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!

Creamy Italian Chicken Spaghetti

Cover and cook in the crock pot:

5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 14oz can of chicken broth + 2 Italian dressing packets -OR- 1 cup Italian dressing

HIGH 4-5 hours or LOW 6-7 hours

About 30 minutes before serving, remove the chicken, dice it and return it to the sauce. Add:

8 oz cream cheese

Cook on LOW for another 30 minutes, stir a few times to incorporate the cream cheese into the sauce.

Separately cook 16-22oz dry spaghetti. Drain and add to the sauce in the crock pot. Stir together and serve right away. If you don't like to pre-mix the pasta and the sauce, serve separately. With my clan, it's easier to mix all together before we eat.

*This can be spaghetti, or you can be really fancy by changing your pasta shape...ha! I don't have to tell you that this is a crowd pleaser, especially a crowd of kids. They LOVED it here.

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!

Indonesian Chicken Spaghetti

Put into crockpot:

5-6 chicken breasts (about 30 oz) boneless/skinless
2 LARGE carrots or 4 small carrots - peeled and shredded
2 onions chopped (not us, we did onion powder)

In mixing bowl:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes (I didn't have any, so I added 1 Tbsp hot chili oil and a few shakes of cayenne pepper)

Stir together well and pour over the chicken and vegetables.

Cook on LOW 6-7 hours of High 4-5 hours

Halfway through the cooking time, remove the chicken and dice it, then return it to the sauce in the crockpot.

When the sauce is done, separately cook 16-22oz of spaghetti noodles based on your preference of noodles to sauce. Drain and then pour noodles into the crockpot. Stir to cover the noodles with the sauce and turn off the crockpot. Serve right away.

If desired sprinkle with sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro.

*A great twist on spaghetti. I wasn't sure about this one, it didn't look very appetizing after it was done cooking, but it really was good! I don't know if you're supposed to top Indonesian food with cilantro, but I had some on hand and I liked how it tasted.

Easy Spaghetti

***DON'T MAKE THIS RECIPE, I NEED TO FIX THE AMOUNTS***

Dump into the crockpot and mix:

5-6 cups spaghetti sauce (I used 2 cans of Hunts Spaghetti Sauce)
6 cups water
2 6oz cans tomato paste
1 lb hamburger (mine was still frozen, so I put it in frozen and pulled it apart with a fork when it was defrosted)

Cook on LOW 6-9 hours or HIGH 2-3 hours

About 30 minutes before dinner, add 1 lb of dry spaghetti noodles, broken into thirds. Stir the noodles when they look done and let sit for another 5-10 minutes before serving.

*My boys said this is better than the "old" way you make it. We had it with some toasted garlic bread. YUM.

Italian Sausage Soup

Brown in skillet:

2 TBSP Olive Oil
1/2 to 1 lb of sausage (I used Jimmy Dean's regular sausage roll)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I did NOT add onions, I used onion powder instead)

In VitaMix Blender, mix just enough to create small carrot chunks:

2 large peeled carrots
1 14oz can cut tomatoes, undrained
1 14 oz can of chicken broth (2 cups)

Put all in the crockpot and add:

2 stalks celery, chopped (I did NOT add this, I was out)
1 chopped garlic clove
1 tsp basil
1 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp dried sage
4-6 more cups chicken broth
1 14oz can kidney beans, undrained
1 more 14oz can cut tomatoes, undrained

Cook on LOW 5-6 hours. About 30 minutes before dinner, add 1 uncooked cup of elbow macaroni or pasta of your choice.

*This got rave reviews and the leftovers didn't last very long. I started the breadmaker at the same time, a great accompaniment to the soup! Just so you know, the 1 cup of dry pasta is enough, if you do more, it will take over the soup...you've been warned...