Our days have been pretty full so far this summer. We haven’t done anything extravagant yet, just some relaxed fun like playing with friends at the park, doing art projects for the fair, seeing dollar movies at the theater, swimming in the creek, working in the garden, and sleeping under the stars.
Oh the lazy days of summer!
Those lazy days turn into crazy days when the dinner hour hits. I get so caught up in summer life that I forget that I’m supposed to be the grown up around here. Planning a menu has completely gotten away from me. In fact, lately it’s been after five o’clock when I first start thinking about dinner.
The kids don’t mind so much because they are still out climbing trees and building forts, but not knowing what I’ll be making for dinner has been hectic for me.
Time for a Change
I’ve decided to change things this week. Our week is looking pretty busy, so I’m planning a week-long crock pot extravaganza. Well, maybe that’s making it sound a little too fancy. I will just be thrilled have dinner planned out and prepared before the dinner hour strikes.
The Plan
Grocery shopping is not something I have planned for this week, so I’ve carefully chosen recipes with ingredients I have (or mostly have) on hand. I’m sure I’ll be making some substitutions and tweaking here or there.
Here is what I have planned for this week so far. Of course all plans are subject to change according to my mood and preferences.
Monday
Creamy Chicken and Broccoli over Rice— This one is tried and true. I found Creamy Chicken and Broccoli over Rice on Pinterest recently and it was a success!
Tuesday
Crock Pot Potato Soup— We love potato soup, but I usually don’t make it in the crock pot. I’m planning to try this Crock Pot Potato Soup recipe, which also happens to be gluten-free.
Wednesday
Bean Burritos— My kids love bean burritos. I’ll be making my own refried beans in the crock pot. I’ll have a tutorial on this coming up soon. Refried beans from a can gross me out a little bit (but my kids will still eat them).
Thursday
Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup— My husband is a big fan of black beans, so I’m excited to give Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup a try. I love that it has dry beans in it rather than canned beans.
Friday
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry— We’re going to a pot luck movie night with friends on Friday night. I’ll bring my slow cooker chicken curry to serve over rice. I’ll share on here in the future.
I’m sure we’ll have leftovers, so five meals should last seven days. We’ll probably have salad (with the lettuce we have growing) and bread with some of these too.
Wow! I feel better about my week already!
How about you?
- Are you good at sticking to a menu when the normal routine is exchanged for a summer schedule?
- What are your favorite crock pot dishes to make? If the recipe is available online feel free to link to it!
There are just 2 of us, but I use my crock pot a LOT! We both work full-time, and it makes dinner so easy when I can start it before I leave for work & come home to a meal that’s basically ready to eat. Saves us a lot of money on getting lazy & eating out. I also love it during the summer, so I don’t have to heat up the oven.
I have a LOT of easy crock pot recipes. I don’t know if you want me to take up all of your comments with them. LOL. But, here are a few of my favorites that you or readers might enjoy trying out:
Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
2 lbs. pork tenderloin or pork roast
1 small (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 can cola or Dr. Pepper (generic is fine)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 packet taco seasoning
2 T. salsa or hot sauce of your choice
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. cumin
Add all ingredients to slow cooker & stir together well with a whisk. Add pork roast & cook on low for 8 hours. Shred meat with 2 forks & return to sauce until heated through. For a less spicy version, omit the salsa/hot sauce and cut the taco seasoning packet to 1/2 packet.
*****
World’s Easiest Chili
1-2 lbs. ground beef or chili meat (frozen is fine)
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 packet chili seasoning of your choice
Add meat to slow cooker, top with seasoning, tomatoes & beans. Cook on low 8-12 hours, mix well and serve.
Note: What I love about this recipe is how versatile it is. You can add chopped veggies or diced onion, use ground turkey instead of beef, change up the beans for “white chili” – it all works! The leftovers also make great chili con queso – just add some cubed velveeta and heat through and serve with tortilla chips. Also good for chili mac by stirring it into some homemade mac & cheese.
*****
Smothered steaks with gravy
6-12 frozen raw hamburger patties depending on how many people you’re feeding & size of your crock pot (you can substitute cube steaks also)
1 onion, sliced
1 packet brown gravy mix
1 packet onion soup mix
1 can tomato soup
1 c. water
Add steaks or burger patties to crock pot & layer the sliced onions in between. You can also layer in sliced mushrooms as well (optional – fresh or canned both work fine). Whisk together remaining ingredients & pour over all. Cook on low 8 hours. Great with mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
*****
Root Beer Pork
1 boneless pork roast
1 can root beer (use 2 cans if your roast is over 5 lbs.)
1 bottle liquid smoke (yes, the whole bottle!)
1 bottle bbq sauce
Add roast to slow cooker and top with root beer & liquid smoke. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Drain liquid off, and shred pork with 2 forks. Add bottle of bbq sauce to meat and heat through. Serve on buns.
*****
Italian Beef for Sandwiches
1 beef roast (any size 2-4 lbs. works)
1 packet Italian dressing mix
1 c. beef broth
1 jar pepperoncini peppers, including juice (I used mild, but it is personal taste preference)
Add roast to crock pot. Add broth & peppers with juice. Sprinkle dressing mix over all. Cook on low for 10-12 hours. Shred meat with 2 forks & return to liquid. Serve on sandwiches with melted provolone cheese. This is SO good & tangy.
*****
Easy Chicken Tacos
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch seasoning
1 cup chicken stock
1 T. lime juice
Add all ingredients to slow cooker & cook on low 8-10 hours. Shred with 2 forks & serve. Works great as taco/burrito filling, for salads, or over rice.
*****
World’s Easiest Taco Filling
2 lbs. ground beef or turkey
1 can refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning (or make your own)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 c. chopped onion
Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Break up raw meat & mix everything together. Add water (about 1.5 cups give or take) to just cover the meat mixture. Cook on low 8 hours, stirring occasionally. Will be very soupy. Drain liquid very well & serve.
I like to make chilli in the slow cooker. I fry it up on the pan &then add it to the slow cooker-this adds more flavour. I pad the mince beef out with small brown lentils to make it stretch further & a tin of canellini beans or chickpeas. I season it with a couple of tsps of ground cumin, onion, garlic&chilli. A tsp of cocoa is a nice addition for extra flavour. Btw love your blog!
I love my crockpot esp now that it’s summer in SWFL!! The thought of turning on the oven is just too much somedays. I make meatballs & sauce, BBQ chicken, BBQ port, chicken & gravy (which require biscuits and thus oven).
That should be BBQ porK. 🙂
We prepare and freeze for months at a time (buying when meat is on sale!) One of my favorite crock pot recipes is Ginger Beef (http://www.plantoeat.com/blog/2012/04/ginger-beef/) Goes straight from the freezer to the crock, so we don’t have to worry about remembering to thaw it. We just have to remember to set the rice cooker to have the rice done when we want dinner, and that’s it!
Stuffed peppers are my all time crock pot favorite. Quick to pull together and pretty forgiving if you dont have all ingredients in hand. When I cook them I cut the peppers north to south. Easier to stuff. This recipe is great!
http://therecipecritic.com/2014/09/slow-cooker-stuffed-bell-peppers/
I usually do pulled pork in the crockpot. When it goes on sale I buy a big one and have the butcher cut it in half. Freeze one, put the other in the crockpot. When done, I pull the pork,put BBQ sauce on it, and we have sliders or BBQ sandwiches that night. There is still always alot left because it doesn’t taste much meat to put on a sandwich so I freeze what left in “meal sized portions”. It’s so easy to pull ready to eat BBQ out of the freezer! You can make BBQ nachos or BBQ baked potatoes with cheese. Just add some veggies and you are set.
We make a Mexican chicken dish:
4-6 frozen** chicken breasts
1-2 cans (or 2 cups homecooked) black beans
1 can-2 cans( or 2 cups frozen) corn
1 jar of salsa (about 2 cups)
Cook on high 4 hours or low 7-8 hours. Near end of cooking time, dice up a large block of cream cheese and stir it in to melt. Dice up chicken breasts at this time as well.
Delicious over rice or quinoa, over egg noodles, or tucked in a wrap.
This is definitely a family favorite and I have it bubbling away in the crock right now. Smells good in here:-) It’s a very forgiving recipe so you can play around with the amounts.
** Yes, I use frozen chicken straight out of the box. I’ve done this for 20 years now and no one has ever gotten sick.
Yum! These look fabulous! Our family fall back meal is Tomato Pork…so yummy.
1) Throw pork chops in crock pot
2) Dump 2 cans of tomato sauce in crock pot
3) Pour 1/2 cup red wine into crock pot (and the rest into large wine glass for yourself)
4) Pour 1 cup beef broth into crock pot
5) Add 1 chopped onion and 1 package of cut mushrooms
6) Add 1 Tbsp garlic powder, onion powder and 2 Tbsp of Basil
7) Cook on low for 6 hours, high for 3.
8) Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.
Hmmm…so yummy!
I LOVE Budget Bytes’ Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup Recipe. Definitely a keeper! It’s the best when you squeeze some lime juice in each bowl and top with cilantro, green onions, and yogurt or sour cream (or some combination). Yum!
Yesterday, I cooked a 5 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot, and chopped it up and put it in a container. Now I have plenty of cooked chicken to use for my salads at lunch and to make a couple suppers.
My favorites are chicken breasts (they can be frozen) with a jar of salsa and some taco seasoning cook on low for like 5 or 6 hours. Then shred all the chicken and use for tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, or any other Mexican recipe. Sometime I use chicken legs. I remove the skin first and then cook the same way as above. I just have to remove all the meat from the bones and then shred. Another version with chicken is the same thing as above, just use a can of cola or root beer and a 1/2 bottle of barbecue sauce instead of the salsa and taco seasoning. Then shred at the end to create pulled chicken sandwiches.
I’ve made the crock pot refried beans–SO good! And you get so much from one bag of beans!