Crock Pot & other easy meals - Suggestions Pls

[BigBull]

Gents -

My LOTH and I have a 8 month old, and we are both currently working 12 hr days. My son spends his weekdays with his Grandma..thankfully. We always eat healthy, but have found recently that we just don't have the time to make the meals we normally would during the week unless we eat at 9pm. This doesn't work for us. We like to eat "real" food...what I mean by that is nothing boxed, packaged, etc. Fresh cut veggies, sweet potatoes, etc. Not Rice-A-Roni or Hamburger Helper and certainly nothing out of the frozen dinner section.

Do you have any CrockPot recipes you really enjoy? Simple meals you make with little effort? We've been running out of ideas and maybe you've got a simple twist on the same thing we've been doing that will make it interesting. Thank you in advance for any and all input.

 

[Omak]

I'll throw chili into the hat, though I'm mostly here to see other's responses. I haven't used my crock pot in far too long. If I can find a couple of my recipes I'll post them up later.

 

[zethreal]

Take a pot roast, a few carrots, potatoes, cabbage ( if you like it ), turnips ( again, if you like it ) and a thin sliced onion. Toss everything into the crock pot and put some water in the bottom ( probably enough to cover the roast ). Cover & put on high. Once it comes up to temp, turn to low & leave. It should take 4-5 hours to cook, but will stay good forever... just make sure you add water to it periodically. If you are going to be leaving & coming back to it, feel free to add extra water.

When you're ready to serve, remove the potatoes, carrots, cabbage & turnips. Transfer the leftover liquid to a pan and cook down on high. Once it starts to get dark colored ( concentrated, not burnt ) add a simple flour/water mix to make a gravy ( you can really make the gravy however you want, that's just how I've always done it. )

 

[WoodfordReserve-Neat]

Wow, I just cooked a roast in my crock pot this past weekend.

I got a 3lb ± sirloin tip roast..just me and my SWMBO with the kids off in college and all.
It was pretty simple, really.

I got a bag of the really small blue potatoes and another of the real small blond potatoes ( buy one get one at Publix) - didn't have to cut any potatoes at that size - left skin on. A bag of pearl onions, A bag of baby carrots, 3 large Portabella caps cut into about 1 inch pieces. A pkg of Lipton soup mix combined with some dry red wine and a tsp. of red cayenne pepper...warmed up in the microwave then poured over everything combined in pot and added some more liquid and then topped it off with about 4 or 5 bay leaves. 10 hrs on LOW later and some of my wife's best cornbread on this planet with a glass of some nice Médoc wine...
Dang Fine to me...Enough left over for leftovers, too.

 

[BigBull]

This is what I'm looking for. Everyone's done the roast with potatoes and carrots, etc...but frankly I've never thought to make a gravy with the juice and the Lipton Soup mix never even crossed my mind! Thanks gents.

Anyone have idea's for Chicken, Pork, etc?

 

[zethreal]

Diced chicken breasts, chicken stock, corn, a small sweet onion, chopped celery, chopped carrots, diced potatoes and chopped okra. If you have time, dice the potatoes small and add an hour or so before serving. If you don't have the time, dice them larger so they won't fall apart as easily. Throw everything in and cook on low.

Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add some cayenne pepper. As with any gumbo, serve with a healthy helping of sticky rice.

 

[MajorMojo]

I usually do 2 cans of coconut milk, 1 can of crushed tomatoes / whole toms. Red or orange or yellow pepper. Mushrooms. 1 can of chick peas, 1 to 3 cups of mung beans. Chop up an onion, throw in some garlic. Add tumeric, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, paprika, touch of cayenne, salt and pepper, couple of bay leaves if you like. Throw in chicken or pork if desired. Cook her up! You can add fresh pea pods at the end just before eating, or throw in 2 cups of frozen peas with everything else. Serve with some yogurt for added creaminess. With Cilantro for extra green.

 

[jones2289]

Pulled chicken or pork - throw some boneless, skinless breasts or boneless loin in the crock pot. Add a quarter cup or so of apple cider vinegar, bbq sauce of your choice, and some ketchup to make the bbq a bit more mild. I've also used a dry rub on the meat, or just sprinkled in spices. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, low all day, or until meat is well done. Shred with forks and add more sauce if necessary.

The same can be done with meat, some veggies, and a fajita seasoning.

I do a lot of soups in the crock pot - chicken and rice, chicken tortilla, chili, etc. I often use a grocery store rotisserie bird to speed things up a bit.

For an easy meal, halve a spaghetti squash the night before, and clean. Put it in a large gallon bag and refrigerate. When you get home, remove it from the bag, place it face with the flat part face down in a glass 9 x 13 pan and add just enough water to cover the bottom. Put a piece of plastic wrap over it, and microwave for 10 minutes, or until done. Pull it out with a fork, and add spaghetti sauce or crushed tomatoes, some garlic, basil, etc and you have a quick and healthy spaghetti. Add some chicken you pre-cooked or did in the crock pot, and you're good to go.

 

[tinashubby]

Loose meat sammy's - recipes all over the web
Last nite we had Peppersteak, Cheap cut of steak, lil worcestershire sauce, can of stewed tomatoes, lil onion. Cook for about 6 hours, add lots of peppers in last hour. You can shred the steak and it makes a good sammy, or put it on a bed of rice or noodles.
Sometimes we do a variation of stuffed peppers in the crockpot, you can either stuff them or just layer hamburger stuffing and peppers. I usually add some broth to this. It aint pretty, but it sure is good.
Chicken fajitas are easy also, pretty much just like the regular way, but instead of fast frying, do a slow cook. Dip it out with a slotted spoon and roll em up on a tortilla.
Let me know if you want a recipe for some pretty good cherry cobbler from the crockpot. Add some icecream on the side and its the cats azz!

 

[PugslyCat]

Just about any recipe that you can roast in the oven you can cook in the crock pot, unless it really has to be dry heat. Dishes that stew or braise all day on the stove top work well also.

In the spring and summer I like to cook a whole chicken stuffed with a lemon, orange, and sliced open head of garlic. Cook that all day with broth and a quarter cup of orange juice concentrate and you're good.

Another good one is coq au vin. I don't have a recipe handy, but all of the prep is done the night before and then marinating the chicken in wine overnight. The chicken cooks on low in the crock pot all day with a portion of the marinade and I believe your typical onions, carrots and celery. Reduce the fully cooked marinade on the stove top the next day and stir in the bits you sauteed the night before to warm them up. Place the chicken on a bed of egg noodles, pour the sauce over the top, and you have a meal fit for... French peasants.

Instead of the crock pot, how about using the pressure cooker to reduce cooking time? I've got an electric pressure cooker and a couple of pressure cooker recipe books, but really haven't done much with that. It was to be one of my projects for the winter. Such recipes are going to be longer to get on the table than something that is done when you come home, as is the case with the crock pot meals, but cooking time is greatly reduced from stove top preparations. A six or eight quart pressure cooker isn't terribly expensive, and unlike the large pressure canners they are small enough that you could prepare the dish the night before and have it in the refrigerator ready to go on the stove.

 

[FunnyHoney]

I like to make split pea soup, black-eyed pea, navy beans, and just about any legumes you can think of in the crackpot. It's easy and don't need to soak beans overnight (chickpeas need to soak overnight though). Beans are cheap and very healthy. Can't go wrong.

 

[stobes21]

4 or 5 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, a packet/envelope of dry ranch dressing mix, and a bottle of buffalo wing sauce all go in on low. When you get home remove the chicken and pull it like you would a bbqed pork butt. Toss in a couple of tablespoons of butter and some more wing sauce and serve on buns with hot sauce and ranch for heating up and cooling down, respectively. Simple, relatively healthy, and very tasty. The leftovers make good tacos, wraps, etc.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Get a rotisseried chicken from the grocery store and some flour tortillas, avacados, cilantro, etc and have chicken tacos. Pull the remaining meat off the bones and set aside. Cook bones in crockpot with beer and a couple of chicken bouillon cubes and maybe a jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped. Let the bones simmer overnight. In the morning pick out all the bones that haven't cooked down and add the leftover chicken meat, chopped up, and some celery, green onions, maybe a link of andouille or kielbasa or similar sausage chopped up, and whatever else. Adjust seasoning with lawry's or Tony's or similar. Slow cook all day. If desired add some rice or a pack or two of ramen noodles and cook till done. Otherwise just dig in.

You might also try menudo or pollo y posole. I think there are recipes at www.thevoicestoldme.com.

 

[redrako]

This is a super easy crockpot meal that is both tasty and nutritious. It's flexible both in ingredients and time. I prefer using salt pork rather than bacon, but either works fine. Any white bean works, Navy, Great Northern is my preference. More exotic beans such as Soldier beans or Jacobs Cattle Beans are wroth trying. Although the recipe specifies 14 hours, it can go a few hours less or more. I've let it go as long as 18 hours. As it makes a lot of beans, you can freeze leftovers for future meals.

If I have time, I'll do a quick recipe of corn bread, open a can of brown bread to go with it.

Boston Baked Beans
1 lb smalldry white beans,
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 lb diced salt pork or 1/4 pound bacon, chopped
1/4 cup light (mild) molasses
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt


Rinse beanswith cold running water In a large bowl, place beans and enough water to coverby 2 inches. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.

In 4 1/2 to 51/2 quart slow cooker, stir 3 1/2 cups water with beans and remaining ingredientsexcept salt until blended.
Cover Crock Pot withlid and cook beans on low setting about 14 hours or until beans are tender andsauce is syrupy. Stir salt into bean mixture before serving.

 

[BigBull]

Wow gentleman...Thank you for the responses! Please keep 'em coming. Obviously I've subscribed to this thread and will try each and every one of these. I should've added that the LOTH is lactose intolerant...but these are easy work arounds.

For what its worth, when I searched the engine I didn't see this thread... Another Crock-Pot thread.

 

[PozzSka]

Apple Brown Sugar Ginger Pork

- 4lb pork loin
- 6 medium to large apples cored and sliced
- 1/3c Apple Juice
- 1/4c Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp ground Ginger
- Salt and pepper to taste

Mix Juice, brown sugar, and ginger in bowl - set aside
Slice and Core apples, place in bottom of slow cooker
rub pork in Salt and Pepper to taste
Place pork on top of apples
Spoon BrownSugarGinger Mix over pork

I cut a shallow slice in the middle of the pork so some of that glaze can get in there.

Cook on Low for 8 hours or until done.

Enjoy!

 

[maxman]

I love the slow cooker.
We put just about anything you can think of in it.
Recently my wife put a whole chicken in. Some fresh herbs on top and the chicken.
Nothing else.
Cooked on slow for 8 hours and the meat was so very tender.

There are lots of great recipie sites, but check out Taste of Home.
They have the best slow cooker recipies. http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Cooking-Style/Slow-Cooker-Recipes

 

[_JP_]

Beef short ribs topped with saurkraut. Season the ribs as you like, put the kraut on top and let it cook!

Pulled pork. A pork sholder or Boston butt. Rub Worchestershire sauce on it, then pack brown sugar all over. Pour a cup of apple juice into the cooker, add meat and cook. When done, shred it down into the juices.

 

[barrycv]

One thing I"ll add - why all the chicken breast usage here? The crock pot is a low & slow cooking thing - not ideal for the lean white meat of chicken breast. Things like thighs & legs are much better suited for this type of cooking. The breast will eventually be shred-able, but you're just overcooking the heck out of it to get to that stage.

Ideally you want cheap, tough cuts w/ lots of connective tissue here. Pork shoulder or similar is ideal.


Also, you can make overnight oatmeal. Don't have the recipe handy, but it basically is steel cut oats (NOT instant) & a bunch of liquid. IIRC, something along the lines of 4:1 or 5:1 ratio. You can do straight water (for lactose-free), but adding some milk to that will help out taste. Put it in crock at bed time & in morning you'll have nice, creamy, & healthy oatmeal. Add other goodies (brown sugar, dried fruits, etc) to taste.

 

[BigBull]

Never thought of the oatmeal idea but that's something I'll certainly try on a weekend...Good thing we have 2 CP's!