This Week in the Kitchen #1

It's been a strange week weather-wise. Monday and Tuesday's cool days and downright chilly evenings forced my book club meeting indoors, but by Friday we had the windows open and were dining on the patio again.

During the brief cold snap, I was craving more Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup, but Wegmans was out of boneless chicken thighs. I bought the bone-in variety with every intention of doing the de-boning myself, but by the time I got home that seemed like too much work and I decided to search for an alternate recipe.

Slow Cooker Latin Chicken from allrecipes.com looked pretty good. I didn't have quite enough chicken, but slow cooker recipes are pretty loose so that didn't deter me. Everything else was prepared strictly by the recipe... except for the cooking temperature. I didn't think the sweet potatoes would be fully cooked after four hours on low, so I set my crock pot to HIGH.

We were pleased with the outcome. The chicken disappeared quickly (we only had four small pieces) and there was enough leftover black bean/sweet potato mixture to use in another meal. My daughter suggested serving ground turkey or beef over rice and topping it with the warmed leftovers. I think that's a great idea!

Since I forgot to take a picture, the above photo is from the allrecipes website. We did not serve the Latin Chicken over rice. I made a green salad instead.

This morning I was still craving soup and decided to try Quick and Easy Tortellini Soup from the baker chick,  a recipe I pinned earlier in the week. I followed the recipe exactly as written and chose to use Wegmans fresh beef-stuffed tortellini. My sample was delicious. I can't wait to serve it up with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and Italian bread for lunch!

What's cooking in your kitchen this week?

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.