What’s For Dinner? Slow Cooked Creamy Italian Chicken

This is one of our family's favorite recipes for the slow cooker, because it's quick, yummy and e-a-s-y! We're actually traveling a little this week on Spring Break, and brought Mrs. Potts along for the ride. (I know, how nerdy is it that I brought my crockpot with me on vacation?  Seriously!  Who does this stuff?)

Our family left Alabama earlier this week to ski in Colorado (yes, a twenty four hour DRIVE with three kids, a road-trip-lovin'-hubby, and of course Mrs. Potts in the back seat), and are enjoying some amazing days in what has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We're heading home shortly, but in the meantime wanted to share one of our favorite ways to penny pinch on a not-so-penny-pinched vacation:  cook simple meals on the road!

Since skiing is probably one of the least frugal vacations out there, we're trying to squeeze at least a few pennies by cooking a few of our own meals while traveling.    We ate out twice during the two-day drive here, and are eating our breakfasts as well as many of our dinners in our condo. (Somehow it's just more fun to cook in someone else's kitchen. . . and after a full day of skiing my kids are would rather head to the pool or back outside to play in the snow than sit and wait food at a restaurant!)  I'll share more tips later this week on how we save towards vacation, but for us, it's one of those amazing things that we're able to do because we live frugally most of the time.  So, while I feel a little guilty splurging on such a frivolous trip (really, it's very hard for me not to feel like it's so wasteful!), well, it's something our family loves and one of the reasons that we choose to pinch those pennies.

Okie dokie, enough chatting, right? On to the recipe. . . Slow Cooked Italian Chicken.  I'm betting you've seen this recipe before, but if you haven't, it's one of those no fuss kind of meals totally worth pulling out the crock pot for on a busy day.  And, if you happen to be heading out on vacation, you can always take your crockpot along for the ride too. (And be a slow cookin' nerd, like me.) 🙂

Slow Cooked Italian Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken breast, refrigerated or frozen
• 1 packet dry Italian Dressing Mix (or try out this Italian Dressing MixSeasoning at home)
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened 
• 1 can cream of chicken soup or Homemade Cream Soup Substitute

Directions

1. Place chicken in crock pot. Combine water and Italian salad dressing mix together and pour over chicken.
2. Cook on low for 3 hours. Shred chicken.
3. Use hand mixer to combine soup and cream cheese. Mix until creamy, then add to chicken and cook one hour longer.
4. Serve over cooked pasta, along with a side salad and garlic bread.  Yummm!

Does it get any easier than that? We were in such a hurry yesterday that I threw all the ingredients in Mrs. Potts in the morning and cooked it all on low for five hours.  Our new favorite roast recipe is also on the menu plan this week!

On a completely silly side note, I have to share this with you guys!  We went to the City Market in Aspen, Colorado (a Kroger affiliate store) to pick up the chicken and cream cheese, and it was a hoot watching a whole other crowd at the grocery store.  The store was packed, without a single coupon binder in site.  I'm pretty sure every single car in the parking lot was a BMW, Lexus, or Volvo, and I couldn't believe how much folks pay for even margarine. 

City Market did have their whole chicken on sale for $.99/lb. though, so I guess there might just be a bit of a penny-pinched-deal in this not-at-all-penny-pinched town. Think I'm the only girl in this city who lugged along her crockpot on vacation but left the BMW at home? Yup, I'm thinkin' so too. 😉

Do you have any tips on how to save money while traveling or easy recipes to take with you on the road?  Please leave a comment to share!

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