Slow cooker creamy chicken and tomato pasta sauce

Disclosure: This recipe is being shared as part of #NationalSlowCookerMonth. I received products from our sponsors for this event. As always, all opinions are my own.

This creamy, flavorful, and simple pasta sauce is sure to become a family favorite! Your slow cooker does the work and you have a hearty dish for a weeknight dinner.

Did you know January is National Slow Cooker Month?? I didn't until recently and I'm happy to be sharing some new slow cooker recipes this week along with some of my blogger friends! Visit the bottom of this post for more recipes and to enter an awesome giveaway!

This recipe is a favorite of mine. It's a recipe that I've been making for a while and I adapted it from here. It's always a favorite in our house and I like to serve it with my kids' favorite pasta shape - "bow ties" or farfalle, along with a side of green beans, broccoli, or a salad. It's a perfect meal for a chilly day and an easy weeknight meal. Plus it's very kid-friendly, which is always a bonus around here!

Pasta dishes make an appearance on our menu about once per week because my whole family loves pasta meals. I try to switch it up from the usual spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce or macaroni and cheese so that my kids are exposed to different ways to enjoy one of their favorites. My kids are still learning to enjoy eating (except in the form of things like nuggets haha), but this is a way that they like it. 

If you are looking for meals, recipes, ideas, and resources for feeding your family with little kids, please don't forget to join my Facebook group: Feeding our Families & Raising Adventurous Eaters.

Chicken, corn, and rivel soup

Creamy, thick, and hearty soup that is loaded with tender chicken, sweet corn, carrots, and fluffy rivel dumplings! This is a soup to warm you up from the inside out on a cold winter day.

It's National Soup Swap Day! I'm sharing a new soup recipe today to celebrate along with a few other blogger friends. Soup is one of my favorite cold-weather meals to make and eat. I have so many soup recipes on the blog already. I was trying to come up with something new and came across a corn and rivel soup in one of my old Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks. Given how much I love rivels, I decided I'd use that as a base, but make it more hearty and delicious with extra vegetables, chicken, and more. I wanted to add some more color as well so I used carrots in this soup. I think peas would also be a nice addition.

Rivels are a rustic dumpling and are commonly found in Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. This is not the first time I've shared rivels. I previously shared a recipe for Ham, Bean, and Rivel Soup, which was a dish my mom made when I was a kid. I like to make the ham soup when we have leftover ham. It's a filling and frugal meal! However, I never really thought to use rivels in other soups until now. This chicken and corn soup is thick and creamy like a chowder and so very yummy and filling. It's a meal all on its own, though a side salad or bread would also fill it out.

Soup is a great way to warm up and feed your family. What's your favorite soup to make on a cold evening?

Chewy chocolate mint chip cookies

Soft and chewy chocolate cookies filled with mint chips are a delicious and festive cookie to add to your holiday cookie tray.

I hope everyone is ready for all of their holiday celebrations! I've been baking up a storm this week with my little helpers. We wrapped up a bunch of cookies for some of our neighbors and went for a walk to deliver them all yesterday. The kids had so much fun giving their cookies to some of their special neighbors and many of the neighbors were very happy and grateful (and surprised) for their little gifts.

I'm always a big fan of chocolate and peppermint. I like it all year round, but especially at the holidays. These cookies are a chewy chocolate cookie and I used a little bit of peppermint extract along with the mint chips for an extra boost of flavor. Other times of the year you can just use more vanilla extract and use regular chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch, dark chocolate, whatever chips you like. You could use walnuts instead as well, or a mix of nuts and chips. They are versatile and really yummy!

I wish everyone all the best this holiday season!

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Winter Solstice sun bread

Sun bread is a yummy and cheery way to bring sunshine into your home during the winter. It's also a fun way to celebrate the winter solstice and the return of light.

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My kids and I made sun bread to get ready for the winter solstice this weekend. Since we are a very outdoorsy and nature loving family, we like to recognize the seasons and important events in the natural world. We always make pine cone bird feeders for solstice, but now that the kids are getting a little older we can do a bit more including reading some books together. The recipe is inspired by the book Sun Bread which we got from the library recently along with some other books celebrating the first day of winter. This book is so cute and the animals all make and share a warm loaf of sun bread to help bring back the sun. After reading the book, making this bread is a perfect cold and dreary winter day activity.

I made this bread with the help of two three year olds, so it's not picture perfect bread by any means. They loved kneading the bread and helping to shape it. They used their little fingers to poke the eyes into the sun's face. I tried to not intervene too much and let them have fun. The goal for this recipe is to get your kids into the kitchen to bake some delicious bread on a chilly day and then all share it together. Reading the book is a good idea too! We served our bread for lunch with honey and butter, apple slices, and cheese. It's a rich and sweet bread making it perfect for breakfast or as a lunch/snack.

Whole wheat cranberry pancakes

Fluffy and hearty whole wheat pancakes are studded with tart fresh cranberries for a delicious fall or winter breakfast!

For this recipe I've combined two of my kids' favorite things -- cranberries and pancakes! This time of year I'm always grabbing up as many bags of fresh cranberries as I can while they are available. And, pancakes are always a hit in our house! Whole wheat pancakes can be tricky sometimes though. Too dry or thick... but these ones turn out fluffy and not too heavy! The little bursts of fresh cranberry add brightness and contrast to an otherwise sweet breakfast. A little cinnamon in the batter also brings the smell and taste of the holidays to your table.

These pancakes are terrific for a holiday breakfast or a winter weekend breakfast. The whole wheat makes them more filling. You can dust them with a little powdered sugar to give a "snow" effect as well to make them extra festive! I like to serve these with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon and a good drizzle of real maple syrup. Sausage or bacon are always a bonus, too.