Colorful Summer Chili Summer chili is very nutritious because it has a variety of colorful veggies. By that time, the days are hotter. Cooking the chili in a slow cooker is wonderful. No heating up the kitchen over a hot stove. Plug the cooker in, fill it up with all the ingredients, and let it cook on low all day. In this slow cooker chili recipe, however, the hamburger has to be browned beforehand. Of course, you could do that the night before or a week before and freeze the meat until you’re ready for it. English or Sweet Peas? I like chili any timeRead More →

The easiest way to bake Irish potatoes and have them ready for you when you get home from work is in the slow cooker. What if everyone in your family doesn’t like baked Irish potatoes? Bake some Irish baking potatoes and some sweet potatoes at the same time in the slow cooker. I experimented with cooking Russet potatoes and sweet potatoes in my daughter’s KitchenAid 7-quart slow cooker recently. Some in the family don’t like sweet potatoes, so I wrapped two Russets together and two sweet potatoes together in foil and placed them in the slow cooker with about a cup of water. The experimentRead More →

Make Mac and Cheese in a Slow Cooker You can cook macaroni recipes like Easy Peasy Mac & Cheese in a slow cooker as well as on the stove. Macaroni and cheese is a favorite in my family. Perhaps you’ve read about my Creamy Cheesy Chicken in the Slow Cooker.  I made that recipe at my daughter’s house. However, it didn’t turn out just like I had intended. So my daughter surprised me that evening with a box of Kraft Velveeta brand of shells and cheese. I cooked it in the slow cooker, and it turned out great. Why Cook Boxed Macaroni and Cheese inRead More →

A Creamy Cheese Recipe Creamy Tacos is a recipe I’ve made for years, and it has been a favorite of my family and friends. It’s a great covered dish to bring to events. When you bring this dish to an event, it’s handy to have it in the slow cooker because you can plug it in and keep it on warm. However, I’ve made this plenty of times on the stove in a large pot. Seldom does my family have any left over. This recipe has Velveeta cheese in it. If you serve this to guests in your home, be sure they like cheese. MyRead More →

Good Friday weekend I went to a cousin’s wedding with my daughter, Chrissie. That meant I also got to visit a couple of weeks with Chrissie, my son-in-law, and two little sweet granddaughters. During this time, I started my 30 Days of Slow Cooker Recipes for the month of April. Cooking in my slow cooker at home is different than using Chrissie’s large quantity cooker. Hers is larger than mine. But there are more people to cook for at her house, so it’s all good. Even the baby is eating now from the table food – and she loves my “flop” rice and pasta recipes.Read More →

Chicken and Mac & Cheese Want to cook chicken in the crockpot but forgot to defrost the chicken? I wanted to make chicken with macaroni and cheese in the crockpot. But I forgot to thaw the chicken ahead of time. Some recipes say to put frozen chicken in the slow cooker. There are differing opinions on this. I read an article about the danger of not thawing chicken before cooking it in a slow cooker. To be sure, I defrosted mine in the microwave. The easiest way is to take it out the day before and let it thaw in the refrigerator. Next time, I’llRead More →

Pinto beans and cornbread sounds like an easy enough meal to make in a crockpot. Right? You have to let the beans soak for hours, so why not let them soak in a crockpot on low. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I like pinto beans (and the price of them) but tend not to think about soaking them ahead of time. I looked on Pinterest to get an idea of cooking pinto beans in the slow cooker, found a recipe that looked fairly easy, and sort of followed it. The recipe said to cook it on high for so long then on low. Well, I’mRead More →

A Two-Hour Crockpot Dessert Lemon is one of my favorite flavors – after chocolate. Chocolate Meringue Pie – that’s Number One. Lemon Meringue Pie is second. I like chocolate and lemon in more than just pie, though. Cookies, bars – mmmm. One year my hubby and daughter and I made lemon bars during winter holidays and made some extra money. That’s churches’ off-season for holding special meetings like we used to do. We had quite the assembly line with the three of us, and the lemon bars were mouth-watering delicious. Have you ever mixed lemon and berry in desserts? I get these crazy cravings sometimesRead More →

It’s already April 2, and I’ve challenged myself to post 30 slow cooker recipes on kitchenhospitality.com. Sound crazy to you? It does to me, too. I’ll tell you why. It’s crazy… because it takes a lot of planning to fix crockpot meals. my schedule isn’t always convenient to cook at all. I often make up my own recipes, and sometimes they don’t turn out right. But the challenge is on. This month I’ll post recipes for meals and desserts. They will include cooking times for 8-10 hours on low all day, others set for high and low, and desserts mostly for 2-3 hours. Don’t beRead More →

Crockpot Chicken, Rice, & Carrots Grandparenting during the days between Palm Sunday and Easter has great benefits. One is cooking for my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters. Like other young couples with busy schedules, dinner can be challenging. While helping with my little grands, stopping in time to fix dinner doesn’t always work out perfectly. Thinking of my daughter’s nice big slow cooker, I couldn’t wait to try it out. Mine (though I love it – it was a gift from my mother-in-law years ago) is much smaller. I looked in the freezer and saw options: a large package of chicken, stir-fry chicken, a package ofRead More →