Pots & Plots

I’ve been getting into the crock pot lately. That whole fix it and forget it quality is a wonderful thing. As fall is finally arriving, I’m starting to get in the mood for soup, so I devised this simple tomato soup.

Ingredients:

• 2 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes in juice
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 Tbsps granulated white sugar
• 4 Tbsp beef stock (or in my case, leftover drippings from the pot roast I made last night, also in the crock pot)
• 4 oz. fat free cream cheese, cut into 1/2 ” chunks

Directions:

1. Add both cans of tomatoes, the onion, stock, and sugar to crock pot. Cook on low for 6 hours.
2. Using an immersion blender, carefully break up whatever is left of the tomatoes and blend until smooth.
3. Add the cream cheese and repeat blending process until creamy.
4. Garnish with fresh basil or thyme and a sprinkle of fresh grated parmesean cheese.
5. Fabulous with grilled cheese sandwiches or on it’s own.

The entire pot (which makes about 6 cups of soup, I think) is 705 calories and half a gram of fat. I think it works out to around 117.5 calories per 1 cup serving.

It’s kind of an uninspiring title isn’t it? This dish is an adaptation of my college friend Lauren’s mom’s casserole (yes, called Chicken Loaf), which was always a huge favorite when we went home on weekends. I suppose it’s supposed to be a chicken version of meat loaf? It’s a fantastic dish for all those “well what can I do with that?” ingredients. For example, my mother gave me 4 cans of chicken. Canned chicken is not a staple in our house, and other than a quick chicken salad, there’s not much else I’ve ever done with it. But we needed a quick prep dinner that could cook unattended tonight while we raced the sun to finish mowing the lawn (didn’t make it) before dark. As I also had leftover brown rice, homemade chicken stock, and a huge bag of homemade breadcrumbs in the pantry, this was a perfect fit. It can also be made ahead of time and frozen.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, diced chicken (I used 2 cans of chicken for this recipe, though this is fantastic with leftover rotisserie or roast chicken)
• 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 3 cups broth (reserve 1 for gravy)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (1/2 is intended for gravy, but I missed the small print on the post it note where I had the recipe written and used the whole thing–it didn’t hurt a thing, except that I added another half cup of breadcrumbs)
• 3 eggs well-beaten

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Beat eggs and mix with all wet ingredients.
3. Add chicken and rice. Mix well
4. Add breadcrumbs. Mix well. It will be kind of soupy.
5. Pour into a 2 quart casserole dish or 9×13 pan for 45-50 minutes.

Variations:

In the past I have added some other veggies to this casserole, primarily diced crimini mushrooms, but you could take a sort of tuna casserole approach and add diced celery, peas, carrots, and/or scallions if you wanted to get your veggies in one dish. I tend to prefer this as is, with a side veggie like green beans. You might also add 1/2 cup of low fat sour cream for a richer flavor.