Chicken Marinara

Place 8-9 boneless, skinless chicken breast into the crock pot

In blender, blend marinara sauce:

2 14oz cans of drained, cut tomatoes
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
2 tsp minced garlic or 3-4 garlic cloves
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp basil
1/2 TBSP honey

Pour sauce over the chicken and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.

30-45 minutes prior to dinner, remove the chicken breasts leaving the marinara sauce in the pot. Put setting onto HIGH and add 3 cups or 16oz of dry pasta. (Stir every 10 minutes until the pasta is soft.)

Put chicken onto a shallow baking pan and top with parmesan cheese or mozarella cheese or both. Broil for a few minutes to melt and brown the cheese. Serve with the pasta.

*A kid pleaser, except for my 8 year old that doesn't believe that macaroni pasta tastes the same as spaghetti noodles...they're just different shapes. OH MY HECK, anyway!

Macaroni and Cheese

Cook 16oz or 4 cups of dry macaroni noodles
Drain and stir in approx 1 TBSP olive/veg oil

Add to the noodles and stir together:

optional: diced ham or sliced hot dogs
4 cups shredded cheese
1 tsp salt
1 12oz can evaporated milk and 2 cups regular milk

OR

2 12oz cans of evaporated milk and 1/2 cup regular milk

Melt 1/2 cup of butter and pour into the bottom of the crock pot
Add the noodle mixture over the top and stir

Cook on LOW for 2-4 hours, Stir every hour and at the end every half hour, If you have a warm setting, switch to warm when it's cooked until you serve it.

*This is very similar to my mac and cheese recipe that we cook in the microwave, but the crock pot cooked taste was so much better. I don't use the butter in my recipe and may experiment with this by making it without the butter. Not sure that the added fat is necessary. This isn't your typical crock pot recipe where you can just add it and leave it, but I liked making it this way better than how I usually make it...It seemed to take less of MY time. And by the way...I don't think I have to say it, but it was a MEGA hit with the kids. Enjoy.

Lasagna

Meat Sauce:

Brown 1 lb of hamburger or Italian sausage on the stove
Add to the meat: Two 26.5oz cans of Spaghetti Sauce or make your own

In a separate mixing bowl combine cheeses:

1 15oz container of ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
(I used ricotta)
1 egg
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried parsley

Put 1/4 of the meat sauce into the bottom of the crock pot (3 ladles)
Top with 5 uncooked lasagna noodles, break into pieces as needed
Cover noodles with 1/2 of the cheese mixture
Sprinkle 1/2 cup shredded mozarella cheese
Put 1/4 of the meat sauce over the layers
Repeat the noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella and meat mixture

Top with one more layer of 5 noodles and cover the top with the last of the meat mixture. I used oven ready noodles, but I think it would work with regular lasagna noodles too. It took one 12oz package. Each layer of meat sauce is 1/4 of the total. I used a soup ladle...3 ladles was 1/4. You'll have to experiment with your own measurements at home...or just eyeball it.

Cover and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours, mine was done in 4 hours. A crock pot liner would be great for this, but isn't necessary.

15 minutes before serving, top with mozzarella cheese, let it melt and serve.

*Home-cooked lasagna without turning on the oven?! I can't tell you how happy this makes me! We LOVED this. I'm sure you can use any favorite lasagna recipe and this will work in the crock pot. Easy, easy, easy!

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.

Cheesy Pasta and Meatballs

Ready for something SIMPLE?

Dump into the crockpot:

3 cups spaghetti sauce (1 can HUNTS)
16 oz DRY pasta, your choice (I used Rotini spirals)
1/2 to 1 cup of parmesan cheese (I had a few slices of Provolone that I used up too)
1 - 2 dozen 1oz meatballs (You can make these yourself, or do what I did, grab them from the bag of frozen meatballs from Sam's Club. Just be sure to precook/brown if you do homemade)

Last ingredient: 3 cups water

Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, LOW for 5? Just check it and stir near the end.

If you want: Serve with shredded mozzarella cheese sprinkled over the top of the plate.

*Easy, a crowd pleaser, great with garlic bread. My non-meat eater could easily pick out the meatballs. You could cook this with approximately 1 lb browned hamburger if you don't want to make meatballs. WE LOVED IT!