Sunrise Chicken

I got a new crockpot recipe book for Christmas that is so fun! I love cooking in my crockpot, and I found this recipe book that has all kinds of simple recipes that use the stuff I already have in my cupboards. Nothing too fancy. I've been trying all kinds of new things that I wouldn't have even thought of making and surprisingly the family likes them too! I'll share what I made yesterday because it's seriously the EASIEST thing I've ever made in a crockpot.

Sunrise Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of barbecue sauce
1 cup of orange juice

Dump ingredients into crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.

I used a mesquite barbecue sauce and it made a very mild barbecue chicken that wasn't real sweet. I cut the chicken into thirds once it was cooked and served it with baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes.

I haven't been able to fully convert all the kids to sweet potatoes yet, so I have to do a mix of normal potatoes and sweet potatoes. I just bake them all in the same dish in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Tomato Vegetable Soup

This is a great crockpot soup. I threw everything into the crockpot in the morning and it was ready in the evening. :)  My crockpot is a 6 qt, so this recipe fits in quite nicely. If you have a smaller crockpot you will need to scale down the amounts of everything.

Tomato Vegetable Soup

1 qt. tomatoes

6 potatoes

1 onion

3 cloves garlic, pressed

3-4 carrots

corn

1/4 tsp. celery salt

3 tsp. beef boullion

1 tsp. salt (taste at end)

1 Tbsp. Seasonall

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/4 tsp. black pepper

meat, precooked (hamburger or stew meat)

1/4 c. pearled barley

parsley flakes (at end)

spaghetti noodles (at end)

canned tomato soup (at end)

I use 1 qt of home bottled tomatoes and I blend them until they are smooth. Then I dump them in the crockpot. Chop up the potatoes, carrots, and onion and add to the tomatoes. Press 3 garlic cloves and add to soup. Then add the pearled barley and all the seasonings. Cook your meat and add. Once you have all of this in your crockpot, fill the rest of the crockpot with water until it is about 2 inches from the top. Let it cook on high for 4-6 hours. About 20 minutes before you eat the soup, add 1-2 cans of canned tomato soup, parsley flakes, and whatever noodles you like. If you use spaghetti noodles, break them into 1 inch pieces.

What I did differently:
This time I added fresh thyme, oregano, and chopped spinach. It was really good! I also didn't use meat in my soup. I prefer it without. I just add a little extra boullion. :) Also, sometimes I use lentils instead of the pearled barley. I just add the lentils in at the beginning and they have plenty of time to cook if you leave it cooking all day.

My kids used to not like this soup. Once I started grinding up the tomatoes so there were no tomato chunks they started eating it really well. I made enough soup so we could have it for 2 meals and the 2nd day we had it with cheese bread. The bread was a nice addition and made it like a new meal all over again. To make the bread, I simply sliced medium cheddar cheese, placed it on slices of bread, and put it in the oven under the broiler until it was melted.