Cranberry Chicken

4 chicken breasts, skinless, boneless
1 15 ounce can whole cranberry sauce (I used Ocean Spray)
1/3 cup chili garlic sauce- I used Lee Kum Kee (you can increase the amount if you like really spicy food)
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 onion, chopped

Put breasts in 2 or 3 quart crockpot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour on top of chicken. Stir to coat chicken well with sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

This was delicious and spicy! The cranberry flavor was very subtle to me- what I could taste was the chili garlic sauce! I am a "no star" or maybe "1 star" Thai Food person, so if you like spicy, consider increasing the chili sauce.

I used a 3 quart crock pot. If I had a 2 or 2 1/2 quart crock pot, that would have been better since the chicken didn't fill the 3 quart pot. I think it may have dried out a little bit. I also could have turned it off a little earlier. This crock pot doesn't have a warm option, which would be nice.

I just ate this plain with a side salad since I am trying to use up what we have in the fridge before we go on a trip. I think this would be tasty with rice.

Sausage Vegetable Soup

4 cups beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes with diced chilies
1 package Adelle's chicken apple sausage-around 6-8 links, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 can white beans- drained, rinsed
1 can red kidney beans- drained, rinsed
1 bay leaf
4 cloves of garlic- peeled and minced
2 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup broccoli
2 cups diced potatoes ( I used baby reds)
1 onion- diced

Combine all ingredients in a 6-quart crock pot. Cook on low 6- 8 hours.

This recipe might be more appropriately named "Leftover Soup" because that is what it was. We were going out to our cabin for the weekend and I had a ton of vegetables in the fridge that needed to be eaten. So I brought them all out, chopped them up, added some sausage and a few other things. Viola! A fantastic soup. My kids gave this a thumbs up, even though Alex only would eat the sausage and Hailey would only eat the beans out of it. My husband absolutely loved it. So did I.

Neal's only suggestion was that I try cooking the sausage first on high heat to brown it and seal in the flavor. I'll try that next time. I usually like one step cooking- throw it all in the pot and turn it on. Sometimes a few extra steps are worth it though.