Busy Crockpot

Boy has my crockpot been busy today! 

Last night before bed I put in a chuck roast to make Shredded Beef Filling and this evening I made a homemade Cranberry Sauce in it.  The Cranberry Sauce was for the Cranberry Pork Roast that I made tonight for my Frozen Meal Group.  I made 5 Cranberry Pork Roasts tonight!  I love that it can be put in the crockpot frozen.  This time of year I love to cook in the crockpot.  Ever since having Olivia I have been looking for more and more slow cooker recipes.  It is so nice to come home and have the main course already done.

Fabulous Breakfast Quiche

This is one of my favorite make-ahead meals.  It is relatively easy to make and my husband loves it.  I usually will make two at a time and freeze for later.  This is a really good dish to make when you are at the end of a carton of eggs that are about to go bad!


Quiche In A Bag (Recipezaar recipe # 290442, Shannon’s notes & modifications in italics)

1 cup meat, browned (pork sausage)
3/4 cup vegetable (thawed chopped spinach)
1 cup cheese, shredded (swiss)
1/4 cup onion, diced (changed to 1/3 cup)


2 cups milk (2%)
4 eggs (Egg Beaters equivalent of 4 eggs)


1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 cup whole wheat flower
2 teaspoons baking powder
(Added 1 teaspoon Fox Point seasoning - this is an awesome seasoning mix you can get from Penzeys)


To prepare:
-Combine meat, vegetable, cheese, and onion and place in a labeled 1-gallon freezer bag.
-With a mixer or blender, combine the milk, eggs, Tabasco sauce and remaining dry ingredients.
-Pour into the bag with the meat/vegetable mixture. Seal and freeze.


To serve:
-Thaw completely and shake bag well.
-Pour into a greased deep dish pie plate or quiche pan.
-Bake at 350º for 50 minutes, until lightly browned on top and well set in the center.
-Cool about 5 minutes before serving.

Crockpot Chili

Ingredients:

    1 lb. ground meat

    1 can black beans

    1 can red kidney beans

    1-2 pkgs. chili seasoning

    1 large can crushed tomatoes

    1 large can tomato puree

    1 large onion, diced

    Mexican Blend Cheese

    Sour Cream

Directions:

1. Brown the meat; Remove. 
2. Add diced onion to remaining grease and sautee till transparent. 
3. Put meat back in, stir in the chili seasoning packets. 
4. Transfer to crockpot
5. Add tomato products and beans (undrained). 
6. Cook on low heat 4-6 hours.
7. Serve.  Add sour cream and cheese if desired!

TIPS & HINTS:

-This is a mild chili, if you would like it hotter just add hot seasoning to it.

-If the chili is too acidic, add a sprinkle of sugar. 

-Ground venison or ground turkey can also be used in place of the beef. 

-Serve this with warm cornbread fresh out of the oven!

Crockpot Salsarita Chicken over Rice

This is very easy to make and it's always a hit at our house!   Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 jar (16oz.) salsa, whatever "heat level" your family prefers

- 2 c. Carolina white rice**
- 2 1/2 c. water
- 1 tsp. oil
- pinch of salt

• Insert chicken and garlic powder into the crockpot with 1/2 can of chicken broth; cook on low 6-8 hours.
• When fully cooked, remove chicken and cut into chunks.  Chicken will be moist and will most likely shred and fall apart, that's ok!  Put into pot with Salsa; heat until salsa is warm.
• In another pot add water oil and salt.  Bring to a boil.
• Once boiling, add rice and stir (only once); Cover, reduce to simmer.  Cook about 10 minutes or until water is totally absorbed.
• Serve chicken and salsa over rice; ENJOY!  Serves 4.

**You can use whichever kind of rice you prefer.  Just follow the directions from your prefered brand.

TIPS & HINTS:
    If you don't want to use the crock pot, cube chicken and cook it in a skillet.  Then follow the rest of the directions.

Meal planning: Where art thou?

You know what they say about what the road to hell is paved with, right?   Yep, good intentions....the bane of my existence.  I always have good intentions, it's my follow-through that seems to be questionable!  So, here we are in the last full week of November (meal planning month at FLYlady.net) and I have no meal plan going on!

Now, in all fairness, I have a sick baby, my mother-in-law is staying with us this week to help out since we are in the process of transitioning to a new childcare provider and it's Thanksgiving week....all reasons for not having a solid meal plan.  So, this post is really not to beat myself up but more to think ahead to how I can make sure I continue to develop this homemaking skill.

Organization....I think that is the key to just about everything.....and I am seriously disorganized!  In my head I'm organized but in reality not so much.  Just look around my office or house and you will quickly see the truth.  So, lately I've been trying to figure out how to become more organized in every facet of my life but certainly with meal planning. 

I've decided to work on a few organizational projects around this and lucky you, I'm going to post links to the amazingly wonderful FREE resources I've found in my quest!  These are all from Life As Mom which I highly recommend you add to your Google Reader or other notification service.

Meals We Like 
Monthly Meal Grid (calendar format) or Monthly Meal Plan (list format)
Cook once, eat bunches
Spending more time planning and Freezer Cooking (this link has lots of good "beginner" info)

Cheesy Spaghetti Bake

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 8oz spaghetti noodles
• 1lb ground beef
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups spaghetti sauce
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz)
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• shredded cheese to top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cook spaghetti noodles; drain.
3. Brown ground beef; drain.
4. Return beef to pain and add milk, sauce, soup, and cheese. Mix well.
5. Heat on medium until smooth
6. Mix sauce and noddles in casserole dish
7. Sprinkle with cheese
8. Bake for 30 minutes

Personal Flair and Reflections
    This was definitely a family pleaser! My 2 year has been going through a phase of only eating her fruits and veggies, but tonight when I gave her the plate of "sgetti" she gobbled it all up and asked for more! I will definitely have to make this more often for her!
    This is my own variation of a recipe I found at "Taste of Home" .


Family Friendly Tips
   This can be done and put together at any time, and popped in the oven right before dinner time!

What's the Plan?

Plan? Who has time to plan? But then again, who has time not to plan? Oye the cycles that come with trying to get things in order to run smoothly.
So what is my plan?
Right now, my plan is to set some foundations that will make planning easier and quicker! Easy and Quick - a mom's 2 favorite words, especially in relation to dinner!
Like everyone who is reading this, dinner time at my house can be super crazy. Most nights I have to cook dinner while my husband is at work, which means I have a separation-anxiety, hungry 5 month old and a "Mommy-hold-you" yet "helpful" 2 year old. I hit my ultimate low last week when I was stirring a teryaki mix while holding my 5 month old, listening to my 2 year old whine at me. The next thing I know my 5 month old reached out and grabbed the bowl of teryaki, and before I had time to react the bowl went crashing to the floor, landing right side up, but that meant all the contents splashed up and all over my kitchen, me, her, everywhere.  What a mess, and what a night.
So here is what I am attempting to do so I can prevent nights like that!

First ... I bought me a pretty pink binder! In this binder, I added plain notebook paper. I divided it into sections. I have a section for "Main Dish," a section for "Sides," one for "Fruit," one for "Veggies," one for "Dessert," one for "Lunch," and one for "Breakfast." I made a "Table of Contents" for each section. And I numbered pages in each section.
    I had to stop myself from making it all fancy. FlyLady says to set aside your perfectionism and just do it. So it isn't the prettiest, but I think the pretty pink binder makes up for that. And maybe one day when it is complete, then I can break out my creativity and make it pretty and something to last.

Second ... As I find recipes that my family loves, I write it in the proper section. (The format you see from the recipes I post is the same format in my binder - except I don't write any commentary in my binder, just the recipe.) I contemplated printing out recipes and sticking them in there etc, but I decided to re-write them because now I can write in my own flair, I can write things in such a way that I (or whoever else uses it) knows the simplest way to do it. 
     Right now, I have been making recipes that I have done before (either from memory or from a recipe I found previously or even something I've created) and writing everything down as I am cooking. And when I run out of those recipes, I will begin hunting for new ones. My goal here is to find enough variety so that I can have at least 30 different recipes under each section.
     This is the step I am working on now. Right now, I have been trying to keep a variety of ingredients on hand, and then find a recipe that fits with what I have. Eventually, I will have to start expanding that to looking for recipes ahead of time to try, and making my grocery list from that. But I am taking baby steps for now :)
Once I have around 30 recipes for each section, then I will move on to the next step.

Third ... Now that I have 30 of our favorite recipes all in once place with an easy table of contents accessible, my foundation is laid and I can start planning! To start, I will create a schedule for the week. The purpose of this schedule isn't to make things more stressful or a rule to go by, rather a flexible guideline to help with decision making and help variety stay in place so we aren't eating chicken 3 nights in a row, or eating chicken for lunch and dinner, etc.
A sample schedule off my head that would work for my family as a SAHM:

• Sunday
• Breakfast - On the Go (church morning) ex, pop tart, toast, granola bars, etc.
• Lunch - Out to Eat
• Dinner - Sandwich Night
• Monday
• Breakfast - Recipe
• Lunch - Poultry
• Dinner - Beef
• Tuesday
• Breakfast - Recipe
• Lunch - Pork
• Dinner - Poultry
• Wednesday
• Breakfast - Cereal
• Lunch - Beef
• Dinner - Dinner at Church
• Thursday
• Breakfast - Recipe
• Lunch - Poultry
• Dinner - Beef
• Friday
• Breakfast - Diner's Choice (Also known as "Fend For Yourself" if you have older children)
• Lunch - Pork
• Dinner - Leftovers or Pizza Night
• Saturday
• Breakfast - Recipe
• Lunch - Beef
• Dinner - Poultry

Fourth ... I plan to get a good calendar/planner, something that I can use specifically for meals. For this step, I want to do a working blueprint of the month. So what I will do is take my pretty pink binder and my meal calendar and sit down (probably with my timer set for 15 minutes!). I will then go through and write out a meal for breakfast for every day of the month from my list of recipes, I will then do the same for lunch, and for dinner (including details such as sides, veggies, and fruit etc). A key here is to include the "reference number" for where I can find the recipe. For example, if it is found under main dish, page 6, I could write "M-6" as a reference that will help me know where to easily find this recipe again. I will use the "schedule" from the previous step when assigning my meals.  The idea here is not to be perfect or precise in the planning, but just to assign a meal to a day. These may change, but at least I have a plan to get me started and fall back on. This step will repeat at the end of each month to prepare for the next month. I may even need to calendar in the day that I do this.
     One possibility is to assign a couple days of the month as a "New Meal Day." Then go back and find new recipes to try for those days. If they are successful, add them to my binder ... if not, oh well.

Fifth ... When it is time to start making out my grocery list (preferably the day before I am going shopping), I will pull out my monthly calendar and prepare my weekly one. For this step, I will need to look at my "social calendar" in comparison to my meal calendar. I may find that I have to shift things around or even leave meals off due to events we have going on. I may even decide that there is a day that I really need to use the crock pot, and I can trade out a recipe for a crock pot one etc. When I decide which meals I need to keep, I will then add them to my weekly calendar.

Sixth ... Now that I know what my week will look like and what meals I will be using through the week, I can make my grocery list. I should have in front me my schedule of meals, with reference numbers to easily find the recipes, my pretty pink binder, and my grocery list. I can then flip right to each recipe and look through the ingredients, adding any I need to buy to my grocery list.

Seventh ... Now that I have all the supplies in my house and have a detailed weekly calendar of meals, the next step is daily planning and preparation. My goal for this last step is to make routines. Here is what my *ideal routines* would like look.
During my morning routine: Glance over all my meals for the day. Anything I need to do to help facilitate those meals? Get the crock pot going? Lay anything out?
Afternoon Routine (preferably while girls are either sleeping, or playing happily): Start preparations for dinner - as much as I can possibly do to make dinner time that much easier.  If things are moving along nicely, anything for any of tomorrow's meals that I can do to make things easier for tomorrow?
Evening Routine: Look over recipes for tomorrow. Anything need moved from freezer to refrigerator? What can I do to facilitate tomorrow's process?

So there it is ... my plan to plan. Hope this helps others who are needing ideas. I will keep you posted on my progress. I still have a long way to go. Enjoy!

Shredded Chicken

This is by far one of the easiest things I've ever done! 

Last night I put about 3.5 lbs chicken breasts in the crockpot with two cans of chicken broth for 8 hours on low.  This morning I used my tongs to pull the breasts out and they just shredded instantly.  I am SO excited!  I love having shredded chicken in my freezer because it thaws quickly and can be used in most any casserole as well as a number of mexican dishes.  I put it in the fridge after it cooled this morning and tonight I will put 2 cup batches into freezer bags for future use.  This will be a huge timesaver for me later on and it really took barely any effort!

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes


Ingredients

• 1lb boneless chicken breast
• 2 cups mixed veggies
• 4 cups stuffing
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 oz)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 oz)
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Cube and cook chicken
2. Cook veggies
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
   
4. Mix chicken broth and stuffing in a bowl
5. Mix cooked chicken, cooked veggies, milk, and soups in a 2 qt casserole dish
6. Spoon stuffing over chicken and veggie mix
7. Bake for 25 minutes

Personal Flair and Reflections
     We used to do a lot of "dinners in a box" before our children were old enough to eat what we prepared. One of my favorites was a turkey stuffing casserole. So I played around and modified that to make this recipe. Tastes yummy, but is a little healthier than the boxed dinner.
You can really use whatever type of veggies you want for this recipe. I used frozen mixed veggies.


Variation
 This recipe will also work well with biscuits made from scratch instead of stuffing. However your prefer to prepare homestyle biscuits, the spoon out multiple biscuits and spread them out on top of the chicken mix.


Family Friendly Tips
     The chicken and veggies can be cooked at any time, and kept in the refrigerator until time to cook. Also you can put this casserole together completely and freeze or put in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

Meal Planning Friday!

So, another week is ending and that means it is time to get going on meal planning!

Here are the basic steps I follow to plan meals for my family:

1.  Review next week's calendar to see how many nights we will be home for dinner.  Make a note of the days on my meal planning sheet for the week.  (note:  I do not normally plan meals for Saturday or Sunday because we usually eat out on those nights)

2.  Survey the kitchen to see what meals can be made from already available ingredients - or - check the freezer for meals already made that just need to be thawed and cooked.  If possible I like to have a crockpot meal at least once each week.

3.  Assign the meals found in #2 to a day noted in #1 on the meal planning sheet.

4.  If there are still days that do not have meals assigned I then have to figure out what we can make that night and add the necessary ingredients to the grocery list.

Meal Plan for next week:

Monday - Meatloaf and candied carrots from the freezer with canned green beans and corn
Tuesday - Melissa's Crockpot Zesty Italian Sirloin Pork
Thursday - Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice and naan bread - already have chicken, bread and these fantastic  McCormick Recipe Inspiration spices (that have the recipe on back!) so I just need to add the additional ingredients to our grocery list
Friday - Tacos with spanish rice, add taco toppings to grocery list

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp Olive oil

4-8 cloves garlic minced (or crushed) – sometimes more if we’re in the mood

¾ to 1 lb ground beef

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

6 oz can of tomato paste

¼ tsp black pepper

1 Tbsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried parsley

Heat a large pot (4-6 qt) on medium heat with a few tablespoons of olive oil to coat the bottom. Saute the minced garlic in the oil and remove it from the pot when golden (this part is a pain but leaving the garlic in when browning the meat ends up with some of it getting burnt which makes the sauce noticeably bitter - sometimes I just cook the garlic in a separate pan, but I’ve ruined the sauce by burning the garlic enough times that I’ve found it best just to be careful for this one step).

Brown the meat and then add crushed tomatoes, and garlic back in to the pot. Add the can of tomato paste and then use it to add one can’s worth of water to the sauce.

Add pepper, basil, oregano and parsley – the quantities listed above are estimates, because I never actually measure. We generally taste a few time part of the way through cooking and end up adding more of something (usually basil or pepper) to get the taste to where we want. I used to add salt, but these days I find that it seems salty enough without adding any so I’ve stopped putting it in.

Let simmer covered for at least 40 minutes, or up to a couple of hours (if more than an hour you may have to add more water depending on how thick a consistency you want).

This quantity of sauce works well for about a pound of pasta, maybe a bit more. I often make a double batch and freeze half.

Greek Style Tilapia

Ingredients
4 tilapia (or snapper, mahi) fillets, 1-1 1/2 lb (thawed, if needed)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Greek seasoning, divided
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup pre-diced onions
1 (14-ounce) can quartered artichoke hearts (drained)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes (drained)
1/4 cup white wine


Steps

1. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes. Season both sides of fish with pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of the Greek seasoning (wash hands).
2. Place oil in pan; swirl to coat. Add garlic and onions; cook 1–2 minutes, stirring once, or until onions are slightly softened.
3. Add fish fillets (wash hands). Top with remaining ingredients (including remaining 1/2 teaspoon Greek seasoning).
4. Cover and cook 8–10 minutes, stirring vegetables once, or until internal temperature reaches 145°F (or flesh is opaque and separates easily with a fork). Cook time may vary depending on the thickness of the fish. Serve.

Pumpkin Dip

3/4 cup (6 ozs) regular cream cheese (softened)

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 teaspoons maple syrup

1/2 -3/4 t. cinnamon (really I just used a generous 1/2 t.)

1/8-1/4 t. nutmeg (I used closer to 1/8, but might use more b/c I'm a nutmeg fan. Use 1/8 or none if you don't really like nutmeg)

24 apple slices

Throw everything into a food processor until well blended and smooth. This is easier if the cream cheese is room temperature.

Summer Salad Dressing

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tsp. Minced shallot

¼ tsp. Paprika

¼ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ cup veggie oil

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients together and mix well. Serve with spinach salad with fresh strawberries.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Ginger Pecan Crust:

20 gingersnaps

3/4 cup pecans

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) melted butter

Place gingersnaps and pecans into food processor (or use Ziploc bag and rolling pin method) and grind until crumbs. Add melted butter and stir well (use hands too). Press into bottom and sides of pie plate to form crust. Set aside. [If you don’t like nuts, you can leave out the pecans and increase the amount of cookies.]

Alternate Graham Cracker Crust:

13 whole graham crackers, finely crushed

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Finely crush graham crackers in food processor or with a rolling pin in a large Ziploc bag. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt butter and pour over graham cracker mixture. Mix with fork until moistened. Mix further with hands. Press mixture into bottom and sides of a pie plate until even all around.

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese softened

3/4 cup sour cream

1 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more, if you like it cinnamon-y)

Dash cloves (I used 1/8 tsp)

Dash nutmeg (I really like nutmeg so I used 1/4 tsp)

2 eggs

Extra pecan halves for garnish (optional)

Mix all ingredients except eggs in food processor or with a mixer until well blended. Add eggs and mix until blended. Pour into crust. Lightly place pecan halves around top of pie before baking.

Bake at 350 until center is almost set, about 35-45 minutes. Cool and refrigerate overnight. This pie’s flavors are best when it has “set.” You can make it several days before you need it so as to maximize its flavor. Keep pie refrigerated.

Banana Bars

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 medium bananas, mashed

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz package MINI chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugars in large bowl. Add egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Slowly beat in dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool completely, then sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Zesty Lemon bars

For the Crust

1/2 cup plus 3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1” pieces

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

For the Topping

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 Tbsp flour

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp plus 3/4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp milk

1/4 tsp coarse salt

1. Butter a 9X13 pan (I lay a piece of parchment paper the long way in my 9X13 and spray the rest. When it is cool, I lift it out by the edges of the paper onto a cutting board for easy cutting).

2. Crust: in food processor combine flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Process just to combine. Add butter to processor and process until pale yellow and consistency of cornmeal.

3. Pour crust into pan and press down to create a 1/4” layer along the bottom and 1/2” up the sides, pressing firmly at the edges to seal.

4. Freeze for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Transfer pan from freezer to oven and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Turn once, halfway through baking.

5. Meanwhile, make the topping: In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, and flour. Whisk in lemon juice, milk, and salt until well combined. Set aside until crust is done.

6. Remove pan from oven, whisk topping once more, and pour into warm crust. Return pan to oven and continue baking until topping is just set but not browned, about 20 minutes.

7. Cool completely in the pan on a wire cooling rack. Serve when cool, or keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Personally, I think this recipe calls for too much lemon. I have wanted to try this recipe with 1/2 cup lemon juice, but my family is so crazy for it being really lemony, that I haven’t tried it yet. When the bars are room temperature, they can be overwhelmingly lemony, even acidic tasting. When cold, they are not as strong.

Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (2/3 stick) butter flavored Crisco shortening

1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 Tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 ½ cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 oz bag) chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place sheets of foil on counter for cooling cookies.

Combine flour, cocoa, soda, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream together shortening and sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in water and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Slowly add dry ingredients and beat into batter on low speed until well mixed.

Stir in chocolate chips. (The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I use milk chocolate chips since it is a rich cookie. If you like rich, dark chocolate desserts, use the semi-sweet chips.)

Drop by rounded spoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.

Bake one cookie sheet at a time at 375 for 7-9 minutes, or until cookies are set. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cookies will appear soft and moist. Cool 2 minutes before removing to foil to cool completely.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle root beer
• 1 (18 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce
• 8 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted

Directions

1. Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker; pour the root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours.
2. Note: the actual length of time may vary according to individual slow cooker. Drain well. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

Crock Pot Chicken Chili

3 raw chicken breasts (thawed)

15oz can of corn - drained (frozen should work fine too)

15oz can of black beans - drained

16oz jar of salsa

1 package taco seasoning

Place chicken in bottom of crock, sprinkled with taco seasoning. Pour corn, beans, and salsa over top.

Cook on low anywhere from 5-10 hours

Shred the chicken with forks just before serving so that it's more like a chili.

Serve with cheese, Tostitoes, and sour cream, etc.

*The above ratio is pretty heavy on chicken, so if I were going to make 4 or more chicken breasts, then I'd increase the other ingredients.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cans chicken broth OR substitute one can red enchilada sauce for one of the chicken broth

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn drained

2 Large chicken breasts the more chicken the better

1 can green chilies not drained

chopped onion

1 tbsp. garlic powder

2 tbsp. cilantro

1 tbsp. cummin

2 tbsp. chili powder

salt and pepper

Bring to HEAVY boil then reduce to simmer

When done, shred chicken and leave simmer for a bit longer to soak up the juices

I like to cut up tortilla shells bake them until crisp and then put on top of soup when eating

Melissa's Meatloaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 lbs ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/8 cup ketchup
• 1/8 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
   
2. Mix all ingredients well (best results, use your clean hands!)
3. Shape into 1 or 2 loaves on pan 
4. Bake for 30 minutes/or completely cooked through.

Personal Flair and Reflections 
     Over the last few years of cooking, I have played around a lot. Meatloaf is one of those foods that I've never had a recipe for, but I've always done a little bit of this, a little bit of that etc. I have finally gotten to where I use the same ingredients each time because we absolutely love it. I never measure things out, so I pulled out my measuring cups to get an idea of how much I usually use so I could share my yummy meatloaf (and so I could add it to my binder and hubby could make it sometime ;)).
     So this recipe you have is an estimation of what I normally do. But feel free to add more or less of your favorites. Have fun! Play until you find the taste you like!
     Additionally, I do sometimes I add oregano, or top with cheese during the last few minutes of cooking. I have also added BBQ sauce to the top while cooking.
     My favorite pan to use while making this is my broiler pan. It is a wonderful way to let the grease run down into the bottom portion of the pan so the meatloaf is not too greasy!

Family Friendly Tip
     This is so easy to make. One way to help with the dinner time crazies is to mix all the ingredients in bowl earlier in the day when you get a free moment (like nap time!) or even the night before. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to cook!