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!

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.

Vegetable Garden Soup

Add to the crock pot:

2 15oz cans red kidney beans, undrained
2 14oz cans cut tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, chopped
4 carrots, sliced or shredded (my kids prefer shredded)
2-4 small potatoes, diced (I leave the skin on)
2 small zucchini, diced
2 small yellow squash, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced - no seeds (optional)
1/2 cup dry lentils (optional)
4 TBSP parsley
10 shakes of paprika
4 shakes cayenne pepper (red pepper)
4-6 TBSP Au Jus Gravy powder or 2-3 1oz packets

Pour over the top: 4 cups boiling water
Cover and cook on HIGH for 5-6 hours or LOW for 7-8 hours, or until your veggies are tender.

During the last hour, add:

1 cup frozen peas and/or 1 cup frozen corn
(We prefer the frozen corn)

*My pickiest eaters will not touch this with a ten foot pole. However, I HAD to include it. It's one of my most favorite vegetable soups on earth, and sooooo easy to do in the crock pot. All your chopping and dicing is done and cleaned up well before dinner time, you know I LOVE that! This soup just speaks "summer garden" and makes me feel so healthy...haha! Just make sure you cook it long enough to get all of your veggies tender. It's a FULL pot. You could cut the recipe in half and still have tons of soup.

Ultimate Chicken Burritos

In the crock pot:

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 14oz can undrained diced tomatos
1 4oz can undrained diced green chiles
1 14oz can black beans, drained
1 cup frozen corn
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp sugar

Cook on HIGH 5 hours or LOW 7 hours. Before serving, shred the chicken...dish up with a slotted spoon, unless you like runny burritos. The sauce could be poured over the burrito after you assemble it.

Just before it's time to eat, Cook a batch of Cilantro Lime Rice (a la Cafe Rio) I tripled this recipe for my family. Since I cooked it in the rice cooker...I omitted the water and used all chicken broth for the liquid: (3 cups raw rice and 3 1/2 cups chicken broth - or 2 15oz cans)

In warm tortilla, layer the rice, shredded chicken from the crock pot and any toppings you like. We added shredded lettuce, avocado, grated cheese and sour cream.

WOW...if you love a chicken burrito at Cafe Rio...you will be in heaven with this. Oh my heck...we LOVED THEM!!! I can't wait to make them again. I'm sure that the leftovers won't last long.

African Peanut Soup

Blend well in VitaMix Blender:

1 14oz can cut tomatoes with juice
2 red bell peppers - no seeds
4 cups chicken broth

Pour into the crockpot and then add:

1 yellow onion - chopped (um, onion powder for us!)
2 green onions - chopped (again, not for us)
4 cloves minced garlic
4 more cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 more 14oz can cut tomatoes with juice (this can be blended at the beginning with the other can if your kids will NOT go for a few tomato chunks in the soup)
2 cups diced or shredded chicken, optional (I had leftovers from Sunday dinner)

Cook on LOW 5-6 hours or HIGH for 4 hours.

20-30 minutes before dinner, add 1 CUP PEANUT BUTTER (I used creamy)

Once it's incorporated into the soup...it's time to eat. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a small dash of Tobasco Sauce if you like. (We liked it this way.)

*This was REALLY GOOD! I was nervous all day that the flavors would be too strange, (peppers and peanut butter?!) but we liked it! The rice disappeared and just thickened the soup. It would have been perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich. With the chicken in it, it was a great little meal. The youngest...no go, he had peanut butter and jelly again. *sigh* He wouldn't even TRY it.

Chili - BASIC

On the stove, in a large pan, cover 4 cups of dry, small red beans or pinto beans with water. (I use red)

Boil for 5 minutes. (This breaks the seal and releases the GAS - no beano needed!...at least that's what my Mom told me.)

Drain the beans and rinse in a colander.

Put the beans into your crockpot (6 quart) and fill to 1 1/2" from the top with hot water.

Cook ALL DAY on HIGH until your beans are tender. This can be started the night before on LOW if you don't like to get up early and make beans...my usual method. Just check it the next day to make sure you don't need to add more water, just enough to cover the beans.

Once the beans are tender, at least 2 hours before eating add:

1 lb hamburger. If you're lazy like me, just crumble the raw hamburger into the hot beans and water and stir it in. Your meat will be so tender this way. If that bugs you, brown it on the stove first.

If your family is not as picky as mine, add:

onion, jalapeno, diced bell pepper, diced anaheim pepper, etc. when you add the meat. Obviously, we don't add any of these.

About 1 hour before dinner, after the meat is cooked, add:

1 small can tomato paste
1 tsp oregano
onion powder, cayenne? (how hot do you like it?)
1-2 packages of taco seasoning OR Chili seasoning from Sam's
1 Tbsp salt - taste to see how much you need
1 TBSP of sugar if your taco seasoning doesn't have enough (this cuts the acidity)
2 14oz can cut tomatoes, puree in blender if you need to for picky kids - use tomatoes with chilies if you like some kick. (I've used two 10oz cans and that's been enough.)

We top this with shredded cheese, some of us also top it with diced, fresh tomoatoes and sour cream. We like to make "chili nachos" out of ours by putting tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl. It's also yummy over a baked potato.

*A great way to use my big buckets of beans in my food storage. This is our traditional meal on Halloween night. We enjoy this chili year round. I know, it's as plain as plain gets...but remember, I have picky kids. This one pleases all but the youngest, he can have plain cheese nachos. It's the perfect meal on a cold, snowy or rainy day.

Taco Soup

Brown approx 1 lb of hamburger and put into the crockpot, then add:

All undrained, 14oz cans...

2 cans kidney beans
2 cans black beans or pinto beans
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 cans cut tomatoes
1-2 cans corn - I used frozen
1 can chopped olives - we didn't have any
2 packets of taco seasoning (or your favorite homemade taco seasoning)

Cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or on HIGH for 2-4 hours

Top with shredded cheese and tortilla or corn chips.

*I had this when visiting my friend Nikki in Oregon, I had forgotten how good it was. We had this last night, YUM-O! My favorite part is that I made granola yesterday (2 hours) and it still wasn't too late to start this soup for dinner when I looked at the clock and it was 2:00 in the afternoon!

Tamale Pie

In skillet brown 1 lb hamburger and then add:

chili seasonings of choice OR 4 TBSP of pre-mixed chili seasonings
(I get this from Sam's Club)
1 14 oz can cut/diced tomatoes (with green chilies if you like)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1-2 cups frozen corn
1 onion, chopped - (NO WAY was this going in it at my house, add it if you like)
1 drained can black beans (optional)

Let meat mixture simmer. In separate mixing bowl, stir together:

4 TBSP oil
2 cups cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 eggs - beaten
3 cups milk

Put meat mixture into the crockpot. Top with 1-2 cups grated cheddar cheese and then pour the cornmeal mixture on top.

Cook on HIGH 1 hour and then LOW for 4-5 hours. OR Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours. Just before serving, top with cheese if you want, let it melt and then serve.

*The directions said to put half of the cornmeal mixture on the bottom and the other half on top, but it burned on the bottom. The next time I make this, the cornmeal mix will go just on top. The top layer didn't burn and became a yummy cornbread type of topping. FYI, update: Place all the meat mixture on the bottom and all the cornmeal mixture on TOP...it works much better this way.

Beef Enchiladas - Stacked

Brown in skillet:

1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onions (I did NOT add these, I used onion powder)
1/2 cup green bell peppers, chopped - no seeds (optional, I think next time I'll blend them and add them to the meat mixture that way - for the kids)

When peppers are soft, add:

1 14oz can drained kidney beans
2 14oz cans drained black beans
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
2/3 cup water
3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

In slow cooker:

Layer the meat mixture with 6-8 flour tortillas and about 2 cups of cheese. Layers:

1 cup meat, 1 tortilla, abt 1/3 cup shredded cheese, 1 cup meat, 1 tortilla, abt 1/3 cup shredded cheese...and so on. Top layer should be last of the meat, sprinkled with cheese.

Cook on LOW 5-7 hours, or until heated through. To serve, reach to the bottom with each spoonful to get all the layers. Serve with sour cream and/or guacamole.

*Holy moly this was good! It was spicy, so if you don't like that - cut down on the chili powder and use regular cut tomatoes. It seemed like a lot of work when I looked at the recipe, but it wasn't too bad. Getting all the work done at lunchtime made dinner a snap.

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...