Crock Pot Meals

I guess this would be a "recipe" post. Fall is here. Even though we have had beautiful, sunny, warm weather here in the Seattle area (70-80 degrees)-you can feel a sort of snap in the air, something you don't feel in the summer time. When the weather starts turning colder-I bring out my Crock Pot. I love my Crock Pot! I love that I can put something in it with a little water, seasonings and presto! dinner is done. I love knowing that I can go about my day without stopping at noon or so, wondering what I'm going to make for dinner-because dinner is cooking and will be done by dinnertime. This is especially comforting during Football Season-when my Wednesday's are crazy. My Wednesdays are my "Day from H*$L". Mac has football practice, I have Cub Scouts (Webelos Den Leader), and then I pick Mac up from Football to go to Scouts. From 4:30 pm until after 8:00pm I'm running like a mad woman in her mini van.

Yesterday, I bought an Acorn Squash at the grocery store. I had some projects to do, and thought-I should put it in the Crock Pot and see what happens. I put in about 1 inch of water on the bottom, cut the squash, put butter, salt and pepper and a little brown sugar in the crevice of the squash. I had my Crock Pot on High (because is was past noon) and it was done by 3:00 pm. I kept in on Warm and it was the most perfectly cooked squash I had ever tasted.
Here are a few more things I like to put into my Crock Pot-

Beef Stew: I brown up some stew meat, add some water, carrots, onion, those little red potatoes and one of those seasoning packets for beef stew from the grocery store. I call them "Wonder Packets". My Mom uses them all the time for everything. Anyways. I put it all in the Crock Pot on Low-all day.

Chili: I brown up hamburger, add Red Kidney Beans (canned) , an onion and another "Wonder Packet" for Chili. Cook on Low all day. Or on High for 4-5 hours. I will also bake some cornbread with this.

Spaghetti Sauce: I have my own recipe for Spaghetti Sauce. It's a little involved, but I'll give you the low down on it without specifications. I'll brown some Italian Sausage, add some Crushed Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper to taste. Cook on Low all day or again on High for 5 hours. I did this over the summer when I was gone all day. It was nice to know all I had to do was boil some pasta and dinner was again....ready.

Pot Roast: 1 Roast (cut of meat of your choice), onion, carrots, and little red potatoes. Add some water, and again, another Wonder Packet.
*I use the little red potatoes, because they are yummy, and don't disintegrate when they are cooked.

Spiced Apple Cider: 1 bottle of Apple Cider, 2 Cinnamin Sticks and about 5 Cloves. Turn on High for 2-3 hours. Take out spices, keep on Warm. You can keep the Cider in the Crock Pot all day.
*You need to take spices out, because the Cloves will over power and it will taste gross. Trust me. You can also buy Mulling Spices. If you find some with alot of different spices, including orange rind-buy it. It's yummy. I also bought some Mulling Spices for Wine once, and put it into the Apple Cider-it was the best. You will need to put the spices in one of those cheese cloth baggies.

Those are my stand by's. You can put almost anything in a Crock Pot. Soups are always good. You can also buy one of those Crock Pot Cookbooks, they always have good recipes too. If you need to purchase a Crock Pot-I'm ususally not one to push a name brand onto people, but, I would suggest the Rival Crock Pot. I purchased one, by another brand, and it get's too hot, cooks too fast, and isn't the same as the Rival Crock Pot.