Tasty Crockpot Chicken and Beans

Now that I'm getting into my groove of being a full-time working mom, I'm anxious to use my crockpot more often to give me a hand with getting dinner started. This week I made a no-recipe discovery that was incredibly yummy!

Put in crockpot:
4 frozen chicken breasts
3 cans of black beans
1 can of Rotel (the tomatoes with the chilies)
1/2 can of water

Cook all day on low (around 8 or so hours).

The original plan was to either shred the chicken with forks and scoop the mix into burritos - add melted cheese and sour cream.

Instead, the kids asked to dip - so I added a little bit of cheese to everybody's individual bowls and some scoop chips on the side. It really had the potential to be so much healthier - but heck, it was so very delicious!

Black Bean Soup

This recipe is from a good friend of mine, Heather, up in Kodiak, Alaska. She gave me this recipe just a few weeks before Megan was born - so I've have this gem for over 4 years now. I make this soup all the time!! It comes in at 3 pts for 1 cup of soup.

Ingredients:

10 sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
1 c. boiling water
1 1/2 c. finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin
1/3 c. water
28 oz of undrained canned tomatoes (I like the petite diced)
32 oz of undrained black beans

1. Cover sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water and set aside.

2. In pot, saute onions, garlic, and cayenne in the oil for about 5 min, stirring frequently.

3. Add cumin, 1/3 c. water and the juice from the tomatoes.

4. Squeeze tomatoes into the pot.5. Cover and bring to a boil.

6. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

7. Add black beans and their liquid and continue to simmer stirring occaisionally to prevent sticking.

8. Drain and chop sun-dried tomatoes.

9. Add to soup and cook for 5-10 minutes.

10. Puree half of the soup and return in to the pot.