CrockPot Turkey and Rice Casserole

Earlier this week I tried my hand at a another slow cooker recipe.  This time the subject was turkey.  Now there are quite a few recipes for nearly whole turkeys cooked in the crock pot.   But I was looking for something to use up a frozen package of turkey breast cutlets.  After lots of searching I settled on this recipe from momswhothink.com:

Crock Pot Turkey and Rice Casserole

Ingredients:
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
3 cups water
3 cups converted long-grain white rice (uncooked)
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 to 2 cups cubed cooked turkey
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (peas & carrots, oriental mix, etc.)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 Tablespoon dried minced onion

Steps:
1. Pour soup and water into Crock Pot and stir to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
2. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high.

The finished product:

First, let me get a few recipe specifics out of the way.  As I said at the beginning, I had a package frozen turkey.  So I thawed them out and cubed the cutlets into bite-sized pieces.  The pound package of turkey yielded about 2 whole cups.  I placed the slow cooker insert on the stove, added a touch of olive oil and cooked the turkey cubes.  I used 2 celery stalks and a frozen steam-fresh mixed vegetables package.  I recently got a sampler of Penzey's Bouquet Garni - which they describe as going well with poultry and fish.  So, I used that for my poultry seasoning.  I cooked on low for 6 hours.

I can not deny that as it was cooking it smelled really delicious.  I had to hold back from lifting the lid on a couple of occasions.  When we were finally ready to eat, I lifted the lid to this wonderful sight.  Two little problems that I found.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of rice.  It is a lot and I mean a lot of rice.  So, next time I would either cut back to possibly 2 cups of rice and 2 cups of water or cut more turkey cubes.  The second issue was the taste - it turned out very bland especially when it smelled so fantastic.  I would probably add a bit of garlic, some pepper (maybe red pepper flakes or cayenne for a kick), and a little salt.  All in all, it did win the hubby's approval so I am pretty sure we will keep the recipe around for later consumption.