Effortless Chicken Stew for a Snow Day

I am throwing this all in my crockpot to give us a warm hearty meal. We received an very rare six inch snowstorm and I am too busy enjoying the snow with the cats and the teenager to cook. I am using the crockpot for this but it can be done in a covered dutch oven in a conventional oven at 350 degrees for about two hours. Watch and stir occasionally.

"Chunk" in condensed cooking methodology means to cut into haphazard chunks, roughly 1-2" pieces.

Effortless Chicken Stew
Spray crockpot with non-stick spray
Roughly chunk potatoes to fill 1/3 of crockpot; add to crockpot
Chunk a handful of carrots (3-4); add to crockpot
Chunk 1/2 to whole onion to taste; add to crockpot
Either chunk two fresh tomatoes or use 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes
Chunk 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of chicken, fresh or frozen, breasts or tenders, boneless; add to crockpot
Toss in spices- I love to vary these according to mood. My staple batch is 1T onion powder, a couple of bay leaves, 1t. garlic powder, 1T italian seasoning (see note below), salt and pepper.
Add a couple of chicken or beef bouillon cubes if using canned tomatoes or 1 can of chicken stock if using fresh tomatoes or desiring a more liquid stew.
Cover and cook 2 hours on high or 6 hours on low. Adding frozen chicken will lengthen the cooking time 30 min to an hour.

Variation Notes: You can add other vegetables, celery, squashes, beans, or sub other meats like beef stew meat or ham. This is basically just timeless country cooking where one would throw in whatever one had on hand, let it simmer into a stew. A touch of lemon juice (2T or juice of 1 lemon) will really wake up the flavors. For a zesty stew, I have used canned tomatoes with chilies (like the Rotel Brand) and added a can of nacho cheese soup (do not add water) in the last 30 minutes.

On the Fly Italian Seasoning;
Combine equal parts of dried oregano, basil, and thyme in a jar. Toss to mix. Store in jar for future use.

I usually use these three spices in tandem and find it easier to grab one jar and measure rather than three.

Do you have any other ideas for pre-mixing spices?