Leah's Slow Cooked Chicken

My new friend Leah e-mailed this recipe to me a couple weeks ago. I was so excited to put it on the menu. I used chicken thighs because I prefer them in the crock pot, but you can use breasts or a whole chicken cut up. I also used bone in thighs to give the sauce more flavor, when its done cooking you can just pull the bones out and throw them away. I used sun dried tomatoes that were in olive oil, next time I will rinse the oil off of them. I thought it tasted a little oily. Serve this over rice or noodles.

Ingredients:
8 skinless chicken thighs
3 oz sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
3 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 tablespoons water



Make It:
Spray the inside of the crock pot with cooking spray. Put chicken thighs in first, then tomatoes, onion, olives, and basil. Pour chicken broth over top and stir lightly. Set on low for 8 hours. Turn crock pot on high and stir in cornstarch water mixture, recover for 10-20 minutes, till thickened. Taste and salt to your preference. Serve over noodles or rice and sprinkle with basil and parmesan. Enjoy!

Tortellini Toss

This is adapted from a pampered chef recipe. They do their's in the microwave. I just can't cook a dinner in the microwave. If you don't care for spinach, switch it out with broccoli or asparagus. You can use chicken instead of ham if you prefer. This is also a very quick dinner, if you make the sauce while the tortellini cooks, this will take 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 ham steak cut into cubes
1 container tortellini noodles, cooked
2/3 cup shredded parmesan
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
8 oz. spinach, cooked
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk


Make It:
Heat a large pot over medium high heat, add butter. Once butter is melted add garlic, cook for a minute. Add flour to pan, stir, cook for another minute. Pour milk in whisking to combine. Cook for a minute or two until thickened. Turn heat to low. Add ham and tortellini, stir to combine. Add spinach, cover pot for 2 minutes to wilt spinach. Stir in parmesan. Enjoy!