, thawed
2 cups of white rice, cooked
2 cans of "cream of" soups (I like cream of chicken with herbs and cream of mushroom for this recipe)
2 cups of crushed Ritz crackers
garlic salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Defrost your veggies, crush your Ritz crackers (put them in a baggie and just squish with your fingers), cook your rice. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients but the crushed crackers. Pour into 8 x 12 (I think...I'm writing this all from memory and I know it's not the big 9 x 13 pan) glass baking dish and evenly sprinkle and spread crackers on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Very good for a quick weekday meal.
and I don't think it's the latter. I can't even express how excited I was to see the commercial for those Coinstar machines and how you can now get your change counted for free as long as you turn the money into a gift card! I just checked online and the types of gift cards range from Starbucks to Borders to Linens-n-Things to iTunes. Adam and I use all of the above, and what a fun way to "earn" spending money!!!
