Summer Mexican Chicken Soup

Light, summery soups are a staple of my summer menu. Combining broth, herbs, chicken and fresh veggies creates a delightful dish that is isn't too heavy for the hot days. My current favorite is Mexican chicken soup. I throw everything together in the slow cooker in about 20 minutes (depending how fast I chop and peel the veggies), then let is simmer in there all day. It keeps the house cooler since I don't have to get the oven or stove heated up. I stay cooler, too, since I'm not standing over that stove roasting myself. Any leftovers I send with A for his lunches or freeze for even quicker meals.

This light, fresh soup has green and yellow squash, cilantro, chicken, green beans, potatoes and carrots. The cilantro is what really brings out that Mexican-inspired flavor. It's not a heavily flavored soup, the cilantro and veggies are really the star.

If you're looking for an awesome slow cooker, I totally recommend the CrockPot 6-quart programmable cook and carry. I love mine. It is big enough to fit a big batch of soup, chili, a large piece of meat or a whole chicken. Even if you don't plan on travelling with it (I don't) it's a great gadget to have in the kitchen. I've found it cooks things quickly and evenly. The controls are all programmable, you can select high or low heat and for what time, then it'll switch over to warm once it's done. It's easy to clean, too. I went through so many options when searching for a new slow cooker and am thrilled I got this one. The price is great, too. Many others cost much, much more for the same or similar features. My last CrockPot slow cooker is still working great, the only problem was it's too small now that I have more people to cook for. It was a pre-kid purchase. I look forward to using this new one for many years, too. You can check it out via the affiliate link below.


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Summer Mexican Chicken Soup

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours on high

Keywords: slow-cooker entree soup/stew low calorie low-carb low-sodium chicken squash cilantro American Mexican fall spring summer winter

Ingredients (8 generous servings)

• 8 cups chicken broth, unsalted
• 2 green squash
• 1 yellow squash
• 4 medium potatoes
• 8 large carrots
• 4 large chicken breasts
• 1 bag green beans (I prefer Italian cut)
• 8 sprigs of cilantro or to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Peel and cut carrots and squash

Cut potatoes

Pull leaves off cilantro sprigs and chop into small pieces

Add all ingredients to slow cooker

Cook on low for 5 hours

Tear apart chicken and cook for 1 hour longer

My Favorite Chicken Salad

I love chicken salad, especially in warmer weather because it doesn't need an oven that'll make the house hotter, doesn't take much effort and it's nice and cold. It takes me about half an hour, after the chicken is cooked, to make a huge batch with enough to freeze.

Easy Chicken Salad

I forgot to include the apples in the pic.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup diced celery
1 apple, diced
2 cups mayo (more or less depending on your preference)
3/4 cup craisins
1/4 tsp pepper
Double recipe to have extra to freeze.

Directions

Cook chicken in slow cooker until it comes apart easily. Pull apart with a fork once it's done.

Chill chicken in the fridge until it's cool. I use the bowl I'm going to prepare the salad in.

Prepare other ingredients.

Combine chicken and all other ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until well-mixed.

Serve as-is, in a wrap, on bread, or in a bun. Add lettuce if desired. Enjoy!

Great in a sandwich or alone

My Favorite Chicken Salad

I love chicken salad, especially in warmer weather because it doesn't need an oven that'll make the house hotter, doesn't take much effort and it's nice and cold. It takes me about half an hour, after the chicken is cooked, to make a huge batch with enough to freeze.

Easy Chicken Salad

I forgot to include the apples in the pic.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup diced celery
1 apple, diced
2 cups mayo (more or less depending on your preference)
3/4 cup craisins
1/4 tsp pepper
Double recipe to have extra to freeze.

Directions

Cook chicken in slow cooker until it comes apart easily. Pull apart with a fork once it's done.

Chill chicken in the fridge until it's cool. I use the bowl I'm going to prepare the salad in.

Prepare other ingredients.

Combine chicken and all other ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until well-mixed.

Serve as-is, in a wrap, on bread, or in a bun. Add lettuce if desired. Enjoy!

Great in a sandwich or alone

Southwestern Taco Salad

Quick, easy relatively light dinners are an important staple of summer. When we were visiting A's dad a few weeks ago, he introduced us to taco salad. We liked it and decided to make it at home. The problem was, I didn't have the right type of beans and didn't feel like going back out to get them. There were also ears of corn in the fridge that needed to be used up. What's a stay-at-home-mom to do? Why, tweak the recipe and turn it into Southwestern taco salad, of course!

The finished dish.

Ingredients
Tortilla chips
French dressing
1 lb. ground beef (I used 93% lean)
1 can black beans, drained

Cooking up the yum.

2 ears of corn or 1 cup of frozen corn
Shredded cheddar cheese
Lettuce

Directions
1. Brown ground beef in medium skillet.
2. When ground beef is almost finished, add the can of beans (drained) and corn. Stir together well. Heat until all is cooked. If the corn is frozen, heat it to room temperature in the microwave before adding.
3. Arrange chips on plate. Pour meat mixture overtop. Add however much cheese and lettuce you'd like then drizzle French Dressing over it all.

If you don't like the dressing (like me), you can leave it off. A's dad's version uses kidney beans and no corn. It's just as tasty.

So tasty. Even M2 loves it.

This is what M2 was doing while Mama put this post together.

Southwestern Taco Salad

Quick, easy relatively light dinners are an important staple of summer. When we were visiting A's dad a few weeks ago, he introduced us to taco salad. We liked it and decided to make it at home. The problem was, I didn't have the right type of beans and didn't feel like going back out to get them. There were also ears of corn in the fridge that needed to be used up. What's a stay-at-home-mom to do? Why, tweak the recipe and turn it into Southwestern taco salad, of course!

The finished dish.

Ingredients
Tortilla chips
French dressing
1 lb. ground beef (I used 93% lean)
1 can black beans, drained

Cooking up the yum.

2 ears of corn or 1 cup of frozen corn
Shredded cheddar cheese
Lettuce

Directions
1. Brown ground beef in medium skillet.
2. When ground beef is almost finished, add the can of beans (drained) and corn. Stir together well. Heat until all is cooked. If the corn is frozen, heat it to room temperature in the microwave before adding.
3. Arrange chips on plate. Pour meat mixture overtop. Add however much cheese and lettuce you'd like then drizzle French Dressing over it all.

If you don't like the dressing (like me), you can leave it off. A's dad's version uses kidney beans and no corn. It's just as tasty.

So tasty. Even M2 loves it.

This is what M2 was doing while Mama put this post together.

Happy Fourth of July!

Drink time under the clear blue sky.

Mmm burgers and dogs on the grill.

At our house, we spent the day with the windows wide open as a breeze comes through since it was a beautiful out. I also spent it finishing up the cleaning that didn't get done earlier this week, doing yard sale prep and giving myself a manicure and pedicure. M2 is got a pedicure to match Mama's with her Piggy Paint.
She's quite excited to have ocean blue toe nails.

This evening was our cookout with burgers and hotdogs on the new grill. While the meat was heating up, an unknown dog came running into the yard. She was very sweet and friendly. Since she had tags, I was able to figure out where she'd come from. We were about to eat so were going to take her back after, but she was crying and seemed upset (she was trying to get in to get to the cats). M2 was very upset by this so A took her back home on our cat leash. It turns out she's deaf. It's good we found her since she wouldn't have heard someone calling or a car coming down the street.

M2 eating corn with ketchup on her nose.

Our outdoor dinner on the deck included macaroni salad, baked beans, corn on the cob and lemonade. A trip to see the fireworks didn't happen since M2 was getting tired and wild. It doesn't matter that we didn't go. It turns out there were fireworks almost in our backyard. M2 LOVED it, pointing and going, "dat! ohhh!" I think next year she'll want to see even more. Now, for the yummy pie.

One of our kitties and me.

BBQ Pulled Pork

This recipe is a great one for any time as it is so tasty and easy. It's one of the favorites in our house and is great for leftovers. When I made it we froze some so A has an easy-to-grab lunch if nothing else is made. I've been making this for years with different variations. This version is the best. Even better, it's so easy to make in the slow cooker and your house will smell delicious all day.

Ingredients

I used a combination of sauces to add
different flavors. My favorite is Hunt's.

One pork roast or pork loin. The size depends on how much leftovers (or people you're feeding) that you want. I used about 3.5 lbs.

Enough Dr. Pepper (I used SodaStream Dr. Pete) to cover pork in slow cooker

1.5 bottles barbecue sauce (more if you make more pork; you want enough to saturate the pork)

Directions

1. Defrost pork and put into slow cooker
2. Make deep cuts across pork every inch
3. Cover the pork with Dr. Pepper
4. Cook on low overnight (about 12 hours) so the soda will break down the pork, add flavor and make it extra moist
5. Test pork to see if it comes apart easily. If it does, drain pork and pull apart with forks in the pot. If it doesn't, slow cook longer
6. Add barbecue sauce, enough to thoroughly cover and saturate the pork. Add water to barbecue sauce bottles to
   get out remains of sauce, pour in with pork.
   This also helps keep the pork from burning
7. Set slow cooker to medium for an additional 8-12 hours
8. Put finished pulled pork on buns, bread or eat as-is

Dr. Pepper covered pork

Pulled and ready for sauce

BBQ Pulled Pork

This recipe is a great one for any time as it is so tasty and easy. It's one of the favorites in our house and is great for leftovers. When I made it we froze some so A has an easy-to-grab lunch if nothing else is made. I've been making this for years with different variations. This version is the best. Even better, it's so easy to make in the slow cooker and your house will smell delicious all day.

Ingredients

I used a combination of sauces to add
different flavors. My favorite is Hunt's.

One pork roast or pork loin. The size depends on how much leftovers (or people you're feeding) that you want. I used about 3.5 lbs.

Enough Dr. Pepper (I used SodaStream Dr. Pete) to cover pork in slow cooker

1.5 bottles barbecue sauce (more if you make more pork; you want enough to saturate the pork)

Directions

1. Defrost pork and put into slow cooker
2. Make deep cuts across pork every inch
3. Cover the pork with Dr. Pepper
4. Cook on low overnight (about 12 hours) so the soda will break down the pork, add flavor and make it extra moist
5. Test pork to see if it comes apart easily. If it does, drain pork and pull apart with forks in the pot. If it doesn't, slow cook longer
6. Add barbecue sauce, enough to thoroughly cover and saturate the pork. Add water to barbecue sauce bottles to
   get out remains of sauce, pour in with pork.
   This also helps keep the pork from burning
7. Set slow cooker to medium for an additional 8-12 hours
8. Put finished pulled pork on buns, bread or eat as-is

Dr. Pepper covered pork

Pulled and ready for sauce

Crazy Days of Summer

Mama and baby penguin.

We just got back from an almost-week-long vacation to upstate New York to see A's dad. M2 had fun hanging out with grandpa, playing with grandpa's big dog, going to Fort Stanwix and the Syracuse Zoo, having her first ice cream cone, meeting family, visiting Grandma's grave, and more. She got spoiled with Grandpa's cooking, which included homemade potato pancakes and kabobs. M2 loved the potato pancakes covered with apple sauce. It was one of the few things she refused to share with the puppy.

As our fun trip came to a close, something struck me. This next month-plus is going to be crazy for A, M2 and me. I've got to unpack everything, do laundry, restock the fridge (I planned ahead and used everything up before we left) and clean the house. That's not even the half of it, though.

M2 loves elephants!

We've got to clean out, sort and organize the entire basement to prep for a yard sale August 9. Our whole plan when we moved in was to have an organized storage area so we can get to what we need and also have a nice laundry area. Right now, it's a huge mound of stuff.It's full of things we didn't need in our new house, stuff we haven't used since moving so I've decided we don't need, things the previous owner left and boxes of who-knows-what that I had as a kid from my parents' house. We were planning to do a spring yard sale, but with nasty morning sickness that didn't happen. August 9 is now our drop-dead date as that's when the 50-mile yard crawl along the main road we live off takes place. We're hoping it'll draw tons of customers so we can clear out the space and make some extra cash for the baby items we'll need. All this will have to be done when A isn't working as I can't lift the heavy boxes and when M2 is napping--added challenge!

Elephant ride with Daddy.

All the beds in the yard have to be weeded as well. The weeds are taking over and eating up the good plants! They must be brought under control and regulated to the trash bags so they don't eat up my flowers.

On top of that, we've got a prenatal appointment, M2's checkup (both of which are an hour away so eat up time) and the anatomy scan to find out what Baby2 is (that one is 1.5-2 hours away so takes up the whole day), two vet appointments, peach picking and baking with the peaches, parties and activities for M2, car safety inspections and things I know I'm forgetting.

Plus, the usual house cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, etc., that has to be done anyway. And, of course, blogging!! I can't forget about all our readers. It'll be quite a challenge to get everything done. Luckily, morning sickness is wearing off a bit and I've got some more energy. Nothing can really be taken off the list, especially the big items, and I'm determined that it'll all get done!

Easy Money Saving Tips: Summer Activity Edition

This article is part of a series. You can read the others here, here, here, and here.

With Memorial Day coming up on Monday, we're getting closer and closer to the summer season. It's that time of year when families are looking for fun activities that won't break the bank. So what is an fun-family-activity-planning, money-saving SAHM to do? Here are some free or cheap things I take advantage of whenever I can.

1. Free outdoor events and movies. Many counties, towns and organizations hold fun, free events. Do a search online for your area, call the government center and/or check out pamphlets at the library. We've found kids' festivals, craft festivals, heritage days, battle reenactments, concerts and movies in the park (or pool), parades and more. For a few dollars, you can check out school concerts and other productions. Some movie theaters even offer a free (or very cheap) showing of older children's movies on certain days. Many of these events aren't just fun and free, but educational too.
2. Parks. Most of us have parks in our area that we just never think to use when we're looking for something fun and free to do. By us, we have ones with huge playgrounds, pools, walking trails, lakes, tennis courts, disc golf courses, ball fields and picnic areas. Check out the ones near you and find one you like. There are also a number of national parks around. At various times during the year, they offer free admission. Our favorite is Shenandoah National Park, which, along with some free days, offers a season pass for $20. Since it's $10 to get in as long as we go twice, we at least break even. The views are amazing. Pack a lunch in a cooler, grab the whole family and head out for a day of fun in the sun. Some parks even offer grills so you can bring along hamburgers and hotdogs to cook up and then have s'mores for dessert. (Don't forget the sunscreen and plenty of water!) 
3. Museums. Many museums have at least one day a month where they don't charge admission. Some are even free year-round, like the Smithsonians in Washington, D.C. We have a children's museum that does free first Friday evenings and we're close enough to do day trips into D.C. Museums sometimes also offer free special events so keep an eye out.
4. Local pools. Last summer, we moved to an area that has tons of community pools around. While not free, for a few bucks we can spend a day relaxing in the pool and then hit the park for a dinner picnic.
5. Libraries. I love, love, love our local library. In our county, you can not only get a card for the county system but for three other nearby county systems as well. Each offers different children's programs for various ages, all for free. The one I go to with M2 most often does a sing-along and story time then play time with lots of toys for her age group. The bit older kids have a story, songs and then crafts. Special guests, like a live turkey around Thanksgiving, also make appearances. There's even a Lego club for older kids and a number of book clubs. And, of course, there are tons of books you can borrow along with kid-friendly movies. Borrow a movie, build a blanket/pillow fort, pop some popcorn and spend a rainy day relaxing.  Or, set up some boxes decorated to look like cars (craft project!) add the popcorn and you've got a drive in theater.