French Dip

YUM YUM YUM. I love french dip sandwiches and it can't get any easier for a Sunday dinner. Put a roast in a crockpot, fill it half full of water, empty a pack of Au Jus and cook on high for 5 or so hours. Shred your meat, put in another pack of Au Jus and cook another hour or so. You can't mess this up and it's great with Walmart's day old rolls you pick up on Saturday night!

Chicken Potato Carrot Crockpot Meal

CI don't remember where I found this recipe originally, but I think it's a yummy crockpot meal!

Potatoes

Carrots

Onion

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp dried parsley

salt and pepper

Wash and cube your potatoes, throw them in the pot. Peel and cut carrots, throw them in the pot. Cut an onion and throw that in the pot. Mix in melted butter, parsley, salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl mix the following ingredients:

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 Tbsp paprika

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp honey

dash cumin

salt

Cut up a few chicken breasts, throw them in the pot on top of vegetables and spread/pour sauce over the chicken. Let it cook until tender. (I think I had it on high for 1 hour before church and turned to low, let it cook for 4 hours while we were gone and when we got back it was perfect!)

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

YUM. I'm always weak for mexican but I thought these took my basic chicken tacos up a few notches, without any extra effort.

I found the recipe here - http://sherj.blogspot.com/search/label/tacos

KA's Crockpot Chicken Tacos

All you need:

3 chicken breasts
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup of olive oil


Directions:

Set crockpot on low. Add Taco Seasoning. Put chicken breasts on top of the taco seasoning. Add the tomatoes, water and oil. Leave in crockpot for 6-8 hours. Around the sixth hour, turn up heat to high. (I don't remember how I cooked it, but probably just on high for a few hours and it still tasted great!)

This step is optional: Pour contents of crockpot in a a deep skillet (including liquid.) Push chicken pieces to the sides of the pan, leaving a 'hole filled with sauce'. Add two tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the 'hole' for thickening the sauce. As the sauce thickens, shred chicken with 2 forks. (I added a little cornstarch just into the crockpot and mixed it in with the liquid a little).

I like to fry my own taco shells. They taste so much better, especially with this chicken! So heat your oil over medium heat until when you place a corner of the tortilla in it will bubble. Cook your corn tortilla for 30 seconds, flip and fold cooking 30 more seconds on each side. Drain on paper towel. (I like them a little flimsy). Topped with monterey jack cheese and lettuce. It was delicious!

Crockpot Pizza

A truly simple meal. Most recipes you see online tell you to cook your noodles before. I don't think it's necessary. I've made this a few times and always cook them before, but when eating remember I wanted to try it without doing that because I think the noodles get too soft and I like them a little chewy.

So you need-

spaghetti sauce

noodles

pepperoni

cheese. (I usually do a little mozerella and a little cheddar unless I don't have them both on hand)

Just do a couple of these layers in your crockpot and cook on low for a couple hours. Waa-lah, you're done and you have a meal your kids will love! I've used egg noodles and the spiral rotini ones. You can add ground beef, peppers, really anything you want. I don't think you can go wrong with crockpot meals!

Chicken Cacciatore

I found this recipe here- http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/02/chicken-cacciatore/

2 small chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 c. white flour

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 c. olive oil. I'll be honest, used vegetable :)

1 onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and either crushed or halved

1 can tomato sauce

1 1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon

1/4 tsp. thyme

1/4 tsp. marjoram

1/2 tsp. salt

1 bay leaf

1/3 green bell pepper, chopped

1/3 red bell pepper, chopped

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, add onions and garlic and stir frequently until onions are tender and garlic is fragrant. Remove with a slotted spoon (this is why you need to keep the onion and garlic pieces big), shake off excess oil (you don’t have to go crazy here, a little olive oil never killed anyone!), and transfer to your blender. Increase heat to medium-high.

In a large Ziploc bag, combine flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. black pepper. Add chicken pieces, seal bag, and shake to coat pieces with flour. Dump the entire bag into the hot pan and stir quickly to prevent pieces from sticking together. Saute until chicken is golden. Remove chicken with slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

While chicken is draining, add water, chicken bouillon, tomato sauce, thyme, and marjoram to the onions and garlic in the blender. Blend until smooth. Place chicken and bay leaf in your slow cooker and then pour the sauce over the chicken. Place lid on slow cooker and cook on high for 3.5-4 hours. When you have about 1/2 hour to go, add the chopped peppers. Cook until tender. Remove bay leaf and serve over pasta. (we used fettucini)

I don't think I'd call this exceptional, but good. And worth making again.