Easy Crockpot Brisket/Roast

Doesn't get easier then this. This is my absolute favorite crock pot recipe!

1. place brisket/roast in crockpot

2. mix envelope of onion soup and 1/2 cup water; pour over roast*

3. cook on low for 7 hours

That is all the ingredients!!! Place your beef in the crockpot fat side down. Serve with potatoes and steamed carrots!

Check out www.justslowcooking.com for more recipes.

*Note: If you don't have an onion soup mix, I used seasonings like onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, paprika.

Plum-Spiced Brisket
A bit different than the traditional recipe for brisket, but one that introduces more flavor and tender meat.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
3 1/2 pounds beef brisket, trimmed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
4 cans beef broth
2 cups finely chopped dried plums
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Heat the sesame oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown in the heated oil. Add the remaining ingredients and 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Cover, transfer to the oven, and cook for four hours, turning the brisket once every hour. Serve brisket with the cooking liquid

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/recipes/beef-brisket-chanukah-hannukah#ixzz0ZgXXVpU2

From a Jewish calendar
brisket
1-3/4 cup chicken broth
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T sugar
1 T all-purpose flour
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1/2 tsp thyme

Chicken Parmesan (Crockpot)

Thanks to "A year of slow cooking" for this Chicken Parmesan recipe.

The Ingredients:
--2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

--1/2 cup bread crumbs

--1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

--1/2 t Italian Seasoning

--1/4 t black pepper

--1/4 t kosher salt

--1 T olive oil

--1 beaten egg

--sliced mozzarella cheese

--favorite jarred marinara sauce
(we used Paul Newman's marinara sauce which was really nice)

The Directions:

--spread the 1 T of olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot stoneware insert

--whip the egg with a fork in a separate bowl

--mix bread crumbs, seasonings and Parmesan cheese in a separate dish

--dip the chicken into the egg, then bread crumbs, coating both sides

--place the chicken breast pieces in the bottom of the crock

--layer slices of mozzarella cheese on top

--cover with entire jar of marinara sauce

--close lid and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4.
If your chicken is still frozen, it will take longer.

Serve over your favorite pasta. Also served with steamed carrots.

The Verdict.

This tasted great, was really easy, and presented well. This is definitely a dish you can serve to company without hesitation.

Crockpot Manicotti

100 degree weather has come back making the oven a horrible 4-letter word. Because we've having such a warm summer, I've been doing a lot of crockpot cooking and turning on the crockpot outside on our backyard porch to keep from using the oven. I feel like the woman who started the blog A Year of Crockpotting, which has provided some ideas for past and future dishes.

Typically I cook traditional crockpot menus like stews, chilli and roasts but today I tried manicotti. I prepared it following the box, with a few healthier substitutions.

1. Cooked the manicotti noodles for 7 min in boiling water.
2. Steamed a bag of spinach.
3. In a bowl, mixed 2 eggs, 1/3 cup basil and pinch of pepper and parsley.
4. Add 16 oz fat free cottage cheese, spinach, diced uncooked mushrooms, and 1/2 cup skim shredded mozeralla and cheddar blend.
4. In bottom of crockpot mixed together 8 oz can of diced tomatoes and small can of tomato paste, along with seasonings - basil, oregano, dried garlic, dried onion flakes, crushed red pepper, pepper and salt.
5. Stuffed shells with cheese mix and placed into crockpot.
6. Repeated step #4 on top of stuffed shells.

Cook on low about 3 hours.

This tasted cooked through and was hot. More juice at the bottom then I expected but the stuffed shells were tender and not dry so I think the recipe translated well to the crockpot.

Creamy Italian Chicken (aka Bay of Chicken)

Fam over for dinner so I thought I'd do a crockpot so that we could spend more time together and less in the kitchen. It was a HOT day so I tried something new and put the crockpot outside. When I say hot, it was already reaching the 90s at 9am. This worked out brilliant and I'll do it again. Yes, I know the crockpot doesn't radiate a lot of heat but even a little bit helps when it's a 104 degrees outside.

Creamy Italian Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
bag of brocolli and cauliflower
1 envelope Italina salad dressing mix*
1/4 water
1 pkg 8oz cream cheese
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
a little milk to make sauce less thick if needed
1 cup mushrooms
hot cooked rice or noodles (like bowtie, penne, etc...)

*homemade seasonings: 1/3 cup Parmasan cheese, 1 Tbl garlic powder (or crushed garlic), 1 Tbl onion powder, 1 Tbl paprika, 1 Tbl Italian seasonings, 1 Tbl basil, 1 Tbl oregeno, 1 Tbl crushed black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt

1. place chicken and veggies in crockpot
2. combine seasonin mix and water; pour over chicken
3. cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.
4. In small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and soup until blended; stir in mushrooms
5. pour over chicken and cook another hour
6. server over rice or noodles

So this recipe got it alias "Bay of Chicken" because in my overzealousness to make the seasonings myself I confused fresh dried bay leaves for basil leaves. They both start with b but only one can be eaten while the other is strictly adds flavor and should be pulled out prior to eating. It tasted wonderfully but we had to pick out the pieces of bay leaves that I managed to crush really, realy small. Note to self for next time.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Using a Crockpot slow cooks the ingredients, making it very tender. A Crockpot also makes a big pot for serving a lot of people, or leftovers another day. And speaking of leftovers, we made some tasty 'Sweet & Sour Chicken' bagel pizzas with the ingredients accompanied with the sauce which made an excellent tomato-like soup.

Ingredients
2/3 chicken breast, 1/3 chicken thigh - browned
carrots, onions and celery
can vegetable broth
can stewed tomatoes
4 T soy sauce
2 T all spice
2 T pepper
chopped ginger
pineapple
red pepper

Steps
1. Place chicken on bottom of crockpot and top with carrots, onions and celery.
2. Top with broth, tomatoes, soy sauce, all spice, pepper and ginger.
3. Cook on low 8 hours, high 4 hours.
4. When ready, add cut up pineapple and red peppers and cook another 15 minutes.
5. Server over rice.