Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

 

    Well it is officially soup season and I don't have a beautiful photo of the finished product of this chicken noodle soup as it was late when I finally got a chance to dish it up for my boys but I will quickly jog through the recipe. 

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cups of water 

1 chicken broth cube

3 chicken thighs uncooked

1 green bell pepper chopped

4 stalks of chopped celery 

1 onion chopped

4-5  large potatoes cubed

3 large carrots peeled and chopped

1 TSP garlic powder

1 TSP onion powder

1-2 TSP Italian Seasoning

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 Cups uncooked wide egg noodles

    The first thing I do is add the water, chicken thighs and broth cube to the crock pot on low for at least 4 hours. 2 cups of water won't seem like enough but I promise it is because you are essentially making your own stock with the chicken cooking in the crock pot. Once the chicken is cooked through I pull it out and set it in a glass Tupperware container to put in the fridge to cool before cutting it off the bone so I don't get burnt you can certainly pull it from the bone as soon as it is done if you are comfortable doing so. 

    Next I add all of the remaining ingredients except egg noodles to the stock and cook for another 3-4 hours on low adding the chicken back once the potatoes are cooked through so it will warm back up.

    I boil the noodles separately on the stove and serve the broth, veggies and chicken over the noodles only adding the noodles that are left over to the crock pot just before leftovers are stored in the fridge. 

    Again as with all recipes that are not for baking you can add, substitute or leave out ingredients you prefer. 

Green Tomato Salsa

 

At the end of every season it is inevitable there are green tomatoes left on the plants when we are due for frost. Last year I made green tomato salsa for the first time and it was a hit so I wasn't to disappointed when I had to make it again this year. Each time I can/make anything some of the ingredients are bound to change based on what I have available. I will share with you the recipe I used last year and the substitutions I made this year. The beauty of salsa is you can change ingredients you don't like for something else i.e more or less spicy

Green Tomato Salsa

20 cups of green tomatoes coarsely chopped (I typically fill a 5 gallon pail with green tomatoes and use almost all of them to make this recipe)

1 cup of red tomato coarsely chopped (this helps add some juice to your salsa)

12 serrano peppers-seeded

**substituted this year for 20 small jalapenos-seeded

6-7 small green bell peppers or 3 medium/large green bell peppers

2 red onions chopped or 1 large red onion chopped

2 white or yellow onions chopped 

5 garlic cloves chopped

1 cup of lime juice

1 bunch of cilantro finely chopped this should be about 1.5 cups loosely packed

4 TSP ground cumin

2 TSP dried oregano

4 TSP salt

2 TSP black ground pepper

Mix in pot and bring to a boil, simmer for 30 minutes, hot pack jars and process for 25 minutes.

The first thing I do is prep the green (and red) tomatoes for the processor. I core the tomato so this little stem spot is not on them as you will be placing the rest of the tomato directly into the processor and chopping coarsely. You will also want to remove any blemishes from the fruit as well that you do not want in your salsa.

Green Tomatoes in processor. It typically only takes a few bursts on pulse from the processor to get this done but multiple batches to get to 20 cups of chopped green tomato.

Coarsely chopped green tomatoes in stock pot.

I use the processor to chop everything I use in this recipe which makes clean up so much easier. Even the cilantro is tossed into the processor. Once everything is mixed into the stock pot you will want to bring your salsa to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes stirring often to mix in the spices.

Once your salsa is done simmering begin packing your hot jars with salsa I usually drain off some of the excess water or juice in the salsa while I am ladling it to jars so it is not too runny. I end up with maybe 2 cups of extra liquid from the cooking process that I pour down the drain. 

Once your jars are packed place in your WB canner (water bath canner) and process for 25 minutes for pint jars. Remove from water and place on canning mat and cover with a dish towel to cool. This recipe yields about 14 pints of salsa 

Store on a cool dry shelf out of direct sunlight until ready to serve! If you have a little bit extra left over that won't fill a jar pop it in a Tupperware container and send it straight to the fridge it won't be there long if your family enjoys it like mine does. 

CROCK POT BEEF SOUP RECIPE

 

CROCK POT BEEF SOUP RECIPE

I didn't figure I would be sharing recipes for soup but this one that I threw together yesterday was just too good not to share.

1lb of stew beef fried in salt and pepper to taste and a table spoon of butter

1 green bell pepper

1 yellow onion

4 stalk of celery chopped

5-6 small potatoes halved

2 large chopped carrots

4 cups of water

3 beef bouillon cubes

2 tbs of better than bouillon beef baste

1 tbs of garlic powder

1 tbs of onion powder

2 tbs of corn starch to mix in 30 minutes before serving to thicken broth

Place in crock pot on high for 4-5 hours and reduce to warm until ready to serve over wide egg noodles (cook the noodles separately before serving)