Chicken Cacciatore

1/3 cup flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
8 chicken thighs, boneless skinless
1/4 cup olive oil
1 red pepper, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red cooking wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
1 bay leaf
8 oz mushrooms, sliced

Stir together flour salt and pepper. Coat the chicken in the flour mixture. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken pieces in batches and cook until golden brown on the bottom. Turn the chicken and cook on the second side until lightly browned. Transfer the chicken into the slow cooker.

Add the bell peppers, onion and garlic to the frying pan and saute until they start to soften, about 3 min. Add mushrooms and cook another minute. Pour in the wine and broth, and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Stir in the tomatoes, oregano, rosemary and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 4 hours or the low-heat setting for 8 hours.

Serve over pasta (spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine).

-Tricia Ware

Mixed Bean Chili

1 lb ground beef or turkey, browned (meat is optional)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 jar salsa
1 10 oz package frozen corn, or 1 caned corn
1 sweet potato, cubed

Dump everything into a Crock-Pot. Set on low. Cook for 6-8 hours. Mix well before serving. Serves 6.

My kids like to get tortilla chips to scoop the chili up and eat it. Corn bread would be a good side.

-Tricia Ware

White Chili

4-5 chicken breasts
1-2 diced onions
2-4 cloves fresh garlic
1-2 teaspoons oregano
3-4 teaspoon cumin
salt & pepper to taste (I also add, white pepper, cayenne, or whatever else I feel like)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1-2 cans green chills
2-3 cans white beans (I like cannelloni or navy)
1 cup sour cream
3 cups jack cheese

Garnish w/the fresh avocado chunks

Place chicken breasts, garlic, diced onion, salt and pepper to taste in crockpot. (Remember, if you like it a little spicy you will need more pepper, because the sour cream and cheese will negate some of the spicy heat.)
Cover with water.
When chicken is cooked add cream of chicken soup, beans, and green chills, oregano and cumin.
Let cook for an hour or two (or at least until hot).
Turn off crock pot and add sour cream and cheese.

Serve with yummy bread, chips or home made fried corn tortilla strips and avocado...and more cheese, or course!
Serves 8 (more or less).

-Anne Taber

Beef Burgundy

2 slices bacon, chopped
2 lbs. sirloin tip or round steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
¼ cup flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp seasoned salt
¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 beef bullion cube, crushed
1 cup burgundy cooking wine
¼ tsp marjoram
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

In a large skillet cook bacon several minutes. Remove bacon and set aside. Coat beef with flour and brown on all sides in bacon mixture. Combine steak, bacon drippings, cooked bacon, seasonings, bullion, and burgundy in crockpot on low for 6 to 8 hours or until meat is tender. Dissolve cornstarch in 2 tbsp water. Add on high for 15 minutes.

-Christina Sorensen

Cranberry Pork Roast

Pork Roast
½ cup Cranberry Juice
½ cup chicken broth
1 tsp. grated orange rind
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Combine roast, ¼ cup cranberry juice, chicken broth, and orange rind in crockpot. Cook on low for 7-9 hours.

Just before serving, put all the juice from the crock pot in a sauce-pan. In a small bowl whisk together remaining ¼ cup cranberry juice and cornstarch. Combine with sauce in sauce-pan and whisk until boils. Let boil for one minute, then take off the heat.

-Christina Sorensen

Taco Soup

1 lb ground beef browned and drained
28 oz. crushed or diced tomatoes
15 oz. canned corn, undrained
15 oz. canned black beans, undrained
15 oz. red kidney beans, undrained
1 envelope taco seasoning (or ¼ cup)
1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix (or ¼ cup)

Combine all in crock pot. Set on low for 4-6 hours. Garnish with tortilla chips and cheese

-Christina Sorensen

Tangy Pork Chops

6 (1/2 inch thick) boneless pork chops
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 medium onions, quartered, broken apart
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded and sliced
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 beef bouillon cube
2 Tbs. cornstarch
2 Tbs. water

-Place chops in a butter sprayed crockpot. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
-Add onions, celery, green pepper and tomatoes.
-Combine ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and bouillon. Pour over vegetables.
-Cover. Cook on low 5 to 6 hours.
-Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir into crockpot.
-Cover. Cook on high 30 minutes or until thickened.
-Serve over rice.

-Jen Schwab

Cafe Rio Pork

3 pounds pork roast
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup salsa

Place roast in crock pot. Dump sugar and salsa over it. Cook on high for one hour, then on low for several more. The pork shreds more easily if you do it at least 6 hours total.

Serve in tortillas with beans and rice, or over chips and salad.

-Anna Sarver

Kalua Pork

6 pounds pork roast (most recipes recommend a fattier roast, but I use pork loin...)
3/4 T sea salt (the recipe I started with called for 1 1/2 T Hawaiian sea salt which is apparently not as salty? But I couldn't find any...)
1 T liquid smoke
1/2 cup water

Sprinkle the salt over the top, bottom, and sides of roast. Add liquid smoke and water. Cook in slow cooker on high for one hour, and then on low for several more. I usually try for at least six hours total. Shred (depending on how fatty the meat is, I usually take out any fat I can before I shred it) and serve with pineapple and rice.

-Anna Sarver

Best-ever Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 to 1 1/2 cups peeled and diced rutabaga (about
1/2 small rutabaga)
1 cup fresh green beans, in bite-size pieces
1 pound beef stew-meat chunks
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 cups low-sodium beef stock
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Pepper to taste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons tomato paste


Instructions:

Put everything but the flour and the tomato paste in a slow cooker; stir to
combine.

Cover and cook on the low setting for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 4 to 5,
until the beef is tender and the potatoes are just fork tender.

Stir the stew once or twice as it cooks, if possible. About 30 minutes before
serving, transfer a ladleful of the broth to a small mixing bowl.

Add the flour and tomato paste and whisk until smooth. Stir the mixture into
the stew and cook for the remaining half hour. Makes 6 to 8
servings.

-Jill Ross

Slow Cooker Baked Beans

1 cup chopped onion
6 slices bacon, cut up
1 clove garlic, minced
5 cans beans--rinsed and drained
Use a variety--black, butter beans, kidney, garbanzo, pinto--whatever you like but it's best with no more than two cans of any one kind. You can use one can "pork and beans" undrained as a substitute for one of the five cans.
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 T mustard
1 T worcestershire sauce

In a skillet, cook onion, bacon, and garlic until onion is tender and bacon seems done. Drain away the bacon fat.

In a slow cooker, combine onion/bacon mixture and all the beans.

Mix together the ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, and worcestershire. Pour over bean/bacon/onion mixture and stir well. Cook on low for 8-11 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

Makes 12 side dish servings.

Also, you can use dry beans, but I've had best luck with beans that are soaked and already partially softened (cooked). Use about 2 1/2 cups of dry beans.

I know, I know--it's got a lot of sugar in it. That's why it's good.

Great as a main dish with salad and bread or good as a side dish for a BBQ.

-Ann Darrington

Cream Cheese Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts
½ cup water, (unless chicken breasts are frozen, then you don’t need water)
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1 8 oz. cream cheese (I use the Neufchatel lower fat kind)
1 can cream mushroom soup

Put in crock pot and cook on low for about 6 hours. (You can vary the time and the high or low temp depending on if they’re frozen, etc. and how much time you have.) At the end, shred the chicken and serve over rice.

Very easy and yummy!

- Teresa Rawlins

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

1 pound extra-lean ground beef

2 tablespoons dehydrated onion

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup bread crumbs

Sauce:

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups water or pineapple juice

1/4 cup white vinegar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1. In a medium bowl, combine meatball ingredients. Shape into 1-inch balls and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Place under the broiler in your oven for 5-7 minuts or until the meatballs begin to brown.

2. In a large saucepan, whisk together the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.

3. Transfer sauce to a slow cooker and add the meatballs. Cook on low for 3-4 hours.

-Ashley Asay

Slow Cooker Pumpkin-Apple Dessert

Ingredients:

1 can (21 ounces) apple pie filling
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
3/4 cup fat-free cholesterol-free egg product
1/3 cup vegetable oil2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Ice cream, if desired

Directions:

1. Spray 3 1/2- to 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Spoon pie filling into cooker; spread evenly.

2. Beat remaining ingredients except ice cream with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pie filling.

3. Cover and cook on High heat setting 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with ice cream.

Note: This recipe was tested in slow cookers with heating elements in the side and bottom of the cooker, not in cookers that stand only on a heated base. For slow cookers with just a heated base, follow the manufacturer’s directions for layering ingredients and choosing a temperature.

-Teresa Rawlins

Salsa Chicken

Large package of skinless

Boneless chicken breasts(fresh or frozen)

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 small jar salsa

Dump everything in large crockpot and let cook high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Shred chicken with fork. Use as meat for tacos, for fajitas or for taco salad.

For a more flavorful meat, I also add another package of McCormick Grill Mates marinade packet, like Mojito Lime. Just add package to above recipe. Don't follow directions on packet.

-Malissa Hludzinski