How to Have Fun With Crock Pot Recipes

Fun with crock pot recipes? Follow my logic. Dicing up some ingredients and throwing them into the slow cooker in the morning means that in the evening:

• You can have a healthy meal at the end of a stressful day, rather than grabbing fast food on your drive home and adding THAT to your guilt tally. And your waistline.
• Various family members running from one activity to the next can dip out a ladle of goodness whenever they have a moment, leaving said love one properly and healthfully caloried-up for nighttime activities.
• You can do what you want to do when you get home from work -- kick off your shoes, laze on the couch and enjoy a glass of wine before dinner -- rather than hustling into the kitchen to cook.
• Hosts can actually spend their dinner parties enjoying their guests rather than trying to flambé  something while opening the door, managing coats and handing out cocktails.

See. My slow cooker allows me to get all of the goodness out of home cooking with none of the stress of cooking at the end of full day. I'm a year-round slow cooker advocate, but these are some stick-to-your-rib recipes I like to pull out for the winter months. 

Favorite weeknight crock pot recipes

Spicy Chicken Stew From All You

Spicy Chicken Stew – I double up this recipe whenever I make it. It’s so good and it only gets better as it sits. This is also my go-to when I want to share the love: Give it to a friend who wants to take a night off from making dinner and I promise they'll be asking for the recipe.

Slow Cooker Meat Loaf with Shitake Mushrooms – This is a Cooking Light recipe that is so moist and delicious that I don’t need to be dieting to enjoy it. Cooking it in the crock pot is pure genius, eliminating all the issues about dryness that you can get with oven-cooked meat loaves.

Favorite crock pot recipes for entertaining

Cola Shredded Tacos from Sunset

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork – This simple recipe from Good Housekeeping is crazy delicious. Grab some buns, a bag of chips and some pickles, and you’ve got a party for a crowd.

Cola Shredded Beef Tacos – We call these Dr. Pepper tacos at my house. The recipe calls for Mexican Coke, which I can never find, so instead I buy Dr. Pepper for the syrupy sweetness the recipe is looking for. I make these with frijoles and salsa verde, and they truly wow my guests. 

 

FAVORITE HEALTHY CROCK POT RECIPES

Slow Cooker Chicken Verde - So, yes, sometimes I’ll make the salsa verde from scratch like this recipe recommends. And sometimes I’ll buy chunky chili verde from the produce or deli aisle, puree half of it, and that’s quite alright, too.

Slow Cooker Cabbage Soup -- We're meat eaters in this house (as you may be able to tell) but I imagine you can make this with vegan sausage and it would be just as delicious. You just need something to add the spice and richness that the sausage lends.

Favorite recipes for Sunday dinner

Classic Beef Stew from Real Simple

Slow Cooker Tuscan Pot Roast -- This is a long time favorite; while it technically is a pot roast, the meat falls apart and becomes this awesome gravy that I love to ladle in shallow bowls over grilled slices of French bread. Instead of using a cup of wine, I use a half-cup of wine and a half-cup of beef broth to increase the richness.

Classic Beef Stew -- I found this in the same issue of Real Simple as the recipe above. I find both recipes to be simple, dependable recipes that provide a tasty, one-pot winter meal.

 

Have a favorite Crock Pot Recipe? Baby, It's getting cold outside and we're all going to need some good recipes to get us through the winter. please share a link to your favorite recipe in the comments below.

How to Throw a Comfort Food Dinner Party

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In the spring and summer, I advocate easy entertaining. Throw a six pack in the cooler, some chicken and zucchini on the grill and you're good to go. But the advent of fall beckons us indoors. Lures us into sweaters and snuggling into the couch and eating foods that are oh-so-bad for us. So I find myself wanting to take my time with a fall dinner party. I want to create a setting that makes my friends want to linger; cook foods that will compel us to stick around the dinner table while we digest.

Fall, then, is an ideal time to prepare comfort food, the fatty, buttery, bacony dishes our moms made that now occupy the menu of every hip restaurant in the country. While I champion taking your time with this Comfort Food dinner party, I also offers ways you can shave a little time off the top. I'm not responsible for what happens to your waist.

1. Prep and planning

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Apron by Dr. McNinja creator, Christopher Hastings

Fall is a good time to begin using the dining table again, so limit your invite list to the number of people you can fit around it. Sending everyone an email is fine. Do your grocery shopping the day before the party. Try to reserve party day for just decorating and food cooking. Sounds extravagant? Trust me, if one partner can be responsible for driving kids to baseball, walking the dog and grabbing lunch, and the other partner can get Zen with the party duties, both partners will be less flustered when guests start knocking at the door.

Time-saving tool: Peapod. I let this grocery delivery service deliver the bulk of my groceries and then head to a specialty market for items like fresh-baked desserts or stand-out salad fixings.

2. Decorating

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I used to go overboard decorating for dinner parties, but now I have three secret weapons: Candles, flowers and white plates. White plates create a clean canvas for all that delicious food. Candles can be used in the middle of the table (judiciously so they don't get in the way of food passing or conversation) and in the living room. And inexpensive grocery store flowers in appropriate fall colors add a touch of pizzazz. I know it doesn't sound like much, but taking your time setting up these three details before guests arrive will enhance the sense that it's a special night at your house. 

Time-saving tool: Placemats are an inexpensive and quick way to add flair to your table. The ones I use are from Ikea and cost $3. I also have them in black and silver.  

3. Menu

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Cocktails

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Appetizers

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Main Course

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Dessert

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What are your favorite Comfort Foods? Let me know in the comments below or on my Facebook page. I'd love to add to my Comfort Foods menu.

Jar Recipes for Summer Parties

This Memorial Day weekend we were honored to be invited to enjoy an outdoor barbecue at a friend's house. And it was an honor.

It seems like people are less and less willing to host a gathering, to do the work that it takes to have friends over. I love to entertain and when the invitations to our house never seemed to be returned by the invitees, I found myself getting bitter. But I had to do a reality check -- entertaining at your home can be hard. From getting the house and yard ready to buying and preparing all the food and beverages to just managing your guests RSVPs, what should be fun starts feeling like a hassle.

So, when we do get invited, I try to acknowledge the work the hosts have done. I try to RSVP as soon as possible, I try to be a fun and appreciative party guest, and if I'm asked to bring something, I try to make it something special. (Notice my caveat "try." I can be damn lazy.) It's easy to bring a bag of chips, but I like to make my potluck offering a gift to the host, a little something to acknowledge the work she or he has done.

Photo by Mariah Smith

The trend that is the Mason jar is the perfect way to offer that gift. It allows you a beautiful way to present your goodie, to make goodies single-serving if appropriate and to designate adult drinks from kid drinks. I've included some of my favorite jar offerings below. Enjoy!

Caponata/MyRecipes.com

This Roasted Eggplant Dip on toasted brushetta is a real crowd pleaser, not only for the hearty, tangy taste of the dip, but the beautiful presentation it makes in a large jar. I bought a 1 liter Weck jar for $5 from World Market and it held all the goodness. Place your toasted bread, a ramekin of ricotta and the jar on a platter and let people make up their own toasts.

White Peach Sangria/Photo by Mariah Smith /Recipe from MyRecipes.com

With the mint and the peaches and the bubbles from the sparkling wine, these White Peach Sangrias are beautiful in Mason jars. If you're using 8-ounce Mason jars, this recipe makes a dozen drinks. Put three peach slices and a spring of mint in every jar, mix the liquids in a pitcher and fill jars about two-thirds of the way. Then ice in a tub and bring to a party!

Cowboy Caviar/MyRecipes.com

I like Cowboy Caviar because it has so many healthy ingredients that it feels like you're canceling out the fried chips you're dipping into it. All the little morsels especially look vivid and colorful presented in a jar. Make sure your avocados are firm so they don't turn into guacamole when you stir.

Berry Vodka Punch/Stylelushblog.com

Many summer parties are all-ages parties. Putting alcoholic cocktails in jars is an easy way to keep kids from pouring a deliciously tempting drink like this Berry Vodka Punch into their Dixie cups. These single servings of hard alcohol also allow your guests to have fun without having TOO much fun!

Tequila-Soaked Watermelon/MarthaStewart.com

Nothing looks more gorgeous than these cubes of watermelon flecked in sea salt sparkling in their jars in a tub of ice. I adapted this Tequila-Soaked Watermelon recipe to offer my guests a refreshing, mildly boozy treat on a hot day. Cutting up the watermelon into bite-sized cubes, distributing it between the jars, pouring the liquid over the top and then sealing them up gives them more flavor than pouring the liquid over the top of slices. 

Chocolate Pudding Parfaits/MyRecipes.com

When we were in our 20s, we took these classic American favorites to an elegant D.C. dinner party. No one was as charmed as we were. But in glass jars on a hot summer day, cold Chocolate Pudding Parfaits are the bomb. You don't really need a recipe -- graham cracker crumbs on the bottom, instant chocolate pudding next, Cool Whip on top. Refrigerate.

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Check out a great recipe for Bourbon Lemonade on my Pinterest board "Recipes for Jars"

In Between Tip: WEEKEND ALERT - Buy your tickets now to Great Tastes of Tysons, a two-day wine and food festival Saturday and Sunday. Deal Chicken is offering the $69 tickets for $20 until 11:59 p.m., Wednesday.