Monday, April 09, 2012

Crockpot Mania



In a desperate effort to spend less time in the kitchen, I've found myself using my crockpot to make dinners a lot more often. Before the past few months, the only thing I knew how to make in the crockpot was beef roast, cheese dip, and waissal. Now I'm expanding my repertoire as quickly as possible, especially since I discovered the new slow cooker bags that mean I don't have to spend days cleaning up my crockpot after cooking with it. Those things are awesome!!!!

But I digress. The joy of coming home to a dinner that is at least 80% ready to serve has me hooked. Luckily for me, the ladies that I work with are excellent cooks, making a variety of quick and easy meals after years of cooking while they were raising families. Here's one of my family's new favorites:

Chicken Tacos

(or nachos, burritos, whatever you want to do with it)

3 to 5 chicken breasts (if frozen, thaw before putting in the cooker)
¾ of a jar of Walmart brand black bean and corn salsa (other brands may work too, but this is the one I like)

Layer the meat and salsa in the crockpot and, after the pot is heated, cook on low. I usually cook it from 7:30am to 5pm, but I'm sure its ready way before then. Shred the chicken and use it for any of the above Mexican options with your choice of sour cream, cheese, refried beans, various veggies (I roast onions and red peppers in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes), and/or guacamole. My kids like tacos, but I like nachos.

Here's another recipe that I've put on the Must Try list. My family loves chicken, and anything with bacon and ranch (that's how hubby makes meatloaf!). I found it at a site Playground Monitor recommended to me called Crocking Girls.

Bacon Ranch Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp real bacon bits
1 tsp minced garlic
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
cooked egg noodles

Directions:
1. Combine bacon, garlic, ranch dressing mix, soup, and sour cream; mix well.
2. Pour over chicken in the slow cooker.
3. Cook on high 3-4 hours.
4. Shred the chicken and put back in the pot and then add the egg noodles; mix together.


What are your favorite crockpot recipes? I'm always on the lookout for more!

Angel

6 comments:

Andrea Laurence AKA Smarty Pants said...

Here's a super easy recipe for fans of buffalo chicken wings.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients
•4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
•1 (17.5 fluid ounce) bottle buffalo wing sauce, divided
•1/2 (1 ounce) package dry ranch salad dressing mix
•2 tablespoons butter
•6 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise

Directions
1.Place the chicken breasts into a slow cooker, and pour in 3/4 of the wing sauce and the ranch dressing mix. Cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours.

2.Once the chicken has cooked, add the butter, and shred the meat finely with two forks. Pile the meat onto the hoagie rolls, and splash with the remaining buffalo wing sauce to serve.

Maven Linda said...

Pork Chops:
6 boneless chops
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pack Ranch dressing mix

Layer the chops in the pot. Mix the cream of chicken soup and the ranch dressing mix, and pour over the chops. I usually add a soup can of water, but that's because I cook mine on the stove top instead of the Crock Pot. Cook 6 hours or Low, or 4 hours on High.

Kira Sinclair - AKA Instigator said...

One of our favorite recipes is really, really simple.

BBQ pork roast
1 roast
1/2 bottle of favorite BBQ sauce (adjust to your prefence - if you like your meat saucy add more).

Combine in crock pot. Let cook all day. Shred and put on hamburger buns.

We also love the leftovers on top of potatoes that we cook in the crockpot. Wrap in foil, poke a couple holes, put a small amount of water in the bottom and let cook all day. 2 meals in 1. Sometimes DH will even take out the leftover pork, wrap it in foil and drop on top of the potatoes for 30-45 minutes to heat it through.

Insti

Playground Monitor said...

I started the Weight Watchers program last week and had been looking for good WW crock pot recipes. Good timing, huh?

Chicken & Rice

1/2 lb. mushrooms, fresh
1/2 c. onion
1 lb. chicken pieces
1 tsp. chicken bouillon
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cs. water
3/4 c. rice, uncooked

Slice mushrooms. Remove skin from chicken. Spray 12" skillet with
nonstick spray coating. Brown mushrooms, onion, and chicken pieces on all sides over medium heat about 15 minutes. Stir in seasonings and transfer to crockpot. Can be refrigerated overnight. Start crockpot on
LOW. When ingredients are heated, add rice. Cook until done.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving is 6 points.

Cheryl C. said...

Great recipes! I wish I had one as good as these. I like to make chicken and rice in the crock pot but mine doesn't sound as good as PM's. I just put the chicken (usually four breasts) in the crock pot, add two cans of chicken broth, salt to taste and add four cups of water. Cook all day. Remove chicken, chop it and then put chicken back in the water/broth. Add four cups of Minute Rice and let stand for a few minutes. I am going to try PM's though, sounds better.

Thanks for the recipes Angel!

Angel said...

Yum, yum!!! These sound great, ladies. Thanks for adding to my crock pot repertoire!