Hodgepodge

You ARE an Artist!

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About Us
  • Art Lessons
  • Blog
  • Tricia’s Book
  • Homeschool
  • Healthy
  • Shop
You are here: Home / HomeCooking / A Month Long Slow Cooker Celebration

February 23, 2011 by: Hodgepodgemom

A Month Long Slow Cooker Celebration

(An update from the September 2010 Hodgepodge archives, adaptable for any time of the year)

Because it’s the change of seasons…

Because there’s an ever so slight chill in the air…

Because we’ll be hitting the books pretty hard for a week…

Because we’ll then be taking a week off for field trips and fun…

And simply because I love the crock pot…

This menu plan is dedicated to the crock pot. The glory of slow cooking. The toss-the-ingredients-in-the pot, turn-it-on-and-walk-away version.

Four weeks worth of the crock pot every day. Maybe a couple repeats but mostly slow cooker suppers with a few breakfasts thrown in there:

  • Batching Cooking in the Slow Cooker: The Super Supper Saver: after grocery store visits I cook large amounts of chicken or g. turkey in the crock pot so that the main ingredient for weeknight meals is ready, already cooked, in the freezer
  • Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken at $5 Dinners
  • Slow Cooker Cube Steak my recipe at $5 Dinners
  • Potato Soup – crock pot version
  • Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese. My recipe at $5 Dinners
  • Crock Pot Chicken and Cornbread Dumplings by $5 Dinners
  • Crock Pot Pizza by Taste of Home
  • Crock Pot Chili and Hot Dogs (Shelby’s chili mix – pull cooked ground turkey from freezer)
  • Crockpot Cranberry Chicken by Hillbilly Housewife
  • Crock Pot Oatmeal by Southern Plate – (For Supper- Sharon’s Hamburger Vegetable Soup over Mashed Potatoes)
  • Crock Pot Applesauce, sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread (For Supper – recipe from Southern Plate’s 10 favorite quick and easy suppers)
  • Crock Pot King Ranch Chicken by Southern Living
  • Beans and Cornbread, veggies (made beans in the crock pot- pull from freezer)
  • Crock Pot Grits
  • Even more crock pot ideas in Fast Food for Slow Sundays

Stand by: knowing the hectic will happen, I can pull these from the freezer

Eggplant Casserole (from Triple Hit Eggplant)

Italian Cream Cheese Chicken

Lunches:

  • with all that great crockery we will be blessed with leftovers
  • grilled quesadillas
  • stromboli
  • Pimento cheese or Sunbutter sandwiches
  • Nibble trays from Back to Basics: The Lunch Lady

Cooking Fun: (more ideas for cooking with children here)

  • Triple batch Buttermilk Biscuits from Menus for Moms (using buttermilk substitute)
  • Sunbutter button cookies
  • Pimento Cheese
  • Potato Chip Cookies
  • Grandma’s pumpkin raisin cookies or Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

Wonderful smells filling our home. Plenty of time to get stuff done and have lots of fun!

Second two weeks worth of slow cooker recipes…

“As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices – take it or leave it.” ~ Buddy Hackett

We all loved the first round of crock pot celebrations so much, I decided we’d do it again. Plus, we are:

  • coming up on an annual Big Cook
  • already practicing for several Christmas performances
  • celebrating two birthdays in November, plus Thanksgiving!

So simple meals will be a blessing. Today, I’m doing some big shop cooking in the crock pot. Cooking rounds of ground turkey to be ready for some of these recipes.

I polled the Hodgepodge audience for requests. So I’ll start with those. A few repeats from last time and a few new finds:

  • Hot dogs – a request for youngest girl’s birthday supper (talk about simple! we’ll put them in the crock pot with some chili).
  • Crock Pot Hamburger Patties by Year of Slow Cooking – this recipe shows you how to make a tiny grill out of aluminum foil! Eldest boy requested burgers.
  • Crockpot Cranberry Chicken by Hillbilly Housewife (eldest girl’s request)
  • Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese (middle girl’s request)
  • Crock Pot Chicken and Cornbread Dumplings by $5 Dinners (Hodgepodgedad’s request)
  • Crock Pot Spinach Lasagna from Menus for Moms – a family favorite
  • Crock Pot Manwich Chicken sandwiches – a new, made-up meal
  • Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff
  • Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice by Southern Plate
  • Crock Pot King Ranch Chicken by Southern Living
  • Simple Slow Cooker Meals by Southern Living – I’ll pick a couple more from here
  • Slow Cooker Ultimate Breakfast Casserole by Year of Slow Cooking – breakfast for supper!
  • Connie’s Mexican Mess from $5 Dinners contributing writer
  • Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes from Taste of Home
  • maybe Meatball Subs – toss those meatballs in the crock pot with some sauce
  • Slow Cooker Cube Steak at $5 Dinners – really pleases those meat and potato types
  • another selection from Fast food for Slow Sundays
  • Pizza x 2 on Friday nights
  • We had Crock Pot Pizza by Taste of Home tonight and it was a big hit!

A few more ideas plus planning ahead:

The coffee milk punch looks really good from the November Southern Living recipes. There’s also a full list of sides as well as a Thanksgiving planner.

Coming up, I’ll be posting details on plans for a Big Cook. We’re giving food for Christmas! Plus the children will be busy with teacher gifts and more that day.

The plan is still to use last year’s Thanksgiving menu. I’m already getting some canned ingredients to be ready. We’ll do an overnight turkey again as well as the crock pot dressing. See Thanksgiving Tips I’m Thankful For.

Lunches:

Leftovers! Nibble trays from Back to basics: The Lunch Lady plus Sunbutter® sandwiches, pimento cheese, cheesy pasta

Cooking Fun – rolling the children into the mix:

  • Youngest girl is having a Milk and Cookies birthday party. With allergies we can’t be having just any ol’ store bought cookies. So we’ll be making another double batch of our favorite, homemade oatmeal flax chocolate chip cookies…
  • and maybe some Cookies & Cream…
  • definitely, we’ll try a new Sunbutter® recipe
  • a batch of Pimento Cheese
  • plus there will be plenty of opportunity to join in on making recipes for the big cook, especially our favorite Italian Stuffed Shells, Batch Cooking style
  • and maybe I’ll put a different older child in charge of filling the crock pot each night 🙂

This post inspired a Month of Cooking Fun. Easy, simple, fun recipes to make with children.
*all Hodgepodge meals prepared with care due to our Trials and Triumphs with allergies

There you have it! What’s your favorite crock pot recipe?

Related

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About Hodgepodgemom

Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. The biggest lesson she’s learned? At the end of the day – when the dishes are put away and the children are tucked in bed – truly what matters is each child’s relationship with the Lord. Raising children is a God-given privilege and, folks, the time is short.

Frugal Living: Homemade Laundry Detergent
There’s Still Life in There

Comments

  1. Christa says

    August 4, 2011 at 5:41 PM

    Hi! I hit the motherlode finding your blog post today, I am so excited! What great pictures and information. Thanks so much for sharing and the work to put this together. If you’d ever like to use it as a guest post on my blog that is what I am talking about this week. GOd bless, CHrista

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Tricia’s book!




Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Welcome to Hodgepodge!

Thanks for visiting! I'm Tricia and I've been homeschooling since 2000. You ARE an artist with our mix of art lessons, helpful homeschool habits for multiple ages, recipes, reviews and more. It’s a Hodgepodge! Read More…


Art for All Ages



4 {FREE} ebooks plus subscriber-only art tutorials

Success! Please check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Our Sister Websites




Categories

Follow Tricia Hodges | Hodgepodge's board You ARE an Artist on Pinterest.




Master

Recent Comments

  • Kari Vanhoozer on Manners Monday
  • Marni on Manners Monday
  • Hodgepodgemom on I’m Writing My Own Cookbook – A Scrapbook of Recipes
  • Lise McGuinness on I’m Writing My Own Cookbook – A Scrapbook of Recipes
  • Hodgepodgemom on Mama Ann’s Morning Bars

  • Contact us
  • Best of Hodgepodge
  • Parenting
  • Tapestry
  • Healthy Mama
  • Essential Oils

Copyright © 2021 · Hodgepodge, a Southern Hodgepodge, L.L.C. site. | DMCA Notice