Category: Crockpot

Applesauce Pork Chops

Applesauce porkchops

 

1 medium onion, sliced

3 apples, peeled cored and sliced

6 pork chops (1/2 inch thick or less)

3⁄4 cup apple juice or water

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1⁄2 tablespoons dry mustard

1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 cup applesauce

 

Directions

Place apples and onions in bottom of Crockpot. Place porkchops on top. Pour in apple juice or water. Stir together sugar, mustard, cloves, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle half on top of pork chops. Spread applesauce on top of pork chops. Sprinkle remaining spice mixture on top. Cook on low for 5-6 hours until pork chops are cooked through. I served this with a side of mashed sweet potatoes.

 

Original recipe

https://www.food.com/recipe/apple-pork-chops-in-the-crock-pot-396044

 

 

 

Black Bean and Cilantro Soup

This is another one of those easy to prep Crockpot meals. It can be vegetarian or you can add chicken if desired.

Ingredients :

2 cans black beans drained or about 1/2 bag (of 1 pound bag) cooked from dry beans

1/2 onion, diced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

1 garlic clove, minced

8 oz tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt or more

2 chicken thighs, cooked and shredded (may be omitted or more may be used)

6 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)

1/2 cup cilantro

 

Directions:

Place all ingredients except cilantro in Crockpot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Add in cilantro about 10 minutes before serving.

 

Beef and sweet potato stew

Here is a recipe I have really enjoyed over the past two years. I finally got around to taking a picture. Normally I do add the carrots and celery but I forgot to get them at the store this time. If you don’t see them in the photo, that’s why 😉. Enjoy this soup and how easy it is!

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 lbs beef stew meat, cubed

2 cups beef broth

2 large sweet potatoes cut into cubes

1 medium white or yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 can of whole tomatoes large

3 carrots sliced

4 celery ribs sliced

2 bay leaves

5 sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions :

Place all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the beef shreds easily and the vegetables are tender.

Original recipe :

Sweet Potato and Beef Stew {Crock Pot, Grain Free, Gluten Free, Paleo}

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

I now have two kids and for some reason haven’t gotten around to posting anything in a long time…

Ingredients:

5 bell peppers- any color

1 1/4 c. cooked brown rice

1 pound cooked ground beef (I cooked up some diced onions with the ground beef)*

8 oz. tomato sauce

1 T. Worchestershire sauce

1 T. gluten free soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 inch water in bottom of crockpot

 

Directions:

Cut out the stems and remove seeds from the peppers.  Combine all ingredients except water.  Put filling inside of peppers.  Place peppers in the crockpot.  Fill crockpot about 1/2 an inch with water.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  May be topped with cheese.

 

*As a time saving measure, I pre-cook a bunch of ground beef at once and freeze it in one pound portions.  I sometimes even cook onions with it.  I can pull together a meal much faster when the beef is already done and then I just dirty the skillet once :-).

 

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Pot Roast

This is my favorite roast recipe. It is so easy and quick. You can also add or take away ingredients and adjust the size of your roast and it should still be fine. Cook it longer if your roast is bigger.

Ingredients :

1 teaspoon each of thyme, oregano, sage, celery seed, garlic salt, onion salt, black pepper, parsley

1 bay leaf

3 teaspoons salt

1-2 cups water

3-5 pound roast

Directions :

Combine all spices and salt. Tub on outside of roast. Place seasoned roast in crockpot and add bay leaf and water. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the roast comes apart easily with a fork. You may add in some vegetables in the last few hours if desired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Potato Sausage Bake

So, I had a baby! I took almost a year off from updating my recipes, but I plan to start again although at what rate I don’t know.  Anyway, I have been working on finding recipes that don’t take a lot of time because who wants to spend forever in the kitchen when there’s a cute baby around?!  I used to do a lot of stove top meals, but I have recently found myself drawn to oven and crock pot recipes.  That way I can work on them at times that are more convenient.

I found this recipe the other day based on the ingredients I had on hand. It’s tasty and doesn’t have lots of ingredients.

3 medium sweet potatoes, diced into 3/4inch cubes

1medium onion, diced

1 pound ground sausage, pinched into 1 inch pieces

Few dashes salt

Few dashes garlic powder

Olive oil (maybe 1/4cup)

Lightly oil 9×13 glass casserole pan. Toss all ingredients in a large bowl to coat with olive oil. Spread in casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes. The original recipe calls for this to be cooked in the crockpot, so that’s an option too.

 

Original Recipe:

https://blogbydonna.com/slow-cooker-sweet-potato-and-sausage-recipe/

 

 

 

Pasta Fagioli

One of my friends gave me a copy of this recipe a long time ago and I finally tried it.  I don’t think I’ve actually tried this at Olive Garden and I couldn’t now, but it was a nice and easy soup that warmed us up on cold days.  You have the option of using canned or dried beans.  I couldn’t find navy beans in a can and I have two crockpots, so I used dried beans.   I hope you take time to enjoy this recipe!

 

Ingredients:

3/4 c. dry kidney beans (or 1 can, drained)

3/4 c. dry navy beans (or 1 can, drained)

2 lbs ground beef, cooked- leave out beef if you want it to be vegetarian

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained

32 oz beef broth (I used a carton of HEB Beef Broth but you could also use Swansons)- use vegetable broth if vegetarian

3 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp pepper

5 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used a 24-oz can of Del Monte Traditional)

8-12 oz pasta (I used HEB gluten free)

 

Directions:

If making beans from scratch, soak overnight and then drain and cover with water again in a crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until soft.  You may add them to the soup whenever they are soft enough.   Pre-cook the ground beef.  Add all ingredients to the crockpot except for the pasta.  Stir well, cover, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  The original recipe says you can add pasta straight to the crockpot 30 minutes before you want to serve it, but I was nervous the gluten free pasta wouldn’t cook well that way.  Instead, I cooked it separately as per the package directions and then added it to the soup right before serving.

Note: I had two crockpots going at once- one for the beans and one for the soup.  When the beans were cooked, I added them to the soup.  If you only have one crockpot, you could cook the beans overnight and then use the same crockpot to do the soup during the day.

Original recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/pasta-fagioli-in-the-crockpot-just-like-olive-garden-52984961

Bean Soup

We had people over the other night to help us pass out candy on Halloween.  I decided last minute that I wanted to serve food to our guests, but I didn’t really have time to cook or to go to the grocery store.  I started looking through our pantry wandering if there was anything I could whip up and I re-discovered a package of mixed beans that I hadn’t used yet.  This is a great soup for serving to a large crowd.  It’s also easy to keep the ingredients on hand in your pantry as a backup. Turns out I was having so much fun with our company that I forgot to take a picture….sorry.  You’ll just have to imagine it for now :-).

 

Ingredients:

3/4 bag of Hurst’s HamBeens brand 15 bean soup*

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1/2 tsp chili powder

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1- 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 packet ham seasoning (included in Hurst’s Hambeen’s soup mix and it’s gluten free!)- leave out to make it vegetarian.  I’m not sure it actually has ham in it…

Cooked rice for serving

 

Directions:

Soak beans overnight (rinse and then cover with at least 1 extra inch of water- they will swell.  Leave in the fridge overnight.  Drain water in the morning.)

Put beans in a crockpot and cover the beans with at least 1 extra inch of water.  Cook on low all day (maybe 6-7 hours).  After beans are soft, you may scoop off some of the water from the top of the beans so your soup won’t be as watery.  I just take out water until I can see the beans poking through the water.  Add all the other ingredients and allow to cook for 30 min-1 hour or more.  Serve over cooked rice.

 

*Texas friends- this is available at HEB.  Really, any bean soup mix would work.  If you can’t find a bag of mixed beans, you could make your own and you could mix and match the beans it contains.  This bag includes the following beans: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye (what in the world is that?), garbanzo, baby lima, green split pea, kidney, cranberry bean, small white, pink bean, small red bean, yellow split pea, lentil, navy, white kidney, black bean.

Easy Crockpot Beef Brisket

I have had this recipe printed off for a long time and I finally got around to trying it.  It was SO easy.  The best part is, the brisket I bought was so big that I have more of it in the freezer.  I cut it into sections that would fit in my crockpot and froze the rest in crockpot-size parts.

 

Ingredients:

2 onions, thinly sliced

4 lbs beef brisket (not corned)

2 T. ketchup

1 T. red wine vinegar

1 T. brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

4 cloves minced garlic

water to cover bottom of pot

 

Directions:

Strew onions in bottom of crockpot.  Place brisket on top of the onions with the fatty part on the top.  Stir together the ketchup, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Rub onto the brisket.  Sprinkle garlic on top of the brisket.  Pour in just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.  I served this by itself first and poured some of the juice and onions on my plate with it.  I also made brisket sandwiches and put the onions from the bottom of the pan on the sandwich.  So delicious!

When it is done, it will shred like this:

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Simple Crockpot Chicken Drumsticks

This recipe is ridiculously easy.  I made it a few weekends ago for some young kids and they gobbled it up, so it is kid-friendly too.  If they don’t like the spices on it, they can easily pull off the skin and just eat the chicken underneath.  This has become one of my go-to meals when I don’t have a lot of time or when I can’t think of anything new to do.  I hope it makes your life easier too :-).

 

Ingredients:

2 tsp salt

1 T. paprika

2 tsp chili powder (Make sure it’s gluten free- I’ve heard that it’s sometimes not.  McCormick is gluten free for sure.)

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp thyme

1/2 garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 lbs chicken drumsticks, skin on

 

Directions:

Loosely crumple aluminum foil and place it on the bottom of your Crockpot (see picture below).  This holds the drumsticks out of the liquid so they get a nice texture as they cook.  Combine all other ingredients and mix well.  Roll drumsticks in the spice mixture and place on top of the crumpled foil in the Crockpot (or any other slow cooker).  If you have any leftover spices at the end, sprinkle it over the chicken in the Crockpot.  Put lid on crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Mine is done in 6, but it shouldn’t hurt it to cook it for 8, even 10 hours.  I used to leave this in the crockpot while I was teaching at school. Do not remove lid while it is cooking as you will release steam and slow down the cooking process.  Discard the juice in the bottom unless you want it for something.  Serve over rice and with a side of vegetables.  This is also a good meal if you are taking food to someone- it’s easy to make and easy to transport.

 

Foil crumpled in bottom of crockpot.
How the chicken should look when it is cooked.

 

Original recipe: http://www.creativelydomestic.com/2009/10/slow-cooker-sticky-chicken-drumsticks.html