Meatball Stew

It's hard to believe I ran out of chicken this week. I had it all planned that I'd make some more plain chicken and potatoes because they boys went so wild over them last time, but alas it was not in the cards. I found some teriyaki meatballs in the freezer from Costco, but they're a little on the spicy side for the boys so they don't care for them plain. I decided to try stew and it turned out really good. The boys gave it a 4ish star rating. They didn't really want to eat it a second time, but managed the first time just fine.

I modified according to our tastes from this recipe. It was simple, fast, and smelled fantastic in the crock pot.

Crock Pot Meatball Stew

About 1-1/2 packages of meatballs (I think I used about 36 oz of the teriyaki ones)
8 smaller size white potatoes, cut in one inch cubes
1 onion, diced as small or large as you like
1-1/2 packages of the really small baby carrots
1 can tomato sauce
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Beef Flavor
1/2 cup red wine
2+ cups water
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbls flour

Put the meatballs, onion, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot. In a separate bowl, combine the tomato sauce, Better Than Bouillon, wine, and garlic. Add enough water to make approximately 4 cups total. Stir until combined and then add to the crock pot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours. During the last hour, mix the flour with about a 1/2 cup of water and stir it into the crock pot.

Chicken And Dumplings

So, I still haven't actually convinced my kids to willingly eat this one, which is so disturbing because I practically begged for chicken and dumplings when I was growing up. I usually only get a batch of mixed veggies thrown in but in my quest to add more greens I ground up a whole package of spinach this time and it turned out just fine. Besides the whole "completely green" broth, you'd never even taste that there's spinach.

Easy Slow-Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

2-3 chicken breasts, diced (not cooked)

1/3 cup flour

frozen mixed veggies

baby carrots

6 oz raw spinach

1 tbls Better Than Bullion 

1 roll Pillsbury biscuits

Put the veggies, carrots and chicken into the slow cooker. Sprinkle the flour on top. Push the whole wad of spinach into the Vitamix and add enough water to get up to the four cup line. Throw in the Better Than Bullion. Turn on the Vitamix and process on High for 15ish seconds, until you don't see any clumps of spinach. Pour into the slow cooker. Add another cup of water to the Vitamix and swish around to get the last of the spinach, then pour that into the slow cooker as well.

Now here's the hard part. If you're feeling so inclined, you could make your own dumplings and drop them into the slow cooker. I'm usually in a hurry so I grab the Pillsbury biscuits, open the container, cut small pieces directly into the slow cooker using scissors. Or hire some little people to do your cutting. Try to get the pieces to land all across the top of the mixture (not just clumped in the middle).

Cook on high for 4-6 hours. The dumplings will be all along the top so be sure you scoop servings out all the way to the bottom of the crock pot so everyone gets some dumplings.