Happy Wednesday.
My Works for me is a coping technique I am currently employing. I started a new job about 6 weeks ago. I am commuting about an hour each way. That is less time at home. The thing that is bothering me is the fact the most nights, with a boy having a baseball game that starts around 6:00, there is not time for me to cook dinner fo the famil. My wonderful Hubby has to do it. They are usually finishing up and getting ready to leave for the ball diamond by the time I get home. Actually, I have 2 coping techniques. I am packing lunches at 6am before I leave. The 11 YO usually buys his lunch (I grew up with a nursefor a Mom who believed a hot lunch was better than a PB&J on Wonder bread) but with the YMCA Daycamp, they need to take thier lunches. This week it is ham sandwiches. the 11 Yo said he needed more food the other day. the 6 YO said he got too much jello. But I am taking care of my family.
The second thing is that I am filling the crockpot a couple of days a week. Granted, Monday it was a Pork roast. Hubby had to figure out how to serve it and what sides to serve it with.
Which brings me to a request - Crockpot recipes. I've been through a lot of the crockpot sites on the web. The boys don't eat anything really spicy and I need recipes that can take 10 hours in the crockpot and do not require adding ingredients for the last hour. That's a difficult bill to fill. Thus the Pork roast (it was mixed with barbeque sauce and served on rolls with the ever present Mac and Cheese side dish). I have a couple of beef tip roasts that we season, cook and serve on crusty rolls ("I don't like beef sandwiches" I sometimes hear).
Maggie
10 comments:
I don't use my crockpot as much as I should, but I know a lot of regular recipes can be adapted. Ones like soups or things that cook in sauces. You have to adjust down the level of liquids because the crock pot doesn't lose any while cooking.
On busy days, I often will do every possible meal prep I can either in the morning or the night before, so when dinnertime nears, it requires very little of my attention.
Hopefully, your other readers will have some good recipes. I will check back later and see!
Mmmm, I love my crockpot.
Hey, I'm hosting the COTV today, stop in & link to it if you have a minute...
http://lilduckduck.com/?p=98
Oh, I just remembered Code Yellow Mom posted a crock pot recipe for au jus at http://codeyellowmom.blogspot.com/2006/06/crockpot-casualty.html
Go to allrecipes.com. They have an huge selection of crockpot recipes http://crockpot.allrecipes.com. I just got married and cooking is not my forte by any means. This site has been awesome as I figure out how to feed my hubby and work full-time.
I feel your pain Maggie. I'm in the same boat. I suggest two things: The allrecipes.com idea and ask for a crockpot cookbook from someone for birthday, Christmas, 4th of July, or I-need-it-badly-so-please-help-me-out gift. You will be happy to have it.
Slughorn just posted about cooking hamburger meat all day in the crockpot; you could do all sorts of things with that idea. I also posted throwing chicken into the crockpot in the morning and doing something with it in the evening.
Good for you trying to cover all the bases. Here's a few recipes from my site:
http://www.neighborjanepayne.com/read.php?SD=1&SS=129&A=368&SA=369
My favorite recipe
1 roast
3 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg dry onion soup
Throw it all in cook 10-12 hours on low. Break apart the meat with a fork.
Boil a package of wide egg noodles, mix those in and stir it up. Is SOOO good and is awesome as leftovers too!
ok, here's some I have...(I would email them to you, but I don't see a link. Most of these I found at Flylady's Crockpot Recipes)
Crockpot Chicken
2 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts cut into 1 1/2" peices
4 med russet potatoes, peeled and cut very small
1 (15 oz) can mild salsa
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
1 (1 1/4 oz) pkg taco seasoning mix
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
Mix all ingredients together in crockpot, cook 7-9 hours on low. Serve with warm flour tortillas.
(you could probably do 10 hours and be ok)
Fake-Rotisserie Lemon Pepper Chicken
put 1 or 2 whole chickens in the crockpot and sprinkle them with Lawry's Lemon Pepper seasoning, and cook them on high 6-7 hours, or low 8-10 hours
Chicken Spaghetti
Take 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts. Put them in your crockpot and add 1 large jar of spagetti sauce. (Not the kind with meat in it). Let cook on slow all day till chicken is tender and pulls apart. Cook pasta and serve over.
Roast Chicken
Chicken: Put a whole chicken, fresh in the crockpot - put an apple or onion in the cavity. Low 8-10 hours. Done.
Slow Cooker - Corn Potato Chowder
2 cups water or chicken broth
5 potatoes - cubed
1 carrot - cut up
1 bag of frozen corn (you can use one bag of frozen mixed vegetables also)
1 package of hot dogs or polish sausage
1 bunch of kale, sliced small (or a frozen bag)
1 (32oz) container Creamy Corn Soup (mine is 365 brand made by Whole Foods)
Add water/chicken broth first, then,
Place all ingredients in the crock pot.(in order)
Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
(There are a lot more recipes on that site for beef, pork, chicken, soups, etc. Hope that helps.)
I have some super easy ones....and I don't like the ones that have to have ingredients added at the last minute.
All of these can be done with frozen meat (and prolly should if they will stay ten hours.)
Pot Roast-add package of lipton onion soup mix. If you need a little more flavor add a cup of Italian dressing.
BBQ Ribs - (buy the seperate boneless kinds in pork or beef) Add a bottle of Lawry's Hawiian Marinade and a bottle of BBQ sauce. Very tasty. Men love it!
Pork Chops- add a bottle of Italian dressing and one cup of Soy sauce. Very good over rice.
Chicken breasts- add a can of frozen orange juice concentrate.
Chicken breasts- add mixture of 1cup honey, 1 cup mustard, seasoning salt. Add bacon when serving! (Bacon can be microwaved at the last minute!)
Pork Roast- one bottle of Lawry's mesquite marinade. (Can wrap the roast in bacon using toothpics...very yummy.)
Pork Roast- one package of Lipton onion soup mix.
Chili- browned hamburger meat, chili packet, and canned kidney beans
These are all super simple and you can tweak them to fit your families needs. Hope that they can be useful!!
I totally use the recipe that Julie does for the beef roast w/cream of soup. Just remember, the fat winds up in the yummy gravy, so cut off any big old chunks that are obvious before you throw the roast in. I usually chunk up a bunch of carrots and throw them on top to cook all day as well.
The other day I tried something that worked pretty good-a noodle bake in the crockpot. Now, normally I like my pasta to be al-dente-this came out with the consistency of a caffeteria lunch. But it still tasted good and couldn't have been easier.
I took approx 3 or 4 cups of DRY spiral pasta and threw it in the crockpot. Then I added in a 26 oz bottle of prepared spaghetti sauce. Then I filled the spaghetti sauce bottle about 1/2 way with water and mixed that in. I nuked 2 italian sausages that I had in the freezer and then cut them into the pot with a pair of scissors so they were fairly small chunks. Lastly I mixed in about 2/3 cup of cottage cheese I had in the fridge.
Threw it on low for the day and let it go. The pasta was a bit mushy, and I would use maybe half again as much sauce next time, but it was ready instantaneously upon walking in the door (I know, boiling up pasta and heating sauce doesn't take that long, but hey-this is even faster)
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