I stayed home two days this week with a sick kiddo. He's on the mend, but I'm exhausted because I've had hardly no sleep since Monday night. Luckily I've learned how to function on minimal sleep.

I threw this together this afternoon and it's been cooking in the slow cooker- nothing fancy but goodness gracious is it yummy!

Creamy Onion Chicken

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 package onion soup mix
1 1/2 c. light sour cream (I prefer Daisy brand)
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can mushrooms
1/4 c. chicken stock or broth (low sodium)
black pepper

Pour stock/broth in crockpot. Pepper the chicken thighs lightly and place in crockpot.

in bowl mix soup mix, sour cream, & cream of chicken soup until blended.
Stir in mushrooms.
Spoon mixture over chicken thighs.

Cook on high for 4 hours.

Serve over your preferred noodle.

I've been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I like my cookies crisp around the edges, gooey in the middle, and just a tad salty to balance the sweetness. I think I've finally found it.

Crispy, Chewy, Chocolate Chip Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

These cookies are wonderful! I make two small changes. I never remember to buy unsalted butter, so I used regular salted butter. I also scaled the chocolate chips back by almost 1/2 a cup and added chopped pecans. Any time I add nuts to a cookie I reduce the chocolate chips, I think this helps the cookie have less "filler" so you get more of the yummy cookie part.

My three-year old helped me scoop the dough so we rolled the dough into larger marble sized balls. We ended up with about 46 cookies using this recipe.

Am I a horrible person if we just have cookies for dinner tonight?

This week I decided I was going to step outside the box and make nothing but crockpot meals for dinner. I selected 6 dishes (5 days + 1 alternate) and headed to the grocery store and bought the necessary ingredients for my dinners.

Day 1- "The Most Amazing Pork Chops Ever" from The Crockin' Girls. This meal was quick to assemble. Basically dump everything but the meat in a bowl, stir it up, pour over meat, and cook for 8 hours. I served this meal with my cheddar mashed potatoes, sweet corn, and crescent rolls (assembled by Desmond). Overall the meal was a hit. The sauce for the pork chops was a little on the salty side, but we still liked it.

Day 2- Cheesy Potato Soup from Betty Crocker's website. This is my favorite potato soup recipe. It always turns out so delicious. Instead of the bacon pieces I cook my own bacon and while it's cooking I season it with McCormick Montreal Seasoning; this gives the bacon a peppery flavor, it's really good. I served this in sourdough bread bowls; just buy the big sourdough rolls in the bakery section of the grocery store and cut the middle out of it. Top with the peppered bacon, green onions, fat free sour cream, and a little shredded cheese- yummy!

Day 3- We ended up making plans to go see Santa so we went out for pizza

Day 4- Husband had dinner plans with the guys so I didn't cook dinner

Day 5- Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches. This smelled so delicious when it was cooking. The only change I made to the recipe was that I used beef broth instead of water & bouillon because I didn't have any bouillon & I used a red bell pepper instead of green. The meat was overcooked and ended up falling apart; I thought it tasted dry. Instead of hoagie rolls I made one big sandwich with a french bread. (Hint: Freeze your french bread until you're ready to use it. Let it thaw for about 30 minutes, just long enough to cut it in half. Leaving it slightly frozen will keep the bread from overcooking under the broiler and getting dried out. It still gets nice and toasted but the insides stay soft and chewy.) Overall, I thought this recipe was ok. It didn't have the Philly cheese steak flavor I'm used to. I think I prefer my steak pan seared. Matt liked it, but he thought it tasted like an Italian beef/Philly cheese hybrid. I might try a different cut of beef next time I try this.

I still have three more recipes to try next week. I am looking forward to getting more use out of my slow cooker.