Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup, with chicken and quinoa

It's been two years since my last attempt at this cooking blog. I have no idea why I'm deciding to start back up again. All I know is that I love to cook (and eat!) and I want other people to love to cook too, or at the very least not dread it like the plague.

My kids are still pretty picky (the 6 year old especially!), but the rule is that they have to take at least one bite, which was the inspiration of my new blog title (I hated the old title!) and then if they decide they don't like it, they're allowed fruit or vegetables instead. My husband is great about trying new foods and he never, ever complains about what I make for dinner, even though he'd probably be happiest eating pizza or Mexican food every night of the week.

I still try to cook a lot of vegetarian recipes, but we do eat meat in this house a couple times a week, usually turkey or chicken. This recipe has chicken in it, but you could very easily omit the chicken, use vegetable stock, and it would be vegetarian and still really good.

I found the original recipe here, but have changed it quite a bit.


1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped into 1-ince pieces
1 14.5 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sage
1 bay leaf
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1/2 - 1 tsp kosher salt
10 cranks of black pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1/2 - 1 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

1. Place butternut squash through black pepper in slow cooker and cook until chicken is fully cooked and squash is soft. My slow cooker runs hot, so for me, this was about 4 hours on High.

2. Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred with two forks. Remove bay leaf and discard. Take an immersion blender and blend the squash, tomatoes and onions until desired texture is reached. I left it slightly chunky. Add chicken, quinoa, and olives to slow cooker and stir until everything is combined. Set on low or warm, depending on how hot your slow cooker runs. Nothing needs to be cooked after this point, so I set mine on warm and let it go until dinner time.

3. If soup is too thick, you can add more broth to thin it out, but we liked it thick. Ladle soup into bowls and top with chopped parsley. 

Review - Jay and I both enjoyed this thick soup. It's really filling, but there isn't any dairy in it, so you won't feel uncomfortably full afterwards. (I love dairy, but it doesn't love me) Eli (almost 4) was happily eating it until he heard his sister (6) declare that "this isn't soup" and "I'm just going to eat carrots." So both kids ate carrot sticks and milk for dinner. We're having this again tomorrow night (it makes quite a bit!), so hopefully they eat a bit more for Round 2. The olives add a really nice flavor, so definitely don't leave those out. Next time I might add a bit of the brine from the jar of olives for extra flavor.

Chicken Picatta

I combined two Food Network recipes for this dish: Ina Garten's and Giada De Laurentiis's.

2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut in half
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large egg
1/2 tablespoon water
3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup brined capers, rinsed
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and 1/2 tablespoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and bread crumb mixtures.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate. 

Melt 2 more tablespoons butter and add another 2 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the other 2 pieces of chicken and brown both sides in same manner. Remove pan from heat and add chicken to the plate.

Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. 

Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

Review - Everyone loved it (toddler included)! My only complaint came from my cookware. Since I was using a non-stick skillet, there were no lovely brown bits to scrape up. This made me sad.

Chicken Enchilada Chili

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups prepared enchilada sauce
2 chopped celery stalks
2 (14.5 oz) cans tomatoes with seasoning
2 (15 oz) cans pinto or kidney beans, undrained (or 1 cup dried pinto beans, soaked overnight)
1 onion, diced (or 1 tablespoon dried, minced onion flakes)
1-2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin

Pour enchilada sauce and canned tomatoes into the bottom of a 6 quart slow cooker. Add beans, celery, onion and spices. Stir to combine. Place chicken on top.

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or until flavors have combined. If you are using dried beans, you may need to cook longer to fully soften the beans. Shred chicken.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

Review - This was good. I'd never purchased canned enchilada sauce before, so I just bought the cheapest (store brand) can I could find. I think the flavor was too mild and didn't have near enough spice. Next time I'll make sure to buy a better brand of enchilada sauce and taste it to make sure it's got enough kick to it.

Chicken baked in Olives, Capers, and Lemon

This is another fabulously easy Donna Hay recipe (thank you Cindy).

6.5 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved

1/3 cup small Ligurian olives (I used Kalamata)

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed

2 tablespoons olive oil

sea salt and cracked black pepper

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Preheat the oven to 425. Combine tomatoes, olives, lemon rind, capers, oil, salt and pepper and place in the base of a baking dish. Place the chicken on top and spoon a little of the olive mixture over to coat. Bake for 20 minutes, turn the chicken once halfway through. Serves 2

Review - Awesome!!! I doubled everything because I wanted leftovers. Jay's exact words were, "This is a keeper." The flavor combination was wonderful and fresh. This would be an excellent summer dish served with a salad. I served it with rice and green beans.