Back to the Ol' Crockpot

image: catholicmom.com

I've created a menu made up completely of breakfasts and dinners to be made in the crockpot. Since I have two crockpots, I figure I'll use one for breakfast and one for dinner. I didn't use any of my own recipes. I just went to various sites and linked them to a spreadsheet. So now all I have to do is go to the spreadsheet, click on the name of the recipe, and it takes me directly to the website. It opens the window for me and everything. Lovely!

image: fcp.shortcutter.com

If you don't know how to do this, find a recipe you like on a website, click on the address where it exists, and copy the address. Then, open an Excel page, type the name of the recipe into a cell, click on the cell again after it's been typed into, push control-K (I use a Mac, so I push open apple-K) and paste what you've copied into the top box of the window that opens. Click on "save," and you've got it.

So, here's what I've made for my family so far (I'll share the sites where they came from too, so you can go search things out that your family might like)....

• Cranberry chicken - This was just a matter of throwing some chicken breasts into the crockpot and covering it with a mixture of canned cranberries and a packet of dry onion soup mix. I put them on high for something like four hours. The original recipe had Catalina salad dressing mixed in too, but red dye rules the world, and I didn't have it on hand when I went to make it, so I simplified it down to the three ingredients, and that was it. We served it over brown rice.
• Mexican Breakfast Casserole - Half of us liked this. Half of us didn't, but it did lead to a great discussion on eating what's been placed in front of you. I'm sad to say that my completely un-picky children have become more and more picky as time has gone on. So, yes, served with this morning's breakfast--which we ate with all of us together--was a bit of a discussion on missions and how you NEVER turn down something that's been placed in front of you--even if it's cow's head, or worse yet, brain, or raw and very chewy fish or sea urchin. Oh, the stories the Warden and I could tell our children. Do I even need to share that, yes, our children ate their breakfast this morning? All it took was a little bit of a pep talk, but it was decided that eggs shouldn't be cooked in a crockpot. At least, that was the Madhouse verdict.
• Too Easy Pot Roast - Wowie, wow, WOW!!! This is sitting in the crockpot right now, and oh, the smell! Amazing! Can't wait to sink my teeth into it. I'm serving it with mashed potatoes and gravy and a salad.

You may think I'm crazy with some of the recipes I've chosen for breakfast, and I have to admit it was a bit of a stretch. The problem with breakfasts is that they either have to cook overnight, or you have to get up super early to turn them on, so these may not work for everyone. I guess you could also cook them beforehand, but that kind of seems like cheating to me.

image: crockpotladies.com

Tomorrow morning, we're doing peach crisp. It takes two hours to cook, so the good thing is that I'm an early riser, so I'll go down and turn it on as soon as I wake up, and it should be good to go as soon as everyone's ready to eat it.

image: ncegreenhouses.com

I thought the best possible solution would be to get one of those outlet thingys that has a timer on it--like you might use for Christmas lights or something like that. My only challenge is that when we've had one--we usually use one on our Christmas tree--I haven't been smart enough to get it to turn on and off when I've wanted. I'll have to see if I can find a super easy one, so I don't have to have a crazy schedule and have a crockpot running my life.

I'm hoping this new crockpot lifestyle will ease up other parts of life. There's just so much satisfaction knowing that dinner's taken care of because you made it during breakfast, and it's just sitting there preparing itself for dinner. LOVE it!

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