We are having a Church potluck tomorrow and everyone is supposed to bring a main dish and a side dish. I got the side dish covered, but I don't know what to take as a main.
Here is the problem, it has to be something that stays hot in my van while we are in church, so about 3 hours or so, but doesnt' spoil. So I was thinking about maybe trying a meatloaf in the crockpot, then right before we leave wrapping it in a bunch of towels so it will stay hot. I know my crockpot usually stays hot for a couple house after unplugged anyway, but that's usually with chilly or something like that in it. I don't know if a meatloaf would cover enough of the crock to help keep the heat even or not... know what I mean? Plus, I have NEVER made meatloaf in a crockpot, so I am really afraid of ruining it.
I woud love to make something "different" that doesn't usally get brought, but at the same time, I am not rich, so it has to be reasonably priced.
Oh, and taking the crock in and plugging it in at church is not an option, we have a very small Church, no kitchen or anything, and a lot of little kids that could get burned on it. Believe me, I have already thought of every way possible of not leaving it in the van.
Any ideas????? HELP!
Unfortunitly meatballs and the cheesy potatoes are usually always brought to our potlucks. Although those are really great ideas. Oh, shredded chicken is another one that is always there. I really need something original, or completely off the wall different. Sorry.
Somebody else is already bringing a roast too. See what this is so hard!?? LOL
I already thought about running home to get my stuff, but that would take waaaaay to long. And as much as it drives me nuts, our potlucks are very unorganized, it's a bring whatever type of thing, just so it's a main dish and a side. And pretty much everyone is already has somthing that they usually bring, especially the older ladies in the church. I hate to admit this, but I usally just stopped and picked up store bought stuff before and this time I really wanted to do it right! LOL I always had an excuse why I didn't cook. Isn't that horrible? Anyway, it would be kind of hard to call everyone and ask what they are bringing. I wish there was a sign up sheet or something but this is how it's always been done.
Wow, everyone on here gave me such GREAT ideas! I am definitly going to copy all of the recipes that some of you gave me! So I ended up making Chilli. It was great. For my side dish, I made baked potatoes, wrapped them in foil, then stuck them in a hot crock pot to keep them warm. I made sure I took salt, pepper, butter, and sour cream too. Everything stayed hot. I was alittle suprised though, I really thought the baked potatoes would be a huge hit.... I have never seen anyone else bring them to a potluck, and my son and husband thought they would be a winner too, but I brought most of them back home except for like maybe 5. :-( They were sooooo good too. Oh well, that's more leftovers for us! I just ate one for breakfast.. (great breakfast, huh) LOL
Thank you all for your responses! I can't believe how many people gave me ideas!
I was going to suggest tacos, but someone already did. lol. pulled pork would work, or fried rice, sloppy joe, stuffed peppers, jambalya, most any soup (i'm making corm and potato chowder tonight and we just had tortilla soup the other day) chili...
Bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into triangles and macaroni and cheese for the side. The kids will love you. If you put peanut butter on both slices of bread, the jelly will not bleed through.
Enchilada casserole can be cooked right before you leave, just take it out of the oven, wrap it in towels and leave it in the van. It should still be warm in time for lunch.
Does beanie weanie's count as a main dish? You could cut up hot dogs in pork and beans and put it in the crock pot. Or you could do sausage, red beans and rice. Both would do nicely in the cook pot and stay hot for lunch.
I would still leave it in the crockpot. My suggestion, cook a roast and add some BBQ sauce with about a 1/2 cup of water and chopped onion. It will taste good cold and hot. You could serve it alone, but on a piece of bread would be better. Keeping it simple with the ingredients will keep your cost down.
go with meatballs in gravy or sweet sour sauce ...instead of the meatloaf.
I also do BBQ chicken in the crock pot. Precook your chicken, shred it, & toss it into the crockpot with the sauce. Serve with dollar rolls or bread. (You can also use pork or beef this way.)
But, another thought would be: what a cold main dish? A chicken salad, taco salad.....I've even done a chicken Caesar salad for family reunions! By using a cooler for your cold main dish...you'll never have to worry about food spoilage. Good Luck!
Can't you plug it in at the church????
What usually goes over well at our church is a crockpot of hotdogs (with buns). The kids always go crazy over that because not very much of the food is kid friendly.
Or how about a batch of sloppy joe meat. Easy. Pretty cheap. Just pick up a couple packs of buns to go with. (1 1/2# hamb. seasoned with seasoning salt, garlic salt, onion salt, and pepper. Brown. Add 1 can tomato soup, squirt of mustard, 1 to 2 Tablespoons vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and ketchup till it looks good!)
Hi M.,
Your question brought back a lot of happy memories. There are a million things you can make in your crockpot.
Brocolli rice and cheese casserole (add cooked, cubed chicken and its a main dish)
Enchilada casserole
Crockpot Lasagna
BBQ country style ribs
Brown Beans and Hamhocks
Green beans, new potatoes and ham
Taco Soup
Breakfast Sausage and potato soup ( like a chowder and so good)
Chicken and Noodles
Go to www.food.com (used to be recipezaar.com) and look up crockpot recipes. They have a crockpot way to prepare almost anything on there. Use the recipe sifter, it's awesome.
Hope this helps,
L.
I'm a BIG fan of sloppy-joes in the crock pot! It is saucy enough like chili that it won't burn but stays hot because it is so saucy. I think just about everyone likes it and it's not terribly expensive to make. The most pricy part would be picking up buns. Good luck & have fun!
sour kraut and smoked sausage would be really good. You can make it and then stick it in the hot crockpot. Do you have one of those nylon zippered things to keep it warm? they sell them pretty cheap at Target or walmart. they hold a casserole sized dish and will keep things warm for hours.
What about chicken and rice?
what about bbq sandwiches and baked beans? you could throw the meat into the crock pot with bbq sauce and let it cook, then take a fork and shred it up..keep it in the crock pot and bring buns..easy and fairly cheap!
First, 3 hours in a van is not going to allow anything to spoil. It may not be really hot, but it will not spoil. I have accidently left food in the pot I cooked it in for dinner over night on the stove. The stove was off. I tried it the next morning and it was ok. I put the left overs I accidently left out in the frig and served them for diner that night and they were still ok. I have also served them the second day and they were STILL OK!!!
Put your crock pot, wrapped in a bath towel in a large ice chest. It will stay warm for the three hours. The bath towel is to add insulation and to keep the hot crock pot from melting the plastic on the inside of the ice chest. (I don't know that it will, but it is just a precaution.) Your dinner will be nice and warm for your pot luck.
What to cook? There are lots of crock pot recipes on line. You can do chili, chicken, chicken & dumplings, etc. Your imagination is your only limitation.
For a nice, inexpensive main dish I have bought chicken leg 1/4's, cut the leg and thigh apart, sprinkled them with buffalo wing spice, and then put the leg 1/4's in the crock pot to cook. I add a can of chicken broth and then let it cook. After the chicken is cooked, I drain the liquid and place it in a pyrex measuring cup and place it in the frig. After the liquid is chilled I use a fork to pull the fat off the top and throw it away. I then add enough water to double the liquid and make rice pilaf. (Double the liquid? If there is one cup of drippings/liquid left after I pull off the fat, I add one cup of water.) You can also use italian dressing mix as a spice instead of buffalo chicken spice or just about anything else you like.
To cut down on your energy costs, fold a cloth hand towel and place on the crock pot lid, but don't let it drape over the sides. The towel acts like an insulator. You can then reduce your temperature setting by one setting. I turn my crock pot from high to low or from low to warm. Doing this also reduces the amount of heat released into your kitchen and the amount of heat your a/c has to overcome.
Good luck to you and yours.
Something for next time that we like to do........Italian Beef Sandwiches. Easy. Very Easy.
3-5lb beef roast
1-2 packets Italian Dressing Seasoning Packets (depends on how much flavor you want
1 jar Peppercini's (sp?), if you like them (we don't).
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
Enough water to cover
Rolls or HD buns.
Mozzarella cheese
Put the roast in the pot. Sprinkle seasoning packets, cheese and peppers (if using them). Pour on enough water to cover roast. Cook on low for 12 hours. Pull apart meat when done cooking. Use tongs to pull the meat out of the water and onto the buns. Top with Mozzarella cheese. Serve.
How about a pot of chili or soup, especially if you have a crock pot? This is more expensive but fried chicken is an option -tastes great hot or cold, and if you want to cut back on the cost, just do up some chicken legs. Kids love them!
Another option would be pizza - buy some pre-made pizza crusts, you could do pizza sauce or garlic butter sauce, cheese and veggies. Cut in small pieces and you don't have to worry about keeping it hot.
The thing about a potluck is it's not about whether or not the food is hot, it's about taking in a meal with family and friends and enjoying the food in good company. No one is going to look down on you if the food's not piping hot or if you bring the same thing as someone else. If they are, you need to find another church, because it's about the fellowship, so don't stress too much about it.
Chicken wings are easy to make at home, and no one cares if they're not hot. I make them with dry ranch dressing mix, melted butter, and tobasco for a little spice. They bake in a 300 degree oven an hour or so, turning once, and then can go into the crock pot. Cook the day before if you want, then just heat them and toss in the warmed crock. Delicious!
What about a lasagna in the crockpot? All you need to do is spray the bottom with non stick spray, put some sauce in the bottom and then a layer of lasagna noodles, your filling, another layer of noodles, sauce, more filling, etc. Then wrap it in foil and towels and keep it in your car if you positively can't plug it into the wall somewhere - not even in the church's kitche? An office? A side room somwhere?
I would do some type of soup. Put it in the crock pot on low before you go to bed. Let it cook right up until you leave for church. Set the crock in a laundry basket and pack it with towels. It should keep hot enough while you're in church. If you don't want to go that way, why nut just make up some lunch meat sandwiches? Or just bring sandwich stuff and let people make their own.
There is no place to keep a crock pot plugged in? That IS a tough one! This may sound strange, but do you live far from church? Perhaps you could dash home and grab it after services? I know that it is tomorrow, but I would also ask others what they are planning to do (or did) to solve this dilemma. Let us know what you end up doing. I am curious! Sorry I don't have a better solution or suggestion :(
Please excuse any typos, I'm trying to hurry....Here is an easy dish. I've never cooked it in a crockpot, but you can warm your crockpot on High while this is cooking in the oven, then place this in crockpot, wrap in newspapers & then place cooler (insulated)....You can also wash some "rocks" from the yard and cook them- wrap in aluminum first and place around crock pot to keep warm, then wrap in newspaper, and place in cooler-(the rocks get very hot, especially if you put them in oven wrapped and then turn oven up for a few minutes (5-10) while you are transferring the cooked dish into crock pot, they keep things hot! Hope you enjoy....
Ok the recipe.
You can also double this recipe, depending on how much you would like to bring, I usually double when I make it and freeze the leftovers, for a night when I don't feel like cooking :)
Italian Casserole
1 pkg chicken thighs (with skin)
1 pkg Italian Sausage (each piece cut in fourths)
1 medium onion
4-5 potatoes (cut like steak fries - or in slices)
4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 xtra large (8 oz) can tomato paste
1 xtra large can tomato sauce
oregano (sprinkled over top -to taste)
(can also add drained/rinsed cannellini beans, or great northern, or chick peas)
Spray roasting pan w/nonstick spray. Place chicken & sausage, arrange next three ingredients, smudge the tomato paste on pieces of chicken and sausage, drizzle olive oil over entire pan, then follow with garlic powder (sprinkle) and salt & pepper (to taste) then drizzle the tomato sauce over pieces, then sprinkle oregano.
Place in oven at 375 for l hour, watch for browning & if browning too quick, cover lightly w/alum. foil. Sorry this is too late for this church potluck.
Sometimes it takes 15 min longer, due to carrots....Yummy, easy, cheap....
I vote for a soup, and bread togo with it. like nacho potatoe soup, or homemade chicken noodle.
Baked beans is what I always bring. I make it a "main dish" by adding bacon and Kilbasa.
2 large cans baked beans
2 rings of Kilbasa
1pkg pre-cooked bacon
3T. ketchup
2T. mustard
1T. red wine vinegar
2 T. brown sugar
turn on crockpot and you're ready to go. It's always a favorite and it's cheap and doesn't get any easier!
You mentioned chilli in your crock pot, why not bring chilli? It is getting a bit chilly outside, so it's good timing. You could do a soup in the slow cooker also.
You probably don't have one of these,(only reason we do is because MIL bought us one as a gift) but if you have a car adapter that you plug into the cigarette outlet, but lets you plug regular outlets into it, then you could plug your crock pot into that and leave it turned on while in church.
cheezy potatos uasually go over well. a bag of the frozen cubed breakfast potatos, a can of cream of chickes, 2 cups spur cream, 2 cups chedder cheese, and for the topping melt 2 tablespoons of butter and crunch up plain corn flakes mix it together and top w that. bake at 350 for abput half hour to 45 mins or untill you think its done. bake it in a cassorole dish and wrap it in towels to keep it wqarm. it won't go bad in 3 hours
What about a mini taco bar? Make up some taco meat ahead of time and keep it hot in the crock pot--use ground turkey or chicken if you want it a little healthier. Take some shredded cheese, sour cream, and salsa, etc. Warm the tortillas (use the smaller sizes, I like corn better for this application) a ahead, wrap in a couple of different foil packages and use the heat from the crock pot to keep them warm.
Chicken and dumplings?
Shepherd's Pie?
Pizza Casserole?
http://familycrockpotrecipes.com/Pizza-Casserole-Crock-po...
