Crock Pot - Shepherd Pie

Not all my recipes are going to turn out looking good or working well for the kids.
But, you have to experiment to find amazing recipes that work well for your family.

ACTUAL RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
(Slow-Cooker Cookbook, pg 41)
2 lb ground beef
16-oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
4 potatoes, shredded
salt and pepper
1 cube butter, sliced

MY RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
20-oz of frozen mixed vegetables
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated
6 small potatoes, shredded
salt and pepper
1/2 cube butter, sliced

RECIPE:
Brown and drain ground beef. Pour 1/2 cup water in bottom of slow-cooker. Layer vegetables, ground beef, cheese, and shredded potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and butter slices. Cover and cook on high 2-3 hours or low 5-6 hours. You can substitute vegetables of choice.

OUR OPINION:
I usually buy ground beef in bulk, cook it all up with some minced onions, salt and pepper, then store in freezer bags in one pound amounts. But, I thought that 2 pounds of meat was way too much for one meal, so I cut it down a bit but not too much to change the recipe. In it's place, I added a bit more vegetables and potato on top.

I am thinking that the potatoes needed to be blanched before this because of how they ended up looked gray-black. They tasted okay to us adults, but the kids didn't want to have anything to do with them. I figured they wouldn't hurt us because I put them in the slow cooker immediately after shredding them and cooked them on high. I didn't want to use an entire cube of butter either - I'm a bit health conscious and I just couldn't do it. There also ended up being a pool of water down at the bottom of the pot. So, I don't think a 1/2 cup of water needed to be added because the frozen vegetables provided their own water. The bottom of this dish tasted just fine but the potatoes looked gross, so I scraped off the potatoes in order to save the left overs. And when we ate them a few days later, we just crumpled Ritz crackers on the top and the kids ate it just fine. To satisfy them that night, I didn't feel like I could force them to eat something that didn't look good, so I made them some peanut butter sandwiches.

Not every recipe will be great, but in the future I think I will continue to make my own shepherd pie in a casserole dish in the oven.

Apricot Chicken

This is what it looks like before cooking
- the chicken is under the sauce and flavorings.

Looks a little interesting but it was very appetizing.

INGREDIENTS:

4-5 chicken breasts
1/2 cut apricot jam
1/2 of an 8 oz bottle of Russian Dressing (that's what the red sauce is in the pictures)
1/2 envelope of onion soup mix
1 tsp curry

RECIPE:

Top the chicken with all the ingredients and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6 hours.

I cooked it on high but I learned that this chicken can easily dry out if you cook it too long, so be careful. It was delicious and made a very yummy sauce that we poured onto our rice. I liked this one because it was so easy, but I did have to find the Russian dressing at the store because that wasn't something I had on hand at home. It adds some good flavor.

Results of Sloppy BBQ Chicken

Success! My husband exclaimed he was "full" at the end of the meal. That's a hard thing to do. My 4 yr old and 2 yr old really ate up the chicken, the bread was a bit thick for them. My Ephraim (2) seems to be willing to eat corn off the cob but not otherwise. They all devoured the jello of course. Barely had enough left overs for my husband to make a sandwich for his lunch tomorrow. Again, I will say, YUMMY!!!!

Sloppy BBQ Chicken

Ephraim helping make the first layer of jello
- cherry on the bottom and orange on the top.

Frozen chicken with BBQ sauce - ready to cook.

All Cooked and ready to shred with forks.

Shredded and ready to serve on bread. You can eat it as an
open (1 piece of bread) or closed sandwich (2 pieces of bread).

YUMMY! Just as easy and quick as the last recipe but a totally different flavor. Since my family isn't too big yet, I didn't make a large amount. So, the recipe is what I used and you can adjust bigger for a larger family. I probably wouldn't make less than this in the crock-pot.

I realized we were practically out of bread, but I didn't want to run to the store after naps and right before dinner in order to buy some bread or buns. So, I quickly mixed up some bread and it's about to go in the oven just in time to come out right before it's time to eat :-).

We are also going to eat these Sloppy BBQ Chicken sandwiches with some 2 layered Jello - always fun to make with the kids in little cups so they chill faster - and some cooked corn on the cob (on sale this week for us at the store down the street). What a fantastic dinner we're going to have tonight....Hope you all can try this out soon. It's gonna be GREAT!!!! I'll have to post later on how the family likes it. We've had this once before but a long time ago and you know how kids can easily change their minds about things.

INGREDIENTS:

2 chicken breasts
3/4 cup BBQ Sauce
(I used Bulls Eye because it's the only BBQ sauce I've come to like so far - you could use any kind you like the best)

RECIPE:

I put the chicken breasts in frozen and spread all the BBQ sauce over the chicken. I cooked it on high for over 3 hours (I would cook it for about 4 if I had more chicken in there). Then I forked the cooked chicken and mixed it around in the sauce to make a Sloppy Joe type chicken mess.

Mango Peach Salsa

I went to Super Walmart last night for a few things and checked to see if they sell any salsas like the Mango Peach Salsa that I buy at Costco - AND THEY DO. They sell Mango Peach Salsa in an 18 ounce container which would be a good amount to cover about 2-4 chicken breasts. The one you can buy from Costco comes in a 48 ounce container and I used about 1/3 to cover my 2 chicken breasts for my last recipe. You add as much salsa and much as you want the flavor. It does go a long way when you cook the chicken in it though. So, since I found it at that store, I'm assuming you can find it in a regular grocery store as well. It was in the refrigerated section near the chopped fruits and salads.

Mango Salsa Chicken

This one is the easiest recipe I know for the crock pot. Put chicken in, pour salsa on top, cook. I used regular chicken (not frozen) and cooked it about 3-4 hours on high. We like to shred it and use it in burritos or tacos. We've eaten it on top of rice as well. Either way is delicious. In the pictures, I only used 2 chicken breasts but you can use as much as you would need for your family. We probably could have just used one for our burritos that day. The first picture is of the finished product of all the chicken shredded and mixed with the salsa. The second picture is one breast shredded and the other not yet shredded, just so you know what it would look like when it was done.

INGREDIENTS:

2 chicken breasts (or as much as your family would eat)
Mango Peach Salsa (bought at Costco)

RECIPE:

Put chicken in crock pot. Cover with salsa, enough to completely cover your chicken. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for probably 5-6 hours. Then take 2 forks and shred it....use it however you like for dinner.

Beef Stew - Seasoning Mix

I bought a seasoning mix from Winco the other day and a package of stew meat to make it a quick meal. It wasn't as quick as I thought it would be, but it was definitely delicious! The prep work was easy and quick, but the time it took to cook was what took a good amount of time.

We ate this with home made bread and we probably ate half the stew. My husband and I thought it was delicious and I will definitely be doing this again on a day that I'm prepared and not planning on going anywhere since the stove has to be on for 2 1/2 hours on low. The meat was so tender and not too chewy like I've had in other stews. My 4 yr old ate every bite of a full bowl. My 2 yr old didn't seem to be feeling well and didn't want to eat any of it. He's still getting those back teeth, so we weren't sure how he would do with the meat anyway. My baby LOVED it as you can see in the picture. The prep work was very simple and I would definitely recommend this dinner to those who like a beefy kind of stew. YUM!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED -

2 lbs of stew meat
3 cups water
Beef Stew Mix
4-5 potatoes
4 carrots
2 celery stalks
4 small onions or 1/4 yellow onion
10 oz frozen peas

RECIPE -

1. Lightly flour 2 lb of stew meat. Brown in 3 Tbsp oil. (I cut up the stew meat a bit more than it already was because of my kids).

2. Add 3 cups water and BEEF STEW MIX. (I got the Winco store brand - Hy-Top).

3. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer until tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

4. Add 4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (I added 5 small ones - cut into bite sizes). Cut into 1 inch pieces, 4 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 4 small onions (I cut them smaller than that and used 1/4 of a yellow onion because I didn't have the small onions that they called for).

5. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add 1 package, 10 oz, frozen peas the last 5 minutes of cooking time. Add 2 tsp of salt if desired (I didn't add the salt because I forgot and didn't even notice it needed it).

My New Blog!

I'm going to try and figure out this blogging thing by creating a site of my dinner experiments. It seems like I've had quite a few friends and family wanting new dinner ideas lately, not just new recipes, but ones that have been tried and liked by someone they know. So, I've been experimenting lately with new meals - especially in the slow cooker - and wanted to share the recipes. I will also give my opinion of how easy it was to cook, how my family liked it (me, my husband and 3 young boys - 4, 2 and almost 1), and if I am being good on my Weight Watcher's food tracking, then I will also give the estimated Points Plus value that I calculated for that meal. I hope that you will at least try one of these meals every once in a while and let me know what you also think about it. I'm gonna have fun with this and if ever you have a new recipe that your family has discovered and liked, then send it on over to me for a try.