Crockpot Apple Pie Oatmeal

I can already tell that my crockpot is going to get a workout in 2016!  The older the girls get, the busier we become...and the more and more I use my crockpot! 

This recipe is a great way to make breakfast the night before if you know it's going to be a busy morning!

Or you can make it during the day to have breakfast for dinner!

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Apple Pie Oatmeal:

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup steal cut oats
• 3 fuji apples, diced into 1 inch pieces
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp butter
• cooking spray
• oatmeal toppings for serving - we added toasted, sliced almonds and honey

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Apple Pie Oatmeal

1. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick spray
2. Add all ingredients
3. Stir once
4. Cook on low for 5 hours
5. Stir and serve with toppings of choice

The crockpot I use for all of my slow cooker recipes is this one:

Crockpot Chicken and Rice Soup

It's January.  And in New Jersey that means lots of cold weather!  So this month I plan to make lots and lots of soup! 

I started the year with a slow cooker full of Chicken and Rice goodness! 

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Chicken and Rice Soup:

• 1 pound chicken breast
• 6 cups low sodium chicken stock
• 1 heaping cup diced carrots
• 1 heaping cup diced celery 
• 1 cup diced onion
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup rice (I used a wild rice blend)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pinch (about 1/4 tsp each) dried rosemary, thyme, and sage*

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Chicken and Rice Soup:

1. Add all ingredients to your crockpot
2. Cook on low for 4 hours
3. Remove chicken and shred with two forks
4. Return to crockpot and cook for additional 30 minutes on low
5. Serve with crackers or bread

*for this soup, I used dry herbs...if I was making this in the spring or summer I would have used fresh herbs and increased the quantities 

My Crock Pot:

Crockpot Burrito Bowls

I've written this again and again, but I love cooking with my crockpot!  I love the fact that I can throw a bunch of ingredients in a slow cooker and have dinner ready at the end of a long day!  This crockpot recipe is a very healthy take on a burrito!  It also makes a ton of food!  We can easily get 2 meals out of this! 

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Burrito Bowls:

• 1 15oz jar salsa - you choose the spiciness level, I used "medium"
• 1 pound chicken breasts (about 3 large pieces of chicken)
• 1tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced 
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bag of frozen corn (you could use 1 can of corn drained and rinsed as well) 
• brown rice to serve
• shredded Mexican blend or cheddar cheese to serve  
• additional burrito toppings of choice - like diced avocado or sour cream

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Burrito Bowls:

1. Pour half of the jar of salsa on the bottom of the crockpot
2. Place the chicken on top of the salsa
3. Sprinkle tops of chicken with cumin, chili powder, and garlic
4. Pour frozen corn and black beans on top of seasoned chicken
5. Top with remaining salsa
6. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours
7. Remove chicken, shred, and return to the crockpot and cook 1 additional hour before serving.  (If you are pressed for time just add chicken back into the crockpot, stir, and serve.)
8. Serve over cooked brown rice 
9. Top with shredded Mexican cheese and assorted toppings

I enjoy serving this over brown rice, but you could always change it up by serving it over chips and topping it with cheese - think nachos!  You could also just use this as filling inside of tortillas to make traditional burritos!  Have fun making this work a few different ways - the leftovers will never be boring! 

My Crockpot:

Crockpot Chili

If you're as busy as me, you probably love your crockpot!  I try to use mine at least 1-2 times each week!  There is nothing better than dinner being ready at the end of a long day!

One of my favorite Crockpot Meals is my Crockpot Chili!  And guess what - it only has 4 ingredients - because I take a short cut and use a seasoning packet!

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Chili:

• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 can diced tomatoes in juice - do not drain
• 1 can light red kidney beans - do not drain
• 1 packet spicy chili seasoning

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Chili:

1. Cook the ground turkey in a pan on the stovetop until it is browned and crumbly (I use a nonstick skillet with a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil)
2. Add the cooked ground turkey to your slow cooker
3. Add the tomatoes, kidney beans, and chili seasoning - stir to combine
4. Cook on low for 4-4 hours
5. Serve chili with toppings of your choice (John and I put it over chips and top with cheese)

The Crockpot I Use:

Crockpot Citrus Chicken With Corn Salsa

Today is September 1st!  This month will mean some big changes for our family.  John will be back to his crazy work schedule - not getting home until after the kids are in bed most nights.  Lacie also starts school - 5 mornings a week!  And in addition to Lacie having dance class one night per week, Blakely will start dance!  That means two nights each week where dinner time will be crazy!

So basically the crockpot will probably become my new best friend.  

Last week, I wanted to create a fun, summer inspired crockpot dish using chicken!  I came up with this, and it was just fantastic!  The Crockpot Citrus Chicken alone is delicious, but topping it with a simple corn salsa made it even better!  You could fix this a million different ways but I made tacos with it on the first night and then turned the leftovers into quesadillas!  Yum!

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Citrus Chicken:

• 1 pound of chicken breast 
• zest and juice of two large oranges
• zest and juice of one lime
• zest and juice of one lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch of dried oregano

Your Shopping List for the Corn Salsa:

• 1 package of frozen corn
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 jalepeno , diced
• juice of 1 lime 
• salt to taste (1/2 - 1 tsp)
• cilantro 

Additional Shopping List:

• toppings of your choice - cheese, lettuce, sour cream, etc
• corn or flour tortillas 

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Citrus Chicken:

1. Place chicken in the bottom of your crockpot 
2. In a large measuring cup, add both the zest and the juice of the oranges, lime, and lemon - the liquid should equal or exceed 1 cup (if it does not add a little chicken broth or water to meet 1 cup)
3. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, and oregano to the juice mixture and stir to combine
4. Pour over chicken and set your slow cooker to low for 6 hours
5. At the 5 hour mark, shred chicken and allow to continue to cook for an additional hour in the slow cooker - this allows the chicken to really absorb the juices

Now Let's Make the Corn Salsa

1. At any point during the day cook your corn about 1 minute less than the package says
2. Drain corn
3. Place corn in bowl with diced onion and diced jalepeno
4. Add lime juice, cilantro, and salt - stir to combine
5. This can be made up to 24 hours in advance - the longer it sits the more the flavors come together

Serve your Crockpot Citrus Chicken with the Corn Salsa!  Enjoy! 
On the first night, we assembled them like tacos!
We used the leftovers to make quesadillas! 

I use this 6 quart slow cooker for all of my crockpot recipes:

Crockpot Asian Chicken

I love my crockpot!  I have never loved my crockpot as much as I do at this very moment - three kids under the age of four and a husband who has been working crazy overtime hours every single night!  I swear if I didn't have a crockpot, dinner would not be happening!

We eat a ton of Mexican or Italian inspired dishes...But we like Asian food too - especially stir fry!  A few weeks ago, I set out to make a really easy, very few ingredients, Asian Inspired crockpot meal!

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Asian Chicken:

• 1 pound chicken breast
• 1 bottle of your favorite Asian inspired sauce, about 14oz - I used a Sesame Garlic Sauce
• 1 can of pineapple chunks in pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 cups frozen shelled Edamame 
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
• rice for serving (optional)

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Asian Chicken:

1. Pour half of the Sesame Garlic Sauce into the bottom of your slow cooker
2. Add the chicken breasts on top of sauce in an even layer
3. Drain pineapple, reserving the juice
4. Add pineapple plus 1/2 cup of the reserved pineapple juice on top of chicken
5. Add Edamame
6. Add remaining Sesame Garlic Sauce
7. Cook on low for 5-6 hours*
8. One hour before serving, shred your chicken in the crockpot.  Cover and allow to cook for an additional hour
9. Serve over rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds - I used a mix of brown, red, and white rice
   

*A Note About Slow Cookers:

We have a new crockpot.  It cooks things at a hotter temperature and much faster than my older slow cooker.  You may need to adjust this time according to your own slow cooker

My Current Crockpot:

My "wishlist" Slow Cooker:

Crock Pot Mexican Tortilla Soup

Who doesn't love a good crockpot meal?!?  I know that the number one reason I love my crockpot is because my day goes a lot smoother knowing that I have dinner ready to go before my girls even wake up in the morning!  Last week the weather got a lot cooler in New Jersey and we are all battling colds, so I knew I wanted to create a really awesome soup!  Chopping some veggies is really all you have to do because everything else gets thrown into the crockpot to simmer away for 8 hours while you enjoy your day!

Your Shopping List for the Crockpot Mexican Tortilla Soup:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion, diced 
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, diced with seeds and ribs removed (you can leave them in for extra spice)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups chicken broth 
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
• freshly squeezed lime juice from 1-2 limes
• soup garnish of choice - we use tortilla chips and shredded Mexican cheese blend - other great options would be sour cream, diced avocado, extra lime wedges, cilantro 

Now Let's Make the Crockpot Mexican Tortilla Soup:

1. Place chicken into the bottom of the crockpot
2. Add the onion, both peppers, beans, tomatoes, corn, and garlic on top of the chicken
3. Pour in the chicken broth
4. Sprinkle cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper over the top
5. Turn crockpot on and cook on the low setting for 8 hours
6. Before you are ready to serve (I do this around the 7 hour mark) remove chicken and shred with two forks, return to crock pot.  At this point you can also taste the broth and add extra seasoning if desired
7. Right before serving, stir in fresh lime juice
8. Garnish with tortilla chips, cheese, and other toppings!

My Crockpot:

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken

Crockpot meals are perfect any time of year, but I especially love to use my crockpot during the winter!  I found this recipe circulating on Pinterest about a year ago, and I knew immediately that it was something John and I would love!  It did not disappoint!  

Did I mention you make it in the crockpot with....

THREE INGREDIENTS! 

Here's What You Need for Crockpot Buffalo Chicken:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breats
• 1 bottle of hot sauce (I use Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce - which I find is the best for making this recipe taste like Buffalo Chicken Wings)
• I package of Ranch seasoning 

Now Lets Make the Crockpot Buffalo Chicken

1. Place chicken breasts in bottom of crockpot
2. Pour entire bottle of hot sauce on top of the chicken
3. Sprinkle entire packet of ranch seasoning on top of hot sauce
   
4. Set crockpot to cook on LOW for 8 hours
5. After seven hours, open the lid of the crockpot and shred chicken right inside
   
6. Close lid and cook for remaining hour
7. Serve your Buffalo Shredded Chicken however you like! 

Here Are Some Serving Ideas...

1. Place chicken on whole wheat buns and top with shredded cheese - melt under the broiler or in the toaster oven!  This is what we did! 

2. Put your shredded chicken in a flour tortilla with lettuce and cheese to make a wrap

3. Place shredded buffalo chicken on top of a salad

4. Scoop chicken into lettuce cups

How will you eat the Crockpot Buffalo Chicken?

Crock Pot Burrito Bowls

Before I get into today's recipe...Yes, we still have chicken pox!  Ugh poor little Blakely just looks like one hot mess.  I want to scratch her skin raw just looking at her.  But she's still not phased by this whole experience.  No scratching, still eating like a horse, and sleeping through the night like a champ!

When kiddos are sick (or just anytime our lives are too crazy), crock pot meals are a great idea!  I try to cook something in mine about once a week.  It is just so nice that I can throw dinner in there in the morning or even at nap time (depending on how long the recipe needs to cook) and forget about it until we are ready to eat dinner!  This meal was definitely a hit with everyone and will be making it's way into our regular dinner rotation!

Crockpot Burrito Bowls

Yum!  This dinner was a warm, comforting burrito in a bowl without the big flour tortilla.  I did serve the mixture over some brown rice...but if you are really trying to watch what you eat you can eliminate the rice!  Personally, I love the rice! 

Here's What You Need to Make the Burrito Bowls:

• 1 jar salsa - you choose the spiciness level
• 1 pound chicken breasts (about 3 large pieces of chicken)
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced 
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bag of frozen corn (you could use 1 can of corn drained and rinsed as well) 
• brown rice to serve
• shredded Mexican blend or cheddar cheese to serve  

Now Let's Make the Burrito Bowls:

1. Pour the jar of salsa on the bottom of the crockpot
2. Place the chicken on top of the salsa
3. Sprinkle tops of chicken with cumin, chili powder, and garlic
4. Pour frozen corn on top of seasoned chicken
5. Finally add can of black beans
6. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours
7. Remove chicken, shred, and return to the crockpot and cook 1 additional hour before serving.  (If you are pressed for time just add chicken back into the crockpot, stir, and serve.)
8. Serve over cooked brown rice and sprinkle shredded cheese over the top if desired! 

Now, if you have read some of my other posts, you know I sprinkled a ton of cheese on top of this...and then I placed it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to melt the cheese...this was the end result:

And it was delicious! 

Now you can even get extra fancy and finish off your burrito bowl with fresh cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, some homemade guacamole or diced avocado!  It's a great base for any flavors that you want to add.  Don't forget I have two little kids eating this, but you can always add in extra spices to flavor it even more (red pepper flakes, diced jalapeño, etc.)! 

Enjoy! 

Crockpot Pulled Pork Tacos

It seems like so many people that I know love pulled pork.  They love it because it's a crockpot meal and it's easy!  I never liked pulled pork because...I don't like BBQ sauce (I know terrible, right).  But I wanted to try making a pulled pork that both me and the hubby could eat and enjoy!  And I wanted it to be easy!  I also needed to be able to throw it in the crockpot and not do too much fussing!  So I turned to my good buddy Pinterest and found lots of pulled pork recipes that did not call for BBQ sauce!  I mixed and matched a few recipes to come up with my Crock Pot Pulled Pork Tacos!

And they are delicious!  I made them once, then twice...and now they get made about every three weeks!  It couldn't be more simple!  There are really two required ingredients and well, then, you can put in whatever else you want and serve it however you like!  That makes this the perfect use what you have recipe!

John and I enjoyed these crockpot pulled pork tacos for our own little Taco Tuesday date last night after the girls were asleep!

Here's What I Use to Make the Pulled Pork Tacos:

• 1 pound of boneless, thinly sliced pork chops
• 1/2 to 1 entire bottle of Taco Sauce (it will depend on the size of the bottle but the goal is to just cover the meat with the sauce...you don't need it swimming in sauce)
• 1 tbsp garlic - powder, minced, sliced...whatever kind you have at home...just don't use garlic salt because the sauce has plenty of sodium 
• 2 tsp cumin 
• 1 tsp chili powder
• taco fixings - tortillas, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, sour cream, diced tomato, etc.

Now Let's Make the Pulled Pork Tacos:

1. Place the pork in the bottom of your crockpot
2. Pour sauce into a Pyrex glass measuring bowl with a pour spout
3. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder to the sauce and mix well (you can add in any other seasoning that you like in Mexican dishes I just like this combo on top of the taco sauce flavor)
4. Pour sauce on top of meat
5. Cook on your crockpot's low setting for at least 6 hours (up to 10)
6. About 1 hour before you plan on serving, open the lid of the crockpot and shred pork using 2 forks, close lid and leave for at least 30 minutes but an hour is best
7. Serve however you like tacos

This was what was left after we ate!  I didn't remember to take a before pic because we were starving! But you get the idea of what the meat will look like when shredded as well as how the sauce darkens and thickens! 

We enjoy these tacos in small flour tortillas topped with mexican cheese and shredded lettuce!  If I was serving this to guests I would put out bowls of sour cream, diced avocados, and diced tomatoes to make it fancier...but when it's just John and I we are really pretty simple! 

If you love onions (or just have one that you want to use up) you could add diced onion to the crockpot!  If you had a can of diced green chilies in your pantry, that would be a good addition too!  

Have fun!  And enjoy eating this new spin on Taco Tuesday! 

You can find my Crockpot Here:

Crockpot Chili

I love my crockpot!  I love that I can throw ingredients into my crockpot and have dinner waiting for John and me after we put the kids down to sleep for the night!  The Crockpot Chili that I am about to share with you is super simple!  You only need a few ingredients.  It is truly nothing special but it is an easy and delicious dinner that you will be happy to have in your back pocket.

Now as I mentioned above, John and I eat after our children go to bed.  They are usually in their cribs at 6:30!  Blakely falls asleep almost immediately, while Lacie plays with all of her stuffed animals for a bit before she passes out!  The tricky part is, they share a room so they need to go to bed at the same time!  For now, that means Lacie is on the baby's schedule!  John and I wait to eat our dinner in peace because, for us, it is like date night every night!  We can't afford to go out often with me as a stay-at-home mommy so this really works out well!

Now don't judge me!  I totally believe that family dinners are very very important.  We sit and talk with our girls while they eat their dinner.  And when they are a bit older (and are able to stay up later), we will do dinner as a family - but for right now this works really well!

This chili is a favorite that I have been making since we got married!  It is spicy, but you could choose to make it less spicy.  In fact, when we move to having those family dinners that I mentioned, we will have to make a less spicy version of this for our children.  Lacie has tasted this a few times and I have to say she didn't care for it (and she is not picky in the slightest).

Here's What You Need to Make the Chili:

• 1 pound lean ground turkey (I always use 99% lean but you can use what you like - ground beef works too)
• 1 can kidney beans - do not drain or rinse (I used organic light red kidney beans - I buy the organic because it has a lot less sodium)
• 1 can petit diced tomatoes
• 1 packet chili seasoning (I always use McCormick Hot Chili Seasoning, you can use whatever brand and level of spiciness you prefer...you can even make your own)
• olive oil, canola oil, or pam (basically something that will make sure your chili doesn't stick)
• optional chili fixings (we put our chili on top of multigrain tortilla chips and top with shredded mexican cheese)

Now Let's Make the Chili:

1. get out your crock pot and spray the inside (I use real olive oil in a spray bottle) or use one of those neat slow cooker liners
2. crumble and brown ground turkey in a pan on the stove (I use the same olive oil spray, you use whatever you normally use to cook meat)
3. add kidney beans, tomatoes, and seasoning to crockpot
4. add cooked meat to crockpot
5. stir everything together and put the lid on (below you can see a picture of what the chili looks like when you first stir it together...it will not look like "official" chili until it has had a few hours to simmer in the crock pot)
   
6. cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6-8
7. serve chili however you like best

We put it on top of chips

Then we throw on a ton of cheese and microwave for a minute!  YUM!!!

Now this chili is relatively healthy when served right out of the crockpot and you could eat it just like that if you are trying to save some calories.  I already told you I spread it out multigrain chips on a plate and top it with the chili and some shredded mexican cheese...then I microwave it a bit to melt the cheese.  Yes, I know that this makes it more like nachos...but it is wonderful!  Even if you want to eat your chili a different way, please try it like this at least one time!  If you are looking for more serving ideas, you could also put this chili on top of rice - white or brown.  Another fun thing would be to spread it on soft flour tortillas, add cheese, and roll it up to eat!  If you really want to get fancy, you can make baked potatoes and use this chili as a topper!  

Enjoy!