Let Dinner Make Itself!

Ahh, that wonderful thing you are likely to get 4 of at your wedding shower. The one, the only...CROCK POT!! I ended up take probably 5 crock pots back when Scotty and I got married and now I kind of wish I had kept at least a few more of them. I've only recently actually started using my crock pot on a regular basis, so I'm still somewhat of a crock pot novice, but I thought I'd share some ideas I have or have recently come across.

• If you haven't, you MUST go to crockpot365. You will find so many recipes there for using your crock pot. AND, the best part is that she's given the thoughts of her family on each recipe, so you know if it's a good one or not. I'm not going to share any recipes today, because I really am pretty new at using mine for an entire meal, but you'll get hundreds of recipes from this site. GO.
• Use the crock pot for any soup or chili that you'd like to make. This is also a must for beans that sit for the day.
• If you don't like to smell the yummy goodness of your meal all day take that puppy out to the garage to plug it in. It'll smell IT up instead of your house. I have done this a few times when I was pregnant and the smell of cooking beef made me queasy.
• Most anything that needs to cook for several hours anyway can be cooked in the crock pot. My new favorite is BBQ chicken. Just throw a whole (buttered)chicken in there with some bacon, brown sugar, and your choice of BBQ sauce and in a few hours(3-4 on high 7-8 on low) you have a GOOOD BBQ chicken that comes right off the bones!
• Roasts can be thrown in frozen with an onion(or in my case onion flakes) and a few other seasonings of your choice. Once the meat is almost ready throw in carrots and potatoes and you are good to go.
• Potatoes are GOOD cooked in the CP. Olive oil and seasoning then cook until tender.
• Cheese dip cooks great in the crock pot just throw all your stuff and stir as it melts.
• Be sure to use a kitchen thermometer so that you have your meat cooked well. It can be tricky telling when it's done. If you don't have one, get one. You can find a cheap one at WalMart. Just look in the cooking section.

Also, I had some questions about my freezer meal post, so I wanted to address those:

• Do I cook the extra chicken I throw in bags for fajitas? YES. So sorry I forgot that important step. Usually I get chicken on sale by the large pkg and will use the entire thing. What I don't have need for specific recipes I cook and bag for other meals. To cook you can either boil it or bake it. I have done both, and seem to think that baking is easier, and the chicken seems to have more flavor. The only downside is that you won't get any broth this way. SO, if you are going to need broth for one of your meals boil it, if not, bake on lined cookie sheet at 375 until golden brown. Once it's finished let it sit on the pan and soak in those yummy juices before you take it off and cut it up. Then you'll be sure to have some juicy yummy chicken. Either way you cook it be sure to include whatever seasoning you'd like. I usually just lightly salt and pepper mine.
• How long can I freeze my cooked ground beef? Here is a simple chart that will answer Best By: questions
• Tomato/vegetable sauces            6months
• Meatloaf                                      6month
• Cooked beef                                6months
• Soups and stews                          2-3months
• Poultry and meat cassroles         6months
• Poultry(cooked, no gravy)          3months
• Poultry(cooked w gravy/sauce)  5-6months
• Meatballs in sauce                      6months
• Dough(raw/homemade)             3-4weeks
• Muffins/bread(baked)                2-3months

A few other freezer food tips:

• Don't have much room in your freezer for tons of dishes? Line you casserole dish with heavy duty foil before freezing. Once frozen remove the foil-wrapped food, seal it with a large freezer bag, then return to freezer. When it's time to serve remove the foil-wrapped food from the bag, and place it back in the dish to thaw and bake. This also helps with cleanup!
• Make sure that ALL the air is out of freezer bags when storing food in them to freeze. Air in the bag will case freezer burn to your yummy fresh food, so be sure to suck out all the air!
• I talked about flash freezing in my previous post. Use this method for freezing any muffins or pancakes or any other baked treat. This will keep the food from sticking to each other so that you can pull one or two out at a time if you want. Need a good pancake recipe? I recently made this one from the Supermom Guide to Healthier Eating.
• The Mix:
  8 cups of whole wheat flour*
  2 cups of powdered milk**
  8 teaspoons of aluminum-free baking powder
  4 teaspoons of baking soda
  2 teaspoons of sea salt
  You can store all of this in a Rubbermaid container and put it in the fridge for when you are ready to make the pancakes OR you can go ahead and make them up and freeze them.
• In a mixing bowl combine:
  3cups pancake mix
  2 cups water
  2 eggs
  2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  Mix it up and make those pancakes on your griddle or skillet! Add a little cinnamon, or a teaspoon of vanilla to make these pancakes even yummier!! I usually add chocolate chips so that there is no need to add syrup. The kids will eat these things like they're cookies! If I'm making plain ones we'll top them with powdered sugar and fresh fruit. Yum-OOH!
• To flash freeze simply put whatever it is you're cooking in bulk on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for about 1-2 hours. Usually I cook whatever needs to be flash frozen first so that it can freeze while I'm getting the other food ready. After it's been in the freezer long enough to get frozen put it into the container you're using with the other food. You'll LOVE this method on things like pancakes or rolls. It's just like buying them frozen at the grocery store.
• Find some good freezer cooking websites and cookbooks. I found a cute tiny little book with so much information in it at the homeschool convention and I've been using it each month since then! Getting more information will make you a better cook and being a better cook will save you TIME and MONEY!!
• Pretty much anything can be frozen. I buy bakery bread at a reduced price because the date is almost up and freeze it until I'm ready to use it. You can get bread for CHEAP this way! When you find it, stock up, freeze, and SAVE  time AND money!
• Perfect a good menu. This will save you time and money.
• Freeze veggies that are about to go bad. That will save you...(everybody)...TIME AND MONEY!!