Fast Five Ingredient Dinners: Crockpot Edition! Creamy Chicken Taco Casserole

While waiting on the bake element to arrive for our oven, the crockpot has been a huge help!  Last night's South of the Border dinner was a hit.  I was planning on making chicken tacos of some kind.  I knew I wanted them to be creamy.  And cheesy.  So I threw some ingredients together and put them in the crockpot in the morning.

It took about fifteen minutes to get everything in place, and that included time to grate the cheese. 

I left the crock in the fridge until about 1:30, and then placed the crock in the pot and turned it on.  I let it cook on high until it was time to eat about four hours later.  Next time I'll do low--it was a little overcooked.  But it sure was tasty!  And only used five ingredients.

My total hands on time was about sixteen minutes.  It takes a minute to turn on the crock after all! 

Ready to mix up some Creamy Chicken Taco Casserole?

You'll need:

2 cups of cooked chicken (I used leftovers from a chicken I cooked in the crockpot earlier in the week)
12 flour tortillas
2 cups sour cream
Taco seasoning to taste (my kids don't like much spice, so we used about 2 tsp..)
1 1/2  cups grated cheddar cheese

Begin ripping your tortillas in half.  I used three halves for each layer, and made a four layer casserole.

Mix your sour cream and taco seasoning together in a small bowl.  

Line the bottom of your crock with tortillas halves.  Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of cooked chicken on top.

Smear with about 1/2 cup of taco sour cream.

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of cheese over the top.

Layer it up!

Repeat three more times.  Except add extra cheese on the top.  Yum!

Bake on low for 4 hours.  Or high for 2.  But don't do high for 4.  Trust me!

Cook up some peas (Ellie's favorite veggie!) to go on the side if you'd like. 

I love quick dinners!   And my family liked this one.


This post is linked up to Raising Arrows!

Fast Five Ingredient Dinners: Shrimp Broccoli Delight

When temperatures plunge below freezing, chore time takes a little  longer here at Grouse Creek.  Frozen water troughs need thawed, hoses need extra care and sometimes water has to be hauled in by buckets. Extra hay is needed to help the animals stay warm, and clean, dry bedding is crucial.  What normally takes thirty minutes to accomplish can easily take over an hour. 

Having a quick dinner really helps the evening to go smoothly after working so hard outside. Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen after all that?  Not me!

Thursday is Seafood night around here.  Usually we have tuna casserole or salmon patties.  But, salad shrimp was on sale at Winco, and I've been holding onto a bag.  Tonight was the perfect night to pull it out.  Jayme was so excited--shrimp is her favorite!

With only 5 ingredients and about 20 minutes worth of time, we enjoyed this lovely shrimp broccoli delight.

Here's the lineup of ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter
Garlic
Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles (uncooked)
1 pound frozen salad shrimp
1 pound frozen broccoli
 
First, I threw a cube of butter into a large frying pan to let it slowly melt. (Definitely not a low fat meal!)

Meanwhile, I filled a large pot with water and turned it onto boil. When the water boiled, I threw in a box of 100% whole wheat spaghetti.  It cooks in 11 minutes (we like it tender!)

Noodles Cooking

 While the noodles were cooking, I added a pound of frozen shrimp to the garlic broccoli mixture and turned it down to low. The lid on top helped it to steam nicely.

The shrimp and broccoli taking a garlic butter bath.

 Once the noodles were finished, I dumped them into the stainer.  Then they made their way into the garlic mixture above.  A good stir incorporated the ingredients.

 

A couple more minutes with the lid on helped the garlic to saturate all of the noodles.  Make sure your temp is low enough you don't burn these!

Remove the lid and take the pan off the heat.  Inhale all the lovely garlic fumes.  Scoop out onto plates and serve.  We enjoyed a banana-orange Maggie Milk smoothie with ours.

What are your go-to meals when you're cold and in a hurry?

This post was linked up at Raising Arrows.