A Little Knitty

Here is a simple way to stock your freezer for those times when you are super busy! I do use pre-made dressings as short cuts in the recipes below, but you could totally substitute your own homemade versions of ranch dressing mix  or italian dressing   if you would like.  Each of the following meals will serve 4-6 people, but you'll need sides too, but I'll give fast ideas for those too! For our family, I use 2 lbs of meat per meal (except the flank steak & mexichicken), you might want to use more or less depending on your family. You can easily add more meat if you like. These are all "dump" meals, and over 1/2 of them you will need a crockpot for. They are designed to fill in on those super busy days, not necessarily to be eaten over the next 10 days because you might get a little tired of them! I have found having these 2-3 days a week has really helped our meal planning. I will list a shopping list for everything you will need to make the meals (including sugg

This is one of my FAVORITE meals...and lots of variations depending on our mood. It usually starts out with the following: 1 lb chicken breast or thighs (or a mixture, and it can be frozen) 1 can corn 1 can fire roasted, diced tomatoes (sure, you can use normal diced, but I like fire roasted!) 1 can black beans 1 can pinto beans 1 cup salsa 2 TBSP Taco seasoning (or whatever you like...I got the mondo package pictured below from Costco, but when it's gone I plan on filling it with this  because it's yumtastic) Throw it all in the crockpot and cook on Low 6-8 hours (if you are using fresh chicken, you can go with less time...but for frozen chicken I would go with the 8 hours). We serve over cilantro-lime rice in a bowl or put the chicken mixture in tortillas. Don't forget to top with cheese, sour cream, avocado, green onions, tomatoes, crushed tortilla chips...whatever floats your boat! Oh! And one variation is to add 8 oz cream cheese during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Overachiever of the day goes to....ME!!!!! No blog posts for months...then...BLAMO...3 in one day! But I had to share what is in my crockpot right now! http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/diabetic-recipes/30-minute/easy-recipes-in-a-bowl/ I doubled the recipe and I will add peas near the end (I don't think they will last 8 hours in the crockpot). I'll let ya know how it turns out...but so far it's looking fantastic! What's in YOUR Crockpot today? *UPDATED* Oh goodness, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself....other times you need to publish your mistakes so that OTHER people can laugh at you. This weekend we went to Seattle and I picked up some pretty colored carrots. Today, when I was prepping the meal I linked above, I pushed the baby carrots that I purchased for the meal to the side and headed straight for the beautiful Pike Place Market carrots. I peeled, chopped and dumped the beauties into the crockpot. I then turned the crock pot off and left it to do its

I have many variations of this meal but here is how we are going to throw down today... First, put some chicken boobs in your crock pot. (darn it, I was going to have a photo right here, but I totally forgot to take it...pretend you see chicken breasts). Done. Next, open a few cans and containers and dump them on top of your boobs (drain the beans first!) That would be a can of black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of kidney beans (I would use pinto...but was out!) salsa (1 cup) and a couple table spoons of taco seasoning. Corn is good, but I was out of that too! Now, there is one can missing from this photo....cream of chicken soup. It's missing because I'm going to make some homemade cream of chicken soup! Why go to the trouble? CHICKEN STOCK, WATER, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, CHICKEN MEAT, MALTODEXTRIN, CREAM (MILK), CONTAINS LESS THAN 1% OF: WHEAT FLOUR, VEGETABLE OIL, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, CORNSTARCH, SALT, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, LOWER SODIUM NATURAL SEA SALT, FLAVORING,

I have a minor  major obsession with my crock pot. It makes me insanely happy. I put random things in it, turn it on and when dinner time comes around, there is magical, hot food inside. This is a busy momma/lazy momma's best friend. I have come to the conclusion I could put my shoe and a bottle of A1 in there and something fantastic would come out, however I'm not really willing to try this (I really love my shoes!). Today I am making fajitas for dinner. This morning I eye'd my crock pot, wondering if it could crank out some yummy fajitas. But then I decided to just do it on the stove top instead, my crock pot really does need a day of rest! Imagine my amusement when I was surfing Pinterest just now (thank you nap time) and stumbled upon this... That right there is a recipe for Crock Pot Fajitas, folks!  (The recipe is here ) If only it weren't 2.5 hours before dinner....if only... P.S. What does one get their Crock Pot for Valentine's Day?