Chicken white chili in the crock pot

I adapted this from a recipe on food.com.

The original:
http://www.food.com/recipe/amazing-crock-pot-white-chili-w-chicken-194585

In the crock pot, on high, about four hours:
- one can chicken noodle soup
- three cans water
- one box Archer Farms butternut squash soup
(I didn't have chicken stock)
- about 2 cups diced leftover chicken
- 2 really big cloves garlic, minced
- 3 peppers from my garden, diced (one green, one jalapeño, and one spicy green)
- about 45 ounces white beans
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons parsley
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano from my garden
- 1/2 teaspoon country herb seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

At 2:30 (about 80 minutes after I set the crockpot up), I tasted the broth and found the peppers had kick but the broth was a tad plain and runny and I saw way more chicken than beans.

So I went into my freezer and added another bag of beans. Each bag is roughly 15 ounces/1 can. Then I added maybe a 1/2-3/4 teaspoon more cumin and about 1/2 teaspoon chili powder.

Then I still wasn't happy so I added a can of creamed corn for more body. Might add fresh broccoli later.

Turkey-white bean burgers with spinach

During the day today, I plan to prep these:

http://m.finecooking.com/recipes/seared-turkey-white-bean-burgers.aspx

I plan to adjust some ingredients and add spinach.

I have some serious preparations to make since my ground turkey is frozen and my beans are dry beans that I need to soak and cook. Once I get these beans ready, cooked and divided into freezer bags, not only will we have turkey burgers but we'll have black and white beans in the freezer.

Stuff in the freezer is my secret weapon.

I had some problems, so measures are approximate.

Mix into patties:
- about two cups beans, mashed (mine weren't tender enough to mash well, since I didn't use canned beans)
- two tablespoons olive oil
- two teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 cups cooked spinach, drained as best as possible
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup cornflake crumbs
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Newman's Own sesame ginger dressing
- juice of half a lemon
- 1.25 pounds ground turkey

Mighty Green Pork Soup

It's raining and I wanted to make this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2011/01/pork-soup-part-one.html?m=1
But as usual I don't have the ingredients. So I made a similar soup.

INGREDIENTS (in crock pot)
- about two cups chopped and browned pork

(I browned mine in my Le Creuset cast iron skillet with two parts canola oil to one part walnut oil, adding fresh ground pepper and minced garlic while it fried)
- 32 ounces Kitchen Basics unsalted vegetable stock
- 16 ounces Pacific foods Organic butternut squash soup
- 36 ounces water
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 1/2 cups frozen greenbeans

- 1 can Great Northern Beans
- 1 crown fresh broccoli
- 1/4 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen corn

White Bean, Spinach and Ham Soup

Shannon's Black Bean and Ham soup has got me thinking of how to use a bag of white beans and the remaining ham hock from the freezer. (See January 16 or click "ham hocks" below to see Shan's recipe.) I did a quick web search and found several similar variations of Shan's black bean soup for white beans. I'm starting with boiling water, then I plan to throw the frozen ham hock into the pot. Then. I'll wait about ten minutes and add the bag of beans and a clove or two fresh minced garlic...

I put the ham hock and the great Northern Beans in the boiling water. I added one clove chopped garlic and covered. In the blender, I put two cloves garlic and a can of undrained spinach, and some of my four color pepper blend and liquefied. That will get added in a couple hours, but for now the spinach and garlic flavors can meld.

So after boiling for about ninety minutes, I noticed the water had just about been absorbed/boiled off. So I pulled the ham hock out to slice the meat off, added about two quarts more water and combined the bean soup with the spinach mix. I then ran about half of the results through the blender. I then put everything back together, added the sliced ham bits, and got the soup going to a simmer. So far it tastes bland, but I'll let it simmer a while before I start adding things.