Mama's Successful Winter Break Involves a Crockpot

Our CC group was on break this week, and it worked out perfectly for us. I seem to do better (as do my kids) on a six/seven weeks on, one week off schedule. Sometimes this lines up with our homeschool tutorial, sometimes not. But I was ready for a week to recharge. Usually these weeks involve lots of cleaning out of closets and tasks around the house, but I didn't do as much this week. All of our regular activities were still on the calendar (music lessons, Awana at church, gymnastics, etc.) so our days were still humming. However, unknowingly, I managed to give myself a bit of a break by putting four brand new crockpot recipes on my menu plan. I know! Totally risky. Crockpots are funny things - the right recipe is gold, but there are plenty of bad ones out there.

In the spirit of mom solidarity, I thought I would share the four that I made with our comments. All of these recipes came from Six Sisters Stuff. I've been following them on Instagram for a while now, and when I see them post a recipe I like, I use Instagram's new little save feature (the flag that is underneath a photo on the right). Then when I'm menu planning, I pull up my saves and go through and see if anything new jumps out at me to try.

Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas - this recipe is actually one that the Six Sisters made from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook. We had some taco meat left over from the weekend from something at our house, and I found one smallish steak in the freezer. I knew my kids would not be fans of the onions and peppers cooked with the steak, but the grownups were. One smallish steak plus a load of veggies was perfect for me and my husband to have for dinner ... and the kids got taco leftovers. I'll make this again.

Slow Cooker Lasagna - this was another good one. I made this on Valentine's Day. (Nothing says Valentine's like something Italian). It was tasty and just the right size for our crew. FYI - on all these recipes I used my 4 quart crockpot, instead of my bigger 6 quart. If I make a recipe to fill my larger 6 quart size, I generally end up with more leftovers that I want to eat! The 4 quart has been working out perfectly for us, but I know that won't last long. As different children enter different growth spurts we run out of food some nights!

Crockpot Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes - this one got RAVE reviews from my kids. I honestly don't know the last time they have gushed about a dinner like this. The six year old boy kept asking for more "chicken" (we corrected him several times that it was pork, but it didn't stick) and said that this meat was "'ah-licious!" multiple times. (I will be so sad when he stops saying delicious that way). My 11 year said that if it wasn't considered rude, she would lick the sauce from this dish off her plate. High praise indeed for this one!

Crockpot Swedish Meatballs - another major hit with my kids (and me!) This is the only recipe I took a picture of and, other than the fact that my meatballs fell apart in the crockpot after cooking all day, it was such a good comfort food dish. I did what Six Sisters suggested, and served it over mashed potatoes and that was pretty fabulous, and I'm not a mashed potatoes person. I think the meatball problem was that they were turkey meatballs made from a Pioneer Woman recipe and in my experience, I have not yet learned the trick to getting my meatballs to stay together well. It didn't affect the taste in the least!

All these recipes are going in my keeper pile and into rotation. I have my favorite recipes and cookbooks that I fall back on time and time again, but it's always nice to find a new recipe / blogger / Instagram account to add into the rotation for some new inspiration!

Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese Success

(Food blogger wanna-be strikes again.)

Homemade macaroni and cheese has been my nemesis for lo these many years. I can't count how many times I have tried to make it only to be met with a burnt or lumpy mess or something that really didn't taste very good.

One of my CC mama friends to the rescue! She sent me her recipe for crockpot mac and cheese so with trepidation I mixed up a batch and surprise! My kids loved it! The husband loved it! I made it a second time and doubled it and it still was a huge hit! Another sign of success was that my Dad asked for the recipe! (Lots of explanation points because this recipe is really, really good!)

I'm sure the secret is the Velveeta, but I'm not complaining. I wouldn't cook it more than 3 1/2-4 hours in the crockpot, even on low, because it will start to stick, but for something you want to throw in the crockpot late afternoon to have ready for dinner time, this is perfect.

Stephanie's Crockpot Mac and Cheese (not me, another Stephanie) : )

3 Tbsp. margarine, melted, put in crock pot

2 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup Velveeta, cut in cubes

4 cups milk

 

Mix all ingredients lightly.  Cover and turn on high.  Do not remove lid or stir for three hours.

 

Note: you could mix in all sorts of stuff and make it a meal. Precooked ham, peas, taco seasoned meat, etc. I served it above with the Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork for a recent Sunday lunch with family (cooked in my cast iron dutch oven), green beans in one crockpot, and mac and cheese in another crockpot. We ate well.

Crockpot Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tuesday is co-op day which means it’s also crockpot day. Today’s chilly weather (and what I had to work with in my pantry) called for soup so I scrounged in my recipes files and found one, but I tweaked it a bit based on what I had on hand. This is what I ended up with.

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup  

•1 medium onion, diced
•1 jalapeno, diced (would have been nice but I didn’t have one)
•4 cloves garlic, minced
•1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
•1/2 teaspoon chili powder
•1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – I left out)
•1 (15 ounce can) fire roasted diced tomatoes (I used a can of rotel with lime)
•4 cups chicken broth (I actually used beef broth because I was out of chicken, but it tasted just fine!)
•1 (14.5 ounce) can black beans (or whatever kind you like)
•1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons kosher salt
•3 cups shredded chicken, already cooked (I dumped it in rock hard from the freezer)
•1 cup frozen corn kernels

Dump it all the crockpot on low and let it cook through all day. I love this kind of a recipe because you can tweak and fuss with it and it is practically impossible to mess up. Don’t like the spice of Rotel? Use a can of diced tomatoes. Have a family member that doesn’t like tomato pieces in their soup? Use crushed tomatoes or leave it out entirely. Swap out a can of colored mexi-corn instead of the frozen. So easy to just use what you have a come up with a tasty soup. We served ours with a little cheese sprinkled on top and some tortilla chips for dipping.

As an aside: just to keep it real, I only had one child that tried the soup. It had a slight kick to it from the Rotel and I knew some wouldn’t eat it so they mostly ate quesadillas. Fine by me … more leftovers. : ) This kind of soup is great leftover – as soup (you can add a tiny bit of water to it if it isn’t as soupy when it’s time to reheat it. And, if you lost most of the liquid by the time it’s cooked down scoop it over chips for easy nachos or dump it on a bed of lettuce for a quick chicken taco salad. I’m already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

Happy eating. : )