Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops and Crock Pot Mashed potatoes!

I found this recipe from realmomkitchen.com

The original recipe was for pork chops, which I did do the first time.  We loved them!  YUMMY!  This time I didn't have pork chops, so I made it with chicken and Justin loved it even more.  He prefers chicken over pork though.  And the gravy from the meat is awesome on the potatoes!

Here's what I did:

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops or Chicken Breasts

4-6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick or boneless chicken breasts
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
2 (10 oz) cans Cream of Chicken Soup
Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours or 3.5-4 hours on high for chicken.

Did you know you could do mashed potatoes in the crock pot?  Yep!  That's right!  This is my new favorite thing to do because you don't have to watch them and make sure they don't over boil and make a mess and constantly check them to see if they are done!

 Crockpot Potatoes:
2.5 lbs potatoes peeled and diced (I used about 10 red potatoes)
2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup chicken broth (I use water and chicken bullion)
milk and salt
Place the potatoes in the slow cooker.  Pour chicken broth over and top with butter.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours.

I used a small slow cooker for my potatoes (see picture below) so my potatoes were done in 3 hours!

 I'm not sure how many quarts my small slow cooker is, but my big one is 7 qt. So, I took this picture to give you an idea.

Add milk to desired consistency as you mash them and salt to taste.  You can add other seasonings too like garlic or cheese, even sour cream (at the end.)  Get creative!

Shredded Pork Loin Roast

The website I got this recipe from is working out some bugs, so I don't know what link to give you, but I got it from Crockin' Girls!

For sure interesting and also tasty.  I'm not sure that it's my favorite shredded pork, but still good :)

*Edit: the leftovers were awesome!  Way yummier than the original!  I drained most of the extra juices and poured a bit more bbq sauce over top before I put them in the fridge.  A few days later I ate it for lunch and it was super yummy!*

Shredded Pork Loin Roast:

1 (5 lb.) pork loin roast
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce
1 can Dr. Pepper
Onion powder, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste

This is a recipe that you can use for several different recipes. Such as:
1) BBQ pork roast sandwiches served with lettuce, tomato, chips, and a pickle
2) BBQ pork roast loaded baked potato served with sour cream, butter, and chives
3) BBQ pork roast nachos served with chips, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, black olives, and shredded cheese
4) BBQ pork roast Corn tortilla tacos served with broccoli slaw and avocados

Directions:

Place roast into the slow cooker and season with onion and garlic powder. Cover with BBQ sauce and then pour Dr. Pepper over the roast. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours until pork is tender. Shred with forks.

 This is a little trick I learned from Pinterest as well!  Who knew you could use your Kitchen-Aid to shred your meat?  I will never use 2 forks again!  I got a blister once doing that!  And Bonus, I got to use my brand new Kitchen-Aid twice today!

I thought it would be easier to put the kids in a hotdog bun and I was right!  My older kids loved it and my younger 2, well, they don't eat much of anything, so you know...

Slow Cooker Lasagna!

I made this recipe once before and to me it was a bomb.  Justin said it was fine, but I thought it was flavorless and mushy.  So, HERE is where I got the recipe and this is what I did to make it yummy...

1 lb. ground beef

2 large cans Spaghetti sauce (26.5 oz. each) mine was garlic and onion flavored, but when I tasted it, you couldn't tell.

8 oz. package lasagna noodles uncooked

4 cups mozzarella cheese

2 cups cottage cheese (16 oz. container)

onion and garlic to season meat 

 Seasoning the meat in the original recipe was a side note, I feel it must be done!

I used about a half and onion and 1 tbsp. minced garlic, but to each their own on this, it just needs some flavor!  Once browned add the sauce.

 I forgot to take a pic with each layer, and then my flash wouldn't work :P

Spray with cooking oil and then put 1/4 the meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Layer 1/3 of the noodles to cover as best as possible.  Then mix up the cheeses and put 1/3 on top of noodles.

 Continue with this pattern until you end with meat sauce on top

 Cook on low for 3 hours

 Let stand 10 to 20 minutes (with lid off) to set.

Enjoy! 

*Note, I am using a 7 quart slow cooker, so that is why I ended up needing so much sauce!  Next time I will use my smaller slow cooker to do this, because we didn't even eat half.  But, this time it was yummy because I didn't use tomato sauce like the original recipe said and I cooked it less time and used a lot more seasonings.  So to do a smaller batch I'd say 1 can of spaghetti sauce would do, but have an extra one on hand just in case.

Chicken n Dumplings in the Slow Cooker

This is one of our new favorite recipes for the slow cooker!  It's so good that I'm going to have to double it for my big family so that we actually have some leftovers!  YUM!  I found the recipe HERE.  That recipe calls for the grands flaky refrigerator biscuits, but those aren't in my budget and I don't really care for them to begin with, so here is what I did. 

Total cooking time 4 hours on high (the original recipe calls for 4-6 hours on high, but I find that the chicken is dry if you cook it that long.)

2-3 Large boneless skinless chicken breasts 

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth (I always use water and chicken bullion because it's cheaper and easier on my storage space.)

1 onion diced

1 tablespoon dried parsley
1-2 cups frozen veggies (we always add extra peas, yum!)

Dumplings:

2 cups Bisquick (I would have used my Jiffy Mix, but I was out.)

1/2 cup Milk
Mix Bisquick and milk together to form dough.  Powder your hands with some Bisquick flour and roll out dumplings.  I usually make mine about the size of a small bouncy ball.  I make them ahead and put them in the fridge just so that when it's time to put them in they are ready.

 Put the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker and the butter on top (I was doubling it, but it ended up being too much chicken)

 Pour the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth on top

 Add the veggies and mix a bit and cook on high for 3 1/2 hours

 Shred the chicken then...

 Add the dumplings

After I put the dumplings in I try to cover them with sauce.  (these look extra big because they start to expand right away, but I made them about the size of a small bouncy ball.)  Place the lid back on for 30 minutes and serve.

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

 I made this soup last night.  Knowing my family and hoping it is super yummy I doubled it.  I had a small freak out right before serving realizing that I made A LOT of soup so if they didn't like it I was in big trouble!  I found the recipe HERE.

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I of course changed it a bit, so here is MY version:
Cream Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients:
4 cups water with 4 tsp. chicken bullion
1 cup water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package of Farm House long grain and wild rice (because my grocery store didn't have the Rice-a-Roni kind) 
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
2 cups half and half 
1 cup grated carrots (I diced mine)
1 cup diced celery

Directions:

Combine broth, water, carrots, celery, chicken and rice (along with seasoning packet) in a large slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. 

Take out chicken and shred with two forks and then add back into slow cooker. In a small bowl combine salt, pepper, and flour. In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour mixture by tablespoon to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Stir cream mixture into slow cooker and then let cook on low for 15 more minutes.  I ended up doing 3 hours 30 minutes on high, because I was low on time and knew that every time I do chicken in the slow cooker it gets over done.  I shredded it, added the roux and only ended up putting it back in for another 10 minutes.  My roux was a little extra thick because I only had 3 cups of half and half instead of 4 (I doubled the recipe remember.)  So, my soup turned out extra thick.

See how thick it is?  We loved it!  But, when I went to reheat it for my kids lunches today I had to add water!  If you don't want it so thick, use 2 cups of water instead of 1 and use all the half and half when making your roux. :)  It took some convincing to get my kids to try it, (see how hard my life is, lol) but, once they tried it they loved it!  I served it with cornbread! YUM!