Slow Cooker Creamy Vegetable Soup

A little bit of prep work and into the slow cooker and you'll have a great meatless meal on a chilly night!

As a child, I pretty much hated vegetable soup. Not because of the vegetables, but because we ate canned soup and the vegetable soup is tomato-based. It seems a bit odd given how much I love anything tomato-based, but it was just too tomato-ey. If you know, you know. I thought I'd try this recipe because it's pretty similar to potato soup but just loaded up with some extra stuff. It turned out really well and was super delicious. Highly recommend.

Italian Vegetable Soup

This hearty soup is full of vegetables and a little bit of Italian sausage.

This vegetable soup reminds me a lot of minestrone soup but I do like it because yes to all the veggies! I love the straight up crazy amount of vegetables in the soup. I do like that it has a little bit of meat in it and that it's a tomato-y broth with Italian seasonings. I mean honestly I can't ask for anything more. As a kid, I hated the canned vegetable soups, so it's nice to find something so great.

Cheesy Sausage Foil Packets

The perfect way to celebrate summer - by grilling fresh veggies with sausage!

I know what you may be thinking...where is the foil packet in my picture?! Well, I had a good foil packet picture in addition to the plated picture, but then *poof* I lost a ton of pictures when my computer crashed thanks to an operating system update. At some point, I will make this during the summer and get a foil packet picture. Regardless, it is such a GREAT one packet meal to throw on the grill and go. I find that I think some of the other bloggers may be cheating a little and broiling or searing some of their foil packets because I don't know how else you can get those crisp parts on things like the sausage or potatoes. So I threw my packets under the broiler (opened up) after grilling to get a little crunch! :)

Green Bean Casserole Shepherd's Pie

A perfect marriage of two classic comfort foods

I remember when I found this recipe how ridiculously excited I was. I love shepherd's pie and don't make it nearly enough and green bean casserole really only appears a few times a year at big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Why is that? It's much too good to only be made that few times a year. I was a little weary of using instant potatoes because I've never been a huge fan of them (unless my mother-in-law makes them and works her magic to make them taste real), but I was surprised at the flavor of the garlic mashed potatoes. If I'm being honest, I'd still rather make real mashed potatoes to go on this, but in a pinch, I don't mind these instant potatoes.

Chicken Tetrazzini

This classic comfort meal is switched up with some green beans in the mix!

I know it's totally the wrong way to make tetrazzini, but I don't make mine with mushrooms. If you want it the right way, you can sweat the mushrooms with the shallots. I don't hate mushrooms - I just don't go out of my way to eat them, especially not in large pieces. This tetrazzini is also a little different because it has green beans mixed in...which I actually love. No need to worry about making a side, the veggie is already in the dish!

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Savory chicken pot pie in soup form - all the comfort of pot pie without the crust!

I do not like pot pie. Really, I don't like the pie crust of any pie...sweet or savory. Pie crust is gross. However, everybody else in the family likes pot pie and I don't want to be the one person who dictates what food we do and don't have based on what I like and dislike. I was raised to eat what was on the dinner table and not complain about it. In fact, for years my mom-in-law had no idea I hated chicken and dumplings because I always ate it when she fixed it and thanked her for dinner. Anyone else do that? Am I a weirdo? LOL

I have been very open to trying different recipes because I actually have come to like lots of new foods this way. For example, I never ate alfredo (or rather liked it) before I made it homemade. I hated Philly Cheesesteaks as a kid...now I love them so much! I thought that this soup sounded delicious because it took away the nasty pie crust part of pot pie...and I was so right! It is a delicious soup. It's definitely perfect for a busy day's dinner and it's still got all the comforting goodness of a pot pie! Nick and the kids also really loved it because it does still have that pot pie taste to it.

Crockpot Chicken, Potatoes, and Green Beans

 All you'll need for dinner goes into the crockpot and you are set!

Dinner does not have to be complicated to be delicious. It also does not have to be time-consuming. Typically, I love crockpot meals for those two reasons. They aren't always simple, but the recipes that are...give.me.life. This recipe has four parts: chicken, potatoes, green beans, and the seasoning to top the other three parts. Not complicated at all, right?! The chicken turns out so tender and juicy and you have both sides to serve up with it ready at the same time with no additional effort needed!

Chinese Green Beans with Ground Turkey over Rice

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Crockpot Creamy Chicken & Green Bean Casserole

I have made quite a few dishes with quinoa over the last year or so. It's quickly become a family favorite. We've even subbed it out when rice or pasta is called for because we love it so much. I jumped the gun when I found a crockpot quinoa recipe. I adapted it slightly because we had poor broccoli supply at the store at the time I wanted to make it and I wanted to make it extra cheesy with not only pepperjack but some smokey gouda cheese too! And I totally cheat and use the real bacon bits instead of frying up bacon because let's be honest - it's super messy!

The Best Beef Stew

As a child, I grew up on a canned beef stew...and absolutely hated it. I mean, I'm sure y'all know what I'm talking about. You open up the can...is it dog food? Cause it sure smells like it!

For years, I shied away from trying to make it on my own. I've tried a few recipes here and there, but wasn't incredibly impressed or anything. I had decided it was time to try again and figured it was best to bank on a recipe called "The Best Beef Stew" and I was not disappointed.

It's pretty quick to put together and it slow cooks either on the stove or in the crockpot, so all the flavors meld together. You best believe it's even better the next day!

One Pot Pork Chops & Gravy

One pot meals are just the bee's knees!
That's still cool to say, right? It's making a comeback, yes?

I have posted One Pot Spaghetti [very popular post according to you readers!] and One Pot Cheeseburger Casserole already. They were both delicious and I love the fact that they are one pot dishes. There can never be enough recipes that only dirty ONE pot. I mean that is just perfection for someone who hates doing dishes like me!

I'm typically not a huge gravy fan. I will really only eat my grandma's chipped beef gravy...but this gravy is so good! And the green beans are also completely perfect with it. Tammy (the blogger who I got this recipe from) also had mushrooms in the dish, but we left that out, as none of us will really eat mushrooms.

Gouda & Green Bean Crescent Rolls

I don't know about y'all, but life has been busy and when life is busy, it's nice to have a really simple dinner. It really doesn't get much easier than spaghetti either. What's even better is discovering a recipe like this one to make a quick side dish that is super yummy.

Spicy Hawaiian Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of my absolute favorite things in the whole world to eat. I never really thought of doing any variations of it, but I ADORED PDub's version of pineapple fried rice and decided I should come up with a Hawaiian version of fried rice. And for added measure, add a little heat to it!

Oven Roasted Green Beans

The first time I made these, my husband was sick with the flu, but he tried them anyways. He immediately fell in love. He begs me all the time to make them, so they are a regular on our plates. They are super simple and super SUPER addictive. I'm surprised that any actually make it onto our plates because I'll pick them from the baking sheet and shove them straight into my mouth :)

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans and Potatoes

I have seen this on Pinterest over and over again. I pinned it and then forgot about it. I've been trying to meal plan from Pinterest more and more, so I decided it was finally time to make this. It was really good. I didn't find the baby red potatoes, like the recipe stated, so I used half the amount with regular sized red potatoes. We thought it was a bit too many potatoes and we want to add more green beans. There is just something so satisfying about eating fresh green beans!

Green Bean Bacon Bundles

So because of all the pre-Online BlogCon chatting going on in the Online BlogCon FB group, I've decided even if I have posts scheduled to mid-January (I thought I was moving this month and was preparing for at least 2 months of no internet) I'm going to try and update my scheduled posts with a little blabbering. I don't really do a lot of blabbering here because I feel like I have nothing interesting to talk about, but I also want to feel like Fantastical is a little more personal. So I'm sharing - sharing is caring! Even if the sharing is completely random.

I have two kids - Matthew, 5, and Cambria, 4. I'm one of those uber attached parents and so I drive Matthew to school daily and I am continuing SAHMing with just one kiddo. Matthew's school is like 3 miles from our house and there is this wicked awesome curve on the way there. My husband put an open cone intake on my car and I love to hear the engine go. Even if Matthew likes to remind me that my car has a measley v6 and Daddy's has a v8. :) The highlight of my boring mom/housewife life is taking that curve more than the posted 25 mph speed limit. Because it's soooo much fun!

Yesterday when I was taking the curve, I noticed that my steering wheel was acting kind of "sticky" and so I didn't speed up like I normally do. I called my husband and asked him if that would be perhaps power steering fluid low - someone in the office said it could also be the pump going...not sure what pump that is because I am completely car-illiterate. So I took on the task of finding my power steering fluid compartment. My Pontiac, Prixie, is amazing and I love her, but they did NOT put this compartment in an easy to access place. I had to wait for it to stop raining and get sunny again before I actually found it because the lid was covered in sludgey engine stuff, scientific term here, people! I cleaned off the lid and checked the fluid - and sure enough, it was just under the right amount. So I got to get fluid in there all by myself and I'm really excited about it. I properly diagnosed and "fixed" my own car! :)

Now on to these beans - which have nothing to do with my car story. What I really love about this side, other than the fact that it includes butter, garlic, and bacon, is that it looks so incredibly fancy and complicated. However, it takes so little time to prepare, you don't really have to hover over anything while it cooks, and they are out-of-this-world delicious!

Mom's Famous Green Beans

I am trying to make more fresh veggies instead of frozen veggies while I still can. But let's face it...fresh veggies in butter can get old pretty fast. We needed a way to jazz them up really quick. I loved these. A LOT.

(Print)
What you need:

• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 2 handfuls of fresh green beans
• 2-3 tbsp. chicken broth

Directions:

Heat bacon and cook until almost crispy.
Add onions and cook until transparent.

Drop in green beans and toss to mix.
Add chicken broth and cook for 10 minutes.

Recipe from {Mis}Adventures in Cooking

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