Easy Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I never saw the appeal of chicken tortilla soup. Tried it for the first time today, YUMMY! Very good. I am going to make a double batch next time and freeze some to see how that works out. I am very into freezer cooking right now.

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 packet enchilada sauce or taco meat seasoning mix
1 1/2 C water
1 can tomato sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 C milk
3-4 boneless chicken breasts (again, to be cheap, I used boneless thighs, turned out great)
1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes (southwest style)

In crock pot, mix the enchilada/taco packet together with the water and tomato sauce. Add cream of chicken soup and milk and whisk together until smooth. Add chicken. Pour drained black beans, drained corn and diced tomatoes on top of that. Cook on low 6-8 hours.Before serving, take out chicken and shred or dice, then put back and stir it all together. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, avocado, or tortilla chips, or strips of tortilla for dipping.

Festive Coconut Bread

This recipe comes from the kitchen of my friend Beth Stimpson! She brought some over to us at Christmastime and it was gone in a flash. I begged for the recipe and she was so kind as to share with me. I have made it many times since, this bread freezes great! My recipe card is getting a little gunky, so at the risk of losing the recipe forever, I am posting it here! Thanks Beth for sharing your holiday family favorite with us!

Festive Coconut Bread

Mix
4 Eggs
2 C Sugar
1 C oil
2 tsp Coconut extract

Add & Mix
3 C flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Add
1 c buttermilk
1 c coconut
1 c chopped walnuts(optional) havent tried this yet

Pour in greased pans and Bake at 325.
Small loaves take about 40 minutes
Large loaves take closer to an hour

Make glaze shortly before you pull the bread out of the oven, I usually do this when the timer says 15 minutes.

1 c sugar
1/2 c water
2 T butter
Boil 5 minutes, stir in 1 tsp coconut extract

Pour over loaves when taken from oven, wait 5 minutes or so then remove bread from pan to cool.

It might look like an intimidating recipe, but its really pretty easy. The results are fabulous. I like to make all mini loaves and then freeze some for easy gift giving later!

Hawaiin Haystacks...or are they Utahn Haystacks...

Hey we had something really fun for dinner tonight! I don't live in Utah, therefore I had to be introduced to Hawaiian Haystacks by someone who grew up there. These are a fun treat for the whole family because you can pick and choose what you want on them. You start with a base of white rice and add a yummy creamy chicken in sauce. Then you pile on whatever else sounds good(see list below) and it looks like a giant haystack by the time you are done. Here is the EASY recipe for the chicken:

Hawaiian Haystacks

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 frozen chicken breasts(I used thighs, cheaper and they were still really good)

milk (I did not end up adding any since it was already a good consistency)

Put chicken in the crock pot and then cover with soup. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove chicken from the crock pot and shred or dice the chicken and return to the crock pot. Add enough milk to make the consistency of gravy.

Serve the sauce over cooked rice. Then top with any of the following toppings. If you don't have some of these don't worry, they will still be great. I thought coconut and pineapple sounded a bit odd, but I tried it and loved it!

shredded cheddar cheese
diced tomatos

pineapple tidbits
peas

sliced olives

diced green onion

chopped celery

shredded coconut

slice almonds

diced fresh mushroom

Chow mien noodles

mandarin oranges

diced green pepper

water chestnuts

cashews