Southwest Pork & Sauce

To use some pork I had for a Sunday dinner, and since we'd had one of the old standby's recently and I wasn't in the mood to hunt up a recipe..I made one up. (I do that periodically - sometimes it works, sometimes not so much!) Since it was such a hit with the family, I had to write this one down.

Pork carnitas or boneless ribs (about 2 lbs?)
1 tbsp cumin
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 C chopped cilantro (I had some in the freezer*)
1 can cream of chicken soup,  (or use some from the mix recipe like I did)
Salt & pepper to taste
(Oh, I did add about 1/2 tsp Knorr's Tomato bouillon

Place in slow cooker and cook for 4 hours on high. We served it over brown rice, with veggies & salad on the side, and everybody raved over it...mmmm! Successful Sunday dinner!

*Got that idea from my friend's blog, Frieda Loves Bread.

Light Potato Cheese Soup

               

So I took THIS potato soup recipe and THAT potato soup recipe, put them together and came up with my own:

Ingredients:

• 6 large potatoes diced
• Vegetable and/or chicken broth to cover the potatoes
• 2 cups chopped carrots (I had leftovers already cooked)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup light cheddar cheese, cube
• 1 slice reduced fat swiss cheese
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms, sauted in 1 tbsp butter

Boil the diced potatoes and carrots in the vegetable and chicken broths until the vegetables are soft. Mash with a potato masher. Stir in the cheese until it melts, fold in mushrooms. Serve either warm or cold.  Mine needed more moisture (maybe more milk?) to make it more soupy, but oh, yummmm!

(To make it even lighter, I could have used part cauliflower and part potatoes, but I couldn't find any cauliflower in the fridge tonight.) One of the recipes describes making it in a slow cooker, but I have to plan ahead for that.

Chicken and Broccoli “Stir Fry” in the Slow Cooker

Another one I have to try...original here.

Serving Size: 6
INGREDIENTS
2-3 lbs. chicken tenders
1/2 bottle stir fry sauce (about 1 cup) or more, if you like (I used Mandarin Sauce from Panda Express)
1 bunch broccoli, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced

INSTRUCTIONS
Place chicken in slow cooker. I start mine from frozen. Pour sauce over chicken. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6-7 hours. About an hour before serving, place broccoli and red pepper on top of chicken in slow cooker. Cover and let it finish cooking. Serve over rice.

Salsa Verde Steak in the Slow Cooker

Found this recipe through pinterest...gotta try it! Find the original here.

INGREDIENTS
2-3 lbs. boneless round steak or another cut of beef
1 small can of salsa verde
1/2 cup chicken broth, beef broth or water
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
flour tortillas
cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, etc.

INSTRUCTIONS
Put the steak and onions in the crockpot. Combine the salsa, broth and seasonings. Pour over the steak. Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours. Shred the meat and serve in the tortillas with the fixings.

Slow Cooker Chili Verde

This recipe is from allrecipes.com. Click here for pictures, nutrition facts, and extras.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cubed
5 (7 ounce) cans green salsa
1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until fragrant. Add the cubed pork, and cook until browned on the outside. Transfer the pork, onions, and garlic to a slow cooker, and stir in the green salsa, jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes.
Cover, and cook on High for 3 hours. Reduce the setting to Low, and cook for 4 to 5 more hours.


Someone's comments looked useful:

by Donna

If you want this to tase like real chile verde, then follow my additions. Be sure to remove the jalapeno addition if you have kids to feed as it will make it to spicy for them. I did not use green salsa, I used green enchilada sauce (La palma), added two shredded, dried New Mexico chiles, 3 cloves of garlic, a can of roasted green chiles, 1/2 TB salt, 1/2 TB cumin, then I added 2 TB cornstarch during the last 30 minutes to thicken the sauce. Be sure to dissolve the cornstarch in cold water, then add to the hot chile verde. If you follow these additions, you'll have authentic chile verde from a slow cooker!

Crockpot Garlic Baked Potatoes

Found this recipe on Pinterest. The complete recipe, including pictures, and the blogger's kids' reactions, click here to see the post. 


The Ingredients:
--4 big brown potatoes
--2 T melted butter
--2 T olive oil
--salt and pepper
--8 or so garlic cloves

The Directions:
Peel the garlic and cut it into long slivers.

Wash your potatoes, and pat dry. Carefully cut slits into each potato about 1/2 inch thick almost do the very base. The potato should start to separate a bit like an accordion.

Shove as many garlic slices as you can in each slit of each potato.

Nestle the potatoes into your crockpot. I used an oval 6qt Smart Pot, and the potatoes didn't fit all the way down to the bottom, they kind of were halfway on each other. It doesn't seem to matter.

Liberally salt and pepper. Combine the melted butter with the olive oil and drizzle over the top of each potato, trying to get some in the garlic-filled slits, if you can.

Cover and cook on high for 2-4 hours or on low for about 6. They are done when the potatoes reach desired tenderness.

Top with sour cream.

Crockpot Refried Beans

Found this recipe on Pinterest - find it at RealMomKitchen

• 3 cups of dry pinto beans (rinsed)
• 1 onion*, diced
• 9 cups of water
• 5 tsp salt*
• 1 3/4 tsp pepper*
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1/8 tsp ground cumin

1. Put all the ingredients in a crockpot and cook on high for about 8 hours.
2. After they are done, drain all of the liquid out and SAVE THE LIQUID!!
3. Mash beans with a potato masher or whatever you mash with. Add liquid, a bit at a time, to desired consistency, but remember you want them a little runny because they thicken over time. (makes about 6 cups)

*After trying this recipe, I would reduce the salt to 2-3 tsp, and a bit less pepper & onion too. But it was good!

Café Rio Chicken

1 16 oz bottle Italian Dressing

1 T chili powder

1 T cumin

2 t chicken bouillion

3 cloves garlic, minced

5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook an additional hour.

Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds red potatoes, diced with peel

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup butter

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup milk, or as needed

DIRECTIONS

Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker. Season with salt, 

garlic powder, and pepper. Cover, and cook on Low for 7 hours, or High for 4 

hours.

Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of 

milk to achieve a creamy consistency. Keep warm on low until serving.

~~~

I've done potatoes in the slow cooker, but they weren't boiled.  More like 

steamed.  Simply put them in, cut into chunks if not baby potatoes.  Add a 

small amount of broth or water, some butter or olive oil, salt, pepper and a 

bit of parsley.  They come out very nice. 

These notes were found in a google search at: http://bigspud.com/files/pboiledslowcooker.htm 

EASY Crockpot Orange Chicken

Ingredients:
• 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 T ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 T brown sugar

In a bowl, mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and ketchup.

Pour the flour in a small bowl. Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.

Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken. The chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked since it's going in the crock pot.

After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2-3.

Serve over rice and even add veggies if you want a healthier meal. Enjoy!

Find this recipe and more pictures where I got it at:
http://team-t-adventures.blogspot.com/2010/03/crock-pot-orange-chicken.html

(I will be at least doubling this! sb)

Printable version here.

ADDITIONAL NOTE - I don't like using ketchup or sugar in such recipes, so I usually refer to some other Orange Chicken recipes and tweak the ingredients to suit me for that day, like the one at this website.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

1 envelope Taco Seasoning
6 pieces Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 jar Salsa (16 oz)

Dump everything into a crock pot and give it a little stir to blend the seasoning with the salsa. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. When done, the chicken should shred easily when stirred with a fork.

For tacos, serve the chicken with soft flour tortillas, lettuce, shredded cheese and sour cream. This is very versatile and can be used for enchiladas, nachos, tostadas, etc. Any leftover chicken can then be used for tortilla soup (make it the next day or freeze the chicken to use at a later time).

Got this from this page on Pinterest: http://mychocolatetherapy.blogspot.com/2012/01/crockpot-chicken-tacos.html

Printable version here.