Sorry about not posting last night, but What's for dinner tonight?

I was going to make some Asian meat ball recipe, but that got postponed as did the blog post:

Last night we ended up going to dinner with a friend.  We went to Fat Tuesday.  One of our favorite places to eat.  The special was a Steak and Cheese Po-Boy.  It was very good.  I got it with just onions and the special hot sauce and added a little extra Frank's Hot Sauce. I had the sweet potatoes for the side.  Tough choice since I also love the collard greens there.  I have yet to be disappointed going there.  I've tried most everything and liked it all.  Most of the time I need to add a little extra hot sauce, but I'm good with that.

For tonight, I needed to make something for dinner that could be made ahead but also sit for a while in case I was going to be eating later.  So I decided something in the crock pot would be best of course.  I didn't have a recipe ready, so I searched the internet.  I found a few recipes that sounded good.  Many would have required me to run to the store for items I didn't have.  Then I came across a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Stew.  It sounded good, but again didn't have everything.  So I kept looking for other Chicken Pot Pie Stew recipes.After what felt like hundreds of  recipes (more like 4 or 5) I decided, I will just create my own.  Since many of the recipes had similar ingredients, I just used stuff I had on hand and decided to just wing a recipe.  Here is what I had:

Oh, I forgot the broccoli bits in the photo.  Sorry about that broccoli  since I also forgot about you in the freezer for so long.

1lbs Chicken, cut up into bite-size pieces

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 can Milk

7-8 Potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 cup Carrots chopped

1 can Green Beans, french cut

1 cup Corn

1 cup Broccoli bits

6 teaspoons Chicken base

Few cloves Garlic to taste

1/2 Tbls Onion Powder

1/2 Tbls Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon Celery Salt

dash Salt

dash Pepper

While preparing, I was watching the Food Network.  I know that isn't a shock to those that know me.  I watched Rachael Ray.  She made a comment that she dirties a ton of dishes when she cooks and it was a good thing she doesn't do the dishes.  She was making Hot 'N Sweet Shrimp Lettuce Wraps and Orange-Sesame Pork Chops with Teriyaki Whole-Wheat Noodles.  They looked great!  I going to have to try this out sometime.

Back to the recipe.  I started out pealing, washing and chopping the carrots and potatoes and throwing them in the crock pot.  And thanks to Rachael Ray, I used a garbage bowl to through all my peels and scraps into so that I didn't make a mess.

Then added the cream of chicken soup and milk.  I mixed it up a little.  Added the chicken base and spices.  Mixed it up again.  

The added the corn, broccoli and green beans. I then cut up the chicken, 

added it to the crock pot.  The broccoli had a little bit of ice crystals on it, okay a lot, but I figured it would just add some moisture to it.  And I only have a cup of it anyway.

Cooked on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8.  Heck, if it is bubbly  the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are done, eat up!  :)

***For a cheesy chicken pot pie, add some sharp cheddar cheese and cook on high until it is melted.  I would recommend 1-2 cups depending on how much cheese you want.  Or just though a little on top of you bowl before serving.

***Turkey would also be good instead of chicken.

*** For beef, I would use beef base for the chicken base and cream of mushroom or cream of celery for the cream of chicken.  And water instead of milk.