Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I’ve been all about soups lately. Besides it just being cold outside, I have night classes three days a week and need easy things I can grab and go before 5 or 6PM. Mondays I have class from 5-8, Tuesdays from 6-8, and Wednesdays from 6-9. I hate eating late, so eating before class is definitely the best thing for me to do. But.. to do this, I need something I can make QUICK.

Crockpots work well for this quick kind of cooking I’m looking for. Though it does take all day for the meal to cook, when it’s time for me to eat, I can eat quick. I can wake up early in the morning, throw everything in the pot, turn it on, go about my day, and come home to a house smelling delicious and dinner hot and ready. It’s like having a personal cook.

Except I’m the one doing the cooking.

This chicken tortilla soup was packed with flavor. It was great the first day, but even better the second.

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 cans Ro-tel
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups frozen corn
1 onion, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp chile powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried cilantro
96 tortilla chips
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

1. In a crockpot combine the chicken, Ro-tel, beans, corn, onion, chicken broth, water, and spices.  Cook on low for 8-9 hours.

2. Serve the soup with 12 chips and 1 tbsp of sour cream.

* serves 8
* 346 calories per serving
* This recipe is being shared with Souper Sunday at Kahakai Kitchen.

Slow Cooked Hoisin Pork

I love my slow cooker, but for some reason I don’t give it much use. This doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, because given the fact that I am considerably busy with school and work and just life in general, the slow cooker would make sure that I had dinner at a reasonable hour without having to rush home from working and going to school to make sure I have time to eat before running to my night class again.

Whenever I use the slow cooker I get the same thoughts, but just as fast as I think it the slow cooker makes its way to the back of the closet where it sleeps until I beckon it again.

This dinner was absolutely delicious. I had this chunk of pork that I had cut into two pieces. Unfortunately the first chunk just turned into a huge fail with another dish I made a few nights before.

Using the slow cooker was definitely the way to make sure this pork was cooked to perfection!

I am only going to share the pork recipe in this post. I served it with white rice and a peanut cabbage slaw. The slaw wasn’t something I’d make again, so it’s not worth sharing.

Slow Cooked Hoisin Pork

Ingredients
3 lbs pork, trimmed of thick fat
Salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 piece of ginger about 2 1/2 inches long, peeled and grated
about 7 1/2 oz hoisin sauce

Directions

 1. Rub the trimmed pork with salt and pepper. Put it in the slow cooker. Add the garlic, tucking the cloves around the pork. Put the grated ginger in the slow cooker. Pour the hoisin sauce over everything. Cook on low for 10 hours.

2. When the 10 hours has passed, with two forks shred the pork and make sure to mix the sauce around.

* serves about 6 – this kind of depends on what sized servings you get
* no calories calculations on this one due to my uncertainty regarding amount of servings