Crockpot Meatballs

Okay so apparently I'm not adventurous and trying new recipes. July? Really? no posts for a month? ah well... it's coming to be my favorite time of the year. Football season! And along with that crisp weather, light sweaters, tailgating, and homey, warm, comforting, foods.

I'll start this glorious Football Saturday off with one of my most requested tailgate/party recipes. We are headed to a party at noon and I was requested to bring the Buffalo Chicken Dip by the wife, and then told NO WAY! I had to bring my meatballs by the husband. Well, to appease both (and compensate for the fact they are having KEGS! at their party and we don't have to BYOB- I feel like I'm in college again :) ) I made both. I have already shared the Buffalo Chicken Recipe with you. Go ahead, check it out. I'll wait.

But now I'll share the meatballs with you. It's a no-fail recipe. Easiest thing ever, and only uses 3 ingredients! Do I have your attention? Good. Let's get started.

Ingredients (this is for a large batch, if not going to a party or for a smaller group just adjust)

64 oz Frozen Meatballs. I've used original and italian and our fav and go to now is Farm Rich Original Meatballs. I large bag or 2 small. I've even done 2 small- 1 original and 1 italian.

Bottle of Ketchup

Bag of Light Brown Sugar

Optional: Slow Cooker Liners. These save my life for parties since I know the crock will be on all day long and I don't have to dred cleaning the stoneware when I get home.

Directions

I use a 6qt. Crockpot for most batches- it may look like a lot but they are gobbled up before I know it and everyone is asking for more!

Line slow cooker with liner if you are using it, if not you could lightly spray cooking spray around to help with cleanup as well.

Place half of the meatballs in the crockpot and get ready to make your sauce.

The sauce is open for interpretation but I've found around 1:1 ratio of ketchup to brown sugar works well. Fresh brown sugar is best to avoid the clumps of rock hard sugar. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and taste. I use about 3/4 bottle of ketchup to about 3/4+ of brown sugar. We like ours a little bit sweeter because when it cooks and cooks the flavor just melts together and it's delightful and not so ketchup-y. It should turn a dark red color once mixed thoroughly. Try to get out as many lumps as you can. Using the back of a spoon helps. Just mix a little and taste, add a little more, and keep going till you have enough sauce and are happy :)

Pour half the mixture over the meatballs, repeat by adding the rest of the meatballs and topping with the remaining sauce.

Cook on high for about 4 hours or until cooked through. I usually start on high for about 3 hours and then switch to warm for a few more hours if I have time before the party. The longer it cooks the better the sauce gets.

Here we are all starting to cook. I'll try and get a picture of the finished product... if they aren't all gone first!

Enjoy!

GO BUCKEYES!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

So back to Rachel

She posted this recipe for Pulled Pork Sandwiches back in March.

I found it on Friday and immediately sent it to the husband and demanded I make this for dinner one night. A man to turn away BBQ Pork sammiches? Marinated in Beer? Yeah right so of course he was already hungry for it.

Decided to make these yesterday (prep on Monday night) and invited the family over since there was no way I'd fit into my dress this weekend had I eaten 2 of the 4 lbs of Pork Shoulder I was about to make.

Prep work was minimal, took maybe 15 minutes... only because I trimmed some of the fat and the bone from the pork. And I'm squeemish with raw meat. Gives me the heebie jeebies.

I'll not post the whole recipe here since I really really want you to go check out the southern hospitality over here.

I made 1 obvious change. Instead of Miller Lite (eeew in our household) I substituted Budweiser Select since it is what I had in the house.

5 simple ingredients, 1 delicious outcome.


6 people ate this last night (everyone agreed it was delicious!) and we had enough for a couple more sandwiches as leftovers.

The pork smelled awesome when I put it in the crock after marinating all night. When she says "Resist the urge to dive face first into the crockpot." She isn't kidding. Seriously. It was so moist and tender after cooking all day that it shredded easily and was ready and waiting for the BBQ sauce. I may get the bigger bottle next time for a little extra BBQ flavor. But this recipe will be repeated again I'm sure. Probably pretty soon.

And now that I've discovered Mouth Watering Mondays hopefully I'll be able to post here more than once a month with some new recipes that we've tried!!!

Find the Recipe Here.

Enjoy!

Crockpot- Pot Roast

So everyone has their own pot roast recipe. And everyone likes theirs best. I'm constantly trying to update mine and figure out one recipe that I just can't live without. I made this during the snow storm on Wednesday and it was pretty close to being the best!

Ingredients:
2-3 lb pot roast
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
italian seasoning
7-8 potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks)
2 portions of baby carrots (mine were individual size but 1 small bag would be fine)
1/2-3/4 sweet onion (i diced 1/2 of that into teenytiny pieces and just cut the others into chunks)
1 can beef broth

Directions:
Brown pot roast on the stove with 2 cloves of minced garlic and the olive oil. (When I get my garlic press from pampered chef they will be pressed!) Season both sides with salt and pepper (and italian seasoning though next time I'll probably omit that) place in crockpot. Pour half of broth over it. Throw the potatoes, carrots, and onion on top. Pour rest of broth over vegetables.

Cook on High for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours. I cooked ours on high for 2 and switched to low for about 4. Vegetables will be tender and meat will fall apart.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Soup

I made Buffalo Wing Soup last week.

P ate it too though he did say it looked gross. Which yes, I will admit it did a little bit, but the taste was great! (I'm not sure if it was the buffalo sauce or not, but it did separate a little bit while cooking... there was a layer on top but when stirred together it was fine. You can see it a little bit in the left of the picture)

We used Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce. I may try another kind next time. The onions and the celery were not overpowering and I used my Pampered Chef Chopper to make them super small. The literally melted into the soup. No crunch and they were virtually undetectable other than the green of the celery. I also doubled the chicken broth and used 1% milk. It did not curdle. Oh and I used Garlic and Onion Powder since I didn't have salt. I added a little bit of cheddar cheese to the top before serving and it was YUM!This was a good soup. Find the recipe here

Enjoy!

Crockpot Roast Chicken

So I'm sure everyone knows that Crockpot cooking is simple, delicious, easy, and pretty darn near impossible to screw up. This recipe proves all 4 to be true.

1 Whole Chicken (my 6lb chicken fit well into the 6qt. crockpot)

Salt

Pepper

Herbs/Seasoning to taste (I used Rosemary)

1 Onion

Carrots

So the carrots didn't really add anything for this but I had in mind that we would be eating them so they can be (and will be for us) excluded in the future.

I skinned the chicken after reading Stephanie's post about globs of chicken fat simmering all day. UGH I think I just dry heaved thinking about it. Anyways, I got as much of the fat/skin as I could and just today relized that using my Chicken Shears would have made things much easier than my chefs knife. I'll know for next time.

I bought a Tyson chicken that luckily didn't have the neck and giblets waiting for me inside. If yours does, remove that stuff and try not to gag. I cut the onion in pieces and stuffed about 1/3 of it into the cavity after sprinkling with salt and pepper. Season the rest of the chicken with the salt, pepper, and herbs as desired. I tossed the remaining onion and the carrot slices in the crockpot and placed the chicken on top. No liquid necessary. This made plenty on it's own. I cooked it on low for about 9 hours and then switched to warm until dinner. (Cook 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 on high depending on the size of your bird)

Enjoy!

This was a fantastic and tasty chicken that stayed unbelievably moist, plus it just fell away from the bones it was so tender. I was pleasantly surprised since I had removed the skin and it wasn't greasy like it usually is. I will continue to use this recipe as a base for lots of other things.

Now, what to do with the leftovers?

Crockpot- Beef Tips and Noodles

Now that I've got my new 4qt crockpot (on clearance at Target thankyouverymuch!) I am wanting to use it every day! I made this recipe once before but misplaced it. I couldn't find it this morning so I improvised.

2 lbs. Beef Tips
1 can Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom
1 can Golden Mushroom
1/2 can Beef Broth mixed with 1/2 packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (or 1 can French Onion Soup)

Mix soups together in crockpot, add beef tips, stir a bit to coat the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, high for 4-6 depending on your crockpot.

Serve over wide egg noodles. You could probably add them uncooked to the crock about 30 minutes before serving or cook on the stovetop (thats what I do).

Enjoy!

Crockpot- Cream Cheese Chicken

Okay so first of all this woman is amazing! She made a resolution to use her crockpot every day in 2008. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! and she has done it successfully for 262 days so far. Now I always used to tease my mom about using her crockpot and how it was a cop-out for cooking a real dinner. (Sorry Mom!) But honestly, it's amazing- and so easy! (though I would never admit that out loud) Anyways, I have only used mine a couple of times but every time we have a delicious meal that seems like I spent all day cooking. Well, after finding Stephanie's amazing website I figure I should pull the crock down from the cupboard and give it a proper place on the counter for the season.

Our inaugural meal was the Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken last week. Now I shant remind you of the pickiness of tastes and textures in our household so I had to be sneaky. He was told I used "Campbells Cream Soup" and "Italian Seasoning" along with some other good stuff, it was actually Cream of Mushroom and Italian Dressing Mix hehehe. And I used frozen chicken tenderloins, throw them in and forget about them! We served it over egg noodles that we cooked on the stove. Easy peasy!

We both ate it, it was a bit too garlicky for us (I used 2 pretty big cloves) but the chicken just fell apart with a wooden spoon! It was so creamy and wonderful that we will be having it again in the future. Probably omiting the garlic since the Italian Dressing has a bunch in it already :)