Margaret asks...

so what's in the crock pot?

See, I do read my comments!! In Margaret's (of the French Bear blog) comment; she asked, "what's in the crock pot?". Well I was feeling immensely organized & energized this morning, so I thought I'd put together a dish in the crock pot for lunch. Aren't crock pots the best thing since sliced bread? There is just a teensy comfort-factor, knowing that tis only 8:00 in the morning and lunch is already fixed...totally makes me feel like Betty Crocker or even maybe Martha Stewart! No not really... just love the fact that I can sit and stitch to the aroma of lunch cooking, without spending half of the morning in the kitchen.

Today's meal from the crock pot was, Angel Chicken. A recipe taken from the current issue of the Midwest Living Magazine. This issue features the Top Ten slower cooker recipes from all of it's issues. Now how could anyone pass up a headline such as that? Not me, so after thumbing through a few of the pages of it...into the shopping cart it goes.

Did I ever tell you I am the biggest S.U.C.K.E.R. when it comes to grocery shopping? I would surely make a wonderful "lab rat", if you will, for any food product test marketing campaign. I mean, if it is cute, if it is a pretty color, if it is miniature-ized, or even just the word NEW on the bag...it is on it's way into my shoppin' cart.

Let me show you...

See these cute little bottles of water and half-cans of pop...yep, into my cart! Here it was the, "aren't these cute" factor...

See the word NEW...darn it, gets me every time...into my cart!
Oh lordy, that word "mini" next to Reese's is guaranteed to get me...into the cart it goes. I love eating miniature candy bars...totally takes away, some of the guilt, of the fact that you just ate 20 peanut butter cups while checking your email... Darn it, that word "mini" gets me every time.

Into the cart, a bag of these go. Do I like pears, you ask? Not particularly. Just thought they were pretty. Love that color yellow...would like to paint my kitchen this color of yellow some day, with white wood-work trim...
And plus, I thought these pretty little Chinese Ya Pears would take a pretty little picture. You never know when you might need or want a picture of three pears... I've titled this photo, "the three pears". I've Photo-Shopped the title to the side of the photo in French... Why? Do I speak French? No. I should with a name like Gervais... but rather, because I think french writing has a certain romantic flair to it...it's just pretty!
Now honestly, how cute is this little girl...in her sweet little pink peasant-styled dress with her arms loaded with grains? S.U.C.K.E.R for pretty packing...into the cart it goes. Who could resist this darling packaging?? Do I have a recipe in mind for these? No, just liked the packaging... Are you seeing a trend here, folks? *sigh*

I mean, look at these? Aren't these little angel hair pasta nests the cutest things you ever did see??

So where am I going with this post? Let me stop and think... Oh yea, Martha wants to know what was in my crock pot. See those cute little pasta nests? Remember that Midwest Living magazine, the one with the headlines that got me? The one with the Angel Chicken recipe in it...

That's what was in our crock pot! Served upon those "cute little pasta nests". The dish was delicious and I'm renaming it "Chicken upon her Nest"...

It is super delish!

"Chicken upon her Nest"
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (it seems that all of our local chickens seem to be well-endowed as of late ...if you know what I mean, so I cut each breast in half lengthwise...making for a smaller portion)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 8 oz. package fresh button mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup butter
1 - .7 oz envelope of Zesty Italian dry salad dressing mix
Can of mushroom soup
1/2 of an 8 oz. tub of cream cheese spread with chives & onions
1/2 cup white cooking wine
sliced green onions to garnish
(**Note - the recipe also calls for 6 oz. of fresh Shitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced. I chose to omit these. The dear husband doesn't like mushrooms you see...he would have flipped out if he had that many mushrooms to pick out. He refers to them as "boogers"...)

In a large skillet, brown chicken on both sides in hot oil over medium heat. In crock pot cooker, add mushrooms to the bottom and top with browned chicken. In a medium saucepan, melt butter;stir in Italian dressing mix. Stir in mushroom soup, cream cheese, and white wine, until cheese is melted; pour over chicken.
Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 4 hours. Serve chicken and sauce over angel hair pasta. Sprinkle with green onions.

Enjoy,
Brenda