My Crock Pot Favorites!

I love my crock pots! Yes I said pots. Plural. It is not uncommon for us to eat 3 or 4 meals a week out of the crock pot. A couple years ago, after the tornado, I used a crock pot daily and our construction workers would say the delicious smells were very distracting. One worker said that he never let his wife cook in a crock pot because it all tastes the same. A bowl of roast & veggies later, and he was asking for some recipes to take home along with the crock pot that he said he would be picking up on the way home! It made me feel good to know that it wasn't just my imagination that crock pot meals are super flavorful.

Italian Chicken

4-6 chicken breast (frozen or thawed)

1 cup chicken broth or other liquid

1 block of cream cheese

1 packet of Italian Dressing Seasoning Mix

Toss all this in the crock pot in the order listed. Put on the lid and place on low for 4-5 hours if thawed OR 5-6 hours if frozen. Stir in some cheese (such as 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup of parmesan) and serve over pasta or rice. I sometimes add broccoli and/or slice mushrooms or carrots to the pot at the beginning for variety. It’s ALL good!

Okay so the next 2 recipes involve cooking wine (salted) and
I know this is not acceptable for some people so a possible
substitute is chicken broth with meat tenderizer added.
Red cooking wine is found near vinegar in most stores.

Slow Cooked Beef Roast

6 or 7 celery stalks trimmed

3 to 5 lb. beef roast (thawed)

1 to 2 cup(s) of red cooking wine depending on roast size
1 can Campbell's Select Harvest French Onion Soup
1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom*
1/2 to 1 lbs. of carrots**
2 to 3 lbs. of sliced or cubed potatoes**
5 to 8 sliced or quartered mushrooms**

Place a single layer of celery on the bottom of the crock pot like a grate to keep the meat off the heat at the bottom. Add the ingredients in the order above. Put the lid on and set the crock pot on low for 8 to 10 hours (depending on the size of the roast). Stir before serving.

*Brand doesn't matter, unless you want it to be MSG-Free.

**Optional.  I rarely add the extra mushrooms.

Beef Stroganoff

2 lbs lean stew meat

1 lb mushrooms (washed & quartered)

1 cup red cooking wine

1 onion (chopped)

1 clove of garlic (optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

1 t. cracked pepper

At the end:

    2 T. cornstarch

    2 T. Dijon mustard 

    1/2 cup of sour cream

Put all the ingredients in a crock pot and stir. Set on low and cook for 8-9 hours. After 8-9 hours, you need to thicken the juices and add two final ingredients. In a microwave safe dish, combine 2 T of cornstarch with 2 T of water and stir together. Then ladle off 1 cup of broth from the crock pot into the cornstarch mixture. Stir and microwave 30-45 seconds at a time. Stirring each time the microwave stops until the mixture boils. Then stir this thickened liquid into the crock pot and stir. Finally turn off the crock pot and stir in the mustard and sour cream. (I like to mix some dill weed into the sour cream before adding it.) Then serve over egg noodles. We especially like it with a slice of crusty hot French bread on the side.