Crock Pot Low Calorie Vegetable Soup

Back during my Weight Watchers Online days, I used to make their Zero Point Soup a lot.   A few weeks ago, Joe requested this soup for dinner.  Since it's an easy recipe (and Joe rarely makes a dinner request), I didn't mind preparing this recipe at all. 

This is a great recipe to make when you need to clean out the veggie bin.  I try to stick as close to the recipe as possible, but sometimes I add a few extras depending on what needs to be used up. 

Low-Calorie Vegetable Soup in the Crock Pot

Ingredients: 

• 8 cups vegetable broth (I prefer homemade, but canned works fine
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1/2 head cabbage, chopped
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 small zuccini, diced
• 6 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3 Tbs. tomato paste
• 1 1/2 Tbs.  Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute
• 2 cups frozen cut green beans, thawed

Directions: 

• Combine all ingedients (except for green beans) in crock pot. 
• Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until vegetables are tender. 
• In the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, add the thawed green beans, cover and continue to simmer until beans are heated through. 

Notes:

• This took a while to cook in my crock pot.  I have a couple of crocks and one cooks slower than the other.  The thermostat must be out of whack, or maybe I had the crock over stuffed.  Not sure.  Either way, it turned out great! 
• Joe sometimes adds rice to his portion or even some cooked ground sausage. 
• We enjoy this soup served with grilled cheese sandwiches or quesadillas. 

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week of October 31st

I'm having a difficult time believing that today is Halloween.  Not only did the month of October fly by so quickly, it also turned very cold and snowy!  Making it feel like it's Christmas instead of Halloween.  I have a feeling we are in for a very long and cold winter. 

Plans to visit the pumpkin patch with Joe's family were canceled due to weather damage to their fall fest attractions.  While I'm sad that our plans were ruined, I feel for the local businesses that lost income this weekend. 

Since we stayed in for the weekend, I did some home cooking.  We ate a lot of leftovers during the week, causing me to fall behind on my menu plan.  The two days at home allowed me to catch up...a little bit anyway.  I never do seem to get to all the meals I plan in a week. 

On Saturday, I made a wonderful tortilla soup inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe I saw online.  We enjoyed this for lunch on Saturday and Sunday along with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Instead of homemade rotisserie chicken and hashbrown casserole (that will carry over to this week), I decided to make Chicken 'n' Dumplings for Sunday dinner.  Even though we just had this a couple of weeks ago, I think it was a good choice for the cold weather that arrived too early. 

After dinner, Joe carved our first jack-o'-lantern!  Of course, since we're pretty obsessed with Sesame Street around here, we had to go with the Elmo stencil that came with the carving kit we picked up earlier this month.  The photo isn't great, and you can see the glow sticks that we used to light it.  There's a tea-light candle in the bottom, but we chose to use the glow sticks so Grace could safely enjoy her "Melmo Punkin" in the house. 

This week, I'm hoping to take advantage of a few local sales and stock up on some meat.  We have a new super-market that is celebrating their grand-opening with some great prices.  Since I don't know what day we'll be able to get out grocery shopping, I don't want to plan this week's menu around those purchases.  Instead, I'll rely on items we already have in the fridge, freezer and pantry. 

Here are some of the things we'll be enjoying this week: 

• Tuna Noodle Casserole.  We have most of the ingredients for this frugal dish.  We're all out of frozen peas, though, so that's the only thing Joe will have to pick up this week for this dinner.  Since Joe stops for milk at our usual grocery store a couple times a week, it won't be a big deal to grab a bag of frozen peas.   

• Crock Pot Minestrone Soup.  Did I mention we had snow this weekend?  I think a nice big crock pot full of soup will be perfect for this week.  I'm going to take a short cut and use a bag of cole slaw in place of the diced cabbage in this recipe.  Giant had the bags of cole slaw mix on sale for 10/$10.  Joe picked up 2 bags!  I forgot to add celery to today's shopping list, so I'll add that to the list with the milk and frozen peas. 

• Rotisserie Chicken, Hashbrown Casserole (just like Cracker Barrel), green beans.  The rotisserie chicken must be made this week!  I'm tired of seeing it popping up in my menu plan every week!  Besides, I'm really in the mood for that Hashbrown Casserole! 

• Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili.  While making room in the freezer for ice cream, I spotted 2 containers of this tucked away in the back.  Woohoo!  This will be the easiest dinner this week.  I'll make some rice and cornbread to go along with this yummy chili! 

• Chicken 'n' Dumpling Vegetable Soup.  I'll add some broth, frozen mixed veggie and rice to the leftover Chicken 'n' Dumplings to stretch those leftovers just a little further.  Super-yummy and super-frugal!  I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of this dish in future menu plans. 

So, that's what we'll be eating this week!  What are your dinner plans for the week? 

Feel free to follow me over to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie, where 100+ bloggers meet every Monday to share recipes and meal planning inspiration. 

Corn Dog Casserole

Hot Dogs and Beans is one of our favorite dinners. It's comfort food. It's a quick and easy dinner to throw together. It can also be a cheap meal to throw together when combining sales and coupons.

When I worked, we ate hot dogs and beans almost once a week.  At that time, we were more concerned with convenience than frugality and didn't bother to wait for a BOGO sale on hot dogs.  We just bought them, usually at full price, whenever we wanted a quick dinner. 

I was also a sucker for those little recipe magazines at the check-outs of the supermarket.  For a while, I was buying several of those little books a month.  I guess that was before I realized that a foodie could find a recipe for almost anything on the internet!  It was definitely before Pinterest! 

The recipe I am sharing today, I first found in one of those little magazines.  It's a casserole made of hot dogs and beans, topped with a layer of cornbread.  Mmmm! 

I make it a little different each time I prepare it, depending on the beans I have in the freezer or pantry.  Here's how I made it this week: 

Corn Dog Casserole

Ingredients: 

• 2 cans (16 oz. each) Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans
• 1 can (15.5 oz) Butter Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 Tbs. dried minced onion
• 2 Tbs. brown sugar
• Ketchup & Mustard (squirt or two of each)
• 1 package mini hot dogs
• 1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, prepared as directed on package

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• In a large sauce pan over medium heat, stir together the beans, dry onion, brown sugar, ketchup and mustard. 
• Mix until well combined.
• Add hot dogs.
• Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly.
• Transfer to an un-greased 9x9 casserole dish.
• Spread the prepared corn muffin batter evenly over the top of the bean mixture.
• Pop the dish into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Notes:

• You can easily use your favorite homemade baked beans in place of the canned beans in this recipe.  I usually use 6 cups of Our Favorite Baked Beans, but was out of them when I prepared this meal this week. 
• Raw onion also works well in this recipe.  I was in a hurry tonight and didn't feel like dealing with chopping a raw onion, so I used the minced onion from the spice rack in our pantry. 
• I don't always have the mini hot dogs on hand.  I find that regular hot dogs go on sale more often, so that's what I usually use.  Today, I used the mini hot dogs that were in the freezer, but when I don't have them, I simply slice regular hot dogs into bite sized pieces and add them to the bean mixture. 
• This recipe just fits into my 9x9 baking dish.  To avoid a mess in the bottom of the oven if it bubbles over, I placed my baking dish on top of a cookie sheet before popping it into the oven.  My oven is messy enough, I don't want burnt baked beans added to it!  :)

Mmmm!  (I think I already said that!) 

I'll be linking this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties: 

• Sundae Scoop at I{heart} Nap Time
• Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party!
• Tuesday Time Out Party! at Reasons to Skip the Housework
• Tasty Tuesdays at 33 Shades of Green
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, I took Grace to Sesame Place to celebrate their Halloween Spooktacular!  Since I knew that all of the characters would be wearing Halloween costumes, I decided to dress Grace in her little witch outfit. 

I snapped a few pictures of her that morning before we left for Sesame.  She enjoys playing out front and uses the front step as a stage.

Grace has really been enjoying all of the fun Halloween and Fall Harvest festivities.  She loves pumpkins, hay rides, and playing in the leaves.  She loves candy corn, making ghost noises and dressing up in costumes.  Can you believe she wore that hat the entire day?! 

We'll be continuing with our fall fun this weekend.  Hopefully, I'll get a bunch more photos to share with you next week.  But in meantime, I wanted to be sure to wish you all a Happy Halloween!


I'm linking this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Something Spooky 
• Photo Friday 
• Halloween Fun

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween at Sesame Place 2011

Grace loves Sesame Street.  She is now fully obsessed with the show and will watch it all day long if only I would let her! 
In fact, she is so obsessed, that the words "Sesame Street" are often the first thing she says in the morning. 

I guess it could be worse, it could be that show about  the guy that lives in a pineapple under the sea...

Last weekend, I wanted to get one more visit to Sesame Place in before my season pass expires and the park closes for the season at the end of the month. 

Grace didn't object! 

Here are some photos of the Neighborhood Street Party Parade.  Since this month was The Count's Halloween Spooktacular at Sesame Place, all of the floats were decorated for fall and the characters were dressed in Halloween Costumes! 

Since this month was The Count's Halloween Spooktacular at Sesame Place, all of the floats were decorated for fall and the characters were dressed in Halloween Costumes!  It was really a lot of fun! 

I'll be linking this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties: 

• Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
• Wordless Wednesday at Wordless Wednesday
• Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer
• Wordful Wednesday at Parenting By Dummies
• Halloween Fun at It's A Blog Party! 

 

Hashbrown Casserole

I cannot believe I haven't shared this recipe with y'all yet!  Especially, since we loved it so much when we made it for brunch last Christmas! 

Those of you that know me personally, know that I love potatoes!  I really love potatoes.  Cracker Barrel's Hashbrown Casserole is no exception!  It's one of my favorites.  So much so, that I am sure to order it no matter what time of day we are there! 

Since we're not real close to a Cracker Barrel, we don't have the opportunity to enjoy their menu as often as I would like.  Last year, while chatting with my friend Lisa about our Christmas menus, we both decided we wanted to find a copycat recipe for Hashbrown Casserole. 

As we both searched, we were getting a little discouraged.  We kept finding recipes that used some "cream of" soup and we knew that just couldn't be right.  Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of adding those condensed soups to recipes.  But that wasn't the flavor either of us were going for in our casseroles. 

At the end of our search, we both emailed the recipe that I'm sharing with you today to each other.  Great minds, right?  (Sorry, I don't have the link to the original recipe.)

Hashbrown Casserole

Ingredients:

• 26 oz. bag country-style hashbrowns
• 2 cups Colby-Jack Cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup onion, minced
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup beef stock or canned broth
• 2 Tbs. butter, melted
• dash garlic powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine hashbrowns, cheese, and onions. 
• Combine, in a separate bowl, the milk, broth, 1/2 of the butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mix well, then pour over the hashbrown/cheese mixture and mix well. 
• Heat the remaining butter in a skillet. 
• When the skillet is hot, spoon in the potato mixture. 
• Cook hashbrowns, stirring occasionally, until heated through and all cheese is melted.  (about 7 minutes)
• Transfer to a baking dish and put in the oven to bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

On Christmas morning, Joe and I made up two batches of the recipe only making one change.  We used Colby-Jack Cheese instead of the suggested Colby Cheese, since that's what we were able to get our hands on.  When we made a third batch a few days later, we again followed the recipe with our one simple change. 

I'm really surprised that this hasn't been a part of our menu plan since the holidays.  I'm including it in this week's menu plan and I'm sure we'll be serving this for our Christmas Brunch again this year!


I'm linking this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties: 

• Delicious Dishes  
• Made From Scratch Tuesday 
• Slightly Indulgent Tuesday 
• Making a Home 
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday 
• Tasty Tuesdays 
• Let's Do Brunch
• Your Whims Wednesday
• What's Cooking Wednesday
• Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday
• Ultimate Recipe Swap
• Turning the Table Thursday

 

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week of October 24th

I'm very late in getting this week's Menu Plan Monday post up today. We had a wondefully busy weekend and it's taking me a bit longer to get my butt in gear this Monday morning!  I did manage to get a few things done so far today:  the usual diaper change, sippy cup, breakfast routine with Grace, I fed the dog, worked on a recipe post and balanced the check book!  (That last one, has me very tired!)

As soon as I hit publish on last week's Menu Plan Monday post, I realized that I forgot to include the leftovers from the week before.  We began the week with those leftovers so that nothing would go to waste.  As a result, we have 2 meals that we'll be carrying over into this week.  I just can't seem to get to making that Oven Fried Chicken Fingers.  I really need to make it a point to make that this week.

• Potato Soup.  I should have included this in last week's plan, since I have a bag of potatoes that need to be cooked.  I've been looking for a new recipe to try, so I haven't decided how I'm going to prepare this yet. 

• Corn Dog Casserole.  I really wanted to get around to this recipe last week, but other things needed to be prepared first.  I will definitely be making this one night this week!  I'll either use canned beans or throw together a batch of our favortie baked beans. 

Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers

• Oven Fried Chicken Fingers, mashed potatoes, creamed corn.  This meal is a must for this week!  I have frozen chicken that really needs to get cooked.  I don't know why I keep skipping this the past few weeks, it's really easy.  Especially, since we all eat this.  I don't have to make something different for Grace.  This WILL make it to the table this week! 

Corn Quesadillas

• Tortilla Soup with Black Beans, Quesadillas.  Sunday night, on our Facebook Page, I asked our readers what they were making for Sunday dinner.  All 4 of the people that responded were eating Mexican food!  Tacos, Enchiladas, Spanish Rice!  It made me wish we planned a Mexican meal for Sunday dinner instead of the leftover Sweet 'n' Sour Meatballs! 

Hash Brown Casserole

• Rotisserie Chicken, Hash Brown Casserole, Veggies.  I have a whole chicken in the freezer that needs to be used in order to make room for turkeys.  I'm thinking I want at least 3 turkeys for this winter.  Maybe 4.  Grace likes turkey just as much as she likes chicken!  I'll cook the whole chicken in our Ronco Rotisserie. 

• Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches, Oven Fries, Raw Veggies w/Dip.  This is one of our favorite "junk food" type dinners.  With all of the Halloween Festivities taking place during this upcoming weekend, I'm thinking this will be the perfect quick, but hot meal to serve!

• Leftovers!  I'm sure at some point this week, we'll be eating some leftovers.  I wouldn't be surprised to see one or more of the meals listed above being bumped to allow for an easy, no-cooking night of leftovers!  But that's okay, whatever doesn't make it to this week's line-up will be carried over to next week! 

So, now you know what we'll be eating this week.  Share in the comments what your plan is for the week!  Or, follow me over to Menu Plan Monday for more recipes and menu planning inspiration! 



 

Chicken 'n' Dumplings OR Making the Most Out of Leftovers

I know I've told you all a million times how much Grace loves chicken, but just in case you forgot, or maybe you are new around here, I'll tell you again!  Grace LOVES chicken!  She eats it almost every night for dinner.  While Joe and I also like chicken, we do enjoy a little more variety to our meals. 

This is not a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
I made this one in our Ronco Rotisserie during the summer. 

Last winter, I prepared a whole chicken in the crock pot several times a month in order to have chicken on hand for Grace's meals.  Over the summer, I got lazy.  I still made a few whole chickens both in the crock pot and our Ronco Rotisserie, just not as often.  So, I resorted to store-bought rotisserie chickens to make meal time a little easier. 

As with anything, the convenience of the pre-made chicken is more costly than if I did it myself at home.  Sometimes, it's just worth it. 

And, just like when I make the chicken at home, I save the frame to make homemade stock.  We even use the drippings at the bottom of the take-out container!  Remmy enjoys that poured over her dry dogfood! 

Last week, I had 2 meaty chicken carcasses in the fridge.  It was time to use them or freeze them.  Since I was lacking room in my freezer, I figured I had better toss them into the crock pot with some water.  I let them simmer on low overnight.  The result was a very simple, homemade chicken stock.

The next morning, I strained the stock into a large bowl and picked the meat from the bones.  I set them aside while I tried to figure out what I was going to make with it.  I was having a difficult time making a choice since there are so many options for leftover chicken:  Chicken a la King (in the crock pot!), Chicken Stew, Chicken Rice Soup, Chicken Corn Chowder, casseroles.  So many options!!! 

After talking to my friend Lisa, about what to make for dinner.  I decided to make Chicken 'n' Dumplings for the first time.  Although, it's one of Joe's favorite meals, I've never made it.  All these years, the poor guy had to buy it in a can or order it at the diner! 

Lisa, emailed me one of her old favorite recipes for Chicken 'n' Dumplings.  The one she used before she and her family started following a Gluten Free diet.  (Check out her blog if you are in need of Gluten Free recipes for yourself or your family.) Lisa told me that this recipe was not only a family favorite, but one of the most frugal meals shes ever prepared.  Since I already splurged on the cost of convenience, this frugal recipe was right up my alley! 

So, this is what I did (per Lisa's instructions):

I poured all of the homemade broth into my dutch oven (my favorite for making soups, stews and chili...you can use a soup pot if you like), it was about 8-9 cups of broth.  Lisa told me to add 4 chicken bouillon cubes and pepper (I used 1 tsp. pepper) to the broth, so I did.  Then I allowed it to simmer on the stove while I mixed together the dumplings (ingredients to follow).

Once the broth was at a full simmer (not boiling), I added the chicken that I removed from the chicken carcass earlier that day.  When that was heated through, I started adding in my dumplings, allowing them to float on top.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. 

Here's what she told me I would need for the dumplings: 

• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. sugar

See how this is such a frugal meal?  This recipe calls for ingredients that most of us already have in our pantries!   

I forgot to take a photo of the Chicken 'n' Dumplings before we ate, but honestly, it's not a nice looking dish!  I did, however, take a picture of the next meal that I made with the leftover Chicken 'n' Dumplings....Chicken 'n' Dumpling Vegetable Soup. 

I was inspired by this blurb to turn the leftover bowl of Chicken 'n' Dumplings into a soup. 

Chicken 'n' Dumpling Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups of leftover Chicken 'n' Dumplings
• 32 oz. 99% fat free chicken broth (or homemade)
• 12-16 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
• 12 oz. frozen rice (or leftover cooked rice)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Pour leftovers into a soup pot, removing the dumplings.
• Dice dumplings into smaller, bite-sized pieces then add to the pot.
• Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. 
• Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Notes:

• Joe bought a few bags of frozen rice when they were on sale at the grocery store.  I had no idea how I would use them since one bag isn't really enough for us for a meal.  But it seemed to costly to make more than one bag of this convenient, frozen rice.  Well, one bag was the perfect size to throw into this soup!  Leftover rice would work well, too.  But we rarely have leftover rice.  We really like rice! 

I'll be including both of these leftover chicken options to our menu plans this winter.  I love the budget-friendly aspect of both of these meals.  Aside from the rotisserie chickens and that carton of broth I added to the leftover Chicken 'n' Dumplings, I had of the ingredients in my pantry and freezer!

Thank you, Lisa, for talking me into making this super-easy and super-cheap recipe!  And thanks for asnwering my many, many questions I asked during the process of preparing my dinner! 

I'll be linking this post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Frugal Friday
• Food on Fridays
• I'm Lovin' It
• Show and Tell Friday!

Menu Plan Monday ~ Week of October 17th

I strayed from last week's menu a bit. I only prepared two of the five meals that I planned for last week.  Mainly, because I was really in the mood for soup! 

In addition to the Hamburger Soup (from the freezer) that was already in the plan, I made some Chicken 'n' Dumplings (for the first time ever!) and threw together a pot of Chicken Corn Chowder.  Both of those meals used ingredients that I already had on hand. 

• I used 2 chicken carcasses from the freezer to make homemade chicken stock for the Chicken 'n' Dumplings.  There was also enough meat on the chicken frames to use for the meal! 
• I also had some leftover chicken in the freezer from the last time I made Greek Chicken.  I used thatfor the Chicken Corn Chowder! 

I love being able to create new meals out of leftover chicken! 

Out of the three meals we missed last week, I'll be carrying two of them over into this week's menu plan.  I'm going for an easy menu, since I've got a lot of housework to catch up on this week.  Grace has this place a mess! 

So, here's my easy menu plan for this week: 

• Beef Stew.  I intended to use the beef cubes last week in our favorite Pepper Steak recipe, but I'll use them for stew instead.  I have a lot of potatoes and carrots that need to be used up or made into veggie broth, but I don't have room in the freezer for the broth....so, stew it is! I love this easy recipe, it can be made in either the oven or the crock pot! 

• Corn Dog Casserole.  I found a bag of those mini hot dogs in my freezer and figured it's a good time to make a Corn Dog Casserole.  This is such an easy, filling dinner.  We usually get two nights from one casserole, especially if I make some baked potatoes or tater tots to go along with it. 

• Sweet 'n' Sour Meatballs.  This has been on our menu plan several times recently, yet for one reason or another, we never get to it.  I'm determined to use that bag of meatballs that's taking up space in my freezer.  I'm want to get my hands on some free or cheap turkeys in the next couple of months!  Those meatballs need to go!  I just can't decide which way to make them...with cranberry sauce or with grape jelly.  I use the slow cooker for both of these recipes, so they are both really easy!   

• Breakfast for Dinner.  Bacon, eggs, fried potatoes.  We didn't end up with breakfast for dinner last week.  I decided on eggs this week, instead of our usual pancakes or waffles.  I just haven't decided if I want to make this into an omelet or make everything separate.  I'll be using the turkey bacon we picked up on sale last week. 

•  Oven-Fried Chicken Cutlets with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.  This was another one of the dinners we didn't get to last week.  I kept forgetting to take the chicken out of the freezer.  Every time I went down stairs to get it, I would get side-tracked by throwing in a load of laundry or bringing up a basket of already folded clothes, etc. and each time, I would come back upstairs WITHOUT the chicken I went to the basement for in the first place!  I'm so absent-minded lately! 

• Leftovers, Leftovers, Leftovers.  I don't plan on freezing any leftovers this week.  So, we'll eat these meals until they are finished.  That'll give me a couple of extra-easy nights this week!  Gotta love leftovers! 

So, now that you know what we'll be eating this week, share your dinner plans for this week in the comments!  Or, follow me over to I'm an Organizing Junkie to find more recipes and dinner planning inspiration on Menu Plan Monday! 

 

Chicken Corn Chowder

I've been in the mood for Chicken Corn Chowder for a few months now, but I've been waiting for the perfect weather for it. Although, I love soups and chowders all year long, there's nothing like a hot bowl of chowder on a damp and stormy day!  Like today. 
This morning started out humid and sticky, then sometime after lunch, the storm clouds rolled in.  After a good, soaking rain (not that we really need it) the humidity left and now it's brisk and chilly!  A perfect fall evening to go with our super-easy and super-yummy dinner! 

Now, normally, I would have followed some sort of recipe for Chicken Corn Chowder.  But today, I decided to just throw a bunch of stuff into my dutch oven.  You really can't go wrong with corn chowder. 

Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 3 slices turkey bacon, diced
• 32 oz. Chicken Broth
• 3/4 bag frozen corn (from 32 oz. bag)
• 1/2 bag frozen Potatoes O'Brien (from 32 oz. bag)
• 12 oz. cooked chicken, diced
• pepper, to taste
• 2 cans creamed corn, optional

Directions:

• In a large pot or dutch oven, cook diced bacon until done.  (2-3 minutes)
• Remove bacon from the pot, drain grease if needed. 
• Add chicken broth to the pot, scraping the browned bits from the bottom and sides of the pot. 
• Then add in the frozen corn and potatoes. 
• Bring to boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer until frozen vegetables are tender. (20 mintues) 
• Add diced chicken, allow to cook until heated through.  (5-10 minutes)
• Season with black pepper to taste. 
• If desired, add the creamed corn.  Stir well.  And simmer until heated through.  (10 minutes)

Notes: 

• Measurements and cooking times are approximate.  I was on the phone with my mom the entire time that I threw this together so I wasn't paying much attention to the clock.  We were on the phone for an hour and at some point during that time, the soup looked done and I turned off the stove, put the lid on the dutch oven and allowed it to sit until dinner time.  I would guess that it took about 30-45 minutes to make. 
• This soup would be good with or without the creamed corn added.  But I really wanted more of a chowder than a soup.  Normally, I would have used my stick blender to chop/blend some of the corn and veggies and then I would have added a slurry of milk and flour.  Since we have an abundance of creamed corn in my pantry(10 or more cans), it just made sense to take the short cut and pour two cans into the soup! 

Like I said...

Super easy.  Super yummy. 

We'll be finishing up the leftovers this weekend!