Ham and Beans

Boil 4 cups of white beans for 5 minutes on the stove. Drain and Rinse.

Put beans into the crock pot with 6-8 cups of water...leaving about 1-2 inches to the top of the pot. Add shredded carrots and diced celery if you like. Cook all day on LOW about 7-8 hours or HIGH for 5-6 hours, until your beans are soft. About halfway through your cooking time:

Add your ham bone from a spiral ham or whatever you have. There should be some meat on it still. Finish cooking. Just before serving, remove the bone, pick off the meat and put the meat back in with the beans.

Add salt and/or onion powder to taste and serve.

*It can't get any more simple than this one. My favorite thing to do with a leftover bone after we have ham. Perfect with cheddar biscuits.

Meatballs and Easy Gravy

Using about 1-2 lbs of hamburger, make your favorite meatball recipe OR use mine:

Mix 2lbs of hamburger with 2-4 slices of bread, broken into small pieces
Milk to moisten
2 tsp salt
black pepper
1 tsp onion powder or 3 TBSP fresh minced onion

Shape into golf ball sized meatballs and brown in a skillet, no need to cook all the way. I suppose you could use frozen meatballs from the store...that would be easy!

Place meatballs into the crock pot and mix the following in a separate bowl, then pour over the meatballs:

2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup ketchup
4 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce

Cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours or until your meatballs are fully cooked.

About 30 minutes before eating, add 1 cup milk to the gravy.

*This is soooo good served over mashed potatoes or rice. It would even be good over cooked grean beans, but my kids won't really go for that, so we have the green beans on the side.

Wild Rice Soup

Add to the crock pot:

2-3 chicken frozen, boneless skinless chicken breasts OR leftover turkey
2 small boxes of COOKED wild rice (herb and butter flavor)
2 cans chicken broth or 3-4 cups water
2 cans cream of potato soup
2 cans cheddar cheese soup
1 tsp onion powder
2 cups mashed potatoes
Bacon bits (optional)

Cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours or until your chicken is cooked. Shred or dice the chicken and return it to the soup.

Add 4 cups of milk about 30 minutes prior to serving.

*A family favorite. We have this soup made with our Thanksgiving leftovers every year. If you make it with chicken, you can enjoy it the rest of the year! I suppose you could make this with canned chicken or turkey, but I wouldn't...ha!

Stacked Beef and Bean Enchiladas

Brown 1 lb of ground beef with 1 taco seasoning packet
Mix in 2 14oz cans of refried beans (3-4 cups)

In separate bowl, make Enchilada Sauce:

1 15oz can tomato sauce
2 enchilada sauce packets
2 cups water

Layer in the crock pot:

Sauce
Corn Tortillas (3-4)
Meat/Bean Mixture
Shredded cheese

Repeat until you run out of ingredients...I think I had about 5 layers.

Make sure the TOP layer is tortillas, sauce, cheese

Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6 hours

Scoop out and serve with sour cream, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce?

*This will look like a mess, I even hesitated to put it on here, BUT...my boys totally loved it! They happily scooped it up with tortilla chips and said, "You HAVE to make this again." So, I probably will.