I’ve been wanting to create a few recipes lately that are something different than my usual crockpot fare- chili, pulled pork, pot roast. And I’ve had this awesome jar of Hatch Green Chile Salsa (straight from Texas) sitting on my shelf for sooo long. This particular stuff was sent to me via Foodie PenPals that I had fun participating in last fall. It’s about time I put it to good use.
The following Mexican Crockpot Stew is delicious. I’m not really surprised about that as I love all the ingredients and they all do well when cooked low and slow in the pot. But do you know what I am surprised about? Gracie Jane LOVES this stew. Like inhales every last morsel. And did I mention the kid is addicted to olives now?? Green, black, greek, garlic stuffed, gorgonzola stuffed- she loves them all. I love olives too, but seriously? She loves seaweed, olives and Mexican Stew but she won’t eat bananas?
Moving on…
Ingredients:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts- left whole (mine were straight out of the freezer- still frozen)
1 green bell pepper, cut in a 1/2 inch dice
1 russet potato, cut in a 1/2 inch dice
1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 large shallot
1 container of fresh pico de gallo style salsa or any fresh salsa you like (mine was from Whole Foods and contained cilantro)
1 cup water
1/4 cream/milk/half and half
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flake
1/2 cup of Green Chile Salsa (doesn’t have to be the same as mine- just look for a fresh green chile salsa from your local grocery store. I’m positive Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s carries different versions, and many major grocery chains carry a similar option as well.)
salt and pepper to taste
In the bottom of your crock pot, stir together the salsa, water, cream, diced veggies, red pepper flake, salt and pepper. Add the frozen chicken right on top and spoon some liquid over the frozen meat.
Sprinkle top of meat with a little extra salt and pepper then spoon the green salsa over the top of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for seven hours. Half hour before stew is done, shred chicken (while still in crock pot) with the prongs of two forks. Cover and let cook a few more minutes so chicken shreds are juicy and delicious.
We had our stew served over a bed of rice. I tried the Japanese, short grain sticky rice (sushi rice) from Whole Foods and it was PERFECT. Seriously- I’m a major rice snob and have never in my life come across “perfect” rice outside of the rice that comes out of my parents Japanese rice cooker. Until now! I’m so excited. It cooked in 15 minutes on the stove and was super easy.
I still can’t believe my tiny peanut ate an entire bowl of Mexican Stew- her sister, Lilly, would have no part of this dinner. Definitely try this one with your kids! It’s certainly a healthy, wholesome meal that would be great to serve to kids.
That is all, folks.
More recipes are coming this week. If you are looking for more kids meal inspiration don’t forget to click to download my free cookbook- Munchies for Munchkins!
xo
J
Other recipes you might enjoy:
Kale and Sausage Pasta With Simple Red Sauce
Kale and White Bean With Parmesan Crostini
Shaved Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Pizza
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If you’d be so kind as to switch gears for just a moment…
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately. With my girls’ birthdays’ passing last week and next week, I’m left remember their baby moments, all the little memories we build with each day that passes us by. Some evenings (like last night), I’m home alone, feeling reflective, and feeling mostly grateful for my IG feed- those little moodified, filtered, moments that some know I’m obsessed with capturing. I love flipping through these tiny squares to see all of our little memories. The good moments, happy times, funny things, silly faces, special weather, interesting food, cute and smiley faces. A whole collection of instances that I can look back on forever. One of my favorite ways to look back at the months and weeks and days:
I put these together using an app called “Diptic”. I know there are a few different collage apps out there (picstitch comes to mind) but I like this one. They recently updated the app to make creating multi celled collages much easier. But I love it. And love seeing all of our special “little” moments all grouped together in one little cube. One day these will be printed and mounted in a beautiful wall display. But that is a project for another time.
Here’s an old one I did pre-app update. It’s a little bit different and deals with the IG borders differently but I like it just as much:
Here’s your weekend challenge: make a collage of your favorite winter, family, IG moments using Diptic or your favorite collage app. Share it with me by following @sweetersidemom on Instagram and using the hashtag #sweetersidecollage.
Have a great weekend!
J
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