Slow Cooker Tavern Soup Revisited

Five years ago today, I blogged about this soup and I decided to do so again.  I love this soup.  My brother made this for us many years ago and I’ve made it since then.  It’s perfect for this time of year when it’s cold out.  It’s very easy to pour in a mug ~ no spoon needed!

Tavern Soup

1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup green pepper, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 (14 1/2 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (12 ounce) can light beer, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Combine celery, carrot, green pepper and onion in a slow cooker. Add broth, beer, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours.

After 5 or 6 hours, remove vegetables with a slotted spoon and process in a blender or food processor in batches until pureed and return to cooker with broth (I just use a stick blender and blend in the crock and it works great). Turn control to HIGH. Dissolve cornstarch in water; stir into pureed mixture. Add cheese gradually, stirring until blended. Cover and cook on HIGH 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Happy Coking!

Barbecue Baby Back Ribs in the Slow Cooker

Don’t forget to sign up for the Gooseberry Patch giveaway.  Comment HERE on this post to be entered.  Giveaway ends on Thursday!

I know ~ we have a great smoker so why did I put the ribs in my slow cooker?  It was cold and Mr. Meat Eater will only smoke ribs that have a rub on them that is too spicy for me.  And I like them saucey.  So I searched around for a recipe that would meet my criteria and found one on the Betty Crocker site with the one review I was looking for ~ the meat stays on the ribs.  I really don’t like it when the meat falls off the ribs.  Must be the cave woman in me.

Now, you can easily make your own barbecue sauce to use but in the spirit of laziness, I used Sweet Baby Rays which is my favorite.  I used the plain old barbecue sauce.  You will need about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of sauce.

Barbecue Baby Back Ribs in the Slow Cooker

Barbecue sauce ~ homemade or store bought
4 lb pork baby back ribs, cut into 3 rib sections
salt
pepper

Spray a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper and place in slow cooker. Pour about 1 1/2 to 2 cups sauce over the ribs.

Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or on HIGH for 3-3 1/2 hours or until tender. I cooked mine on LOW for about 3 hours and then upped it to HIGH for another 3-4 hours. My slow cooker does not get really hot so you will have to adjust for your particular slow cooker. Make sure the pork is completely cooked before removing from slow cooker.

Remove from slow cooker and serve with extra barbecue sauce.

Makes 6-8 servings or 3-4 if you are serving Mr. Meat Eater.

Happy Cooking!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

I love my crockpot!  In the summer, it gets so hot here that using the crockpot makes so much sense.  I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, which is affiliated with The Pioneer Woman.  There are loads of great recipe there.  I actually think this recipe was pinned on Pinterest and led me back to Tasty Kitchen but I couldn’t swear to it.

This recipe is super easy and it tastes great.  I would think you could use the chicken for enchiladas, nachos, etc. I did not add the cream cheese or the cheddar to the crockpot so mine were not creamy. I prefer to put my cheese on separately.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a recipe for grilled chicken tacos!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz can enchilada sauce
4 tsps taco seasoning
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 ozs cream cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
8 soft taco size flour tortillas

Place chicken in slow cooker and add the enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, hot sauce, and black pepper.

Cook on LOW for 5-7 hours or until chicken is easily shredded with 2 forks. After shredding, add in the cream cheese and cheddar cheese if using and cook until melted.

Serve with all your favorite taco toppings.

Makes 4 servings

Happy Cooking!

Best-Ever Pot Roast from Simple Shortcut Recipes

Day 8 of 10 days of recipe from by Gooseberry Patch.  If you would like a chance to win a FREE copy of this cookbook, please comment on THIS POST!

Pot roast is one of our favorite meals so it was easy to choose this recipe.  I had never heard of cream of onion soup and could not find it anywhere around here so I changed the recipe up a bit.  I used a can of French onion soup and left out the cream of celery altogether.  It worked out great and tasted delicious.  Either way, it’s a great recipe.  Adding the extra salt may be something you want to leave out since canned soup is no salty to begin with.  I really don’t think you’ll need it.

I totally forgot to take pictures until dinner was half over so they aren’t the best.  Sorry about that!  THe recipe was submitted by a cook who lives in the city next to mine!

Best-Ever Pot Roast
Submitted by Emily Runyon, Suffolk, VA

VIEW PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE!

3 lbs redskin potatoes, quartered
16 oz pkg baby carrots
2 onions, sliced
1 to 2 tbsps oil
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of onion soup
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup water ~ half a soup can water is about 1/2 cup
sea salt to taste

Place potatoes, carrots and onions in a large slow cooker and set aside.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown the roast on all sides. After browning, place in the slow cooker on top of the veggies.

Pour soups and water over the top of the roast in the slow cooker and sprinkle with salt.

Cover and cook on LOW for 10 hours.

Makes 6 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Really Good, Really Easy Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

Thank you all for the nice comments and messages regarding Mr. Meat Eater.   The biopsy itself went fine and we didn’t hear anything bad at the 48 hour reading so I’ll take that as good news.  We will hear for sure what the problem is on the 22nd.  I will drive myself nuts until then of course.

In the meantime, I will get back to blogging.

I really, really love this sauce.  It’s easy, makes a ton so I can put some in the freezer for the next time I need sauce, and I can make it spicy or not.  If I use all the red pepper flakes it calls for, I find it too spicy for me so I just put a tiny bit in or leave it out altogether.

It is great just served with pasta and would be equally good used for lasagna or ziti or whatever.   You can use Italian sausage instead of the ground beef if you prefer.  The recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat but I use about 1 1/4 pounds since I don’t like loads of meat in my sauce.

I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website originally.

Really Good, Really Easy Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

2 lb bulk Italian pork sausage or ground beef (I use about 1 1/4 lbs)
2 large onions, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (use less or leave out altogether if you don’t like it spicy)

Spray 5-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.

In a skillet, cook sausage or beef, onions, mushrooms and garlic over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sausage or beef is no longer pink; drain.

Spoon sausage or beef mixture into slow cooker.

Stir in all remaining ingredients.

Cook on LOW for 8-9 hours.

Serve over your favorite pasta.

Makes 24 servings.

VIEW PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE!

Happy Cooking!

Chicken Cacciatore

Gooseberry Patch has a contest running on their blog and I decided to give it a whirl ~ especially since I was going to make this recipe for dinner tonight.

Here are the contest rules:

Step 1: Make something yummy from one of our cookbooks.

Step 2: Before you & your family enjoys the dish, ask a helper to snap
a picture of you, the food and our book. Then…

Step 3: Post the photo on YOUR blog.

Step 4: Come back here before tonight at midnight, EST and tell us
where to find your photo.

I just noticed that I’m supposed to be in the picture, too.  Oh well.

I made a recipe from 101 Slow Cooker Recipes .   The recipe is super easy which as you all know, is my favorite thing.  Just toss in the ingredients and go.  It was submitted to Gooseberry Patch by Mary Whitacre or Mount Vernon, Ohio.

I did make a couple of small changes.  I used half the amount of vegetables called for in the recipe ~ just personal preference. There really is enough sauce to use four boneless chicken breast halves.

Chicken Cacciatore
Submitted to Gooseberry Patch by Mary Whitacre

1 lb. boneless chicken breast halves
26 ounce jar chunky garden vegetable spaghetti sauce (I used Prego brand)
1 zucchini, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (I used half)
1 onion, chopped (I used half)
Cooked pasta, such as rotini or penne
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Place chicken in slow cooker. Pour the spaghetti sauce over the top. Add the vegetables. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.

Serve over pasta, garnishing with Parmesan if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Nancy
(I’m on my laptop and don’t have my siggy on this computer)

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches for the Crockpot

Now, before you run away from this recipe, it really is not hot.  I was able to eat one with no problems and I can’t handle hot and spicy anymore.  They are really flavorful and DH yummed his way through 2 or 3 of them.

These are great for super bowl parties, tailgating, or a quick meal any night of the week.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches for the Crockpot

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts (mine were pterodactyl size and so made alot)
1 (17.5 oz) bottle buffalo wing sauce (I used Frank’s)
1/2 of a 1 ounce pkg of dry ranch salad dressing mix
6 sandwich or hoagie rolls

Put the chicken in the crockpo and pour 3/4 of the bottle of the hot sauce over and then sprinkle the salad dressing mix over that.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours.

Once the chicken has cooked, shred it right in the crockpot and let it continue to cook for a few minutes to soak up the sauce.

Pile onto rolls and splash with some of the remaining hot sauce if desired. I buttered my rolls and toasted them a bit under the broiler, add the meat to the bun and covered with provolone cheese and stuck it back under the broiler so the cheese could melt. Delicious!

Makes at least 6 sandwiches if not more.

Happy Cooking!