Crockpot Comfort Food

Even though the summer doesn’t end in Myrtle Beach and we still have hot enough weather to go swimming, the minute the calendar turned the page to the month of September I’ve wanted fall crockpot comfort food. The season may be appropriate even if the weather doesn’t match this palette change.

My husband finds this a little odd but is rolling with it… I started a Crock Pot pinterest board to track my favorites. The white chicken chili recipe is amazing, and I may make this each week. It was so easy – which usually means it’s not going to be that fantastic – but it turned out to be delicious. I made two changes: I did not cube the chicken and I omitted the sour cream. I put the chicken breasts in whole, then shredded it before serving. This made enough for 4 of us for dinner one night – or dinner for 2 for two nights. Right… the math is pretty obvious, huh? baby brain…

I know I’m late to the party, but using the crock pot is SO easy. I used to have a slow cooker that wasn’t a slow cooker at all, and it would cook everything in 3-4 hours instead of 8 hours on low. The first time I used it to make a pot roast, I put it in the morning and came home to a charred crockpot with no liquid. If I wanted to use it, I had to come home at lunch, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the appliance.

So, in the case that you don’t have a crockpot, let me recommend the Hamilton Beech Stay or Go Slow Cooker – I got it because it wasn’t astronomically expensive but thought the handle on top was unnecessary. However, I’ve now used it twice to take with me, and am really glad it has the secure lid that clasps down and is easy to carry. The pot and lid lift out and are easy to wash (I usually put the main pot in the dishwasher.)

I also really liked making beef stew one night, and it needed a little salt, but other than that it was great. Lowe’s Foods made it very easy – they had pre-cut carrots, celery, onions, potatoes and bay leaves all ready prepped + beef cut up in cubes. I did very little to make this happen!

It only has two pins – but here is the board I’m creating for crock pot recipes – would LOVE anyone to join and pin on this so I can discover more:

Follow Hatton’s board Crock pot recipes on Pinterest.

Crockpot Tip

I’ve been putting everything in a baggie the night before – taking the chicken out, chopping the onions for the white chicken chili for example – so all I have to do is empty the bag in the crock pot in the morning and open a few cans. This probably saves about 60 seconds, but there is definitely something unappealing about dealing with raw chicken in the morning, and makes the preparation as simple as it could possibly be.