EASY SLOW COOKER SEASONED PORK CHOPS

“Fall of the bone seasoned goodness.”  Throw it all in the slow cooker and walk away until about 15 minutes before you eat.

Ingredients:

4 – 6 bone in pork chops

1 onion, peeled and quartered

½ cup Chicken Broth (I use low sodium)

Meat Seasoning – to taste (I used Bill Baron’s Savory Secrets Roast Meat Seasoning Secret #1)

Garlic Pepper – to taste (I used Bill Baron’s Savory Secrets Garlic & Pepper Secret #6)

Directions:

Line a slow cooker with a slow cooker liner.

Place quartered onions on the bottom of the slow cooker.  Add ½ cup chicken broth.  Place pork chops on the bed of onions.  Liberally Sprinkle seasoning on the pork chops…I like to make sure all parts of the chops have at least some seasoning.  Turn your slow cooker on LOW and cook for 6 – 8 hours or until done.  Your pork chops should be extremely flavorful and just about fall off the bone.  Serve with mashed potatoes or rice and a vegetable.  ENJOY!

Ingredients

Ready to Cook

8 hours later - Ready to Serve

Plated

YUM

SLOW COOKER CHICKEN PARMESAN AND PENNE PASTA

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil (I used garlic olive oil)

7 - 8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 (12 oz.) box Penne Pasta (I use the veggie penne) Boil for only 4 minutes

½ teaspoon salt

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts – cooked (baked, boiled, etc,) (or rotisserie chicken breasts)

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

2 (24 oz.) marinara sauce (I use 1 jar of Bertolli 5 Cheese Marinara Sauce)

1 teaspoon onion herb Mrs. Dash seasoning or Italian seasoning

2 cups mozzarella shredded (I use low fat 2% milk fat cheese)

4 oz. Parmesan Grated or shredded

1 (5 oz.) bag croutons

Directions:

Line your slow cooker with slow cooker liners.

Peel about 7 garlic cloves and chop them into tiny pieces.

Add the garlic and olive oil to a sauteuse pan.  On medium heat, stir and cook until the garlic begins to be toasted.  Set aside

Boil water with ½ teaspoon salt.  Once a rapid boil is reached, add the box of penne.  Boil for 4 minutes, then remove from heat and drain.  Toss with half of the toasted garlic and olive oil that was set aside.

Chop two of the chicken breasts into tiny pieces (I use a food chopper)

In a large mixing bowl add the penne, the marinara, 1 teaspoon onion herb Mrs. Dash seasoning, and ½ cup shredded Parmesan.  Mix well.

Pour half of the pasta mixture into the slow cooker.  Place the remaining 2 chicken breasts on the bed of penne.  Top chicken and pasta with 1 cup ½  cup parmesan and 1 cup mozzarella.  Pour the remaining pasta mixture over chicken.  Top with ¼ cup parmesan.

Slow Cook on LOW for 4 hours.

About ½ hour before serving, top with the croutons and sprinkle croutons with any remaining cheese.  Once the cheese is melted, remove the lid until it is only partly covering the crock.

Ingredients

Chopped Chicken

Chopped Garlic

Toasted Garlic

Firm Boiled Penne tossed in Garlic Olive Oil

Toasted Garlic and Olive Oil on bottom of lined crock pot

Mixing Pasta, Chicken, Cheese, Sauce

All Mixed Up

Layering Chicken

Cheese on Chicken

Ready to slow Cook

Ready to top with croutons

Croutons

Cheese topped croutons

Lid Askew

Ready to Serve

ALL MEAT PIZZA

Adapted from http://www.laurenslatest.com/fail-proof-pizza-dough-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-sticks-just-like-in-restaurants/
yield: 2-18 inch pizzas, approximately 1 lb. of dough

Pizza Dough Ingredients:
2 cups warm milk
4 ½  teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt

1  - 2 teaspoons Garlic Herb Mrs. Dash
4 tablespoons olive or canola oil
6 cups bread flour {give or take 1/2 cup…depending on the heat & humidity}

Pizza Dough Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, stir yeast and sugar into warm milk. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. This tells you that the yeast is alive and kicking. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix.

Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn’t stick to your hands.

Either by hand or with the bread hooks on your mixture, knead the dough for approximately 6 minutes until it easily comes away from the bowl.

The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean!

Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn’t dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours.

Divide the dough into two balls. Prepare your pan (if not using a baking stone) with baking spray…then sprinkle corn meal on it.  Shake the excess cornmeal off of it. 

 Roll out the dough into 2 circles and place on a greased pizza stone or pizza pan.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Prick the dough with a fork.

Pizza Ingredients:

2- 3 Tablespoons Pizza Sauce (I use Contadina Easy Squeeze Pizza Sauce)

1 – 2 Cups Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese (or cheddar / jack cheese)

1 – 2 Cups Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese

Pepperoni slices (I like the mini pepperoni slices that I can find at Walmart)

2 packages Canadian Bacon

5 sausage links

Pizza Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Cut the Canadian Bacon circles in half (if desired).  Cut the sausage into disks

With a Pastry Brush, brush pizza sauce onto the circles of pizza dough.  Top with cheese, then Canadian bacon, then pepperoni, then sausage. 

Bake in a 375 F degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Checking it after 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, Rotate pizza in oven for more even baking.

SLOW COOKER WHITE CHEESE CHICKEN LASAGNA

INGREDIENTS:

9 – 12 lasagna noodles or 6 – 8 square lasagna noodles (I use oven ready)	1 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped
½ cup butter, cubed	¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, to taste
½ onion, chopped	¼ teaspoon ground white pepper, to taste
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced	2 cups low fat ricotta cheese
½ cup all purpose flour	2 cups low fat cottage cheese
1 teaspoon salt	2 cups (4 chicken breasts) cooked chicken breast, cubed
2 cups Swanson low sodium chicken broth	4 tablespoons (or 1 bunch) chopped fresh parsley
1 ½ cups low fat milk	¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping
4 - 5 cups low fat shredded mozzarella cheese, divided	Parsley for topping
2 cups grated parmesan, divided	(1 (10 oz. package) frozen spinach, optional)
¼ teaspoon Garlic Herb Mrs. Dash

Preparations Needed:  Cube butter, chop onion, peel garlic, mince garlic, wash, cut and chop basil and parsley.  Cube chicken, Cook and season chicken. 

Prep your slow cooker with a slow cooker liner. 

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water.  (if using oven ready noodles, omit boiling them and going through this step.

To Make the Ricotta/Cottage Cheese Mixture:   In a medium mixing bowl, pour in the ricotta, and the cottage cheese.  Add 2 cups mozzarella and ½ cup Parmesan.  Mix well.  Add ¾ of the prepared parsley and mix well.

Cube and season your chicken with the Garlic Herb Mrs. Dash.  Fry in a sauteuse pan just until cooked through (so it is still tender and juicy).  Set aside.

To make the Cheese Sauce:  Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently.  Stir in the flour and  salt, and simmer until bubbly.  Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Stir in 2 cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese.  Season with the basil, ground pepper and white pepper.  Remove from heat, and set aside.

To Assemble the Lasagna: 

Layers from BOTTOM to top:

1.       Cheese sauce

2.       Noodles

3.       Ricotta/Cottage Cheese Mixture

4.       Cubed chicken

5.       Noodles

6.       Cheese sauce

7.       Spinach (optional) or Cubed Chicken

8.       Mozzarella/Parmesan

9.       Noodles

10.   Cheese Sauce
11. Noodles

12. Parsley

13. Parmesan Cheese and mozzarella

Turn your slow cooker on low and cook for 4 – 6 hours.  About 30 minutes before serving, turn off slow cooker and remove lid part way to help the layers firm up.  Serve with your favorite veggie.  (I use steamed broccoli seasoned with sea salt)

Ingredients

Prepped items

Cheese Mixture

Cubed Chicken

Cheese Sauce

Layering

More layering

Ready to cook

Ready to Eat

TURKEY BREAST ROAST, SLOW COOKER

Ingredients:

1 Turkey Breast Roast or Turkey Breast with Bone In (approximately 3 – 5 pounds)

4 onions, peeled and quartered

6 potatoes, peeled

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ bag mini carrots

1/2 cup chicken broth (I use the reduced sodium broth)

Sea salt, to taste

Cracked peppercorns, to taste

Garlic Herb Mrs. Dash, to taste

Directions:

Line your slow cooker with a plastic slow cooker liner.  Place the quartered onions on the bottom of the cooker.  Place your turkey roast on top of the bed of onion.  Pour in the chicken broth.  Add your seasonings and minced garlic.  Add the carrots and the potatoes.  Slow cook on LOW for 8 hours.  Serve with stuffing.

Ingtedients

Onions

Turkey on Bed of Onions

Ready to Cook

Almost Done

Ready to Serve