My Squash Sweet Treat in the Crockpot recipe will make your family wonder why you didn’t cook like this before! We’ve all had stews, casseroles, soups, and more in the crockpot. I like to add all kinds of vegetables and spices to liven it up a bit – but one thing I had never tried before today was squash! I had a big butternut squash and a bunch of other veggies to use up, and the crockpot just happenned to come to mind. So this is what I did…

I took about a pound of turkey cutlets, potatoes, other misc veggies, and an entire butternut squash and then cooked them together for 3 hours! I took the squash out when it was all over, and put it in a bowl and mashed it up with butter – but guess what?! The rest of the stuff in the crockpot took on the sweet squash flavor! I have to say it was truly delicious. if you want to do the same here are the ingredients that you’ll need:

• 1 medium butternut squash peeled and cut into 4-5″ pieces
• 6 medium potatoes chopped roughly
• 1 large onion mined
• 1 med red and 1 med green pepper minced
• 2 banana pepper chopped
• 4 medium carrots quartered and sliced
• 2 fresh garlic cloves chopped
• 1 lb fresh turkey cutlets
• About 1 qt of fat free chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp italian spices

Basically – you chop it up, put it in, add the broth, turn on the crockpot to 350 degrees, and go do something else for 3 hours!  Then take the squash pieces out with a slotted spoon in a separate dish, and mash with butter.  Tonight I took out the potatoes and veggies in one bowl, and put the meat in another.  I have to say – I’ve cooked a lot of good things in the crockpot before, but this stuff really took the cake!  Do you have a favorite crockpot recipe?

Yes, you CAN have good Barbeque Chicken in the crockpot – this recipe is proof!

Yesterday was a lazy Fall Sunday, and we wanted barbue chicken – but I was in no mood to fire up the grill. Believe it or not, you can make the best Barbeque Chicken in the crockpot (and once you do everyone will want your recipe).

Now first, let me say that BBQ sauce itself is so subjective. Some people have guarded recipes that have been passed down for generations, and others prefer to take the easy route (like myself) and just use barbeque sauce from the store. I don’t care which you use in this recipe – just substitute what YOU like for the sauce portions. Also – some people prefer chicken on the bone because it’s cheaper and you can use dark meat as well. We prefer only skinless, boneless chicken breast, but again – use what YOU prefer.

Ingredients you’ll need -

• About 2 lbs chicken
• 3 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 medium green pepper chopped
• 1/2 chopped Vidalia onion
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp ground Cumin
• 2 full bottles “Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce”
• 1 – 4 qt crock pot

Turn your crockpot on high first. Empty both bottles of barbeque sauce into the crockpot with the chopped garlic, and stir. Chop up your green pepper and onion, add it to the mix. Also ad the chili powder and Cumin, and mix well. Add the chicken to the pot, mix well with the sauce – place the lid on the crockpot. Stir every 30-40 minutes and let cook for about 4-5 hours+.

This recipe easily servers 6+, but you could add another pound of chicken and another bottle of BBQ sauce if you wanted to sever 8-12 and fill the crockpot. The entire house will smell of beautiful bbq as it cooks, the sauce will carmelize at it boils and permeate every last pore of the chicken. I think chicken this way is much different than on the grill because it cooks for hours and hours IN the barbeque sauce, and the veggies disappear and become part of the sauce. We eat the chicken on buns with a piece of cheese – just like a burger. You could just as easily eat it over rice. Last night, we served this with oven baked french fries and coleslaw, yum!

Who can’t a good “Waldorf Salad Recipe” in the summertime? Great for picnics and barbeque’s and get together’s! It’s so simple and easy to make, and I’ve always loved the way that the walnuts and raisins go with the crunch of the apple and “sploosh” of the grapes. It’s just bursting with flavor, and you just can’t get the same thing at all in “store bought” as you can your own homemade Waldorf salad. I hope you like this recipe – here’s what you need:

• 4 apples (cut in chunks)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup mayonaise
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup grapes

Put apple chunks in a bowl and cover with lemon juice (this keeps them from browning). Mix all other ingredients together in the bowl and its ready to eat, or you can chill it in the fridge for later. I like it best when it’s been chilling for about 30 minutes before the meal!

Some of the best things take time, and my slow cooked sloppy joe recipe is no exception!

Well, I had to visit the dentist the other day, and my mouth is still a bit sore. So I was looking for something a bit meaty, but easy on my teeth. That’s when my “sloppy joe recipe” came to mind! I thought about some of the best Chili I’ve made, and the fact that it’s best when it cooks for a long time and all the ingredients break down and meld together in one distinguishing flavor! So I set out to make “slow cooked sloppy joe”, and I guess that you could call this my “homemade manwich”!

Ingredients you’ll need for my sloppy joe recipe:

• Â 2 lbs ground chuck
• 1/4 large Vidalia Onion
• 1 clove “elephant” garlic
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3 tbsp mustard
• 2/3 cup Honey Barbecue sauce
• 1 1/2 cups Ketchup
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp Cumin
• 1 tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder

Now there are two ways you can make this. One is on the stove, and the other is in slow cooker or “crockpot”. In the crockpot for 4-6 hours is admittedly best, but we don’t always have 4-6 hours (as I didn’t today). In any event, if you use the crockpot you have to cook the meat mixture on the stove first, and then transfer to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients. In addition, if you’re going to use the crockpot for an event or large family gathering, you may want to double this recipe. A huge crockpot of sloppy joe can easily feed 20+ people.

So as I said – today I’m going to cook the sloppy joe on the stove. I drizzle a large skillet with extra virgin olive oil and then add the ground chuck and chop it up with a spatula on high heat. Let cook for 3-4 minutes, then divide the pan into 4 sections and flip the meat over. Season with the cumin, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. Let it cook about 4 more minutes while you dice the onion and peel and grate the carrot. Yes I said “grate” the carrot. Use a fine grater that shreds about the same size as shredded cheese.  When you’re done toss both the onion and the carrot in the pan and chop up the ground chuck finely in the pan grinding all the seasonings and veggies in. Another 3-4 minutes and the meat will be done. At that point you can choose to drain it or not. If you don’t care if your sloppy joe is a bit greasy – don’t bother. Else you can just place in a strainer in the sink and quickly rinse with hot water, and return to the skillet. Note – I’m not a big fan of this since it rinses some of your seasonings off.

Now open your can of chopped tomatoes and add to the pan (don’t drain) with the heat on med-high. Stir it up a bit in the meat. Now add the barbecue sauce, the ketchup, the mustard, and a bit more salt and pepper to taste if you want.   Chop it up with the spatula real good, and then chop and mine your garlic clove finely. I personally love the use “elephant garlic” which is this massive clove of garlic you can get at the store almost as big as a small fist. It can “spice” things up a bit, so YOU may want either a regular garlic clove or no garlic at all. Once it’s minced add it to the pan and the meat mixture should be bubbling pretty good. The last “touch” is to drizzle the top of the mixture just about (like 3-4 tsp) with A1 Steak sauce if you have it handy. Sweeeet! So – now turn the heat down to med-low and tightly cover. For cooking on the stove like this I highly recommend cooking at least an hour like this covered. The mixture gets really thick and the carrots and onion and garlic break down and meld with the meat as one!

My secret is – these sloppy joes taste great at the one-hour point. But what “I” do is at about the 45 minute mark I peel a dozen large russet potatoes, and I have this great little slicer (kind of like an apple corer, but for potatoes). You just push the potato through it and it makes instant fries! Just put them on a baking sheet at 450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (flip halfway through and salt) and you’ve got healthy fries to go with your sloppy joe. Oh – yeah, I let the sloppy joe cook a little bit longer of course until the fries are done. Serve the sloppy joe on a big kaiser or onion bun with a nice big slice of american cheese! You’ll be thankful you waited the bit of extra time it took to make these!

Have you ever made Mexican Food in the Crockpot? I’ll show you how to make something better than any roast or stew you’ve ever had!

Last night where I live we got 7 inches of snow. So, since we were “shut-in” it was a great day to cook something in the crockpot and let it simmer all day. I think this was the “best crockpot recipe” I’ve made in years! This, like so many other recipes – came from wanting to use some leftovers and certain ingredients up. Sometimes the best meals are created out of things you need to “get rid of” or use up.

Ingredients needed to make my “Mexican Beef Stew”:

• 1 lb thin cut round steak
• 1 can beef broth
• 3-4 cans water
• 1/2 Lg Vidalia Onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 5 medium potatoes
• 3-4 Jalapeno peppers (ONLY if you like heat)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can sweet corn
• 6 corn tortillas
• 4 tbsp fresh or jarred minced garlic
• 2 tbsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp Italian seasonings
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 6 tbsp ground Cumin
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1- 8oz package shredded Colby-Jack cheese or Mexican Melting Cheese
• 1 small container light sour cream
• Saltines or tortilla chips

I always keep some really thin cut round steak in the freezer for things like fajitas and beef fried rice. The first thing I did was to put a 1lb frozen block of thin sliced round steak in the microwave on defrost for about 6 minutes. Then I plugged in my crockpot on high, and add in 1 can of beef broth, 1 can of sweet corn (dont’ drain), 1 can of black beans (don’t drain or rinse), the garlic, and all the seasonings – then mix well and cover. Wash, seed, peel, and dice your pepper(s) and onion – add to the crockpot and mix well again. Dice the potatoes (skin on) and add to the crockpot and mix again. Take your steak out of the microwaveand cut into 1″ strips with the grain, and then in about 3″ strips. Add to the pot, and mix well. Then add enough water to bring the level up to about 1″ below the top of the crockpot, which usually takes me about 3-4 empty (corn or bean) canfuls of water. Cover, and stir about once per hour. Cook on the “high” setting of your crockpot for 6 hours.

When your “Mexican Beef Stew” is done, turn off the crockpot, stir well, and serve! Now – you’ll notice a few ingredients you haven’t yet used from the list. Once you place the stew in bowls, add about 4 dollops of sour cream on top, cover with a handful of shredded Colby Jack cheese and serve! Sometimes I use mexican melting cheese instead of colby-jack. Serve and eat by dipping either saltines or tortilla chips! After 6 hours this stew has some of the most incredible flavor because of the ingredients. The corn tortillas over the 6 hours will break down and disintegrate and thicken up the stew (which is actually one of my secrets). That why this stew recipe doesn’t require any flour or cornstarch at all. The tortillas with the sweet corn give the stew an uncanny sweeter tastse that brings out the beef flavor that much more. The seasonings, the meat breaking down, the potatoes soaking up the broth – it all contributes to a melded flavor at the end you won’t soon forget.