I almost forgot — I put dinner in the crock-pot today, and it was fabulous and easy. So I thought I’d share.

The basic recipe is from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, but I modified it a little to be a little tastier.

Chicken Cordon Bleu via Crock Pot
serves 4 to 6

ingredients:
4-6 chicken breasts
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
thin-sliced ham (lunch meat)
monterey jack cheese
swiss cheese
1 can of sliced mushrooms
garlic powder
1/4 c. milk

Pound the chicken breasts flat with a mallet. If you don’t have a mallet, a hammer will work if you put something hard on the breasts (like a book) and then pound *that*. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)

Lay a slice or two of the ham on the flattened breast, and top it with thin slices of the two cheeses. Sprinkle with just a tiny bit of garlic powder and salt/pepper as desired. Starting from one end, roll up the breast into a burrito-like shape, and arrange them in the crock-pot in one layer. (You can layer more, if you have a small crock pot — in mine, six breast-rolls fit comfortably in the bottom.)

Mix together the drained can of mushrooms and the soup with the milk. Stir until smooth. Add in just a bit more garlic powder and salt/pepper, if you’d like. (I like. A lot.)

Cook on high for 4 - 6 hours, depending on your crock-pot and the size of your breasts. (The chicken breasts. Not your breasts. Those don’t matter in most cooking.)

To serve, arrange on the plate and ladle some of the cooked sauce over the top. You may need to add a little flour to the sauce and bring it to a boil to get it to thicken enough. Serve with wild rice and a big green salad, and it’s a well-balanced meal, and so easy you’ll have time to do all kinds of other things in the interim.

I’ll be making this again, for sure.