Tag Archives: crock pot

What’s For Lunch: The Best List of Lunches

Lunch time. Personally, I find the daily “what’s for lunch” question much more difficult than “what’s for dinner”. Lunch is, well, a challenge. Although it’s yummy, I want to feed my children something more than the standard sandwich and chips option. However, I don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. And neither do you, right?

On an average day, the breakfast mess isn’t cleared until after 9am. Then, in order to get supper on the table at a decent hour, prep begins around 3:30. With errands and homeschool lessons in between, that doesn’t leave much time for a satisfying, thoughtful lunch. So what to do?

As with any successful endeavor, a good lunch starts with a good plan…and a heavy dose of reality! As much as I would love to make an original lunch for my children every day, I know that’s not feasible with our schedule. So rather than overwhelm myself and create extra work, I do my best to fix a crowd-pleasing lunch once a week. No more, no less. The other days of the week we alternate between sandwiches, leftovers, breakfast foods, and sometimes soup.

But what to fix? <insert eye roll> I used to run out of ideas often. That’s why I started to keep a running list of lunch ideas (Evernote is great for this!). Today, I’m going to share some with you. The recipes below run the gambit, from easy, interesting sandwiches, to crock pot and freezer meals and everything in between. They are all sure to help break you out of your lunch rut. Bookmark your favorite ideas and plan a great lunch this week!

Sandwich-ish

Tuna Twister Melts

Waffle Turkey and Cheese Sami

Apple Sandwiches

Pepperoni Pizza Pockets

Roast Beef Cheddar Roll-Ups

Slow Cooker Hamburgers

Club Quesadillas

Grilled Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich

Salads

Crisp Tuna Cabbage Salad

Mashed Chickpea Salad

Grilled Chicken and Fruit Salad

Black Bean Breakfast Bowl

Taco Salad

Veggie Tuna Pasta Salad

Cuban Chicken Salad

Hot Stuff

Sausage and Vegetable Fritatta

Zucchini Tots

Homemade Spaghetti O’s and Meatballs

Easy Stromboli

Quick Beef Burrito Skillet

No-Boil Mac and Cheese Bake

One Pot Spaghetti

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

Vegetarian Chili Mac

Beef Soup in a Bread Bowl

Pigs in a Blanket

Spicy Spaghetti Squash with Black Beans

Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole

Ham and Cheese Muffins

Queso Potatoes

What are your favorite go-to lunch ideas that offer more than the average sandwich?

Slow-Cooker Italian Beef Soup

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What you need

1 lb ground beef (I have also used cut up leftovers from a beef roast)
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
2 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
1 package frozen mixed vegetables
2-3 potatoes, cubed
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 cups beef broth (again, I use this from leftover beef roast. If you don’t have that, my favorite is Knorr homestyle concentrated stock)
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 cup shell pasta

What to do:

Brown hamburger in a skillet. Mince garlic and dice onion and add those into the hamburger. Cook until hamburger is browned. (If you’re using leftovers, you get to skip this part with the hamburger).
Add all ingredients to crockpot, except pasta.
Cook on low 6-8 hours, adding in pasta for the last 20 minutes and cooking on high.
Note: if you like a “soupier” soup, you can add more broth.

Our whole family loves this soup! I serve it with my as-good-as-Olive-Garden breadsticks.

{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

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The coming of fall usually means the end of the more laid back schedule of the summer. It means school schedules, sports schedules, extra curricular schedules, and fun fall events like pumpkin patches and hayrides. It’s a fun time, but sometimes hard for a busy mom to plan for frugal, healthy, meals around all the craziness.

Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite meals. It’s easy, frugal, and delicious. It’s also incredibly versatile. And, it will make your house smell amazing!

{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

Ingredients
-1 whole chicken, 3-4 lbs.
-1 recipe herb-butter rub (I have included a choice of recipes below)

Easy Herb-Butter
1/2 packet lipton’s recipe secrets, Savory Herb with Garlic*
4 tbsp. butter, softened

Combine all ingredients.

*I have also used Grill Mates garlic, herb, wine dry marinade mix, and Weber Garlic & Herb dry marinade mix.

Fresh Herb-Butter
4 tbsp. butter, softened
1 tbsp. fresh rosemary
1 tbsp. fresh parsley
1 tbsp. fresh basil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper.

Combine all ingredients.

Instructions:

1. In the bottom of slow cooker, place balled up aluminum foil. (This will keep chicken elevated above juices. If you’d like to make more of a one-pot meal, you can cover the bottom with carrots and potatoes for the same purpose).

2. Rinse chicken and pat dry, placing it on top of the aluminum foil balls. DO NOT ADD WATER. This is very important in giving your chicken that rotisserie-style taste and texture. The chicken releases plenty of juices.

3. Cover chicken liberally with herb-butter rub.

4. For best results, cook on high for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked thoroughly, exact time will vary based on size of chicken. You can also cook on low 6-8 hours.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine does!

More Tips

Reserve chicken drippings and juice to make your own chicken stock for basically free, and much better than storebought! All you need to do is remove all chicken from bones. Replace all bones and any extra skin back into slow-cooker with the drippings and juice. Add water to fill slow-cooker, and cook on low overnight. If desired, you can add more spices for flavoring, and more vegetables like carrots, peppers, onions, celery, etc. for nutrients and flavor. Allow to cool and then store in freezer-safe containers in the freezer until needed.

Leftover Ideas

One of the things I love most about this meal is that it’s so versatile for leftovers. I love it when I can cook one thing and use it for different meals that my family loves, so that it’s easy on me without feeling like we’re eating leftovers all week. This meal is perfect for that.

-Add some chicken together with pasta, california vegetable blend, and alfredo sauce for a baked chicken alfredo.
-Chicken & dumplings using your leftover chicken and homemade chicken stock
-Chicken pot-pie casserole
-Chicken salad sandwiches

You can even freeze the extra chicken for a quick meal any time.

What are some of your favorite ways to use up leftover chicken?

Organizing Your Meals {Blog Hop}

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meals

I used to dread dinnertime. For me, around 4pm is the hour that I want to throw in the towel and just quit being a mom. Unfortunately, it’s also the time my kids start asking for dinner. Why do they want dinner every.single.night? So, like all good moms, I check Facebook and see all the great dinners that all those “other” moms are making for their families. And then, I feel inadequate. Can you relate?

Lucky for my family, I’ve become a huge fan of slow cooking. I use it all summer, too, for things like pulled pork and slow cooked mac-n-cheese. I’m not much for menu planning but I will say this: when I do it, I’m so glad! It makes my life so much easier! Menus really only take about half and hour to put together, and VOILA! Your brain is free to do other things, like remember to take the toddler to the bathroom on the hour.

So, here are my three top tips for organizing your meals:

Have a plan.
Use your slow cooker.
Enlist your children to help. (See my chores post from yesterday.)

A few of my favorite recipes for slow cooked meals are:

Chalupa
Chicken Curry (Made Simple!)
15 Bean Soup (pressure cooker version)
Split Pea Soup

LUNCH:

If your kids are home for lunch like mine are, keep simple things around to make simple, healthy lunches. We almost always have leftover dinner for lunch, so I like to make sure we have extra at dinnertime. Here are some ideas for easy lunches:

Quesadillas
Sandwiches
Grilled cheese and canned tomato soup
Leftovers!
Mini-pizzas on english muffins (a favorite at our house)
Anything pre-made from Costco (our kids like corn-dogs, which are not very healthy but great in a hurry)

Try making a menu and see if it makes a difference in your stress level. Need a menu planner? Download mine if you’d like and remember, keep it simple! Find a few meals that you enjoy making and use them frequently if you’d like. If you can make it and the family enjoys it, who cares if every Tuesday is TACO TUESDAY?

Download your free printable menu below—be patient, it might take a minute to load 🙂

You’ve Got This,

Read all of the posts “Organizing Your Spiritual Life Posts” on these blogs! And read all about the Blog Hop going on HERE!

Crock Pot Chicken Curry Made Simple

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In our house, we love music. My husband was a professional musician for the first seventeen years of our marriage. We still spend a lot of time listening to and playing music. What does that have to do with curry? Well, we match our meal to our music, that’s what! So guess what we listen to when we’re eating curry?

Indian music!

If you’re looking for something to eat with your Indian music, give this yummy slow cooker recipe a try. I’m totally in love with my crock pot, by the way. Crock pots are a busy moms best friend. Mine is an 8 quart cooker and is great for our large family. If you haven’t tried curry in your crock pot, give this a try. By 3pm, your house will smell amazing and you’ll be inspired, no doubt, to turn up the music.

Enjoy!

Put carrots and frozen chicken into the bottom of the crock pot.

In your food processor, add onion, garlic, bell peppers and jalapeño. Start with the veggies—until you get a mixture that looks like this:

Now, go ahead and add all that other stuff.

Blend it all together—it will look like a thick soup. That’s okay. You’re going to love it.

Serve over quinoa or basmati rice. {yum.}

Here’s the short version:

Ingredients

4-6 boneless chicken breast, cut into bit-sized pieces
5-8 large carrots (more carrots = less chicken = $ savings)
1 whole onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 bell peppers, seeded and quartered (less if you’re not a bell pepper person)
1 small can of tomato paste
1-2 cans of coconut milk
2 tsp sea salt
3 T sugar
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 T red curry paste
1 jalapeño

Make it simple

Place chicken breasts (could be frozen) and carrots in bottom of lightly greased pot
Blend vegetables in food processor
Add remaining ingredients to food processor and blend well
Pour mixture over chicken and carrots
Cook on low for 6 hours
Serve over quinoa or basmati rice, cooked in chicken broth

Serves 8

Happy Curry-ing! Let me know how it turns out.

Fast, Healthy, YUMMY – {15 Bean Soup}

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All ingredients except the optional ham hock and pork shoulder.

I’m a soupie. Is that a word? Well nevermind. It should be.

I’m finally getting around to posting my favorite bean soup recipe.

Why?

Because I was late yesterday, that’s why. You know, school, dishes, laundry, toddler—broken down car. These things can make a girl go half-crazy in the dinner making department.

{enter pressure cooker}

“Welcome, highly-favored kitchen appliance!”

Electric pressure cookers save time and money!

I.love.my.pressure.cooker. Period. And it got me out of a jam last night. At 4:4o I arrived home from the mechanic shop, tired and frustrated. {yes, you heard me right.} I looked in my pantry. BEHOLD! A bag of beans. Fifteen different kinds of beans to be exact. Dinner! By 4:55 I had all the ingredients in my pressure cooker and by 6:15 we were eating yummy, healthy soup.

YES it works in a crock pot too. Just put this same recipe in your slow cooker and give it 6-8 hours on low.

The magic is found in the spices so here you are:

15 Bean Soup

9 cups chicken broth
15 bean soup mix (1 lb) – this mix is in most grocery stores. It’s about $3.20/bag.
1 large onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
4 stalks diced celery
2 bay leaves
2 tsp diced garlic (from a jar is fine)
1 T thyme and rosemary
1.5 T parsely
1 tsp ham base if you don’t have a ham hock, or leave it out. It’s good with or without.
Black pepper to taste
Alternative:
If you’re in the mood for a more meaty bean soup, add about a pound of pork shoulder, diced into bite-sized pieces. I didn’t use it this time. When using ham base, I LOVE Penzey’s. Here’s a picture … a little goes a long way!

Directions:

Place all this stuff in your pressure cooker. Set it to “soup” and set your timer for 35 minutes. When it’s done, allow the pressure to go down on it’s own. This will add about 15 more minutes to your total time.

When you’re ready to serve, take out the ham hock and the bay leaves. Voila! No more waiting all day for your beans to cook. Pressure cooking is a busy moms best friend. Give it a try!

Healthy, Yummy, Split-Pea Soup

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Mmmmm. Split-pea soup. It’s one of my favorite ways to make our Christmas ham last through the new year.

Normally, I use my crock pot. But this year, I used my pressure cooker—just to see how it would turn out. I warned my family in advance that it might not be amazing but I decided to give it a try anyway. Hey, what are they gonna do? They’re stuck with my kitchen adventuring ways!

Wouldn’t you know it? It turns out that using my pressure cooker turned out the creamiest, yummiest split-pea soup I’ve ever made. I was able to serve it straight out of the pot, without adding anything to thicken it.

If you like this yummy soup, give this recipe a try. And let me know how it turns out! I’ll also post the slow cooker version at the bottom for those of you who like slow cookers.

Split Pea Soup {pressure cooker version}

Serves 6-9

6 cups of water or broth (I used ham broth, but you can use chicken broth, too.)
Ham bone if you have it
2 1/4 cups split peas, rinsed
2 cups chopped celery
1 whole onion, chopped

Delicious and nutritious!

4 cloves of garlic, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 tablespoons organic, no-salt seasoning (from Costco if you have it)
pepper
2 bay leaves

—ham— as much as you like. But do not add until the soup is finished in the pressure cooker.

Instructions:

Put all in ingredients except ham into pressure cooker. Set timer for 15 minutes. Allow pressure to come down on it’s own. This will take another 15 minutes or so.

When pressure is released, remove bay leaves and stir. Add ham if you are so inclined. (I am always inclined this way if I have ham in the house!)
Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with corn bread or salad. Enjoy!

{slow cooker version}

as above, except: cook on low for 6-8 hours
Remove bay leaves
Add ham

Stir. To thicken, I usually add a mixture of milk and flour that I’ve prepared in my salad dressing shaker). I don’t honestly know how much I use. I would guess it’s about 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of flour mixed very well. You can also thicken with instant potato flakes, or cornstarch and water. Be sure to mix the cornstarch well, one part starch to two parts COLD water.