Friends, I had Plans for this Christmas break.

Not Big Plans. Not Important Plans. But Plans nonetheless.

I was going to deep clean the kitchen. Declutter the living room. Go through my clothes.

Did I do any of that? No.

But did to do fun, Christamas-y activities instead? Make homemade candy, build a gingerbread house, decorate cookies? Also no.

What did I accomplish, you ask?

I’m not sure. It’s a blur.

I fell asleep on the couch several times.

Zack and I watched “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” in its entirety. (Good stuff, if you need a show.)

The girls and I played several games of Farkle and Skip-Bo and SuperFight and Sequence.

And at some point, I decided I was over cooking dinner.

I give adulting a zero out of 10.

And so I began tossing random ingredients into the slow cooker and hoping for the best.

(This is remarkably similar to my usual cooking, truth be told, but with the slow cooker, the final reveal takes a bit longer and you have to smell it all day.)

Anyway, as it turns out, a pound of taco-seasoned, frozen beef crumbles tossed into the slow cooker with a bag of frozen corn, a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes, and a packet of Ranch seasoning makes for a very serviceable Frito chili pie.

At one point, I threw in a couple frozen, raw chicken breasts with a block of frozen homemade cream of mushroom soup and wound up with poppyseed chicken by the end of the day.

And I am sure a slow cooker full of cubed potatoes combined with ham and some Velveeta (the queen of quick cooking) could be quite delicious if a person didn’t, ahem, start the cooking process at 3 p.m.

Were these meals my best work?

I mean. I could argue that they were, but only when compared to the other options available – namely, stale cereal or raw, frozen meat.

Those are pretty low bars.

You don’t have to say it. I know that I really know how to sell it.

At one point, I got tired of the roulette-style of cooking and asked the rest of the English department what they liked to cook in their slow cookers.

I got several great suggestions, one of which reminded me of an older recipe I used to make routinely and had forgotten about.

The more recent version that has been making the rounds – and the one my friend Erica originally suggested – requires a bottle of Olive Garden Italian salad dressing, a few chicken breasts, and a block of cream cheese.

The older version, the one I’ve made dozens of times, requires only the chicken and cream cheese plus a packet of Italian dressing seasoning and a can of cream of chicken soup.

That’s the version I went with because those are ingredients I typically have on hand.

I’ll be honest: I remember this recipe tasting much better the last time I made it.

That’s probably because the last time I made it, I was not very comfortable with cooking. Really, at that time, I considered almost anything edible to be a win.

Still, I am going to keep this dish in my back pocket for the next time I don’t want to cook.

So, you know. Probably next Tuesday.

ITALIAN SLOW-COOKER CHICKEN

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese
1 packet dry Italian dressing seasonings
1 can cream of chicken soup
2-3 chicken breasts (about 1-2 pounds total weight)

Directions
■ Optional but recommended: Place cream cheese in a microwave-safe mixing bowl and microwave on high power about 30 seconds to soften.
■ Add packet of Italian dressing mix and the contents of the can of cream of chicken soup. Stir ingredients together until blended and set aside. Place chicken breasts into crock of slow cooker. (No company in the history of ever has recommended that you place frozen chicken breasts into a slow cooker, but that’s exactly what I did. Try this at your own risk. I like adventure.)
■ Pour cream cheese mixture over the chicken. Place lid on slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. When chicken is done, shred or slice into bite-sized pieces. I serve this over pasta and top with a shake of Parmesan cheese.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.