Week o’ Slow Cooking 2010!

I don’t know about you, but all this cold weather is starting to get to me!  I think I needed something to get me out of this winter rut so I {randomly} decided to make an entire week’s worth of “school night” meals {Sun-Thurs} in the crockpot, thus, Week o’ Slow Cooking 2010! 

I love my crock pot, but don’t use it enough so I thought I would FORCE myself to use it for an entire week.  We’ve had some real winners and we’ve had one {okay, two} complete busts!  In the meantime I thought I’d share the {good} recipes with you all in case you’re like me and love your crock pot and need the push to use it more often. 

Sunday: Angel Chicken {This is one of my favorites!}

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 c. butter
1 envelope Italian dry salad dressing mix
1 can of condensed golden mushroom soup {Once I accidently made it with cream of mushroom soup instead and it was still great!}
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. dry white wine or water {I just used the water.}
Cooked angel hair pasta

Place your chicken pieces in the slow cooker.  On the stovetop melt your butter then stir in you salad dressing mix and soup, cream cheese, and wine.  Pour over your chicken.  Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours {My crock pot is REALLY fast so it was done in more like 2-3 hours.}  Serve chicken over angel hair pasta.  {Our favorite part of this recipe is the creamy sauce so I think I might double it next time!}  :)

Monday: Italian Beef Sandwiches {This recipe is the hands-down winner.  It was so so so yummy!}

1 4-lb boneless beef sirloin or round rump roast {I only got a 2.5 or 3 lb roast and left all the other ingredients the way the recipe called and it was perfect.}
1 cup water
1 envelope Italian dry salad dressing mix
2 t. dried Italian Seasoning
1/2 to 1 t.crushed red pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
Kaiser Rolls
bottle of roasted red sweet peppers drained and cut in strips. {optional, but we used them and liked them}

Place your meat in the slower cooker.  Mix the water and spices in a separate bowl and then pour over your meat.  Cook 10-12 hours (low) or 5-6 hours (high). {I did 5-6 hours low and it was perfect.} Shred the meat and serve it on kaiser rolls with sweet pepper strips on top. 

It was delicious!  We had enough for left overs on {ahem} Wednesday night…

Tuesday: Chicken and Dumplings

{The dumplings were made with refrigerated biscuit dough so it was super easy, and tasty enough, but I don’t think it will be a repeat recipe in our house}

Wednesday: Potato Beef something-or-other

{This recipe is not worth sharing… I don’t know why I decided to even try it because it was pretty bad.  On the upside I made rolls to go with it so we used the rolls for the left over Italian Beef!}

Thursday: South o’ the Border Chicken Casserole

{This one was pretty good!  Chris liked it more than  me, so unless he requests it at some point it may or may not make another appearance. :)}

* * *

We had to laugh at how our week of the slow cooker ended…  I was putting Asher to bed and asked Chris to turn on the tea kettle so I could make some hot chocolate.  I emerged from Asher’s room to a strange smell, obviously Chris was smelling it too because he ran to the kitchen and realized he had turned on the wrong burner.  It just so happened to be the burner where I had placed the lid of the slow cooker!  We didn’t know exactly what to do since it was smoking so we put the lid in the crock pot which was soaking in soapy water in the sink just in time to see the glass lid crack like an enormous spider web.  We were both pretty speechless!  Chris decided our week went out with a bang!  I think it’s time to put a new Crock Pot on my Christmas list!!  ;)

In the meantime, if any of you have any “winner” crock pot recipes please share!