CrockPot Pork Roast

Cooking a roast has always made me nervous. There's a fine line between undercooked and overcooked when it comes to roast, so I don't attempt it too often. But, making it in the CrockPot is pretty much foolproof and it is SO delicious! The extremely tender roast literally fell apart when I poked it with a wooden spoon after about 9 hours of cooking and the veggies that had been cooking in the sauce all day were just to die for!

CrockPot Pork Roast

4 lb pork loin

3 celery stalks, sliced

6 new potatoes, quartered

1/2 white onion, sliced

1 cup baby carrots

3/4 cup red wine

1 cup water

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons flour (if you want to make brown gravy)

Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of the CrockPot, followed by the onions, celery and then the carrots. Place pork loin on top.

In a bowl, mix the wine, water, onion mix, Worcestershire, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary, thyme and parsely. Pour mixture over the meat and veggies in the CrockPot.

Cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Once cooking is complete, remove meat and veggies from CrockPot, but leave the sauce behind. Add around 2 tablespoons of flour to the sauce, mix well and cook for about 10 more minutes. Sauce will thicken into a gravy.

I forgot to take an "after" picture because I was just too excited about successfully cooking a roast, haha! It was very pretty though! :)

CrockPot Creamy Italian Chicken

My sweet friend Leslie gave me this recipe a few months back and it quickly became one of our favorites. This simple meal is hearty and delicious! We also love it because while it tastes very rich and creamy, it is really low in fat!

CrockPot Creamy Italian Chicken

4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 package Good Seasonings dry Italian seasoning
8 oz cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can milk (use empty soup can)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken in crock pot (I always just throw the chicken in frozen and it turns out great!)

Sprinkle with Italain seasoning.

Cube cream cheese over chicken.

Add soup and milk.

Cook on high in CrockPot for 5 hours.

Serve the chicken over white rice. Enjoy!!

CrockPot Beef Stroganoff

OK, I swear I know how to cook without my slow cooker. I'm just on a little kick right now. :)

When I told Patrick I was making beef stroganoff for dinner, he made a horrible face and declared that he didn't like beef stroganoff. Apparently they serve it practically every other day on the carrier, so he was not thrilled with the idea. But, within 5 minutes of turning on the CrockPot, my house smelled AMAZING and then P was suddenly counting down the minutes until dinner was ready. We both really enjoyed this meal and I plan making it again and again.

And in case you were wondering, P said my beef stroganoff is much better than the stuff they serve on the carrier. I don't think I'm going to take that as much of a compliment. ;)

I found this recipe for CrockPot Beef Stroganoff and after reading TONS of reviews, I modified the original recipe and came up with this.

CrockPot Beef Stroganoff

1-2 pounds steak, cubed (I used sirloin that I got at a great price)

2 cans GOLDEN cream of mushroom soup

1 packet of dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup beef broth

1/2 onion (I used white)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning (We LOVE this stuff!)

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

4 ounces cream cheese 

Salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything but the cream cheese into the CrockPot. Cook on low for 6 hours.

20 minutes before serving, add cream cheese to pot. Stir until melted and blended well.

Seriously, could this recipe be any easier?!

Well, that doesn't look very appetizing! Haha! I promise it is though!

I served it over extra wide egg noodles, with green beans on the side.

I modified my pulled pork recipe a little after making it again this weekend for a party we had, so be sure to check that out!

Laurel's CrockPot Chicken with Garbanzo Beans

Since I created this blog, my sweet friends have sent me a bunch of delicious recipes to try out! I started with Laurel's middle eastern chicken recipe, since I was intrigued by the idea of middle eastern food in the CrockPot. Thanks so much for this great recipe, Laurel!

Laurel's CrockPot Chicken with Garbanzo Beans

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 large chicken breasts

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 small zucchini, quartered lenghtwise and sliced into 1/2" slices

1 12 oz container cherry tomatoes

1 cup chopped cilantro

Plain yogurt - two 12 oz. containers (I used fat free yogurt)

Mix olive oil, garlic, paprika, cumin, and red pepper flakes.

Coat chicken with oil mixture and throw in crock pot.

Add remaining ingredients plus any additional marinade.

Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours.

I love how the paprika gave this dish a beautiful red color.

I served this with sun-dried tomato couscous, some plain yogurt to cut down the spice and I fried up some falafel.

Laurel said she typically doubles everything, especially the marinade, so I might try that when I make this again. This time I followed the recipe exactly and it was great! Try it, you'll like it! :)

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork and Homemade Mac & Cheese

Stop whatever you are doing, right this instant.

And go make this.

Seriously, it is that good.

I found two recipes for pulled pork last week, here and here, and then sort of combined the two to into what turned out to be a super yummy recipe. We ended up eating dinner at 5:30 the night I made this because the delicious smell made us SO hungry!

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork

4 pounds pork shoulder (ours was bone in, but you could use boneless)
1 white onion, sliced in rings

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup worcestershire
1 tbsp ground mustard
1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

5 splashes of Tabasco sauce
Dash red pepper flakes (we like things spicy, so I used about a teaspoon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by adding everything but the meat and onions to the CrockPot. Thoroughly whisk together.

Add meat to CrockPot and turn it a few times, to coat each side with the sauce. Then throw the onions into the CrockPot as well.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

When cooked through, place meat onto a cutting board to shred. The meat is so tender that it will literally fall apart when you touch it. Discard any bones and fat (or give them to the dog - made Shiner's day!). After the meat is shredded, place it back into the pot and cook it for another 30 minutes or so, just so that it can soak up a little more juice.

Be warned that this makes A LOT of food! We've eaten pulled pork 4 times already and there is still a ton left.

That face means that my recipe was a success. :)

I also used all of these ingredients (minus the pork and onion) and bottled up my own BBQ sauce! I added about the same amount of everything that the recipe called for and then just played with the ingredients until I liked the way it tasted. SO GOOD!

I served the pulled pork with some mac and cheese I whipped up from ingredients we had laying around the house.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

2 cups elbow noodles (we were out, so we had flower shaped macaroni. Ha!)
2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
3 tbsp butter (I used fat free Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp ground mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Cook pasta as directed.

In a saucepan, sauté onion and garlic in 1 tbsp butter until golden.

Add spices, milk, sour cream, and 1 3/4 cup cheese to saucepan. Mix until creamy and cheese is melted.

Add pasta and mix well.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with Pam. Add pasta and sauce.

Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese and 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs on top.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

The final product! Also served with potato bread and baked beans. Not the healthiest meal out there, but it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.

CrockPot Stuffed Steak

Welcome to my cooking blog! I'm always trying out new recipes and then forgetting how I made things or where I found the recipe, so I figured this would be a good way for me to keep some of my favorites all in one place!

I'd love to hear some of YOUR favorite recipes! Please feel free to leave recipe ideas in the comments section!

Since I've gone back to school, I've become majorly obsessed with my CrockPot! Nothing beats throwing some stuff into the pot, leaving for a few hours, and then coming home to your house smelling DELICIOUS and having dinner almost ready! So convenient!

I found this recipe for CrockPot Stuffed Steak HERE a few days ago and I just had to try it! I was a little nervous about cooking steak in the CrockPot because I was afraid it would be dry, but I could not have been more wrong! This steak literally fell apart and was SO moist!

I served it with steamed red potatoes and salad with balsamic dressing.

The original recipe called for flank steak, but Wally World no longer carries that, so I just grabbed some round steak. Cheap (like $5 for 4 steaks!) and it turned out great!

CrockPot Stuffed Steak:

1 lb steak (I used 4 round steaks)

1 green apple, chopped with skin on

1/3 cup almonds, chopped

1/2 cup feta cheese (I used fat free feta)

2 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup soy sauce (I will use low sodium soy sauce next time b/c it was just a little too salty)

Marinate steak in soy sauce and honey mixture for at least 5 hours. Or, throw it in the fridge to marinate overnight for some serious flavor!

Mix apple, almonds, feta, and garlic in a small bowl.

Place the steaks and juice mixture into the CrockPot.

Scoop about 2 tbsp of apple mixture onto each steak, roll up the steak and place seam side down. There will be extra mixture, so just save it for later.

Cook on low for about 6 hours, or the original recipe says you can cook it on high for 4 hours.

After cooking, place steak on a plate and then dump more of the apple mixture on top of each one.

This recipe is seriously delicious and SO easy! I think I will make it next time we have people over, so that I can pretend to be domestic! :)

Let me know if you guys make this!