Crock Pot Beef Roast

All in favor of crock pots, say *I*!!! Me, too. I just love the darn thing. As a matter of fact, I recently entered a giveaway on the Fix-It and Forget-It blog and, out of almost 1,800 entries, I was the lucky winner of all 7 of the cookbooks in their collection and a beeeeeeautiful, shiney, new fancy-schmancy All-Clad 6.5 quart crock pot! It just came & I am so giddy to pull the big guy out & put it to work! It's gonna give all my other kitchen appliances a inferior complex. This meal was not made in the new cooker - but it's definitely worthy of a spot in it! I've made this exact roast probably 100 times in my life. However, this time I added one simple ingredient that has never been in it before - and it changed the flavor quite a bit! Liquid smoke. Ever cooked with it? I bought a bottle a while back & it's been patiently waiting on my shelf for it's chance to shine - and it finally came. The roast was as delicious as it usually is with an added depth of smokey flavor - very similar to the warmth you get in a bite of beef jerky. It was really yummy! And Hubby approved.

You'll need:


A chunk of beef, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion - all the good root veggies! Plus a packet of onion soup mix, liquid smoke & water.

First step, of course, would be to prep your produce. Peel the potatoes & carrots - and I suppose you'd 'peel' the onion, too! And, did you know you can also peel celery!? It's true. Run the peeler down the back edge & it'll take off that layer of strings that sometimes make it a tricky snack. I wouldn't bother doing that with cooked celery - it gets soft. But maybe something to consider next time you go for raw sticks!

Sorry - I got distracted.... now chunk up your veggies. Leave them fairly large - about 1-inch cubes on the onion, potato & celery, nice sticks on the carrots.

Load them into the crock pot first.


Now mix together the water & liquid smoke.


Place the roast on top of the veggies, sprinkle the soup mix on top of that & then pour the liquid smoke mixture over that.


Now just cover it, set it to low & find something else to do for 8 hours!

Come back & remove the roast & let it rest for maybe 5 minutes on the cutting board before you cut it. If you don't the juices will run out & you'll have less-juicy meat!


Now just serve it up with some scrumptious sides & you're done!


That's my Cranberry Pineapple Jell-o Stuff sitting beside it (yes, that is it's real name! LOL).

Can I be honest with you guys real quick? As much as I love a good roast, the veggies that result from a day of cooking alongside a roast are probably my *favorite* part of this whole thing! Sorry - it's the German in me - I LOVE potatoes!

Give it a shot - add a smidge of liquid smoke to your next roast & see what a difference it makes. I promise - you'll love it!

Crock Pot Beef Roast:

2-pound beef roast
2 ribs of celery, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 potatoes, peeled & cut into 1-inch cubes
2 onions - cut in half, then quartered
3 carrots, peeled & cut into strips
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 TBsp liquid smoke
1 1/2 cups water

Put your veggies into the slow cooker. Place roast on top of veggies. Sprinkle roast with dry soup mix. In a bowl, combine water & liquid smoke. Pour over the top of roast.

Cover & cook on low for 7-8 hours. Let roast rest on cutting board for about 5 minutes before slicing.

Chicken [Corn & Black Bean] Tacos - Crock Pot!

It's deep into the heat of summer around here so the last thing I want to do is heat up the oven and, in turn, heat up the house! Thank goodness for the crock pot! This crock pot recipe is very similar to a stove top chicken/corn/black bean taco I make but, unlike the stove top version, you just throw the frozen chicken into the crock pot! You don't have to plan ahead enough to have the chicken thawed so you can dice up the raw meat - straight from the freezer to the crock! (Of course, if you have thawed chicken this will work perfectly, too!) Love it.

You need:

Chicken breasts, frozen corn, canned black beans & salsa.
(Plus whatever fixings you need to turn this filling into a taco! Tortillas, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, etc - whatever you like!)

Start out by rinsing your beans - get all the thick, black can juices off of them & shake off the excess water.

Then just throw it all into the crock pot together, put on the lid, set it to low & walk away for about 8 hours. (If you choose to use frozen breasts I'd come in after a couple of hours & just make sure the breasts are separating as they thaw!)

You can just pull it out & serve the whole breast as a main dish, if you'd like, or attack it with your tongs right there in the crock & mash it around to shred it into taco filling. After you shred it I'd put the lid back on & let it go another 30-60 minutes just to distribute the yumminess all throughout the meat.

That's it! Now turn the darn thing into a taco!

(Yes, we truly are that lame - all we added was cheese!!)

Happy eating!

Chicken [Corn & Black Bean] Tacos - Crock Pot:

3 chicken breasts
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 1/2 cup salsa
1 can black beans, rinsed

Combine everything in the crock pot & set on low for about 8 hours. Shred meat in the crock with tongs. Allow to heat for another 30 minutes.

Serve as tacos with your favorite fixings.

Kansas City Slow Cooker Chicken

Why Kansas City? I have no idea - that's just the way it was titled when I stumbled upon this recipe so we went with it!! LOL This is another wonderful crockpot meal. Throw it all in before lunch & know that, when you're ready for dinner, dinner will be ready for you! LOVE that! As it was cooking I kept thinking it smelled just like the sauce Arby's puts on their sandwiches & I was a little concerned that the flavor would be too strong - but it totally wasn't! It was perfect!

Ingredients:


Chicken breasts, onion, sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, *low-sodium* beef broth & dry/ground mustard.

I love it when a recipe can come together without a trip to the grocery store! Bonus!

First you're gonna brown up your chicken. Don't cook it through - just get some good color on the outside. To do that, heat butter or olive oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with a little salt & pepper then give it about 2 minutes per side.


If you need to, grab some tongs & get the breasts up on the sides so you can get color all the way around.


Toss that in the crock pot & then mix up the remaining ingredients to make your sauce.


Pour it all over the chicken, add the lid & then set the heat to low. Let it go for about 6 hours.


If you have the chance, you might give it a baste or turn the chicken once or twice as it bakes but it's not totally necessary.

When it's done, use tongs to pull the chicken out of the juices. As you put it into a bowl give it a smoosh with the tongs to help it shred. It should just fall apart for you!

Use a spoon or ladle to put the juices into a cup & serve it on the side so that people can add as much (or little) as they'd like to the chicken.


We served it over brown rice & it was perfect! I'm sure you could go for noodles or white rice, if you prefer.


This was a really great little meal! I'm glad I found it.

Kansas City Slow Cooker Chicken:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 cup low-sodium beef broth

In a large skillet, heat the butter/olive oil. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook them for 1-2 minutes on each side, until nicely browned but not cooked all the way through. Remove the chicken to the slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. Whisk well. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with rice or noodles.

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Maple Brown Sugar Ham - in the Crock Pot!

Easter's coming! And that means lots of family time - great church meetings, dying eggs together, the Easter egg hunts that follow, family dinners... I'm looking forward to it! Do you have a menu planned out yet? You should REALLY consider putting THIS ham on the list! Usually, when we cook up a spiral ham it comes out on the dry side. My *old way* was to just cook it according to the package directions & mix up that glaze packet to top it off. If I was feeling frisky I might stud it with cloves & pineapple rings. Well - notice that I called it my *old way*!!? That's because this recipe will now be my go-to ham. It's moist, flavorful & just perfect! And an added bonus? It's made in the crock pot which means your oven will be available for all the wonderful side dishes! Woo hoo for oven space!

So what do you need? It's totally simple:


A spiral sliced ham, pineapple juice (100%), dark brown sugar, REAL maple syrup (not pancake syrup).

That's it!

Put the ham in your crock pot, flat side down. Then rub down the sides with your brown sugar, Pour the syrup down over the top.


Then pour the pineapple juice down the sides - but not onto the ham. You don't want to wash off all the sugar & syrup you just rubbed on!


Now just cover it & cook on low for 4 or 5 hours. If your ham stick up so far that the crock pot lid will not fit on securely just triple layer some tinfoil together & wrap it down the edges.

When it's got about 1 hour to go baste it generously with the juices.


Look how much the juices rose! Lots of yumminess to soak in!

Once it's done just pull it out onto a board & let it rest for about 10 minutes before you serve it up.


It is SO good! Moist, juicy, sweet & wonderful. You really ought to give this one a try!

Maple Brown Sugar Ham:

7-8 pound bone-in spiral-cut ham
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup REAL natural maple syrup
2 cups pineapple juice

Use a 6-7 quart slow cooker. Unwrap the ham and discard flavor packet. Place the ham into the slow cooker stoneware, flat-side down. Rub brown sugar on all sides. Pour on maple syrup and pineapple juice. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours. An hour before serving, baste ham with the collected juices from the bottom of the slow cooker. When cooking is done, remove carefully and let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before carving.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

French Onion Roast

I love the crock pot. I love being able to throw stuff in it in the morning & just have it magically ready when it's dinner time! This is the roast we had for dinner tonight. I'm always on the look out for new way to prepare a big hunk of beef in the crock pot so if you have a recipe that you love, please feel free to share it in the comments! This one was a very onion heavy roast - and I mean that as a good thing! Of course the kids opted to have their minus the onion, but Hubby & I laid them atop our meat & enjoyed! And, if you're a lover of French Onion Soup, the broth left behind from this roast is an excellent base!

What you'll need:


A roast - I actually used a London Broil I had in the freezer, onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, beer (optional).

I had every intention of making this with the beer, but we're not beer drinkers here & you can't just buy a single beer at the grocery store. I kept meaning to grab one at the gas station quick mart but forgot - so we went without it tonight. And it was still good. The beer really does give it good flavor, though - and don't worry, the alcohol cooks off so it's still totally kid friendly!


Start out by getting a pan nice & hot. Add a little olive oil - like 2 passes of the pan. Salt & pepper your meat & add it in. Make sure it's really hot before adding your meat. We're searing it to try & keep the juices locked inside. If you put it in the pan before it's good & hot you'll just kinda steam the meat & waste your time.


While that is going (total of about 10 minutes - be sure to get all sides!) slice your onions into rings & pop them into your crock pot. YES, I use the liners - and if you haven't tried them yet WHY NOT!!? I cannot sing their praises enough (as I'm sure you've noticed!!) Love them.


Again, while your meat is still searing, mix up your broth, sugar, mustard & vinegar. If you're using the beer add it in here. If you're not, use more broth in its place.

Set the beef on top of the bed of onions then pour the liquid down over it.


Put on the lid, set it to low & walk away for a solid 8 hours... maybe 9, maybe 10. When it's done pull it out & let it rest for a few minutes.


Slice it up & serve it with a generous heap of onions. For the broth, you can either just spoon on the liquid as is or you can thicken it up with some flour or cornstarch & make a gravy of it.





Mmmmm...... Enjoy!

French Onion Roast:

1 boneless roast, about 3-4 pounds
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
4 onions
3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup beer (optional - if omitted use more broth)

Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Salt & pepper the meat and add it to the hot pan. Sear all sides for a total of about 10 minutes.

While the meat is searing, slice onions into rings and place in the bottom of crock pot.

In a bowl, mix broth, beer, brown sugar, mustard & cider vinegar.

Once meat is seared place on top of onions in crock pot. Pour broth mixture over the top. Cover, set to low & allow to cook for 8-10 hours.


Slow Cooker

Meatball Subs

This is seriously one of the easiest but still super delicious dinners we do around here. I suppose you could make it more complicated by doing homemade marinara & meatballs from scratch but that kinda kills the quick-and-easy appeal of this one! Just toss your fixings in the crock post around lunch time & by dinner all you have to do is serve it up!

The shopping list:


Frozen meatballs (I get the enormous bag of Italian Style from Costco), a jar of your favorite marinara (my absolute all-time favorite jarred sauce has to be Newman's Own Sockarooni!), some hoagie rolls & shredded Parmesan (not the powdered kind - you want something that will melt down over it). Provolone or Mozzarella slices would also be great!

Throw the meatballs & sauce in the crock pot. I use about 8 meatballs per sub (this time that was 32 - one jar of sauce is the perfect amount for this many meatballs, resulting in 4 full-sized subs).


Give them a stir, put the lid on & walk away for about 6 hours (on low). Stir them a time or two as they go. This isn't totally essential, though, so if you've got somewhere to be just ignore them altogether! They won't mind.


When you're ready to eat just toast up your buns & add the meatballs.


Add some cheese & either just close it & let the heat melt it a bit or pop it under the broiler for a minute to get a good, gooey melt!


Now wasn't that easy!!??

Dinner is SERVED!

Meatball Subs:
(to make 4 full-sized subs)

32 frozen meatballs
1 jar of non-meat spaghetti sauce
4 hogie rolls
Shredded Parmesan or sliced Provolone or Mozzarella

Put meatballs & sauce into the crockpot, set on low. Stir well, cover & cook for 6 hours.

Toast the rolls. Add 8 meatballs per roll, top with cheese.

Slow Cooker

Asian BBQ Pork Chops

We're starting off with a confession. I cannot cook pork chops in the crock pot. I try. I try all the time. I have tried several different recipes and I have tried several different techniques to keep them moist, but I always fail & get dried out meat. Like the kind that sucks the moisture out of your mouth as you chew it. The kind that you have to have a tall glass of milk to help you get it down. What am I doing wrong!? I don't know... but I will say that these chops, had I baked them in the oven or a couple of hours less in the crock pot, would have been amazing. So, I'm gonna go ahead & share it anyway! If you insist on doing them in the crock pot maybe just go on low for 3 or 4 hours. Not the 6 that I did. Another tip I've heard is if you sear them in a pan on the stove (don't cook them completely, just put some brown on each side) before you throw them in the crock pot it helps retain the moisture... but I failed at that one, too! LOL

ANYWAY! How's that for instilling faith in your cooking blog lady, huh!? I'm just keeping it real. Sometimes I fail!

Let's see the fixings:


Pork chops (excuse the marks from my tongs!), brown sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, honey, pepper, garlic, cornstarch.

Start out by mixing the sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, pepper & garlic (minced up or pressed through a press). Give them a good whisk until they are combined into a good sauce.

Then toss your chops into your crock pot & pour the sauce on top. Flip them over in the sauce to get the coated well.


Now give a good squeeze of honey over the top of each chop, using some tongs to help get the bottom chops.


Then just cover & cook on low for [insert appropriate time here.] I did 4 hours and then moved on to the last step & cooked an additional 2 hours for a total of 6 hours on low for 4 chops. It was too long!

The last step? Take the chops out & set aside. Add in a couple tablespoons of cornstarch & whisk it into the sauce to make it into a thicker glaze-like sauce, rather than a thin, runny marinade. Add the chops back in & go for another 2 hours. I'm thinking the appropriate times should have maybe been 2 hours/2 hours.


And that's it! We served it up with brown rice & steamed broccoli. The flavor was WONDERFUL! Like BBQ meets Asian cuisine. I definitely recommend you try it out... just don't overcook your meat like I ALWAYS seem to do! LOL A bonus of crock pot cooking is that your whole house will smell great as you wait for this to finish up!


And a peek inside... all good and saucy on the outside, but still nice & bright white inside!

Asian BBQ Pork Chops:

6 pork chops
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic, minced
pepper to taste
1/2 cup honey
2 TBSP cornstarch

Place pork chops into crock pot. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, garlic & pepper. Whisk until combined. Pour over the chops & use tongs to flip the chops around to ensure they are all coated. Squirt honey generously over each chops - again using tongs to reach the bottom ones.

Cook on low for 2 (?) hours. Remove chops & set aside. Add cornstarch to sauce in the crock pot. Whisk to combine. Add chops back into sauce and cook on low an additional 2 hours. Serve hot with extra sauce over the top.

Slow Cooker