Chicken, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup

It's Fall Ya'll!  My crockpot if my Fall and Winter BFF and we've been separated for far too long!  These crisp cool mornings have made me soooo hungry for a pot of homemade soup!  I found this idea on the weather forecast and I couldn't believe how easy and simple it was!  I'm a working lady and things with few ingredients that required extremely little effort beckon to me!  This soup is light and delicious - it won't weight you down or make you feel like you ate too much.  This was 100%  a winner for me and I hope you love it too!

 You'll need:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts - I did six thin cut

8 oz kale

8 small sweet potatoes

2 packets Dry Knorr Vegetable Mix 

Mix the veggie mix packets with 8 cups water and microwave or simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool while you get your veggies ready.

My kale was already chopped so all I had to do was watch the pieces for the heavy center stem and remove those.  That stem will make your soup too bitter.

Peel and dice sweet potatoes into small bite size pieces.

That's all the prep there is!

Add your chicken breasts to the bottom of your crockpot, then add the sweet potatoes and the kale.  Add your soup mix plus enough water to fill your crockpot.  I think it's about 5 cups or so additional water.

Set the crockpot for high for 4 hours and walk away!  Come back when your time is done and remove your chicken breasts (use tongs and they may fall apart on you). Shred your chicken with two forks and return it to the pot and let things sit for an hour on warm.  

That's IT!  Serve this light and delicious soup with a slice of buttery garlic bread and your fall dinner will be fabulous!  Ya'll enjoy!

Kentucky Garden Salsa

 

We are at the height of our summer garden and the harvest is bountiful every day.  We had a couple of days sneak up on us last week and my only solution was Kentucky Garden Salsa!

You'll need

6-8 pounds red tomatoes 

4 bell peppers

4 cucumbers

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1 packet Mrs. Wages salsa seasoning

1 can Rotel Tomatoes

This one is super easy and NO COOKING (regardless of the instructions on the seasoning packet).  Quarter whole tomatoes (skin on) and pop them in the food processor.  Pulse just 2 or 3 times to get a rough chop (you don't want juice).  I used a combination of regular tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  The cherry tomatoes can go in the food processor whole and pulse until chopped.

Seed and quarter the bell pepper, pulse in the food processor until rough chopped.  Slice your cucumber about 1/4 inch slices, add them to food processor and rough chop.  

Add all your vegetables to a large plastic bin. Add the vinegar and seasoning along with one can of Rotel (including the liquid).  Mix well and let sit in the refrigerator over night.  You can freeze this if needed.  Use within one week of thawing.

This is the easiest way I know to make salsa without gathering a dozen different seasonings.  Mrs. Wages is a packaged seasoning that is readily available at grocery and farm stores.  Every mix I've tried in this brand has been a winner.  I doubled this recipe and used one packet of mild and one medium salsa. I got a little over 8 pints of salsa - enough to serve and enough to share!