“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ∼ J.R.R. Tolkien∼
I am a big fan of the idea of cooking one time and eating on that meal twice. We stay busy, and while I like to cook, it is nice to have some nights off from the kitchen. However, we are REALLY bad about forgetting (or ignoring) the leftovers at the back of the refrigerator, and sometimes we just really don’t want to have the same dinner two nights in a row.
Enter something I like to call the revamped recipe!
Chicken and rice is a staple dinner in many households, and ours is no exception. And because I like EASY, I like to make our version of chicken and rice in the trusty slow cooker! It’s another dump and done! All you have to do is throw it all together in the morning, and before serving, whip up a batch of instant rice, throw together a quick salad, and ta-da! Dinner is served!
Night #1 – Creamy Italian Chicken and Rice
Ingredients:
- 2 – 4 boneless chicken breasts
- 8 ounces of cream cheese
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 packet of dried Italian dressing seasoning
Place the cream cheese (if straight out of the refrigerator), the cream of chicken soup, and the dried Italian dressing seasoning in the slow cooker, and let it warm up for about 30 minutes or so until the cream cheese is soft enough to smoothly combine with the other ingredients. Stir it all up. Add the chicken breasts on top of the sauce mixture. Cook on high for 4 – 6 hours or on low for 6 – 8 hours. Remove the chicken from the sauce to shred, and then return to the slow cooker. Stir to combine. Serve the chicken on a bed of rice and with a side salad. Yum!
Now if you really like it this way, go ahead and eat it with rice and a salad for two nights! The chicken mixture heats up really well, and it will be just as delicious as the first night!
But if you want a slightly different meal, all you have to do add in some hamburger buns and your favorite quick side!
Night #2 – Creamy Italian Chicken Sandwiches
Take your chicken mixture straight out of the refrigerator…no heating necessary unless you just want to do so! We like ours cold (sort of like chicken salad). Serve it on hamburger buns with some dill pickle slices and a side of potato chips or your favorite store-bought potato salad. (We love the mustard potato salad that comes in a tub from Wal-Mart.) Delicious!
It’s a two for one deal! If you try it out, let me know what you think! Also, I would LOVE to hear about other recipes that can be tweaked and turned into double the dinners! Please share!
And as always, if you would like to save this to a Pinterest recipe board for future use, just click the Pinterest button below this post, or you can click the title image, and the button will be on the top left corner of the image. I hope you enjoy this one as much as my family does!
Twin and Bear It 