crock pot fun...


i grew up in a home with 2 working parents. 

my mom stayed home until my brother started school fulltime, and then we were latchkey kids.  somedays we would play at grandmas after school, somedays we went home to fend for ourselves. 

as the big sister i was in charge (i am always in charge, whether i am the big sister in the situation or not) i took care of jesse after school every day.  until he became that annoying age of know it all in insecurities... then he kind of did what he wanted while i yelled at him to do what he was supposed to be doing. 

i remember mom being a stay at home, jesse does not really.  i remember her baking her own bread and hand making spaghetti noodles.  i remember days of baking and freezing and cooking and working.  i remember lots of homemade meals. 

jesse remembers subway sandwiches and wendy's 99c menu.  the gigantic size of my butt at that time remembers that also.

we both remember crock pot meals.  mostly roasts.  throw a cut of meat in the crock pot with spices and potatoes and veggies, and you have a complete meal that you hardly had to think about.  my mom used her crock pot a lot.  stews and soups and chili and roasts. 


now as a working mom myself... i am realizing the importance of a crock pot in the kitchen.  it may not make award winning meals.  i may not get a golden chef hat for my cooking... but my family will at least be eating home cooked meals rather than from the 99c menu and freezer section.

the thing is... i don't have many crock pot recipes.  my husband is not a huge fan of one-pot kind of meals.  he eats nothing creamy (no mayo, no cream cheese, no sour cream, no cream, no cream of anything soup)  he eats some veggies, but nothing all veggie.  no mushrooms.  this eliminates a lot in the world of crock pot. (although some items can be substituted in recipes, and meat can always be added.)

i can make a mean chili.  i can make a basic roast (meat, spices, veggies, cook).  i can make both bbq pork and italian beef sandwiches.  beyond that... i have tried chicken noodle soup a couple times and the occasional stew...  but i want some real good, real food, home made meals i can make in a crock pot. 

that's where you come in!  if you have a link to a site with lots of good gourmet crock pot meals, or have a tried and true crock pot recipe... i want it.

it may not be a culinary cuisine, it may not be a gourmet meal... but at this stage in my life right now... we will settle for homemade.  we will settle for better than frozen pizza. 

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Comments

  1. Melinda,
    Some of these looked good to me. You might have to doctor them up to meet Matthews standards, but that wouldn't be hard! Good luck!

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  2. I love a good crock pot meal! Have you been to http://crockpotgirls.com? I saw that a lot of my friends "liked" their facebook page. Haven't looked around too much myself, but I plan to. Good luck! If you find any favorite crock pot recipes please share! :)

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  3. I LOVE a good crockpot meal as well! I have a few on my recipe blog, sort by "crockpot" on the right. The chicken tacos are really good! Leftovers are delicious as enchiladas and also in a salad.
    Our go to is the Ravioli Casserole or the crockpot lasagna.
    Crockpot Girls on FB is weird, but their website is much better. Much more useful. Don't bother with liking their FB page.
    and I'm so sorry that your husband doesn't like creamy anything. Tragedy in my book.

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  4. whoops, forgot the link....
    http://pelletierfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/

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  5. Anonymous16:30

    www.kellyskornerblog.com/p/suyl-topics.html

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  6. juli, total tragedy. i love creamy goodness.

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  7. Anonymous10:25

    Dear Melinda Sue, perhaps you know about this one, but in case you don't go to Pioneer Woman and type in "Drip Beef" for her recipe. It can be made in a crock pot with even a not the tenderest cut of beef. The longer you cook it the more tender it becomes. Also, there are some great crock pot cookbooks in our library, so maybe your library would have some, too. Good luck to you! A lot of crock pot recipes do have mushrooms and cream, but there should be others that do not.
    love and prayers, jep
    PS Hope you and Asher are both feeling better now.

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  8. http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/category/main-courses/slow-cooker/

    Tasty Kitchen, main courses, and then you can go under slow cooker. I really need to get more crock pot meals in my rotation. Right now I have like none.

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  9. Anonymous13:06

    So I take a bunch of frozen chicken breasts, put them in the crock pot, cover them with low sodium chicken brothe. A white onion chopped into quarters gets thrown in, too. Cook it on low all day...I don't know six-8 hours. I've done it on high for 4 hours with good results too. Drain the broth off and discard the onions. Then shred the chicken (should be falling apart) and put it back in the crockpot. Pour some extra virgin olive oil over it. Just to moisten it, you don't want it oily. Mix it all around and season liberally with Adobo seasoning. Do you have this seasoning in Omaha? If not I will mail you some, seriously. But in the mean time you can try a different season that you like a lot...the ingredients in the Adobo are: salt, granulated garlic, oregano, black pepper, and tumeric. It's just perfect. Anyway, so season to taste and just put on tortillas or crunchy taco shells or whatever you like and top with cheese and sour cream and cilantro, and salsa....this is a bit hit in my home and the leftovers are good and easy for lunch. Enjoy and let me know if you want me to mail you the seasoning. God bless...I'm so glad you're blogging more regularly again!

    Denise

    ReplyDelete

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