chocolate crock-pot cake

it's funny that laura posted the turkey meatball recipe. it's one of my favorites and i make it all the time. it comes from the "best-loved slow cooker recipes" book and it's great. i usually make it with mashed potatoes, but love it with egg noodles too. i made it last night since it's my favorite go-to crock-pot recipe. and i mentioned this in the comments of laura's post, but i always double the gravy. if not, there's definitely not enough.

so to go along with my crock-pot meatballs, i made cjane's chocolate crock-pot cake. it was really easy and (according to everyone else) really good. i just don't love chocolate cake, so as far as chocolate cake goes, it was good. ella just thought it was so weird that i made a cake in the crock-pot. we had it with whip cream and ice cream for double the fun.

here's the recipe:

1 package chocolate cake mix
1 container of sour cream (8 oz)
1 cup chocolate morsels
1 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil (i almost always substitute oil for applesauce in cakes, and so for this, since i hadn't made this before, i did half applesauce and half oil)
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix

spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray.
mix cake mix, sour cream, chocolate morsels, water, egss, oil and pudding mix in a bowl by hand.
pour into crock pot. cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.

crockpot meatballs

(I already cut my meatballs in half to cool before I realized I wanted to take a picture)

This is another one I got from Kelly (sorry to keep posting your recipes). I love this recipe for a few reasons. First, it requires the crockpot. This takes about 30 minutes prep time in the morning, and I don't know about you, but my mornings are always calmer than my evenings, so it is worth it to have dinner practically done by 10AM. Second, I love that it uses ground turkey. Such a healthier alternative, and by cooking it in the crockpot it stays tender and does not dry out, which is sometimes a problem substituting ground turkey.

Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey
combine with:

1 egg
less than 1/2 cup bread crumbs
onion flakes (just pour in desired amount. of course you could always use a chopped onion)
1 Tbs. parsley
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp. black pepper
sprinkle garlic powder

Roll into 1 inch balls and brown in a skillet. Remember that you don't need to cook them through, you are just browning the sides so they will stay formed for the crockpot.

Sauce
Mix:
1 can cream of mushroom
1 cup water
1 package turkey gravy mix
1/8 tsp. thyme

the last few times I have made this, I didn't feel like I had enough sauce, so this time I doubled the sauce and was glad I did.

Pour sauce over meatballs and cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

mango chicken

this recipe is courtesy of Just Cook Already. it contains all of my favorite things: crockpot, easy and good.

15-20 frozen chicken tenders {in bag from costco they are quite small.} (I just use 2 chicken breasts) I have also used a pork roast, which tastes great as well.
2 cups mango salsa {costco kind with peach is the best.} (ralphs also carries a good mango/peach salsa - I just use the entire container)
2/3 cup brown sugar (I cut this down to 1/3 cup and it is still plenty sweet)
1 TBSP salt

Mix ingredients together and pour over chicken in crockpot. cook on low approx. 8 hours. Shred chicken. I serve in flour tortillas, with whatever toppings you like.

Brownie Trifle

I made this for dessert last night when we had a pre-valentines dinner with friends. I'd made it before and it's really good. I got it from According to Kelly.

1 big pkg. fudge brownie mix
2 big pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix (i used two small packages and it was fine)
8 heath bars, crushed or 2 bags of skor chips (i used less than one bag of heath chips)
1+ container whipped topping (i probably used close to two, one for each layer, but i don't have a trifle bowl, just a big glass bowl and i needed a lot to cover the surface.)
chocolate curls (optional)

prepare brownie mix, bake per directions in 9x13 inch pan. Let cool and then crumble. prepare pudding per the package directions, chilling for 5-10 minutes. place a layer of crumbled brownies in bottom of 3-quart trifle dish (or any bowl), top with a layer of the pudding, crushed candy bars and whipped topping. repeat layers, ending with the whipped topping. garnish with chocolate curls. chill 8 hours (or as long as you have).

according to kelly also suggests using pre-made brownie bites if you're short on time.

Classic Pot Roast with Mushrooms

So I made another roast tonight which had Wade lamenting: "not another roast!" But alas, he liked it and said it was better than my other ones. Yipee! I got the recipe from the Relish magazine that comes with the newspaper. It calls to cook the roast in a large dutch oven, but since I don't own one, I put it in the crock-pot and called it good.

This is what the article said about the recipe: "This pot roast melts in your mouth and has lots of sauce. Any mushrooms will work, but we like portabello and shiitake best. The recipe can be altered in a multitude of ways: adding chiles gives it a kick, adding more root veggies brings out a decidedly wintry character, and adding some bacon or smoked sausages adds depth of flavor."

3 lbs. chuck roast (about 2 inches thick)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3 T olive oil, divided

2 1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow or white onion (I did about 3/4 of an onion)

3/4 cup diced carrot (I did one carrot)

3/4 cup diced celery (I did one stalk of celery)

1 parsnip, peeled and diced (I omitted this)

8 garlic cloves, chopped (I used minced garlic, like 3 or 4 spoonfuls)

1 lb. shiitake or portabello mushrooms, sliced (I did 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms and 8 oz. of shiitake mushrooms)

1 tsp. chili powder

1 1/2 cups beef broth

8 oz. tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups red wine (I substituted chicken broth)

1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. cold water

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Tim beef of all visible fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. (Again, I just did the crock-pot.)

2. Heat 2 T. oil in a large Dutch oven. Add beef and brown on all sides. Remove from pan. (I did this in a skillet.)

3. Add remaining 1 T. oil, onion, carrot, celery and parsnip to pan. Saute until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.

4. Add garlic, mushrooms, chili powder and cook 3 minutes.

I took the roasts out of the pan after they were browned and put them in the crock pot. Then I sauted all the ingredients from #3 and 4 in the skillet.

5. Return meat to pan, and add broth, tomato sauce, red wine, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Place in oven adn cook 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until beef is fork tender. There will be lots of liquid.

I just put all that on top in the crock-pot and cooked 8 hours on low.

6. Dissolve constarch in cold water. Pour cornstartch mixture into pan, stirring constantly. Return to oven and cook 15 minutes or until sauce has thickened.

I did this about 30 minutes before I was going to serve.

It was really good. I took the roast out to shred and then returned to the crock-pot. I served with mashed potatoes and used a slotted spoon to get the meat and veggies out.

beef taquitos

I got this recipe from Kelly. It has been a favorite around here and a healthier alternative to traditional taquitos, since these are baked, not fried.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (I have used ground turkey for this and I think it tastes great)

1 medium onion, chopped (I usually just use a bunch of dried onion flakes)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup salsa (I usually do closer to 3/4 cup)

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Tortillas

grated cheese

oil (I use EVOO, but you can use vegetable too)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cook ground beef with onion and garlic. Drain fat.

3. Add salsa, chili powder, salt, and pepper. cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

4. Microwave tortillas until warm and pliable (about 45 seconds)

5. Place meat in center of tortillas (about 1/4 cup in each), top with grated cheese, roll tortillas and place on foil lined baking sheet, seam side down. Brush taquitos with oil.

6. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, or until tortillas are lightly browned.

I served with some homemade quacamole.

triple cheese pesto pita pizzas

i've been on a cooking hiatus lately as chaos has overtaken my life. i did make spaghetti tonight, but nothing fancy enough to actually post a recipe about. but saturday i actually made something from my good old "Betty Crocker's New Cookbook" that i got for my wedding. it was super easy and pretty good. i should've cooked it for a few more minutes and i wouldn't have put quite as much of the cream cheese mixture on mine. i think i like less of a cream cheesiness. here it is:

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 T. milk

6 whole wheat or white pita breads (6 in. in diameter)

6 T. pesto

1 can sliced ripe olives, drained

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 T. grated parmesan cheese

2 T. chopped fresh parsley

Heat over to 425.

Mix cream cheese and milk until smooth. Since I was making 4 pita pizzas and two were going to be regular pizza sauce and cheese, I halved the cream cheese and milk. I mixed it with my hand mixer.

Place pita breads on ungreased large cookie sheets. Spread cream cheese mixture on pita breads to within 1/4 inch of edge. Carefully spread pesto over cream cheese. Top with olives. Sprinkle with cheeses and parsley. (Of course, I only had dried parsley.)

Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese was melted.

Like I said, they were super easy and tasted good on the pita bread. So it's a quick easy way to make pizza with a pesto and cream cheese twist.