In Need of Easy Crock Pot Meals

There is a group on cafemom.com called "crock pot moms" that is amazing. They have weekly menu plans complete with recipes and shopping lists for the week. I don't do the weekly menu, but I definitely use it for ideas.

I can do a pot roast, beef tips and rice and pulled pork in a crock pot.

Pot Roast: any type of roast, one package of onion soup mix, salt and pepper to taste. Cover with water. And let it cook all day. When you get home, whip up some instant mashed potatoes...or cook real ones the night before and heat them on the stove adding butter, milk salt and pepper to taste, open a can of corn or green beans, a fresh salad or maybe some broccoli...and VOILA...

Beef Tips: cheap cuts of steak, cream of mushroom soup, salt and pepper to taste. Cube the meat, add soup. Cook all day. Make instant rice when you get home (takes like 10 minutes start to finish) and do the vegetable thing.

Pulled Pork: I JSUT found out about this one. There's a season packet that you can get from the grocery. Get a 3 lb pork butt (I got a 7 pounder because it was on sale and divided it in half and froze the other half for another meal) and put it, some brown sugar and some apple cider venegar...cook it all day. Toast any kind of bun, add either chips if you're hit for time or some fries and VOILA...meals.

I did this ALLOT when my older two were at home. And it's nice to come home to a house that smells like you've been cooking all day.

I have others...but off the top of my head...those are the ones that I remember...

Smiles to you and good luck!!

I love allrecipes.com. I listed some of my favorite crock-pot recipes from that website below.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Thunderbird-Stew/Detail.aspx
Great recipe. I can’t get enough of this one pot meal. I cook mine in the crock-pot with a bag of frozen stew vegetables.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/BBQ-Pork-for-Sandwiches/Deta...
My favorite way to prepare this is with a picnic/butt cut of pork. After I shred the meat, I toss the meat back in the slow cooker (liquid poured out), add Stubb’s barbecue sauce (1/2 mesquite, 1/2 spicy), and cook on low until heated through. Excellent with some chips and store-bought sweet coleslaw.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baby-Back-Ribs-2/Detail.aspx
These were the best ribs I've ever had - at home or out. We double the recipe. For simplicity's sake, I replace the plum sauce w/ more barbecue sauce and omit the hot sauce. I mix Stubbs spicy and smokey mesquite bottled sauces for great flavor.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Slow-Cooker-Meatballs/D...
As written, I’m not crazy about this recipe. But with 1 lb lean ground beef and 1 lb hot Italian sausage, most of the other ingredients from this recipe, and a jar of Classico spaghetti sauce, these meatballs are good. I omit the parsley, crushed tomatoes, and tomato puree.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Onion-Meat-Loaf/Detail.aspx
I use this recipe for slow cook timing and make these changes: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 3/4 cup bread crumbs, 1 envelope onion soup mix, 2 pounds 93% lean ground beef.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Snow-Flake-Cocoa/Detail.aspx
Although this is not a meal, it is one of my new favorite things to make in the crock-pot, especially on a day like today.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 32 oz Box of chicken broth
2 large chicken breasts frozen ( 3-4 if you have to feed a lot of people just remember to adjust the spices for more)
1 16 oz jar of salsa - your preference on the heat level
1 Knorr brand chicken bouillon cube
1 Maggi Chicken and Tomato Bouillon cube
cilantro to your taste

Put all this in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours and on high for 4-5 hours

Put it all in the crock pot before you leave for work then when you come home add in 1 16 oz bad of frozen corn or 16 oz of can corn - if you use frozen corn it will need to cook for about another hour if you use can corn then it will be ready after you prep your bowls for dinner.

Prep your bowl with any of the following items (I use them all)

green onions
cheese
lime juice (a small amount goes a long way)
cilantro on top
tortilla chips on the side or broken in the bowl

add soup and stir and serve!

It is great all year long. And you can make substitutions or leave out the things you or someone in your family will not eat

My kids do not like the corn so I do not put any in their bowls and my oldest likes to add black olives.

The site allrecipes.com has tons of recipes. Try looking there. :)

I just wanted to add to Tamela's beef tip recipe - I use one can of Cream of mushroom AND one can of cream of celery. This is so yummy on top of white rice - my husband gobbles all the leftovers up like it's candy!

3 can chicken -
1 lb chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can tomatoes with peppers (I use walmart's verion of rotel)

Cook in the crock pot on low for 8 hours or so. Debone / skin chicken and shred. Add sour cream and cheese if you want. Serve in tortillas or with chips or over noodles or rice.

It's kind of like King Ranch Chicken casserole.

I have a yummy meatball one that my family loves. It can be done the night before . . .

The day before, dry out 3 slices of bread (any kind). To dry it out, I heat the oven to 350 and turn it off once it's heated, place the bread in an oven safe bowl inside the oven as it cools. Also, be sure to thaw 1 lb. of ground beef naturally. If you thaw it in the microwave, your meatballs will not stick together.

The night before you plan to eat it - in a large bowl, crumble the dry bread (I use the pampered chef food chopper - the drier the bread, the easier it is to crumble).
Add a dribble of milk to make the bread pasty.
Place the thawed meat on top of the bread.
Cover the top with salt, pepper, and garlic powder lightly.
Add one egg and mush together to a meaty paste.
On the stove, heat about 1/2 inch of oil on medium heat.
While the oil heats, roll the meat into balls - any size will work, but I generally make them about golf ball size.
Place the meatballs a few at time in the heated oil turning once to brown the outside. This only takes a minute or two. Drain on a paper towel.
Place the drained meatballs into the crock pot.
Cover the meatballs with a large jar of spaghetti sauce. I like Ragu traditional, but whatever flavor your family likes is fine. I like to add a couple sprinkles of oregano and one clove of fresh garlic in the garlic press.
Turn crock pot onto high until the sauce is bubbling. Then place on low and leave running all night.
I don't work now, so I leave it simmering all day long. But when I was working, I'd let it simmer all night, then unplug it in the morning and put the crock pot into the fridge. When I got home, I put it back on high to heat back up. (I was too nervous to leave it running while I was at work all day :)
When you are ready to eat, it takes about 20 minutes to heat some noodles and garlic bread and throw together a salad. You could also buy sub rolls and grated mozzarella and make meatball subs.

This recipe is a favorite of my family, and will usually make enough meatballs for two meals. So, one night we'll do spaghetti and a couple nights later, the meatball subs. It also doubles very easily for a large group. It's what I always feed my whole family before church on Christmas Eve so I can do the bulk of the cooking on the 23rd and enjoy Christmas Eve day.

I just made the world's best Corned beef in my crock pot for my husband's/daughter's joint bday party yesterday. I used the beef for little sandwiches, which were devoured en total.

I got the recipie from allrecipies.com, "Corned beef for sandwiches", and I did it in the crock pot on low for 8 hrs.

There is a blog this lady wrote where she cooked from her crock pot the entire year (2008). She blogged about it (recipe's and pictures included) and she also said if it turned out good and if her kids liked it. You'll have to have some time to browse the site, but it has a ton of recipes. Hope this helps! http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/