Cream of Mushroom Soup

Canned cream of mushroom soup is so laden with sodium and other random ingredients, not to mention the bpa lined can it comes in. So not worth it when you can make it yourself, at home, in your crock pot! Then store in the freezer until needed. So easy...and so good for you! Try it, you'll be so happy you did. Not to mention you'll save a little money while you're at it!

Ingredients:
2 lbs mushrooms, organic is recommended
6 cups water
2 organic vegetable bouillon cubes 
1 ts good salt
2 TB organic Italian seasoning
1/2 ts organic ground pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 TB organic dried minced onion
4 cups organic milk or cream (for adding later)

Directions:
Wipe your mushrooms clean and dump in the crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients except the milk. Cook on low for 8 hours. VERY carefully blend soup with an immersible blender. If you don't have an immersible blender, very carefully blend in small batches in a blender. Add milk and blend. Let cool completely before placing in freezer containers. I freeze it in 2 cup portions (or 16 oz). A regular can of soup would be 10 oz. Freeze in the amount that works for you! Don't forget to leave a cup out to sip on when you're done. YUM!!!

Make beans in your crock pot

We go through a lot of beans since we eat vegetarian a lot. Plus, if you haven't noticed, I totally love Mexican food. But buying organic canned beans has a lot of issues, like price, and the bpa lined cans. Then there's dry beans which take fooorreeevvveeerrr on the stove. So the solution? Cook dry beans in the crock pot all day, or night, while not having to worry about them. Then freeze in portions and you have great organic beans for a fraction of the price. I once figured that my cost was about 50 cents for the same volume of a $3 can. So that's a great deal, without the danger of bpa lurking in your food.

Directions:
You need 4 cups of dry beans (I like to always have on hand: black, pinto, kidney, and garbanzo). Rinse your beans in a colander and pull out any bad ones (great job for kids!). Soak your beans for 8-12 hours. Drain and rinse again and place in crock pot. Cover with water. You want the water at least an inch above the bean line. Pour in a teaspoon of good salt. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Test to make sure they are done, then drain and rinse. Let cool completely before packing in freezer containers. You can freeze them in any quantity. I usually do 4 cups, but I used to do 2 cups...back when I had half the amount of children running around.

Crockpot Organic Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is such an easy recipe, yet so yummy!  Enjoy!

Ingredients
4 tb organic olive oil
4 large cloves organic garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 organic onion chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
6 cups organic chicken broth
2 organic bay leaves
1 tb organic chili powder
4 tb organic cumin
1 ts organic garlic powder.
1 1/2 ts good salt
4 shakes cayenne pepper
2 cups cooked organic chicken, I used 3 thighs, diced or shredded


Toppings
chopped green onions
dollop organic sour cream
tortilla strips (a couple corn or wheat
tortillas cut into strips, brush with oil and bake for 10-15 min)

Optional: Before starting to put everything in the crockpot, you could saute the garlic, cilantro, onions and tomatoes first. I personally don't like dirtying pans when I'm using the crockpot, but it would give it a deeper flavor...I think, I don't know though, since I don't do it =) Otherwise:
Heat your crockpot to high and add oil. Chop garlic, cilantro, onions, and tomatoes and stir into oil. Let these heat up for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Cook on high 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Crock Pot French Onion Soup

I could eat french onion soup every single day. Seriously. I could. But sadly I don't. But when I make this recipe there is enough for me to eat a bowl everyday for about a week. That makes me super happy =) This can be made in the crock pot or stove. I prefer the crockpot, but that means I have to start it in the morning. I only forgot to once, so I made it on the stove. Tastes great either way, but I think with the crockpot the taste is bolder because it's cooked for so long. Try it, you'll love it!

Ingredients:
4 TB organic butter
3 large sweet onions
2 cartons organic beef broth (I use Pacific, unless I have homemade broth in the freezer, I use that. You need about 50-60 oz)
1 TB sugar, organic
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1 ts sea salt
1 ts Worcestershire sauce, organic if you can find it
1 slice of bread for each bowl (I just use plain 'ol sandwich bread because it's easy and I always have it, but feel free to french bread)
1 slice of provolone, preferably organic, for each bowl.


Directions:
Whether using the stove or crockpot the directions are the same, just cooking time will be different. Melt the butter in the bottom of crockpot (on high) or pot on medium. Slice onions into rings or half rings (I prefer half rings for some reason). Throw the onions in the pot with the butter and toss. Add the broth, sugar, sherry, salt, and worcestershire. For the crockpot, cook on low 10-12 hours, or on high 6-8 hours. On the stove you'll want to cook for atleast an hour (bring to boil and then simmer). If you can let it simmer longer than an hour please do. You'll know it's done when the onions are translucent.

Toast bread until hard but not burnt. Place bowls on a cookie sheet. Ladle soup into bowls. Lay a piece of bread in each bowl and top with a piece of cheese. Put under broiler for a few minutes. Stay close and keep an eye on it. You want it melted and bubbly....a little brown is good but don't let it burn. Very carefully remove from broiler and use potholders to serve. This recipe makes a lot of soup, I'm talking maybe 12 servings. So it'll feed a crowd, or you'll have tons of leftovers (smile). But you can also pretty easily cut the recipe in half. Make sure to taste every few hours in case it needs more flavor. Make this a staple, you'll love it!