Freezer/ Crock Pot Healthy BBQ Chicken

I loved the Freezer/ Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken so much, I started looking for other recipes that could be made in the crock pot, and also frozen ahead for later!! This one caught my eye:

I haven't done a lot of cooking with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but I loved how they turned out in this recipe! They held together wonderfully, and stayed really juicy and moist! Plus, I LOVED that there were tons of great veggies in this dish!

Freezer/ Crock Pot Healthy BBQ Chicken

From: Mama and Baby Love

Click here for the ingredients- Stephanie has several other cool freezer recipes on her blog as well- I look forward to trying them out!! 

Instead of making two for the freezer, I made one in the crock pot for dinner, and froze a second batch! 

It is SO nice to have in the freezer to plop in the crock pot on a busy day, or when it is almost grocery day and we are out of a lot of stuff- we can still have a healthy, yummy dinner!! It is helpful to stick to the budget as well!!

So I put 1/2 the ingredients into the crock pot (Of course, I used the amazing crock pot liner- those suckers are AMAZING!!)

And the other half into a gallon Ziploc bag.

I served this over rice, but it would be great on its own too!! If your people don't like sweet potatoes, I think regular russet potatoes would taste just as good!!

This was fabulous leftover, too!!

Freezer/ Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken- Healthy and SO GOOD!

Every so often I find a recipe that just hits home. This is one of those recipes!!

Don't you love that? This is easy, SUPER tasty, healthy, reheats well, and you can make it up in a "pack" for the freezer so that you can just plop it into your crock pot the day you want to cook it and go on your merry way! (What does it mean to "go on your merry way"? It sounds to me like that involves skipping of some sort....) (I would not skip. I have enough trouble not falling down when I am simply walking or running....)

We're on spring break. I am really, really trying not to overbook myself, even though I have extra time, so that I am able to try new recipes, get some things done around the house, and relax (Imagine that, relaxing on a break....). It's been fun collecting recipes and ingredients, knowing I'll have time to enjoy in the kitchen.

So, back to the recipe we're talking about here....

It's basically a super delicious burrito/taco bowl. 

Here's what you need:

Santa Fe Chicken

From: Skinny Taste

• 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts- I just used 2 large (mine were frozen, and I put them into the crock pot that way. I rarely thaw meat before cooking it in the crock pot)
• 1 can (14-15 ounce) diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed (bean juice is nasty)
• 8 ounces (1 cup) frozen corn
• 1/4 cup fresh, chopped cilantro
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• cayenne pepper to taste (I did 1/4 tsp, we're spice wimps)
• 1 can (14.4 ounces) fat-free chicken broth
• optional- for serving- hot, cooked rice, cheese, salsa, sour cream

Have you tried these things yet? They ROCK!! Basically it is that material they make turkey baking bags from, but you line your crock pot with the bag instead! At the end of your meal, you simply throw the bag away, and the inside of your crock pot is totally clean! If you have ever made the Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal and had to scrub that sucker out, you know what an awesome invention these liners are!!

So, what I did was make one full recipe in the crock pot, then made another- putting all of the ingredients except the can of broth into a Ziploc bag, so I have a meal ready to stick into the crock pot on another day! I propped my Ziploc bag up in a tall bowl so it wouldn't slump over and dump all the ingredients out.

See?? All ready! What I will do is take it out of the freezer just for a half hour or so, so it "unsticks" from the bag, then dump the whole frozen block into the crock pot with the can of broth and cook it! I love that it is all chopped and ready to go!

This is a VERY difficult recipe- you dump all the ingredients into the crock pot, and turn it on. 

*WHEW*

Now go take a break for a second. You'll be exhausted from all the labor-intensive instructions.

And here's the crock pot version:

So after I put all the ingredients (except the broth) into my Ziploc, I sealed it, then sort of squished everything around so it was flat-ish. Then I sucked the air out of the bag, so that ice crystals wouldn't form in the bag. 

Of course I labeled it:

So this is what I will need to make this meal a second time, later!

This smelled amazing the entire day! Cook it on low for 10 hours, or high for 6 hours. Right before serving, shred the chicken breasts- you can either pull them out and shred them on a plate, or just grab two forks and shred them right in the crock pot. I use the latter method, in the interests of having less dirty dishes.

Everyone in the family LOVED this!! Wade doesn't like beans, but he happily picked them out, still declaring this meal a winner!

It froze well!! I may make a freezer batch for lunches, we had two "burrito bowls" leftover, and Christopher and I both loved having a filling lunch!!

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

The cooler weather has come to town.

Flannel sheets.

Jeans and sweaters.

Gloves and a beanie for running.

......and crock pot meals!!

This roasted chicken is SUPER easy, and tastes SO good!! Plus, when whole roasting chickens are on sale, you can generally get several and freeze them, so that you have some on hand! This is a VERY inexpensive meal that tastes awesome!

Spray the inside of your crock pot with Pam. Then add some peeled, cubed potatoes and carrots. For our family, I used 4 potatoes and 3 carrots. Other things I have added when I have them on hand are; a quartered onion, whole garlic cloves, or whole shallots.

Then drizzle the potatoes and carrots with some olive oil. Note the classy rubber band closure holding my watch band together. I am too cheap to fork over the $$ for a new band. And yet I'll pay $80 to run a race. 

I have problems.

Season the potatoes and  carrots well. I like Lawry's salt, Mrs. Dash (the Trader Joe's version is called 21 seasoning salute) and garlic. If I put pepper, inevitably Nicholas gets a large chunk, declares the meal "too spicy" and doesn't want to finish his portion. So I omitted it in the interest of peace.

Here's the chicken. I have no idea why you would want a "young chicken". And I also have NO idea why ANYONE would need to know that "pars of giblets may be missing"!!! GIBLETS ARE NASTY! It is so gross that they have those things in the chicken! It is hard enough for me to touch raw meat without having to deal with internal organs on top of it! (Part of which may be missing by the way, according to the package. In case you were wondering where the kidney went.)

WHY?????!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So dump the guts out <GAG>, rinse the chicken out with water, pat dry, and plop on top of the potatoes. Then drizzle with olive oil and season. I used Lawry's salt, Mrs. Dash, and rosemary sprigs. Then I added one quartered lemon, because I bought a huge bag of lemons earlier in the week. 

Cook on high for 6-8 hours. Your house will smell amazing. 

The leftovers, if you have any, are a great addition to soup, salads, or casseroles! 

Here are a few more crock pot recipes!!

Lentil and Barley Soup

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tri Tip with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Feta

Mouth- Watering Crock Pot Pot Roast

I really just wanted to type pot pot to see if anyone thought it was a typo. Ha ha.

I have to apologize in advance- I got so busy around dinner time that I forgot to take an "after" photo of the Pot Roast all served up on the plate!! But rest assured, it is delicious and will get rave reviews from your people!

PLEASE don't tell Wade that this recipe contains Cream of Mushroom soup!! He loathes mushrooms, yet loves this roast. (It makes me sad that I am the only mushroom lover in the house. Here is what I don't get- the boys will eat CANDY CORN for Pete's sake, but not mushrooms!! Seriously??!)

Here's what you need:

• Potatoes (either a small bag of red potatoes, or 3-4 baking potatoes peeled and cubed)
• Carrots (I used a small bag of baby carrots
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup (shhhhhhhh)
• 2/3 soup can of milk
• 1 packet Lipton Onion Soup mix
• pot roast- I've used all different cuts, between 2.5-5 lbs. 
• a handful of rosemary sprigs (optional, but good)

Throw the potatoes and carrots in the bottom of the crock pot. Plop the frozen meat-sicle on top. You can also use a thawed roast. I usually put mine in frozen, but I have put a thawed roast in and it works just fine!

Mix up the mushroom soup, milk, and onion soup. Pour over the top of  the meat.

Throw the rosemary sprigs in... and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

P.S....... when your dad gives you a roast from his side of beef, make sure there aren't little strings tied around the roast. Because those strings are not delicious. That is all.

I got this recipe from www.allrecipes.com

AWESOME Crock Pot Lasagna!!

Here's the deal.

Wade doesn't love food nearly as much as I do.

He likes food, don't get me wrong. But he isn't enamored with eating and cooking like I am.

That said, when I make a new recipe, he doesn't tend to be overly excited, in general.

When I served this lasagna, he said, "Wow!! This is a home run!!"

........'nuff said.

It was really tasty! Plus I love having more crock pot recipes in my arsenal, especially now that our home school has started up. It is really nice at the end of the day to have most of the dinner prepared. This recipe makes enough for leftovers, which is super nice for me, I love to have leftovers for lunch!

Here's what you need:

• Ingredients

  • 1 pound (16 ounces) ground beef (I used ground turkey)
  • 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 (24 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1/2 cup water (I used a full cup, didn't want the lasagna to be dry)
  • 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 whole egg
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley (I used basil and oregano instead)
  • 6 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used 8- I like lots of noodles)

In a mixing bowl, mix up the ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tb Parmesan, the egg, and the parsley. (If I were making this again, I would add a tsp of salt. But I like things salty.... so decide for yourself)

The remaining cheese is going to be sprinkled over the top at the end, so I went ahead and grated it and put it in the fridge in a Ziploc so it was ready to go.

What is up with the wrinkles on my hand??!! I have avoided toe thumb photos quite well lately.... now I have to worry about hand wrinkles??!! Sheesh!

Brown the meat and onion until cooked, adding the garlic the last minute or so of cooking. Then add the sauce and water, and mix well.

Now you're going to put 1 cup of the sauce mix in the bottom of the Pam-sprayed crock. Then layer 3 noodles on top. I broke mine up quite a bit to fit, and it turned out great! Then you're going to spread half of the ricotta mixture over the top of the noodles:

Then top with 2 cups of sauce, 3 more noodles, the other half of the ricotta mixture, then the remaining sauce. I pressed 2 additional noodles on top of the sauce, so that they were pretty well covered with the sauce. Then cook on low for 4 hours.

If you work in the morning, or wouldn't have time to do the prep in the morning, you could totally make it to this point the night before and just stick the crock in the fridge and plop it on the crock pot the next day.

Then, about 10 minutes or so before serving, sprinkle the Ziploc bag of cheese over the top. It will get all melty and delicious.

Oh yeah.

I got this recipe from http://www.tablespoon.com/

Crock Pot Coconut Curry Beef

I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but it's been HOT here.

It doesn't exactly promote cooking over a hot stove at dinner time.

So..... YAY for a great crock pot recipe!!

Here's what you need!

1-2 lbs. beef stew meat (I used 1.5 lbs)

1 onion, cut into chunks

1 can coconut milk

juice from one lime

2 Tb butter

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground coriander (I didn't have any so I left this out)

1 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp chili paste (or 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes)

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated (I used the kind in a jar)

I put my meat in the crock pot still frozen.

Stick the butter in the crock pot:

Then add the meat (or, in my case, the meatsicle):

Then pour/sprinkle the other stuff over the meat. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.When it's done cooking, stir it up, the sauce sort of separates and you need to mix it.

I served this with some steamed rice (the sauce is GREAT on the rice!) and some green beans that I sauteed with a bit of teriyaki sauce.

I got this recipe from http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Tri Tip with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I love this recipe!

It is SO easy, seems a little "fancy", and if you buy the Tri Tip when it's on sale, this recipe isn't very expensive to make!!

Here's what you need:

• 1 Tri- Tip roast (I buy mine when they go on sale) they are usually 2 or 3 lbs
• 1 container crumbled feta cheese (about 1- 1 1/2 cups feta)
• 1 jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 1/3 cup white wine

I throw the meat into the crock pot still frozen solid. I like how this recipe turns out much better that way. It takes the meat longer to cook and it doesn't get all shredded and boiled like meat does sometimes in the crock pot. Then put the cheese and tomatoes on top of the roast:

For the white wine, I used Charles Shaw, which comes from Trader Joe's and is affectionately known as "Two Buck Chuck" since it's only $2 a bottle!!

I just guesstimate 1/3 cup and pour it right over the other stuff. Then put the crock pot on low for 7 hours, and go do something fun! Like yard work. (OH wait.....that's not that fun......)

I like to slice the tri tip and serve it with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus....mmmmm.... the sauce in the bottom of the crock pot is SO good........ I spoon some of that on the potatoes!

I have served this as a nice birthday dinner for family, and it is also a nice dinner to come home to if you've got a busy day planned! If you use frozen asparagus and the potatoes from the box, this whole meal comes together really easily and quickly!

I got this recipe from http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/ LOVE her stuff!