Baking potatoes in the crock pot

This is a great way to have baked potatoes ready when you come home. I own two crock pots. In one I have my meat and the other I have a vegetable, some type of side or dessert. You can create a whole meal in a crock pot....Read more from Food.com

UPDATE: You don't really have to put the baked potatoes in foil for this to work.

Fabulous Potatoes

2 lb pkg frozen hash brown potatoes
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cups sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup

Mix all ingredients together. Place in buttered casserole, crush corn flake cereal and sprinkle on top, drizzle 1/2 cup melted butter on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

From Janie Roling, Gwinnett Daily Press

Shepherds Pie

This recipe comes from Melissa, one of my clients.

Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

½ - 2 lbs ground beef or lamb
3 Tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chopped onion
½ tsp garlic powder
salt/pepper or other seasoning of choice to taste

1 can beef broth

8 cups mashed potatoes, from scratch or boxed (to save time)

2-4 cups corn, frozen or canned


1. Prepare mashed potatoes

2. Boil corn

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the beef, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, onion, garlic powder and salt/pepper. Thoroughly mix ingredients.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

5. Using a large frying pan, brown the ground beef mixture. Once the meet has browned, turn temperature to low and add ½ cup beef broth, then simmer for 10 minutes. Add additional broth as necessary to keep beef moist.

Note: If desired, add other vegetables, such as peas and carrots when you add the beef broth,

6. Add beef mixture to a deep casserole dish and spread evenly.

7. Add a thin layer of corn on top of the beef mixture and spread evenly.

8. Add the mashed potatoes on top of corn and spread evenly. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely

9. Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Note: If desired, sprinkle shredded cheese over the top and broil until melted (1-2 minutes).

Oven chicken packets

Quick and easy, these chicken packets are perfect for this recipe blog! I didn't have full-size boneless chicken breasts on hand, but I did have frozen chicken breast tenderloins. I just put 2-3 of the tenderloins in each packet, and it came out perfectly. How did it taste? Well, Hubs ate 3 packets. What does that tell you? :) The vegetables come out perfectly steamed and everything very tasty!

The recipe doesn't say how many potatoes, how many carrots, etc. I cooked 4 packets, so in parentheses I've put how many of each I used.

You'll need:

Heavy duty aluminum foil
Onion slices (I used 1 medium onion)
Sliced carrots (I used about 3 medium-sized carrots)
Sliced potatoes (I used 2 medium sized potatoes but 3 might have been better)
Yellow squash, sliced (optional, I didn't use squash and it came out fine)
Salt
Pepper
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast per packet.

Lay out one big square of foil for each person and chicken packet. Layer chicken, onion slices, carrot slices, potato slices, squash slices. Salt and pepper lightly. Fold the packets tightly or they will drip.

Cook for 1-1/2 hours or until done in a 300 degree oven. Yes, you read this right...300 degrees.

No need to use a pan, just lay these directly on the oven rack.

Hamburger Stew crock pot recipe

Hamburger Stew

3 large potatoes sliced
3 carrots sliced
1 pound of frozen peas (I made without this)
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced thin
1-1/2 lbs of ground beef, brown it and drain it.
Can of tomato soup
1 soup can of water

Put the vegetables in the slow cooker in order listed. Salt and pepper each layer as you go.
Layer the beef on top of the celery. Mix the water and soup together then pour over the ground beef layer. Put the cover on the crock pot and cook on Low setting for 6-8 hours, or at the High setting for 2-4 hours.

The directions said to "stir occasionally" - and that's where my over-analytic side comes in. Why was it important to put it all in there in a certain order, if I'm just supposed to mix it all up? So I compromise...I'm cooking this on High and just stirred it after 2 hours of cooking time.

I also forgot to salt and pepper until about the 4th ingredient layer. Duh! I can't believe I can mess up such a simple recipe. Now you see why I made this blog. I can't be the only one out there like me.

Pork Chop Casserole

Pork Chop Casserole

Porkchops (boneless work best)

Potatoes (peeled and cubed)

2 cans Mushroom soup

1 small onion diced

1 small Green Pepper diced

Salt and Pepper

Pour the soup in a bowl and add a can or two of water stir. Put porkchops in casserole dish or baking pan. Single layer. Lay the potatoes, onions and green peppers on top. Pour soup over it and salt and pepper to your taste. You can add how ever many potaoes and pork chops as you'd like and will fit in your pan. Add less soup if making a small batch I usally add 2 cans cause i use 7-8 chops and 8-10 potatoes. Cover and put in 350 degree oven for around 1 hr or until potatoes are tender and chops are done.

From: Cindy Wright of http://www.freewebs.com/poetcindy