Real World Wednesday - Chicken Soup with Rice

This is my staple dish whenever I have a leftover turkey or chicken carcass. What I really call it is Carcass Soup, but that doesn't sound very appetizing. If I start this in the morning after breakfast, it is the perfect amount of time to have it finished for dinner. What a perfect meal for a cold day!

Ingredients

Chicken carcass

1 cup rice (I use a wild rice blend)

1 cup carrots, diced

1 cup spinach, torn into small pieces

Directions

Place carcass in a crockpot and cover with water. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or until meat is falling off the bones. Pour through sieve into a bowl and remove all skin, bones and cartilage from the broth, leaving only the meat. Return the broth and meat to the crockpot. Add rice, carrots, spinach and any other desired vegetables. Cook on high for another 3-4 hours.

Not So Texan Texas Chili

According to Philip, this is sooo not Texas chili. I honestly wouldn't know since I've never really tasted any before other than a bite here or there when he orders it at a restaurant. What I do know is that I really enjoyed this meal, found originally on my new favorite food blog. I made the mistake of giving Michaela a bowl of it while it was still a little too warm, so after taking one bite and proclaiming "Hot!" she refused to touch it. It is a very mild chili, so I think I'll try again tomorrow with leftovers.

Ingredients

18 oz ground beef, browned

1/2 onion, finely diced

1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced

1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced

10 oz sweet corn

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (or equivalent fresh)

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 6 oz can tomato paste

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin

8 oz water

Directions

Put all the ingredients in the crockpot, mix, and cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

I had some leftover rice from the previous post, so I decided to make a chicken dish to go along with it. This sounded intriguing, and tasted ok, but didn't come out quite as I wanted. If you follow the suggestions below the recipe, I think this could be really tasty.

Ingredients
Chicken, enough for 4
20 oz can pineapple chunks, drained
1/4 c soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions
Combine everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 2-3. Serve with rice or over a bed of spinach.

Notes

• I used frozen chicken thighs. I only had 3 so that's all I used. I think this was what caused all of my problems with this recipe. There wasn't enough chicken so the soy sauce was waaaay too overpowering. I would use 6 or 7 thighs next time for this amount of soy sauce. Also, I think it would be fun using 1/8c soy sauce and 1/8c of the pineapple juice.
• All I had was pineapple slices, so I just diced those up and it worked just as well.
• I had ground red pepper but not the flakes. Since it was ground, the flavor was really able to get into the chicken and made it really spicy (too spicy for Michaela to enjoy). I would not reccomend using the ground unless you really want a kick.

Crockpot Autumn Sausage Casserole

I've decided that my crockpot is one of the most under utilized tools I have in my kitchen. I found this recipe over a year ago on one of my favorite blogs and have been meaning to try it ever since. This was a perfect blend of salty from the sausage and sweet from the carrots and raisins. My husband wasn't a huge fan of it but Michaela ate half a bowlful so it was definitely a win!

Ingredients
1 lb sausage, browned
2 apples, chopped
1/2 c carrots, chopped
3 c long grain rice, cooked (I used a wild rice mix)
1/2 c raisins
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 c chicken broth

Directions
Add all the ingredients to the crockpot, mix well and cook on low for 5-7 hours or high for 3-4. Since everything is already cooked, you are basically allowing the carrots & apples to soften, and all the flavors to mix.

Notes

• The bottom and sides burned a bit. Next time I would cook it for less time or add more chicken broth.
• Make this dish a little bit healthier by using turkey or chicken sausage rather than pork.