Sausage Barley Soup

Here's a flavorful soup for your crockpot. I love my crockpot. If you don't love yours, you can make this on the stovetop. Which I did the other night and it took about 40 minutes.

1/2 to 1 pound Italian sausage - I've used turkey sausage and reduced fat too, it all works
1 onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
6 cups chicken broth or 1 48 oz can chicken broth - I use half broth, half water and bouillon
3 to 4 large carrots, sliced
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
1 zucchini, sliced or diced
a head or a few handfuls fresh spinach, chopped

Cook the sausage, onion, and garlic until the sausage is done. Toss all the ingredients into your crockpot and give it a hug. Cover and cook 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low.

Chicken Salsa and Rice

This is made in the crockpot. I told you I loved my crockpot! If you don't have one it's pretty easy to adapt to the stove. My family snarfs this up and we rarely have leftovers.

2 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (or the equivalent homemade)
1 1/2 c. salsa
2 cloves garlic, minced or 2 tsp. minced garlic from a jar
1 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. cream cheese, cut into cubes - low fat works fine, but I like the regular one better
hot cooked rice - white or brown, whatever your kids will eat

Toss all the ingredients into the crock pot except for the cream cheese. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. About 30 minutes before you want to eat, stir in cubed cream cheese and turn off heat. Let it sit while you make the rice and yell at the kids to set the table. Stir it right before serving.

For my family I use two chicken breasts because a) I'm trying to use less meat and b) it's cheaper. You can cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces before you put it in the crockpot or you can throw it in completely frozen and shred it before serving. You could add another can of corn or beans to make it a little thicker and/or make up for less chicken. I also think this would work well without chicken entirely. Hmm...that will be my next experiment. This works really well on pasta too, or over chips or in a tortilla like a burrito/enchilada thing.

White Chili

I thought all white chili tasted gross. I was wrong. I found this recipe from the Year of CrockPotting blog. (Seriously, check out her amazing recipes.) This is so easy to make and so delicious. The chili is fairly sweet so we don't like to add cheese.

16-oz. bag of frozen white corn (yellow works too)
2 cans of white beans (any kind will do - DON'T DRAIN)
1 4-oz. can of green chilies
1 small to medium onion, chopped (I like to use sweet onions)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup vegetable broth (you can use bouillon and water)
juice from one lemon (or a shot or two of lemon juice from a jar)
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Dump everything into the crockpot. You don't need to drain and rinse the beans or the chilies. Cook on low for 8-9 hours, or high for 4-6.