A couple years ago a friend of ours gave me a crockpot that they had received as a wedding gift. They already had one and didn’t know what to do with it. I was thrilled to take it! It is one of my favorite kitchen items. I love making chilli and meatballs in it. Recently, I’ve been interested in doing different recipes.
Thanks to several bloggers they mentioned A Year of Slow Cooking. Stephanie used her crockpots everyday for a year! I’m so impressed with the number of creative recipes that she mentions.
Here are a couple that I thought are great especially for working Moms.
Cooking Dried Beans in your Crock pot – Talk about saving money! You can buy a bag of beans at most stores for $1.00 and that equals 3 – 16 oz cans. Plus no added salt and other things. You can freeze the extra for other meals.
French Onion Soap in your Crockpot – Yummy! Looking forward to try this.
Sausage, Cream Cheese and Rotel Dip in your Crockpot – I had this at a friend’s house a couple years ago and oh my this is sooo good!
Enchilada casserole in your Crockpot – What a perfect recipe after making the beans
I also found another recipe on cooking dried beans. I would like to make Buritoes tomorrow and I bought dried pinto beans for $1.00 (equals 3 – 16 oz cans or $.33 for 16 oz) then this recipe would be really cheap!
A staple around here is pinto beans. We use them in so many dishes, since my husband is Mexican. Here is my favorite way to cook them with relative ease:
Laine’s Easy Pinto Beans In The Crock Pot
3 c. pinto beans (washed and picked over)
2-3 crushed garlic cloves
2 T. oil
1/2 chopped onionPut all in the crock pot with water to within an inch or two from the top of the pot. Set on high for 5-6 hours. ( You can tell when the beans are done as they will mash easily with a fork.) Now is the time to add 1 1/2 T. of salt. It is important to add it at the end of the cooking time, or the beans will be tough. I do any kind of bean this way. It comes out so good.
After the beans are cooked, there are so many ways I use them. Sometimes I refry them and use them for tacos or burritos. To do this I just take some of the beans and the juice in an skillet. Heat til just boiling. Then I start mashing and mashing, turning down the heat to medium. If I’ve added too much liquid, I will let them cook a little longer to evaporate some of the juice. If not enough juice, I will add a little more. Often I will put some shredded cheese over the top to melt at the end of the mashing.
