Simple Garden Delights

If your garden is like mine, it is busting at the seams. So what do you do with all those vegetables? You clean 'em up and put 'em in the crockpot silly...grin...

Here are a couple very simple recipes to help you use your fresh garden vegetables...

Caramelized Onions

6 - 8 large sweet onions (Vidalias, etc)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
10 oz can chicken or vegetable broth

Peel onions. Remove stems and root ends. Place in crockpot. Mix broth and butter and pour over onions. Cook on LOW 8 to 12 hours.

Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, rinsed
salt
cinnamon
butter

Place whole squash in slow cooker and Cover. Cook on LOW 8 - 10 hours. Split and remove seeds. Sprinkle each half with salt and cinnamon. Dot with butter and serve.

Corn on the Cob

6-8 ears of corn (still in husk)
1/2 cup water

Remove silk from corn (as much as possible), but leave the husks on. Cut off the ends so that the ears can stand upright in your upright crockpot. Add water. Cover and cook on LOW for 2-3 hours.

Happy Slow Cooking! Hugs and Enjoy!

Here are more Crockpot Vegetable Recipes from Hazel's Crock Pot Kitchen...

Orange Honey Chicken

Are you tired of the same old, same old when it comes to making chicken? Well, let me tell you about a recipe that will give that tired old chicken some new life.

Orange Honey Chicken

1 whole roasting chicken, rinsed and cleaned out
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup honey

1 lemon

Make sure you remove the liver, neck, etc. from the inside of the chicken and rinsed the inside and the outside. Sit your chicken in your upright crock pot bum end down. Take a fork and pierce the lemon a couple of times on each end. Place the lemon in the neck hole of the chicken. Mix the orange juice and honey and pour it over the chicken. Cover. Cook on LOW for 8 hours. Before serving, remove the lemon from the chicken. Slice and squeeze all over the chicken. Be careful, it will be hot. I use two forks and poke them in each side that is sticking out and then to squeeze, I use a couple of paper towels to hold the lemon.

Option: I like these flavors, so I will mix 3/4 cups of honey and 3/4 cups of orange juice and pour a little inside my chicken before putting it in the crockpot. Turning my chicken over so as to coat the inside. I will also squeeze a little honey between the skin. Then stick the chicken in crockpot and follow the above instructions.

This has always been a family favorite. I hope your family will enjoy it as much as we do...

Happy Slow Cooking! Hugs and Enjoy!


Here are more Crockpot Chicken Recipes from Hazel's Crock Pot Kitchen

Italian Pork Chops

This has got to be one of the easiest recipes and the best part is you can substitute the pork chops for chicken...both ways are yummy!

Italian Pork Chops

16 ounce bottle Italian salad dressing
4 - 6 pork chops (you can use pork loin if you don't want to worry with bones)

Pour a little salad dressing on the bottom of the crockpot. Place half the chops in slow cooker and pour some dressing over them. Place the rest of the chops in crock and pour the rest of the dressing over them.

Cover. Cook on HIGH 6 - 8 hours.

Options: You can add sliced carrots or baby carrots and let them cook all day with the meat. I pour a little dressing in the bottom of the crock pot, then mix the carrots and the dressing a bowl and then follow the above instructions. I like having my carrots coated with the dressing.

I do find if I am making 6 chops with the carrots, I need about a half a bottle more of the salad dressing, but this will depend on how much flavor you want.

Happy Slow Cooking! Hugs and Enjoy!

Here are more Crockpot Pork Recipes from Hazel's Crock Pot Kitchen

Beef and Mushroom Delight

Thank goodness! Budgets are finally over...So I can get back to the things I enjoy...crockpotting! grin...

Today's recipe should actually be yesterdays recipe (since Tuesdays are Beef recipe days), so I'm posting this one and I'm posting a pork recipe today also...so I'm caught up and can get back on track...

This is a simple 5 ingredient recipe...hardly no ingredients and fixed in the crock pot...what more can you ask for! ;)

So today's yesterday recipe is:

Beef and Mushroom Delight

2 pounds stew meat (make sure to cut down any big pieces to nice bite sizes)
2 packages (8 ounces each) fresh mushrooms (sliced)
2 cups frozen carrots (sliced or little baby carrots work great)
2 cans (14 ounces each) beef broth (low-sodium will work great)

* optional: 1 box (6 ounces) long grain and wild rice blend OR 1 bag of steam n' fresh white rice

Place all ingredients in crock pot, salt and pepper to taste. Stir ingredients. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 t 8 hours...Enjoy!

*this recipe called for the box of long grain rice, but I'm not a big fan of cooking my rice all day in the crock pot...for me it gets a little mushy(my mushy might not be your mushy)...if you like a softer rice, then you might like cooking your rice in the crockpot...if that is the case, add the wild rice blend (seasonings and all) to the crock and stir and cook all day. If you do NOT like mushy rice, then I like using the steam n' fresh white rice. I make it in the microwave per the directions and when I open the bag, I pour it into my slow cooker and stir just before serving....The steam n' fresh rice takes like 4 minutes to make in the microwave, so I still have a very easy meal.

Option: You can add a bag of frozen peas (or a can of peas) to this recipe. Put them in at the start and let them cook all day with your meat.

Happy Slow Cooking! Hugs and Enjoy!

Here are more Crockpot Beef Recipes from Hazel's Crock Pot Kitchen