Creamy Chicken Alfredo

Some people requested the main dish recipe that was served at the May W&D so here it is - I essentially made this.  I usually make a variation of this (aka the dairy free version) which is that recipe except it is dairy free cream cheese and from scratch cream of mushroom soup which I got the recipe from here...   The following seems a bit lengthy but it's all quite easy.

Step 1 - Cream of Mushroom Soup
Make your own cream of mushroom soup!  My personal opinion is if you don't make your own you should because it's pretty easy, cheaper, and easy to freeze and then pull out of the freezer whenever you need it!  Also you can make it dairy free which is great.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs mushrooms
• 2 cups water
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 4 cups milk (use Lactaid if you're going for dairy free)
• 3 T lemon juice (or juice from 1 lemon)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1 T dried minced onion
• 2 T Italian seasoning

Directions

• You have a few different options for the mushrooms you can buy fresh ones from the store, used canned mushrooms, dehydrated mushrooms, etc.  I found a big carton of dehydrated various types of mushrooms at Costco that I use along with a small can of mushrooms.  Using various types of mushrooms adds something nice I think. 
• Add all of the above except the milk to a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.
• After 8 hours use an immersible hand blender to blend the soup. 
• You have the option to add the milk at this point or, what I do, is scoop out 1/2 C of the soup and put it into ziplocks to freeze.  You should end up with 8 or so ziplocks. 
• When you unfreeze your ziplock add 1/2 C milk to the bag and squeeze the bag to mix the milk into the soup.  You now have a cup of cream of mushroom soup!  A can of cream of mushroom soup is 10 oz so you can pretty much substitute your own cup of soup in any recipe that calls for a can of cream of mushroom soup.

Step 2 - Creamy Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Easy and delicious way to make chicken alfredo in the crockpot!

Ingredients

• 2-3 chicken breasts (frozen or unfrozen)
• 1 cup of your homemade cream of mushroom soup! (or a can of the store bought stuff if you're not going for homemade or for dairy free)
• 1/2 C Italian dressing
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 6 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1 8oz block of cream cheese (use Tofutti's lactose free version if you're doing dairy free)
• 1/2 - 1 bag of frozen peas or broccoli
• 1 lb noodles, like rotelle noodles

Directions

• Put first 5 ingredients in the crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours on low.
• After 6-8 hours shred chicken, add cream cheese, cook on low for another 1/2 hour.  Meanwhile start cooking the pasta.  
• A few minutes before the noodles are done add whichever veggie you've chosen to the boiling water with noodles.  
• Drain veggies and noodles once both are cooked/unfrozen, stir into crockpot alfredo mixture and enjoy!

Hope you like it!