June 29, 2006 8:39 AM
What's in your crockpot?
Crockpots are a busy mother's best friend. You toss everything in in the morning and forget about dinner (except for the dreamy smell of food cooking all day) until the last minute. How cool is that?
Three favorite things I do with mine:
Chicken cacciatore - a bunch of skinless chicken thighs in spaghetti sauce (need to skim off fat at the end and add tomato past to thicken) - seve with pasta and parmesan.
Pork with salsa - after cooking all day, shred and serve for family to make their own burritos with flour tortillas, grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole etc.
Beef cubes with mushroom soup and Lipton's onion soup mix - with mashed potatoes or noodles.
Although I only use mine 2-3 times a month, I've been depending on my crockpot for at least 30 years. I know there are some fancy recipes out there, but I haven't gotten around to them because - well, because the crockpot is about making my life more simple. Maybe when the younger kids are more grown up and my writing isn't so intense, I'll experiment with recipes from places like the Cooking Cache's Crockpot Recipes.
Come to think of it, maybe I'll try one of these out this week. Looks yummy.
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Comments
I love mine, but use it about as often.
When I was working and before kids, I'd bring in food a few times a month to feed the whole office. It was always a big hit, people would meander over all morning looking forward to lunch. (I'd make up the stuff the night before and store it in the removable crock part in the fridge. As soon as I got up, I'd turn it on. Then, I'd bring it in to work to finish cooking.)
I sometimes cook lasagne/spaghetti cassorole ahead in the crock, then warm it up in the crock pot.
My favorite recipe is a roast. You just add onion soup mix and cream of soup (mushroom, celery, potato, whatever you like except cream of chicken doesn't work). You can also add in some baby carrots and potatoes if you like. If I'm feeding a lot of people, I'll fill the crock pot with roast, add 2 onion soup mixes and 2 soups, and cook up mashed potatoes separately. So yummy! If you like lots of gravy, use more cream of soup.
I also sometimes make breakfast cassoroles and a breakfast cobbler to take to MOPS. It's nice if you're not a morning person, you make it up the night before, the last person to go to bed turns it on (you don't want to overcook), and it's ready to go in the morning! If you're a morning person, you could cook it in the oven in your crock then bring the crockpot to keep it warm. (Mine has a cover and a big elastic rubberband like thing to keep the lid on tight. This is best for travel. Before I had this one, I used to tie the lid on with some of my husbands old thin ties.)
So, I use mine both as a cooker and a warmer.
Posted by: Elizabeth Brown | June 29, 2006 5:21 PM
I use mine all the time! I made dinner in it tonight - black beans with pork, which I served with a big salad from our garden and cornbread. It was really tasty.
I really like my crockpot, now that I have a good cookbook to use it with - we got one as a wedding present and I didn't use it much because I didn't really find many recipes that interested me. I am *really* not a can of this, can of that sort of cook (and my family has too many dietary issues to be able to use most of that stuff anyways), so I had a hard time finding crockpot recipes that I liked. Last fall I bought "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" and I really like it. There's a lot of wonderful recipes in there - some of which require a bit of prep, and some of which are pretty easy to throw together quickly. I also like that there are a lot of bean and other vegetarian options, because we try keep our meat consumption low, mainly for cost reasons.
Anyways, yes, crockpots are really great!
Posted by: Amber | June 30, 2006 12:33 AM
I have the entire collection of "Fix it and Forget it" books! LOVE THEM! I do miss postatoes and pot roast...On the F plan, no potatoes but man, I miss them.
Tonight crock pot meal is pulled roast, with roasted peppers and green beans.
When we go to potlucks (which isn't often enough) I make the cherry chocolate cake goo (not the official name but once you taste it, you will agree) and it disappears SO fast.
:)
Posted by: Suzanne | June 30, 2006 8:41 AM
I'm trying the Chicken Cacciatore recipe as we speak! Thanks for the tip.
We didn't get any crockpots for our wedding. We did however get 6 sets of corning wear- including one vintage set from my great Aunt and Uncle that had never been opened....it might have been left over from their wedding. :)
Posted by: tiffany | June 30, 2006 3:12 PM
Barbara, thank you so much for the recipe! My husband and daughter loved it. He said that he would be very happy with that multiple times a week (and in general he is much more of a variety is better person). This recipe is going to be a life saver for me. I've been rather ill recently and haven't been able to do much in the way of real meals, but getting out my crock pot and trying this is changing all of that. I know you probably just meant this as a simple and light post, but I just wanted to let you know how much it helped our family. I greatly appreciate you and your blog, I haven't been reading long but am learning so much already. Thank you!
Posted by: tiffany | July 3, 2006 11:34 AM
