Here is the third installment of my Crock Pot Meals. Now you have 15 meals 20 meals that you can prepare and have in your freezer for those busy nights. This is one of the best way my family saves time and money. I don’t have to spend time in the kitchen preparing dinner each night and the mess in minimal.  It saves me money because I am not tempted to go out to eat when I know we have a busy night. I really can notice a difference in our house when I have these dinners. Our days are a lot less stressful!

In case you missed it check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, and Part 5 of my 1 Hour + 1 Mess = Crock Pot recipes.  If you would like to know when more recipes will be available you can sign up for my email newsletter. You will get an email that you will need to confirm you want the subscription. 

Shopping List
(Printable version of just the ingredients)

• 1 ½ lb ground beef
• 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 ½ lb boneless beef round steak
• 1 (2 ½  pound) boneless beef chuck roast
• 3-pound boneless pork shoulder blade roast
• 3 green pepper (1 chopped & 2 ¾ -inch strips)
• 3 medium onion (1 chopped & 2 medium sliced)
• ½ cup celery, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ¼ cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped ginger  (or  1/4 teaspoon ground ginger)
• baby carrots*
• chili powder
• salt
• pepper
• dried thyme leaves
• paprika
• dried onion flakes
• brown sugar
• 1 packet of Ranch dressing mix (dry seasoning mix)
• 1 packet brown gravy mix
• cider vinegar (1 cup)
• ketchup (¾  cup)
• Worcestershire sauce
• soy sauce
• 1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes or sauce
• chicken bouillon (1 tablespoon )
• beef bouillon (2 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 12 oz spaghetti or other pasta*
• 2 cups shedded cheese (I use a Mexican mix)*
• 12 rolls*
• Cole Slaw*
• cornstarch*
• Potatoes* (to go with the pot roast)
• Rice*

*Ingredients that are not needed until you prepare the meal

Here’s a printable version of the ingredients and the recipes.

Recipes

 

Continue Reading…

I love no bake cookies. I don’t usually burn my cookies, but I hate having to monitor the cookies. So when I came across this recipe for No Bake Apple Oatmeal Cookies – I knew I had to try them. I pretty much followed her recipe but I didn’t add the walnuts. My kids aren’t big fans of nuts in their cookies.

They were really easy to throw together. Plus I learned my kids love to eat grated apples. It’s such a fun way to eat apples and they are eating fruit!

No Bake Apple Oatmeal Cookies

• ¼ cup butter
• ½  cup sugar
• ¼  teaspoon salt
• ½  teaspoon cinnamon
• ½  cup peeled and grated apples
• 1 ½  cup quick cooking oatmeal

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat.
2. Add sugar, salt,cinnamon, and apples.
3. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.  Stir in  oatmeal.
4. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto wax paper or nonstick pan.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until they are set.

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the recipes that will be included in part 3 of 1 Hour + 1 Mess = 5 Crock Pot Dinners. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed them.

If you would like to know when they will be available you can sign up for my email newsletter. You will get an email that you will need to confirm you want the subscription. 

Casserole Spaghetti
Serves 6-8

• 1 ½ lb ground beef
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• ½ cup celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes or sauce
• 2 TBSP chili powder
• ½ TSP salt (I add more after it’s cooked)
• ¼ TSP pepper
• 12 oz spaghetti or other pasta
• 2 cups shedded cheese (I use a Mexican mix)

Instructions

1. Cook ground beef. Drain and cool completely.
2. Add  green pepper, onion, celery, garlic cloves,  tomatoes, chili pepper, salt, and pepper to the crock pot.
3. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.
4. When it’s almost done, cook spaghetti according to package and drain.
5. Add cooked spaghetti and about 1 cup of cheese to the crock pot and mix well.
6. Add more cheese to the top and serve!

We really like to eat this with Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.

Note – I have heard that some people have cooked the pasta in the crock pot. I have never tried it. If you have please share the timing and if it’s good! Thanks!

 

 

Are you looking for some good football food?  Every year my husband like to fry up some food so he can eat and watch his game. There is usually too much food for just us so we invited some friends over to enjoy all this food with us!

So here’s our NFL menu!

Dinner

• Beef Burritos with cilantro lime rice
• Chick Fil A (Copy Cat) chicken nuggest
• Sloppy Joes

Snacks

• Jalapeno Poppers
• chips and dip
• Jalapeno popper dip
• Pizza Muffins

Desserts

• Caramel Apple Pizza
• Caramel Pop Corn

So what are you making to celebrate football season?

Do you want to save some time and money in the kitchen? I have created 20 different meals you can put in the freezer and then put in the crock pot when you are ready to eat them! You spend some time in the kitchen to prep them but then dinner is so easy!

Yesterday I spent about 90 minutes in the kitchen and when I was done I had 11 crock pot meals ready for the freezer! I hadn’t set aside anytime to get my dinners ready and I was spending too much time in the kitchen every night. So I wrote out a list of all the meals I wanted to make over the the next two weeks and went grocery shopping. The nice thing about these recipes is I really just needed to buy the meat and vegetables.

Here’s a list of all the dinners I put in ziploc bags and into the freezer.

• Hawaiian Chicken
• Dijon chicken
• Chicken Cacciatore
• Chicken Fajitas
• Beef Burritos
• Chicken Tinga Tostadas
• Beef Fajitas (recipe to come)
• Peppered Steak (recipe to come)
• Pot Roast (recipe to come)
• Pork Tacos (recipe to come)
• Casserole Spaghetti (recipe to come)

I also put 5 baked potatoes in the crock pot in the morning and I made 10 twice baked potatoes. It’s so nice to just be able to microwave the potatoes and they are delicious!

I love Chicken & Dumplings. Its the perfect Fall food. My kids love it and I love that I can cook everything – including the dumplings, in my crock pot. This meal isn’t really going to work as a freezer meal because I don’t like to freeze the carrots, celery, and potatoes. But it’s easy enough to put together in the morning to have a delicious meal. You could even chop everything the night before.

 

 

Crock Pot Chicken & Dumplings

(serves 6-8)

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cups of water
• 2 TBSP chicken bouillon
• 4 carrots peeled and chopped
• 4 potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 stalks of celery diced

Dumplings

• 2 Cups Bisquick
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 2 TBSP dried parsley

Instructions
(It’s best to make this in an oval crock pot so you have more room for the Dumplings.)

1. In your 6 quart crock pot add the chicken (no need to cut it up), water, bouillon, carrots, potatoes, and celery. Cover and cook for 5-6 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low.
2. When the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are soft, shred the chicken into large chunks.
3. In a small bowl mix the Dumpling ingredients.
4. Drop tablespoons of the dough on top of the chicken mixture.
5. Set a timer for 10 minutes and let them cook for 10 minutes.
6. Then cover the crock pot and cook for another 10 minutes. DO NOT remove the lid before the 10 minutes are over or you may ruin the dumplings.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Want to make your dinner time a lot easier and less stressful? Check out my 1 Hour + 1 Mess =5 Crock Pot meals – Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

We have a huge bag of Craisins in our house. We do like to eat them for snacks but I wanted to make some cookies with them. I found this recipe and I cut it in half. It made about 21 cookies. I usually like to make smaller batches of new recipes incase we don’t like the new recipe. I hate to waste all those ingredients!

Craisin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Printable Version

• ⅓  cup butter, softened
• ⅓  cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• ¾  cups old-fashioned oats
• ¾  cups flour
• ½  teaspoon baking soda
• ¼  teaspoon salt
• ⅓  cup Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries
• ⅓  cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine butter, brown sugar, and the egg. Mix for about a minute so everything is combined.
3. Add oats, flour, baking soda, and salt to the liquid mixture. Mix well and add in the craisins and chips.
4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on a cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.
5. Cool on a wire rack or I use a paper towel that I lay on the counter.

I think this would also taste great with white chocolate chips. I will be making these again soon!

Chicken Parmesan  is one of my family’s favorite meals. We especially love to eat it with spaghetti and for lunch the next day – if there are any leftovers. My recipe is really simple and very flavorful. It will take about an hour from start to finish.

Chicken Parmesan
Serves 4-6

• 2 pounds boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups flavored bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• Oil for frying

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In  the bottom of a 9×13 pan (or bigger if you have lots of chicken) spread a thin layer of sauce and set aside.
3. Place the chicken in a zip-top bag. Pound it out into cutlets. I had 3 large chicken breasts and each breast gave me about  3 pieces of chicken.
4. Mix the egg and milk in a shallow bowl.
5. Add the bread crumbs to a shallow bowl.
6. Pour about 1/4 inch deep of oil into a frying pan. When it’s hot dip the chicken in the egg then the bread crumbs. Fry on both sides until brown. (You do not need to cook them all the way.) Add the chicken to the baking pan.
7. Brown all the pieces of chicken. Pour the rest of the sauce over each piece of chicken.
8. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
9. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and add the mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered for about 15 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.
10. Serve and enjoy!

We like to use the sauce from the pan to put over our spaghetti.

Well the first batch of these recipes was so popular, I put together 5 more recipes. This is the chicken edition! I tried a pork chop recipe but I messed it up, so it will be in the next set of recipes! I promise I will have less chicken recipes next time. I want to make enough to have 4 weeks worth of dinners.

Here’s Part 3 of 1 Hour + 1 Mess = 5 Crock Pot Meals, Part 4 with 5 more recipes, and Part 5. There are now 15 different recipes you can make! Click here for Part 1.

So make sure you have sure you sign up for my email newsletter so you get the next batch of recipes!

You will be able to make Dijon Chicken, Rotisserie Crock Pot Chicken, Italian Chicken, Chicken Tinga Tostadas, and Chicken Cacciatore. Click here for the printable version of the list and recipes.

Important Notes:

• I use a 6 quart crock pot
• You can also place the ingredients into a crock pot liner and them into the freezer bag. There will be no clean-up!

Shopping List

8  pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 whole chicken (4-5 pounds)
1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water & 1 Tablespoon bouillon)
dijon mustard
1 cup Italian dressing
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix
1-2 chipotle peppers
chicken bouillon
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 onions
10 garlic cloves
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
8  potatoes
3-4 tomatoes
1 bag of pre-cut baby carrots
dried oregano
3 bay leaves
dried thyme
salt
paprika
onion powder
chili powder
black pepper

 

Recipes

Dijon chicken

(4-5 servings)

• 2 pounds chicken breasts
• 1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water & 1 Tablespoon bouillon)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 T dijon mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ – 1 tsp thyme (depending on how much you like thyme)

Instructions
Add all the ingredients to the bag.

Write the following instructions on the bag:

1. Dump the contents of the bag into your crock pot.
2. Cook 4-5 hours on high or 5-6 hours on low.
3. Remove bay leaves when you are done

(Maybe serve with stuffing?)

Rotisserie Crock Pot Chicken And Potatoes

(serves 4-5)
Continue Reading…