I admit that I was becoming quite discouraged with my recipe challenge. I have been really diligent over the past several weeks to not only locate but make sure we cooked and tried new recipes. Everything has been eaten, but disappointing as no-one wanted to have it a second time.

I am so glad to say that we found a winner this week. Burrito Bowl Soup . This is from one of my favorite recipe site! Another giant plus was that it actually called for two cans of refried beans which we had been gifted at Christmas but I rarely eat beans so this was an item that I was afraid would go bad before it got used.

I was reluctant to try this recipe for a couple of reason, first the beans and second it only cooks for 4 hours and that included adding in rice the last 20-30 minutes. I actually stared this at lunch on Monday between the girls doctor’s appointments. The crockpot switched over to warm and I simply turned on high before adding the rice. I had some left-over rice in the refrigerator so I am sure it was not the called for two cups. But even with all these things stacked against it, everyone agreed this is a repeat!

I did run out to the store to grab a couple of bag of chips to add to the soup as it was very liquid with less rice. The other change I made was to add a teaspoon of taco seasoning instead of cumin. This helped decreased the allergic reaction for Lily as well! Chips, cheese, sour cream and burrito soup for the win.

I remember to freeze a second and third dinner as I am trying to cut down on the amount of left-overs we have and reduce food waste as well.

One of the goals, I wrote was to try 52 new recipes this year. I promptly forgot about it when menu planning of the week. But as I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday morning , I found “17 instapot chicken recipes.” I decided to check this post out and found the recipe, I used for lunch today. The reason I chose this recipe was that it would encourage us to completely use up the remaining Christmas left-overs. We don’t like to wait for lunch after church so I made a couple of changes to the original recipe.

Here is what I actually did for Cranberry Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast
Can of pineapple chucks
Cranberry Sauce- I used the remaining amount from our Christmas meal, the original recipe called for a can of whole cranberry sauce.
1Tablespoon of Brown Sugar.

Dumped in the crockpot with chicken on the bottom and cooked on high for 4 hours.

The results: 3+/5. Zach was not a fan and did not finish his, Kendall statement “it is on the verge of being good.” Lily LOVED it and requested again. Both Matt and I enjoyed the meal. Matt summed it up best, “Not something I would buy the cranberry sauce for, but it was good.” The four breast were plenty, I actually have enough to use on two of my salads this week.