Crock Pot Sante Fe Chicken

Photo: Gina's Blog - (mine's not this pretty)

End Product: Slow cooked shredded chicken with corn, tomatoes and black beans.

Tip: Prepare the night before and turn your crock pot on in the morning for an easy weeknight meal.
Bonus: This happens to be a Weight Watchers recipe that I just thought sounded good. I got it from my friend Krista's cooking blog - and she got it from Gina's blog - which is all about weight watcher's recipes! It's low fat and low in points.
Serve: over rice with chopped scallions, fresh cilantro, fat free sour cream (not for me, but an option!) and/or reduced fat cheddar.
Prep Time (for Kristy = slower than average): 12 minutes



Ingredients:
24 oz (1 1/2) lbs chicken breast
14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
15 oz can black beans
8 oz frozen corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
3 scallions, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
salt to taste



Directions:
Combine chicken broth, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt in the crock pot. Season chicken breast with salt and lay on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning. Serve over rice (extra pts).

Slow-Cooker Lasagna

Honestly, this lasagna needs no introduction, really- as it is my FAVORITE lasagna I have ever had. Honestly! AND, it's made in the slow cooker! It's a super easy recipe that I found on the internet but substituted a few things here and there and made it even EASIER than it was originally! You don't even have to bake the noodles, the tomato sauce will soften them over time in the slow cooker. I used a large slow cooker, so if yours is smaller you might want to half the recipe, or make more layers and adjust the time accordingly (adding an hour to the cook time). There's no picture, because, well, all lasagna looks the same- this one just happens to taste the best!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

-1 pound lean ground beef
-Garlic powder (or garlic salt)
-1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
-1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
-2-3 teaspoons dried oregano
-1 (12 ounce) package lasagna noodles
-12 ounces low fat cottage cheese
-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
-16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

1. In a large skillet over medium heat cook the ground beef until brown. Add garlic powder to your personal taste while beef is still warm. Add beef, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and oregano to a medium sized bowl and stir until well incorporated.
2. In another bowl mix together the cottage cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, and shredded mozzarella cheese.
3. Spoon a layer of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the slow cooker. Add a double layer of the uncooked lasagna noodles, making sure that the tomato sauce is covering the underside of the noodles. Break to fit noodles into slow cooker. Top noodles with a portion of the cheese mixture. Repeat the layering of sauce, noodles, and cheese until all the ingredients are used. (We did three layer in our big slow cooker.) Make sure that the meat/sauce is thick but watery enough so that the noodles will soften in the slow cooker.
4. Cover, and cook on LOW setting for 4 to 5 hours. (Watch it the first time you make it and make sure that the noodles are able to get soft, ours were perfect doing it on this setting for this amount of time.)

Enjoy!