This is a variation of a recipe my Mom used to do when I was growing up. It was usually a Sunday specialty.

-Take the skin off of 1 whole chicken and remove the insides of the chicken (who would eat them anyway?!)

-In the bottom of your crock pot, place slices of white or sweet onion, and sliced carrots. Place your skinned chicken on top of the onions and carrots.

-Inside of your chicken, place more onions, carrots and season with salt, pepper, garlic and Thyme.

-Sprinkle more salt, pepper, garlic, and Thyme on the outside of the chicken and place more sliced carrots and a few more onion slices around and on top of the chicken. You can also chop up some potatoes (red or brown) and throw those in there too. ( I personally don't like my potatoes in the crock pot. I think they get too mushy. I know, I am weird!) Cook for a few hours or until chicken is falling off the bones!

-If you put potatoes and carrots in your crock pot, you have a whole meal ready to eat. If not, serve chicken with a green salad and mashed sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, diced and seasoned red potatoes, you get the picture. Chicken, potatoes, and vegetables. Enjoy!

This is a recipe that a family friend where I grew up would not give out. Then our family moved and we have been passing it around since! It is delicious, easy, filling, and great in the crock pot for a cold day. But note, it is NOT a healthy soup. I am still looking for some really great, healthy, and delicious soups, so if you have some, PLEASE let me know!

Boil and cut into chunks 2 chicken breasts.
Put in crock pot (or if in a pinch, you can cook this on the stove for about 30 min) with:
-enough corn to fill the bottom of the pot (or more if you like a lot of corn)
-1 small can of green chilis
-1 pkg. taco seasoning
-1 can cream of potato soup
-2 -3 cups chicken broth (If you like yours more like soup, add 3 cups; if you want it thicker, add more like 1 1/2-2 cups. If you are using the broth from your chicken you just boiled, add a crushed chicken bullion cube for more flavoring.)

-About 20 min. before ready to eat, add 1 c. sour cream and a 1/2 of a small block of velveeta cheese diced (You can omit the sour cream if you don't like it, or even reduce the amount to make it less creamy. We like ours really cheesy so we end up doing about 3/4 of the bar of cheese.)

-A great finishing touch and something to add more flavor to this is adding chopped bits of cilantro on top when you are ready to eat.

-To make this go farther and feed more, cook up some brown rice and put some in the bottom of the bowls with the soup on top. It is a lot more filling.

-Can be served with tortilla chips and chunks of avocado on the side as well. ENJOY!

This is a great meal to feel a lot of people. I have used 3-4 pork chops, or a pork roast. Add whatever toppings you like, and voila! A meal for many! Serve with fresh fruit salad, warm wheat torillas and spanish rice (still working on a good recipe for this. Have one? Let me know!).

Put 3-4 pork chops or a whole pork roast (serves 4-5 adults) in crockpot about 5 hours on medium and pour Mesquite marinade over top (I have used Lawrys, but am looking for a homemade one so I can get away from the high fructose corn syrup in the store bought ones) and walk away for a few hours! Then when it falls apart, shred it in the crock pot so all of the meat can soak in the marinade and turn on warm until ready to serve.

Serve with wheat tortillas and...
olives
guacamole (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, lemon juice mixed in
with 2-3 avocadoes)
lettuce
shredded cheese
black beans
pico de gallo


Pico de Gallo
Mix together in a bowl a few hours before serving to let flavors soak together:

1 large tomato diced small
handful of cilantro cut up small
couple slices of red onion diced
sprinkle garlic salt or about 1/2 tsp minced garlic
dash of salt and pepper

Want it to have a little kick? Add about half of a small diced jalapeno (seeds out)

This is a recipe that I got from my Mom, who I think got it from my Aunt?? Anywho... it is really good, but turns out different every time I make it. The only thing different though is how spicy it is. Depending on your brand of rotel tomatoes, it may be really spicy, or hardly at all. But, it is a great crockpot dinner. Put it in and forget about it, or you can cook it on the stove in a big pot.

Before you start cooking everything else, make sure you have cooked and diced chicken (no seasonings necessary; I boil mine to make it quick; I usually only use 1 chicken breast), sausage (Turkey sausage, or regular; I usually use about half of the package), about 1/2 pound cooked shrimp w/tail off.

Add into the pot and stir:
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (I usually omit this)

Add in the meat: sausage, chicken, shrimp.

I don't ever measure the vegetables, but just kind of throw it in and do what looks good to me. Don't like as much onion or green pepper?? Add more red pepper or celery.

Dice and add to tomato and meat mixture:
red pepper
green pepper
yellow or orange pepper (I never have this so I usually omit this one)
white onion
celery

Cook in crock pot for a few hours or until vegetables are soft. Or, cook on stove in a big pot until vegetables are soft. Serve with rice mixed in, or to the side and a green salad. YUM!