Crock Pot Chicken N Pasta Soup

Spray your crock pot with no-stick cooking spray. This makes for easier cleanup later.





Dust the crock pot with fresh cracked pepper (pre-ground pepper is for wussies).






Dust the crock pot with chili powder.






Boneless Skinless chicken pieces lining the bottom of the Crock Pot. (I used thighs this time, but I've used breasts too, either works fine).




Herb Garlic Marinade drizzled over the chicken pieces.






Assorted chilli's diced up and thrown into Crock Pot.






An Onion (whatever color your prefer, I like yellow) diced up, and some garlic (however many cloves depends on your tastes) minced.



A can of tomatoes with Jalapeno's, juice and all, poured in.





A box of chicken broth.







Fill empty tomato can with filtered water to help gather the remaining flavors left in can.





Pour water from tomato can into Crock Pot.






A pinch of Kosher Salt.







A pinch of Pre-made Italian Seasonings (I got this pouch at Vitamin Cottage in Colorado, and it's lasted me forever!)




Put Crock Pot on it's longest cooking setting, and leave it alone. My Crock Pot switches from "Cook" to "Warm" automatically when the time is up, so I'm going to leave it here til tomorrow evening after work, and it'll stay warm and continue to melt the flavors.........
Set aside pasta noodles to be added before eating. Tomorrow, I'll remove the chicken and dice it up, then return it to the soup, add the pasta, and wait another 30 minutes before eating.

Italian Garlic Cheese Bread

1 loaf Italian or French bread
Butter or margarine
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Pepper
Salt
Crushed Red Pepper Seeds
Your favorite cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice the loaf of bread in half crossways (a serrated blade works really well for breads, just let the knife saw through it without applying too much pressure to avoid squishing the bread). Butter both sides of the bread and season to taste with the above seasonings (or whatever else you want to add), and top with desired amounts of cheese. Place in oven until cheese is melted.

Sautee'd Green Beans

(I got the basis for this recipe from this web page, but I change it up jut a bit.)

This one is great for the holidays, but also great any day of the week.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound green beans, cleaned and tips removed
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves minced garlic
Approx 3 tbsp Chicken Broth
1 tbsp butter or margarine
Cool things to add:
Bacon
Onions

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, then minced garlic. After a few seconds, garlic will turn brown. Add green beans and other ingredients you wish to add. Saute for 3 minutes, then add broth. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, or until nearly all of the broth has evaporated.

Tortilla-Bell Pepper Scramble.

Ok, so this is one of the rare ones that isn't actually mine, but it's delicious. I got it from a book that I highly recommend called "365 Easy Vegetarian Recipes - Meatless Meals So Simple, They Almost Make Themselves". I've doubled everything, except for the amount of tortillas. When I made the original recipe, I found that the portions weren't enough for me, but that there were too many tortillas, so I doubled the recipe and cut the tortillas in half. Here is the recipe with my measurements.

You'll need:

6 beaten eggs
1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper
4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley (I use 4 tbsp. of dried parsley, and it tastes just fine)
2 teaspoons canola oil
3 corn tortillas, halved, cut into 1/2 inch strips

Heat oil in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add tortillas and cook until crispy. Meanwhile combine eggs, bell pepper, parsley, a pinch of salt and pepper in a medium bowl. When tortillas are crispy, remove from skillet and set aside. Add egg mixture to skillet and scramble until eggs are set. Put eggs on plate and garnish with tortilla strips.

I like this one served with chocolate chip pancakes.

Baked Tortilla Chips

1 package of tortilla's
Non-stick Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non stick cooking spray. Slice tortilla's from package into pie shapes, and spread in an even layer on cookie sheet. Spray tops of tortilla chips with non stick cooking spray.

Bake for 7 minutes, but keep an eye on them.