Crockpot Italian Chicken and Vegetables

Yesterday, I decided to pull my Crockpot out from the dark recesses of my cupboard because I realized that it was an extremely under-utilized appliance in my kitchen.  And in a kitchen as limited on storage as mine, I had challenged myself to 'use it or lose it.'  So today, I pulled out my I slow cooker cookbook and picked a recipe, but immediately made a bunch of changes, so I'm claiming this one as mine!  :-) 

[*cooks notes: 1) My sauce was a bit runny, so I changed the amount of wine from what I used to what I think would be a better amount.  2) I suspect this would also be really good with kielbasa sausage instead of chicken]




Crockpot Italian Chicken and Vegetables
Ingredients:

a sneak peak as I turned off the crockpot

9 oz. frozen French-cut green beans
1-2 bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, sliced to the same size as the peppers
1/2 onion, sliced [meant, but totally forgot, to include- whoops!!]
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
1/4-1/2 c. dry red wine
1/2 c. pizza sauce [recipe called for tomato paste, but I didn't have it, so I improvised!  sauce was a bit runny, so I'll probably use paste next time]
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
pinch of coarse salt
freshly ground pepper- a couple good turns on the pepper grinder

Directions:
Place the beans, peppers, onions and zucchini at the bottom of slow cooker.
Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables.
In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients, mixing well, and pour over chicken.
Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.
Serve over hot, cooked fettuccine as a sauce or serve without pasta, as the main dish.