Slow cooker chicken corn chowder

This healthy chicken corn chowder is made effortlessly in the slow cooker -- an easy and satisfying weeknight comfort food dinner.

I'm back with another slow cooker recipe.

Seriously: I've been on a slow cooker tear lately -- largely because I am single-handedly painting the interior of our new house (I know, I'm insane. Or just cheap. Or both). As you would guess, this is more than a bit time-consuming and tiring. By the time I finish up for the day, the last thing I want to think about is making dinner.

And you know how I feel about take out. Well, I might consider it if there was any place other than Domino's in my new 'hood that delivered to a house beyond walking distance from the local university... but there's not.

So I've been focusing on making the easiest weeknight dinners possible. Which is why I'm working my slow cooker overtime. Especially with no-prep-required slow cooker recipes, like this skinny chicken corn chowder.

Skinny taco soup

This skinny taco soup has all the flavor and crunch of a loaded taco but in a healthy, easy-to-make, comfort-food soup.

Does anyone make soup in the summer? Or is it just a cold-weather comfort-food thing? Which it definitely is for me.

And I particularly love a good, hearty soup -- not quite as thick as a stew but still filling enough to be an entire meal unto itself.

This skinny taco soup is just such a soup. It's got all flavors of a taco -- spicy chilis, browned turkey, crunchy tortillas and sharp cheddar cheese --  in an easy-to-make soup. Plus there's a whole load of good-for-you beans and veggies thrown in to make it a healthy weeknight meal.

9 craveable corn recipes (CSA Share Ninja Rescue 2014)

Enjoy these nine delicious recipes for fresh, sweet corn. In soups, salads, pastas, sides and even ice cream, corn is the sunny summer vegetable that everyone craves.

We're about halfway through the 2014 edition of the CSA Share Ninja Rescue, in which you get weekly seasonal produce recipes by request all summer long. Heck yeah! Just tell me each week what produce from your CSA share (or garden or farmers' market) is giving you fits, and I talk you down from the ledge with a list of delicious, healthy recipes on Tuesdays.

This week, we're talking sweet, fresh corn. Nothing says summer quite like just-picked corn, does it?  But if you're wearying of the usual boiled corn-on-the-cob with a pat of butter, check out these nine delicious ways to enjoy this sunny summer favorite.

Quinoa salad with fresh corn and tomatoes

A true summer salad -- fresh corn and tomatoes, tossed with warm quinoa, protein-packed edamame and a tangy lime vinaigrette. Enjoy it as a side or mix in grilled chicken for an easy meal.

Now this is a summer salad, peeps. Because what comes to mind almost instantly when you think of summer veg? Corn and tomatoes, am I right?

Oh, summer tomatoes: how I love thee. How I love thee for tasting like tomatoes rather than cardboard.

And summer corn: what is there to say? Eight bajillion ears for a couple of bucks and you don't even have to cook it. That's my kind of vegetable. 

Now, toss those seasonal beauties with warm, slightly crunchy quinoa, some protein-packed edamame and a tangy lime vinaigrette.

Summer in a bowl.

I generally make this salad as a side to accompany grilled meat: steaks, chicken, ribs, whatevs. But it's extra-awesome leftover for lunch the next day, with some grilled chicken mixed right into it to make it a meal salad.

Crockpot white bean chili with chicken and corn

Need a quick dinner? Try this easy set-it-and-forget-it slow cooker white bean chili with chicken or turkey and corn.

With less than a week to go until Thanksgiving, my Facebook feed is full of nothing but pictures of Thanksgiving dishes.

If I see one more photo of pumpkin pie, I may spontaneously combust.

So, since we've all got our hands full with planning the big meal or getting prepped for the over-the-river-and-through-the-woods roadtrip, The Ninj decided you need a break from all this holiday fallderall.

Get out yer crockpot and make yer life easy: whip up a big batch of chili so you can get on with everything else on your list.

I wound up creating this chili based on one that I tasted as part of a chili cookoff a few weeks ago at which I, The Ninj, was asked to be the "celebrity judge" (their words, not mine).

OMG, peeps, someone considers me a freakin' celebrity. I am so stoked.

At the cookoff, I tasted twelve different chili recipes in about fifteen minutes. Dudes: that's a lot of chili that, frankly, all started to taste the same after about six samples.

Except one.

CSA Share Ninja Rescue 2013: corn (9 ways)

Welcome back! Regular readers know that Monday is the day we share the CSA Share Ninja Rescue, a weekly feature in which you tell me on Fridays what veg you got in your CSA share box (or found at the farmers' market) that you don't know what to do with and I'll give you a whole bunch of recipe ideas on the following Monday.

(Since summer is winding down, we're getting to the last few installments of the Rescue for this year. If you need help with some veg, be sure to let me know quickly!)

This week: corn! In my opinion, it's one of the things that makes summer so wonderful.

And traditional corn-on-the-cob is always a tasty option, whether you boil it, grill it, slather it in butter or just eat it plain. But have you considered some other ways to prepare sweet summer corn?

I discovered, after making a fresh corn salad (pictured) for the first time a few years ago that I actually prefer it raw in salads. You can just zip it right off the cob and it's ready to go (the OXO corn zipper will be your new best friend).

Here are nine delicious ways to enjoy all that awesome summer corn -- and none of them involve the cob!

• Smoky Corn Chowder: Bacon and corn are a winning combination in this hearty chowder
• Fresh Corn Salad: Easy to prepare, gorgeous to behold and super delicious (pictured above)
• Corn Pudding: Because sometimes you need comfort food in the summer, too
• Corn and Broccoli Calzones: A fresh, unique take on a traditional calzone
• Corn Fritters: A great summer side
• Best-Evah Cornbread: Not lyin' -- it's the best! Enjoy with a bowl of chili.
• Corn with Bacon and Mushrooms: Just as yummy a side for breakfast as it is for dinner
• Bacon Cheddar Corn Muffins: How about slathering this savory muffin with some tomato jam?
• Sweet Corn Cocktail: Of course there's a boozy corn cocktail!

What's your favorite way to eat corn? Leave a comment: The Ninj wants to know.

Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup

Confession: I had never eaten tortilla soup before I made this recipe.

Another confession: This is not surprising, as there are lots of things I have never eaten before. I, probably like many of you, will often read a description of the dish or list of ingredients, think "eeew!" and then never give it another thought.

Lately, I've been learning that my judgmental nature has cut me off from some pretty good eating.

(Remember the stew?)

In reading a recent issue of a popular food magazine, I was drawn to a photo and recipe for tortilla soup; it was gorgeous and looked delicious. Then I read the headnote. What made this one noteworthy, in the magazine's view, was the chef's secret substitution: instead of tortillas, he used butter. An assload of butter. I think it was an entire stick.

What the ... ? Wouldn't that then be BUTTER SOUP?

I don't know about you, but when I want a little crunch alongside my sandwich at lunchtime or a vehicle to scoop up some yummy guacamole, I DON'T GRAB A STICK OF BUTTER.

Southwestern bean soup with chicken and kale (7-can soup)

Southwestern bean soup with chicken and kale (aka 7-can soup)

I'm excited to tell you about this recipe -- probably way too excited, actually, as it is only soup.

But what a soup, my friends!

Regular readers know that my favorite recipes are those that meet the following criteria:

1. Must be delicious
2. Must be simple, ingredient-wise, so it can be made with pantry staples rather than a trip to an exotic market, as well as wicked easy to prepare (read: no creme brulee torches required)
3. Should be stealthily healthy (that is, one bite should not prompt Mr. Ninj to say, "This must be good for me, right?")

This bean soup? Check, check and check.

About the same time I was reading in Eating Well magazine about low-calorie power soups inspired by a Weight Watchers garden vegetable soup, my friend Maria -- who I trust as an authority on healthy-yet-flavorful recipes, given that she is a caterer who also recently lost over 90 pounds -- posted the recipe for another Weight Watchers favorite: Seven-Can Soup.

The name says it all: seven cans of ingredients, thrown together in a pot, heated though and served.

Ridiculously easy!

Smoky corn chowder

Smoky corn chowder

I love happy accidents, don't you?

Or maybe you call it fate, karma, coincidence, being in the right place at the right time, or whatever.

It's still good stuff.

This corn chowder falls into just such a category. Here's the story.

I happened to mention on Facebook that it was my dogs' birthday (yes, they share the same one, four years apart, despite the fact that they are both rescues -- cool, no?) and that I was making them a meatloaf (yep, everyone eats well in this house). A friend messaged me and asked if it was people-appropriate and, if so, would I share the recipe. Suffice it to say that the dogs' meatloaf, while made with people-friendly ingredients, is a bit too bland for most humans, so I offered to send her my regular meatloaf recipe (which is awesome -- I'll blog about it at some point).

In the string of emails that ensued, my friend mentioned that she was making a corn chowder for dinner. I thought that sounded lovely so, in the spirit of recipe swapping, I asked if she would send the chowder recipe to me. She did and included her adaptations as well.

Although corn season has passed for another year (we miss you already!), I fortunately had some shucked frozen kernels in the freezer (store-bought frozen corn would work just as well, too), so I decided to give the chowder a whirl.

(And the fact that the recipe called for a bunch of bacon of course didn't hurt.)

CSA Share Ninja Rescue: corn

Cornbread muffins

Ah, sweet corn! Thank goodness you are back in season.

I don't even bother with plain corn-on-the-cob much anymore, since I discovered how amazingly sweet and awesome fresh corn kernels are when zipped right off the cob and used in salads, soups and sides.

(This OXO Good Grips corn zipper is the easiest, least messy way to strip the kernels from the cob, because it holds the kernels right in the built-in cup -- I love mine and can't recommend it highly enough!)

I would love to hear what your favorite corn recipes are. But for those of you who received corn in your CSA share or for whom the 8-gallion-ears-for-$2 roadside stands are popping up all over, here are some of the Ninj's current faves: