Macaroni and Tomato with Sour Cream Cheese

I love cheesy pasta, and I wanted to give crock pot pasta another chance after the success with the Homeschooled Mac and Cheese. My frustration with pasta recipes I've seen so far is that they all cook the pasta in advance. To me this seems to kind of defeat the purpose of the slow cooker, so I wanted to try more recipes with raw pasta that cooked in a sauce. I used a home made tomato and ground beef sauce that my mom had frozen for me, added some sour cream and some cream cheese, presto! Not quite a casserole, but definitely cooked pasta.

INGREDIENTS

• 300 grams of uncooked macaroni
• Slightly less than half a stick of cream cheese
• 1 cup of sour cream
• Tomato sauce (one tupperware full?)
• Additional vegetables ( I threw in some mushrooms, onions and green pepper)
• Shredded cheddar or Parmesan to serve.

DIRECTIONS

Uncooked pasta in the slow cooker is really easy since you're just mixing the sauces and it cooks itself!

• Place macaroni in crock pot
• Cover with tomato sauce, sour cream and chunks of cream cheese and stir with extra vegetables.
• Cook on high for 1 1/2 hours on high. Should be well coooked in 2 hours on high.

THE TASTIES

So I think the macaroni thought it was going to be a casserole, but I'm glad it isn't. Still quite lose, but with some stickiness to it. Sour cream is a nice touch, but make sure it's well mixed in. Could have used a bit more tomato sauce, but the pasta is definitely cooked through. I went for the two whole hours without lifting the lid and it was getting crispy along the sides. Tasty and cheese though, and shows that uncooked pasta works in the slow cooker.

I've got friends in the industry

Check it out, I updated some links the other day but thought I might draw some attention to them.

other patient chefs

A Year of CrockPotting - This women is a hero in the slow cooked community. She created and modified recipes for her gluten free family for a year, and I think she's gotten a book deal out of it.

A Crock Cook - A pretty simple sight that heralds "real crock pot recipes for real people."

Canadian Living - Has released special issues on slow cooking and lots of recipes for the Canadian kitchen.

Slow Cooker Recipes - A no frills approach to slow cooking (and there aren't a lot to start!) but a huge database of recipes.

What a Crock - Lots of meal plans in this one, something useful certainly!

Crock Pot Alchemist - Finally another dude interested in slow cooks. Appropriately, he works well with meat.

So Are These Enchiladas?

Slow cooker Mexican food is something I hadn't tried yet, and I decided enchiladas would be the maiden dish. I've never had enchiladas having limited myself to fajitas, burritos and quesadillas in the past. I'm not entirely sure if these are what Mexico meant, but I was inspired by a recipe over at Fud or Something Like It that looked pretty tasty. Shredding chicken and mixing in sour cream and cheese? Sour cream and cheese are the essentials of any wrapped food in my opinion. I figured the recipe was lacking a bit in substance and spice, and I couldn't find enchilada sauce, so I ran with this recipe, adding a can of cooked beans and some peppers for filling.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs or 1 kg or boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 package of chicken fajita seasoning
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 cup of sour cream
• Lots of shredded cheddar
• Ketchup
• 1 cup of green chile salsa
• 1 package of flour tortillas (I used all 10 in of a small tortilla bag)
• 1 can of cooked red kidney beans strained and rinsed
• 1 green bell pepper sliced

VARIATIONS

Something more spicey and more genuinely Mexican has been earmarked for the next attempt, but there is no denying how good these are. The sauce itself was a variation, so it shows how much leniency there is. I would add some spice to these for sure.

DIRECTIONS

• In a sauce pan, mix the green chile salsa with the fajita mix. I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but it was very appropriate. I think enchilada sauce is mostly green chile based, so it worked out well. I stirred well, and added some ketchup to mild it out a bit.
• Place the chicken breasts on the bottom of your crock pot. Pour salsa fajita sauce on top. Cover with sliced onions.

• Cook on low for 6 hours.


• When cooked and well tender, transfer the chicken breasts to a large bowl and shred with forks.
• Mix one cup of sour cream with the chicken. Also add the chopped onions from the slow cooker and a couple hand fulls of shredded cheese.
• Grease some oven safe dishes and pre-heat oven to 350F.
• Scoop the chicken mixture into the flour tortillas and wrap with beans and green pepper.
• Place wrapped tortillas side by side in oven dish. Cover with the salsa fajita sauce from the crock pot and layer with more shredded cheese.
  
• Bake in the oven until beans and peppers are warm and cheese has melted. About 20 minutes. Seperate with a knife and you'll need a fork to eat!

THE TASTIES

Really great, especially as leftovers. These can feed quite a few people and I would consider bringing it to a pot luck some time since it can be carried around in a dish. As I mentioned before, I will keep an eye out for enchilada sauce for the real deal, or at least try to find a REAL recipe. More chili pepper, since we ran out, or hot sauce. So good, especially the sour cream and cheese chicken. Sloppy messes but worth the struggle and the additional use of an oven!