I’ll be calling the local butcher this week to see if they can get some rabbit!
I love dump cake, but had never thought to try it in the crock pot!
How did the cabbage rolls turn out?
Made this and it was yummy. I didn’t have time for the crockpot so I used my pressure cooker and didn’t add any additional water. It was great and I’m sure It’d be equally great out of the crockpot. I doubled the beans since we’re bean fans. I’d probably use skinless thighs next time, just because I like the flavor over breasts.
Thanks!
They were awesome! Thanks for asking. I’ll be happy to share the “recipe” if anyone is interested.
I’d love the recipe!
I’ll share one of my favorite uses of the Crock Pot – precooking lots of shredded chicken to freeze. I buy chicken quarters when they are on sale, put them in the Crock Pot with some salt, pepper, maybe garlic and onion powder, and cook them all day on low heat. When they are done, pull the meat off the bone and freeze it in meal-sized portions for casseroles, enchiladas, chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice, with barbecue sauce on buns, etc.
Super easy and tasty – throw in chicken breasts and artichoke garlic salsa from Aldi. Serve over rice. Mmmmmm, now I have to go to Aldi.
I don’t have a favorite recipe but wanted to share a trick I thought up that works great.
If you have a large crock-pot but you’re single or maybe your family doesn’t eat a lot you can take two oven bags (they’re made by Reynolds and I’m not sure where you’d find them in the store…I haven’t done it in a while) and make two completely different meals at the same time. Like once I split up a package of chicken breasts and made a spicy, tomato-y dish in one bag, and one with a creamy sort of sauce in the other bag. Now you don’t have to make dinner the next night - you just put one bag in the fridge overnight and reheat the contents at dinner time!
This is a great idea, thank for the tip 
So, just dump all this in at once? Heat at what level, for how long? Talk to me like I’m in third grade.
I’m a full time working mom with two small kids–especially when they were tiny, CrockPot was the only way I could manage to cook dinner. Some favs:
Refridgerator Clean Out Stew
2-3lbs steak or roast (I usually use the 50%-off-because-it-expires-today steaks)
2-4 carrots, cleaned and cut into disks (my sons’ preference)
1 chopped onion
5-6 red potatoes, quartered
1 cup green beans (fresh, not canned)
1-2 cups beef broth OR 1-2 cubes bouillon dissolved in 1-2 cups hot water
1 packet Italian dressing mix
Put veggies on the bottom, meat on top, sprinkle with the dressing mix, pour the broth over top, and cook on low 8 hours or so. My uber-picky eldest loved this.
My go-to chicken recipe:
Basil Chicken
1lb baby carrots
3-4 chopped celery stalks (keep the leaves–set aside)
1 chopped onion
1 whole roasting chicken, giblets removed *(duh, but, you never know)
1 cup chicken broth OR 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in one cup water
salt & pepper to taste
basil
Put veggies on the bottom, chicken on the top. Pour broth over top. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Top chicken generously with basil. Sprinkle celery leaves over chicken. Cook 8-10 hours on low.
Finally, this is the most recent BIG hit. I can’t keep this in the house when I make it, and I usually make a double recipe.
Baked Oatmeal
1/3 cup oil
2 cups quick oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp
1 egg, beaten
Pour oil in the CrockPot, making sure to cover sides for greasing. Mix the rest of the ingredients in the CP and bake on low 2 1/2-3 hours. Watch it carefully–it does tend to dry out. I add milk along the way to keep it from getting too dry.
Also note, if doubling the recipe, there’s no need to double the oil.
Smells drool-worthy and tastes awesome. Also lends itself to some great mix-ins; I’ve used cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar, and apples in the past.
Great for breakfast, and great for dessert when served with ice cream.
That’s pretty freaking genius!
Cabbage Rolls
Mix together 1 1/2 pounds ground beef or a mixture of beef and pork, 2 eggs, 1 cup rice (I partially cooked mine), 1 diced onion, minced garlic, salt, pepper and a good amount of paprika. Steam the leaves from a medium head of cabbage. Wrap a couple spoonfuls of meat in each leaf and roll up burrito style. Place in slow cooker (I got two layers). Top with sauerkraut and tomato sauce (I mixed two cans tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, paprika and water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with sour cream.
Trick with cabbage- freeze the head rather than parboiling. Makes the leaves pliable with less mess.
IN cooking with cabbages you have to be careful when modifying recipes to ensure that that you do not alter the flavor by leaving in glucosinolates that would be removed by parboiling.
Butter Baked Cabbage is a great non-Crockpot “recipe” with an explanation:
He’s right about the star anise too - I often add a piece when frying onions.
May be true, but I’ve never tasted a difference.
It is actually. Now I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me that thought of it, haha. Surely I must’ve read it somewhere else. Oh well. Best of all is YOU DON’T HAVE TO WASH THE CROCK-POT AFTER!
How practical! Do you just put the bags in the crock pot directly, or do you have fill the crock pot with water and immerse the sealed bags in water?
Chicken Stew
4 potatoes cut into bite sized chunks
4 or 5 carrots peeled and cut into bite sized chunks (or one 2lb bag of baby carrots)
1 onion
1 pound boneless/skinless chicken thighs
Layer in crockpot in that order
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon liquid gravy browner
Mix the above and pour over chicken and veggies.
Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 9 hours.
A homey treat on a cold winter day.
I cored the cabbage and steamed the whole thing, core side down in about an inch of water, in the microwave. After peeling off the first five or six layers, I steamed it again while wrapping the first ones.
I’ll have to try that, I’ve never been able to produce nice-looking leaves.
Incidentally, I’ve mentioned this before…for most dishes, you can assemble the ingredients the night before, in the removable crock. In the morning, just put the crock in the heating element, and turn it on. If you have one that doesn’t separate, you can just put the ingredients in any handy container. This saves on the morning rush. And if you like to flour and brown a piece of meat, you almost certainly don’t want to do that in the morning when trying to get everyone out the door.
This is cooking right now! Smells yummy!