Crock Pot Cheesy Potatoes

Crock Pot Cheesy Potatoes

1/2 onion, diced
2/3 too half stick of butter (or margarine) 8 oz. sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 bag of shredded hash brown potatoes (usually 26 to 30 oz.)
2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in microwave along with onion to soften onion.  Once butter is melted, stir in sour cream and soup.  In a very large bowl, mix together hash browns, cheese, and butter/sour cream/soup mix.  (I do recommend doing this in a large bowl rather than right in the crock pot so you have more room to move it around, but if you want to do it right in the slow cooker, go ahead.)  Pour into crock pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

If you want to be fancy like I did for Thanksgiving today you can transfer the taters into an oven safe dish sprinkle more cheese on top and broil the top til crispy and sprinkle crispy bacon on top!
I also blotted any extra grease off the top with a paper towel because I'm crazy like that...

Roasted Butternut Acorn Squash Soup

My aunt sent me a great fall soup recipe which I tweeked just a bit and it turned out amazing!

Roasted Butternut Acorn Squash Soup

1 small butternut squash
1 small acorn squash
1 onion
4 cups chicken stock
Salt
Pepper
1/8th cup packed brown sugar
Dash cinnamon
3/4ths of a brick of cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter browned

Slice your squash in half and remove seeds. Cut onion in half. You don't even have to remove skin. Lay face down on lined greased cookie sheet. Roast your squashs and onion at 350 until done about 40 min. Cool and scrape out insides of squash and peel the skin off the onion. Place everything in your vitamix and blend until smooth hot and bubbly. If you have to do it in batches just blend til smooth and heat on the stove in a sauce pan.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 (12 ounce) cans chunk chicken drained (I use the Kirtland ones from Costco so they are a bit bigger than the ones you get from say Wal-Mart which are 10oz)

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
softened

1 cup Ranch dressing

1 cup Frank's or 3/4 cup if using the 10oz cans you get at Wal-Mart

2 to 2 1/2cups shredded Cheddar cheese

celery, cleaned and cut into sticks

Chips or crackers

Directions:

Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through.

Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. 

Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker or oven safe dish (8x11 or 9x13)

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly if in slow cooker or 350 for 30 min.

Serve with celery sticks and chips or crackers.  I am sure a little blue cheese dressing would be yummy on this as well!

The picture is of a little mini one I made