Crock Pot Cheesey Rice

Although I didn't get this post up last week, I did manage to fit a crock pot recipe in.

I've always thought of my crock pot as my go-to appliance for making convenient meals (meat, veggies, liquid and voila! A healthy meal all in one) or delicious main courses (like beef stew, and roast, and... well, this is why I'm forcing myself to use the crock pot once a week.  To start thinking outside of the stew-meat category).  I never really thought of using it for a side dish or dessert, until this week.

For two years now, Thursdays are our designated night for dinner with friends. There are 3 families and we rotate houses and responsibilities.  Typically, the host makes the main dish and the guests bring a dessert or a side-dish; not only does this give us something to look forward to when we're hating our lives on Monday, it's also nice to have just one night a week that we don't have to come up with the whole meal.  In the two years we've been doing this, two babies have been born (O included), new jobs have been celebrated, and many other major (and minor) changes have been embraced; it's just a great way for us to keep up with our friends.

This week, the main course was fajitas (and yes, I'm pretty sure at least one person pronounced it "fuh-jee-tus" at least once), so I decided to make some rice.  Like most crock pot recipes, this was as easy as measuring ingredients and dumping them into the pot:

2 cans cheddar cheese soup (although I think the fiesta cheese or nacho cheese would have been good too)
1 cup water
2 cups chunky salsa or picante sauce
1 1/4 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice

I literally dumped these things together, stirred, and cooked it on high for 4 hours.  If you have a longer time that you'll need to be out of the house, you can cook it on low for 7-8 hours.

I thought it was pretty good, but a little sticky.  I don't know if I would use both cans of cheese soup next time, I think I might stick to one can and add more salsa or picante.