French Oven Beef Stew

3 lbs round steak

3-5 potatoes

6 carrots

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 ribs of celery

1 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 TBSP tapioca

1 can tomato soup

2 TBSP Dijon mustard

1 ¼ c. water

Cut meat, potatoes, carrots, and celery into bite-sized pieces. (I don’t care for big chunks of celery so I chop them into smaller pieces.) Add everything to a 4-5 qt crock pot and cook on high for 6-8 hrs.

Megan Lattin

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ

6 servings

6 frozen skinless, boneless chkn breast halves

1 (12 oz) bottle bbq sauce

1/2 C Italian salad dressing

1/4 C brown sugar

2 TB Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the bbq sauce, italian dressing, brown sugar, and worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.

Cover and cook 3-4 hours on Hight or 6-8 hours on low.

You can eat it as it is or put it over baked potatoes.

-Shara Rust

Crockpot Beef Stew

(6-8 servings)

1 packet of Stew Beef (or 1/2-1 lb. chopped any roast beef type)

Chopped celery (several small stalks)

Chopped carrots

Potatoes (6-8ish?)

3 cups water

6-7 beef bouillion cubes

1 can corn

1 can stewed tomatoes

Set crockpot either for High 6 hours or Low 8-10 hours (its hard to mess this one up)

Lauren Smith

Meatball Subs

Submitted by Kammy T

Frozen meatballs

Can of Spaghetti sauce

Sliced cheese (we like Provolone)

Hoagie rolls (we like outdoor rolls)

Put meatballs and spaghetti sauce in your crockpot for 6-8 hours on low.

Serve 3-4 meatballs on each roll with a slice or two of provolone. You can use hotdog buns to make kid-sized subs.

Hawaiin Teriyaki Chicken

This recipe was submitted by Kammy T. She got the recipe as follows at freezerdinner.com, a site that I love for the recipes and freezer tips.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings
2 cups soy sauce
2 cups water
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 green onion, chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
3 pounds chicken tenders or breasts,
1 keilbasa sausage sliced into 1-inch strips (optional)

Place all ingredients except chicken and sausage into 2
large zip-top bags. Stir to create marinade. Add the raw chicken and sliced sausage
squeeze all the air out of the bags. Label and
freeze. (Marinate the meat for at least 15
minutes in the fridge, or up to 3 months in
the freezer.)
To Serve
Defrost frozen meat and marinade in the microwave and then cook together in a hot skillet until chicken is cooked through (5 minutes on each side.) Serve with rice.

To turn marinade into a sauce, bring it to a boil on the stove and add 3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with ½ cup cold water. (Mix the cornstarch with water before pouring it into the sauce or it will be lumpy.) Stir until sauce thickens, and then pour on rice. Garnish with sesame seeds.

*Another option to make this recipe is to place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 3 hours. Serve with rice and freeze leftovers.

Hawaiian Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ cup ketchup

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1tsp. mustard

½ crushed pineapple with juice

½ cup brown sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or stew in slow cooker for 4-6 hours. Serve

over rice.

-Rachel Freeman

Crockpot White Bean Chili

1 lb. chicken breast

2 cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

1 can white corn, drained

1 can chopped green chilies

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 14oz can chicken broth

1 pkg. taco seasoning

½ c sour cream

Place chicken in the bottom of the crock pot. Put the northern beans, white corn, and green chilies on

top. Mix together cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, and taco seasoning and pour on top. Cook on

low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. When done, take out the chicken and cut into small pieces.

(This is just slighltly different from the delicious one Amy put on, but I thought I'd still add it.)

-Rachel Freeman

French Dip Sandwhiches

2 pkg. Good Seasons Italian dressing

2 cans beef broth

2 pkg. Au jus

1 can water

4-5 lb. boneless roast

Put all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on LOW all night and throughout the entire day 18-20 hrs. Trim

fat while cooking. Put meat on bread then top with cheese. Place in oven on broil and watch closely.

When brown, take out and serve with the au jus sauce (sauce in crock pot) for dipping.

-Rachel Freeman

Two Valentines Day Treats

Just had to share two new things we tried for Valentines Day. Both recipes I got from Disney's Family Fun website.

The first recipe was for secret decoder cookies. Sounds intriguing right? Click here to see it. I have to tell you, the cookies were much more successful then the message part. We had a hard time making it secret. But the kids still loved the novelty of it and the recipe gives you something to do with all those red valentine suckers your kids get at Valentines Day.

The second recipes was for cinammon apple sauce. Basically you just throw apples in a crockpot with water and some cinammon candies. My friend Megan clued me into the idea and it was fabulous!! See the recipe here.

Hope you have a great Valentines Day!!

Crock Pot Beef Stew

I was craving beef stew, and I had a certain idea in my head of what it should taste like, but didn't have a recipe for it. I found this one on All Recipes and we loved it. It tasted just as I thought it was supposed to. I combined the recipe given with some of the comments posted under it:

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 onion chopped

1 1/2 C beef broth

1 tbl worcestershire sauce

1/2 C red wine

2 bay leaves

1 tsp paprika

1 packet McCormick's Beef Stew Seasoning mix

3 potatoes diced

4 carrots sliced

1 stalk celery chopped

Mix flour, salt, and pepper. Pour flour mixture into a gallon sized zipper bag. Shake beef in bag to coat. Saute coated beef in 1-2 tbl olive oil until browned. Add chopped onion to beef to saute and soften. Transfer to slow cooker. Mix beef broth with worcestershire and red wine. Pour into hot skillet to deglaze, the pour over the beef and onions in cooker. Add remaining ingredients to the crock pot. Cook on low 10-12 hours or on high 4-6 hours.

2 cloves garlic

Curry Beef Soup

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 pound cubed beef stew meat
6 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 bay leaves
2 potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Cook onions and beef cubes until beef is browned and onions are tender. (Original recipe called for 2 onions, I only used 1.)

2. Add the beef stock, curry and bay leaves. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. (I cooked it more like an hour to make sure the beef got really tender. I also made stock with boullion and water since I didn't have any on hand.)

3. Add the potatoes, vinegar and salt. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until all is tender. Remove bay leaves and serve hot.

This recipe was so delicious. I added a little cornstarch and water to thicken it a little and served it over cooked brown rice. In the future I will thicken it a little more. You could also add cauliflower, broccoli, carrots or other veggies. Very easy and all the kids liked it! You could easily do this in the crockpot too.

Sweet Pork Tacos

3-4 lbs Pork Sirloin or Loin Roast
1 Cup Salsa Verde
1 ½ Cup of Brown Sugar
Mix Salsa & Brown Sugar together and pour over frozen chicken. Cook in crockpot for 6-8 Hrs on high or until its shredded.
Great with Pinto or Black beans and Spanish Rice

-Alicia Warnock

Crock Pot Roast

Crock Pot Roast

3-5 lb Beef Roast
Garlic Salt to taste
Garlic salt the roast and place in crock pot

10 ¾ can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Pkg Dry Onion Soup Mix
10 ¾ can Beef Gravy
½ Cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Vinegar
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Mix together and pour over roast. Cook on low heat for 12 hrs OR on high heat for 6-7 hours.
Good with Steamed Green beans and Baked Potato’s!

-Alicia Warnock

Southern Pulled Pork Sandwhich

3-4 lbs Pork Roast
2 Onions chopped
16 oz BBQ Sauce
1/3 Cup Honey
Cook in crockpot until chicken is cooked. (6-? hrs on high)
Good with Corn on the Cob!

-Alicia Warnock

Crockpot Sweet & Sour Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts
¾ Cup Water
¾ Cup Ketchup
½ Cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Vinegar
4 Tbsp Soy sauce
Cook in crockpot until chicken is cooked. (5-? hrs on high)
Good with White Rice!

-Alicia Warnock

Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwhiches

4 lbs chicken breast
16 oz BBQ Sauce
1 Cup water
Cook in crockpot until chicken is cooked. (5-? hrs on high) Until chicken is shredded
Rhodes Rolls (follow thawing directions on package, allow yourself about 6 hours for them to defrost and rise) They are small so I would figure a couple per adult and one per child and then a few extra for afterwards with butter & jelly!

Cranberry Chicken

4-5 Chicken Breasts
1 can whole cranberries
1 cup or more of bbq sauce
Cook in crockpot until chicken is cooked. (5-? hrs on high)

-Alicia Warnock

Pulled-Pork Sandwiches in a Pot

-Pork roast (between 3-5 pounds)

-BBQ sauce

-salt and pepper

This is a crock pot recipe, so you can choose a less expensive cut of meat. Any kind of pork roast will do, and a little marbling in the meat actually works well with this recipe.

-Put pork roast in crock pot and cook for several hours. I usually cook mine on a higher heat for a few hours and then turn it down to low to finish.

-When roast is cooked, remove from crock pot and shred meat. The meat should fall apart easily.

-Put shredded meat back in crock pot (dump liquid out of crock pot first) and salt and pepper to taste.

-Add at least one bottle of BBQ sauce (depending on the size of the roast, you may need more) and warm until heated through.

-Serve on buns or rolls.

crock pot lasagne

This was so yummy and really, could it be any easier?? So excited debby sent this!!

1 lb cooked hamburger

12 ounce container cottage cheese

6-8 lasagne noodles (NOT oven ready kind) Break to fit in cooker

3 cups mozzarella cheese

1 large jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Mix all in large crock pot. Cover and cook 4-5 hours on low.

-Debby Moon

Cafe Rio copy cat Recipes

I've been seeing a lot of these cafe rio copy cat recipes lately (i had one version of their dressing this past weekend. I posted both versions because they're slightly different). If you have a version you like, please share!!

I got this one off of www.freezerdinner.com/. I would have just posted the link, but I noticed one recipe site I like is now private and I am really grateful I had posted some of those recipes here so I can still make them. I definitely don't want to lose this recipe-it's so good!! But check out the site-lots of yummy things to try there.

Chicken

5 lbs chicken breast- boneless skinless

1 small bottle zesty italitan dressing

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tpsp cumin

3 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients together in a large crock pot.

Cook on high for 5-7 hours. Remove chicken and shred with fork. Reserve a small amount of juice and pour over shreeded chicken to keep moist. Keep warm.

Pork

1 bottle of honey BBQ sauce

1 Tbsp honey

1 liter of Dr. Pepper or Coke

Place all ingredients in large crockpot and cook on low all night. In the morning take the raost out leaving the juice in the crockpot, shred the roast. Then place the shredded roast back in the crock pot and leave it on low.

Lime Rice

In a sauce pan saute:

2 Tbsp butter

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

In a large pot, bring the following to boil

6 2/3 C water

3 Tablespoons chicken bullion

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 teaspoons cumin

2 small cans diced green chilies

2 Tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Tbsp lime zest (optional)

Add onion and garlic to boiling water. Add 3 cups long grain rice. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

[I made in the rice cooker. Added a little less then the amount of water required for the rice cooker + the boullion and the lime juice + spices. Added the green chilis, garlic, and cilantro when the rice was almost done. Would have added onion at the same time but was too lazy too sautee so skipped it-maybe next time!!]

Fresh Salsa

4 fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 white onion, chopped

1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Combine ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Cilantro Lime Dressing

1 pkg of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch Dressing dry mix

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup mayonnaise

1-2 tomatillos, peel

1 clove garlic minced

1/3 bunch cillantro, chopped

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 small jalapeno, seeds removed

Blend ingredients together in a blender. Add additional mayonnaise if dressing is too thin. Keep refrigerated.

Serve in the following order:

Tortillas, Shredded cheese, Chicken or Pork, Black or Pinto Beans, Lime Rice, Red and Green Leaf Lettuce, shredded, Salsa, Guacamole, Fresh Cilantro, Parmesan cheese, Fresh lime slice, Cilantro Lime Dressing, Enjoy!