Southwestern Style Pork Chops

This meal is easy as a wink to prepare, warm and filling, oh and did I mention delicious?!  One chop was a little tough (I can’t figure out why) but the rest just pulled apart with our forks. 

Southwestern Style Pork Chops

• 6 pork chops, trimmed of excess fat
• 1 15-ounce can chili beans
• 1-1/4 cups salsa (I’d recommend a fresher salsa for this recipe  since the sauce will only be as good as the salsa you pick)
• 1 cup whole kernel corn

Place chops in the bottom of your slow cooker. Add chili beans and salsa. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. During the last hour of cooking time stir in corn. Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro, shredded cheese and sour cream if desired.

Kim’s note:  This is a lactose-free meal, cheese and sour cream are only an add-on for those who want it.

Swiss Pork Chops (slow cooker)

Here's some comfort food at its best:

I recommend to lessen the number of potatoes in the pot and make mashed potatoes on the side.  We eat the fresh mashed potatoes with dinner, then send the roasted ones with Hubby to work as leftovers.

Slow Cooker Swiss Pork Chops

• 1.5 lbs pork chops, trimmed of fat
• pepper
• 2 medium red potatoes cut into bite sized pieces (or more if not doing mashed potatoes)
• 1.5 c. baby carrots
• 1 med onion, cut into wedges
• 1 can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
• 2 packets pork gravy mix
• 1 c. cold water
• mashed potatoes, if desired

Layer potatoes, onion and pork in your slow cooker. Sprinkle chops with pepper.  Add tomatoes.  Mix up one packet of gravy with 1 cup cold water and pour into crock pot.  Top everything with the baby carrots.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 7 to 8 hours or until pork and vegetables are tender. I did 5 hours on low, then one more hour on high with great results.

Kim’s notes:  If you want to serve this meal with mashed potatoes, then make them near the end of your cooking time.  Use the second packet of gravy for serving, or add liquid from the slow cooker to the package gravy and and then thicken it.

Never thickened your own gravy? It’s easy as can be – add 1/4 c. of flour to 1 c. of water, shake until combined, or if you don’t have a shaker of some sort you can use a wire whisk to get the clumps out.  Add just a little of the flour mixture at a time to your gravy so that you don’t over thicken it.  Be sure to taste the gravy along the way so that you don’t over flour it or so that you can add spices/pepper if desired.

French Dips (Slow Cooker)

French Dips have always been one of my Hubby's favorite sandwiches, so when I saw this recipe that was so easy & delicious looking I just had to give it a go.

I even made fresh rolls with my French Bread recipe and the results were INCREDIBLE!  As I prepared things I tasted the meat & thought "Uh oh, bland." Then I tried the sauce and thought, "Uh oh, is that right?" Then we put them all together and it sang.

We ate it so fast we didn't even get a picture. : )


French Dips (Slow Cooker) - from blogchef.net

• 1 (4 pound) boneless beef roast
• ½ cup soy sauce (I used light, low sodium)
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 whole black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary (crushed)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 onion, quartered, 2 handfuls baby carrots, 3 stalks celery
• Bread for serving - I used this recipe to make 8 buns

Cooking Instructions:

Remove any visible fat from the roast and discard the fat. Place the roast into a slow cooker. In a medium bowl combine soy sauce, beef bouillon cube, bay leaf, black peppers corns, rosemary, thyme, and garlic powder. Pour the mixture over the roast. Add enough water to almost over the roast. Add any vegetables if you desire. Cover and cook in the slow cooker for 10 hours* on low heat until the roast is very tender. (*Know your cooker! Mine was done in 8 hours, maybe less.)

Remove the roast from the broth (reserving the broth). Shred the roast with two forks.  Set aside.

Remove broth from slow cooker and strain - the finer mesh the better! I strained mine right into a sauce pan and let it simmer on low until time to serve. Discard veggies, or eat them as sides - I chopped my onion and put it back in with the meat to serve.  Put meat with a few ladles of liquid back in the slow cooker and keep it on warm until time to serve.  Stuff your bread with meat and serve with broth for dipping.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

This is a dish that I tried way back when my son was new and made cooking difficult. The prep can be done the night before, and the few ingredients come together fast for a busy family chef, but the flavor makes the dish seem like lots of work. It is on our line-up of regular dishes, as well as a fun one to share at pot lucks.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken*

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, well trimmed of gristle
• 1 package (reduced sodium) taco seasoning
• 1 c. fresh salsa
• 1 can (reduced fat) cream of mushroom soup

After trimming chicken, place the breast pieces in the bottom of your slow cooker. Sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning (you don’t need to use the whole package, about half will dust the chicken well enough and you can save the rest for something else). Add the salsa and cream of mushroom soup. Cook on low for 6 hours. Before serving, mix all of the ingredients well and shred chicken pieces with a spoon and fork. Serve over rice.

Kim’s Notes:
*This is another recipe that I would absolutely recommend a fresh and flavorful salsa for. The stuff in jars and the fresh salsas that just taste like tomatoes just don’t deliver. It doesn’t have to be spicy, just flavorful.
* This recipe lends well to add-in’s. I will often add a can of black beans (drained and rinsed) with about a half a cup of corn during the last half hour of cooking, and it blends right in with no alterations to the original recipe.
* Even though the recipe says to serve it over rice, Jay and I have found that it also makes an awesome taco salad. Put over a bed of lettuce, rice, chips, beans, and top with cheese, tomatoes, or whatever you like – it’s incredible.

Orange BBQ Pulled Chicken

This recipe can be served over rice or in a bun.  It's not a favorite of mine, but it does add some variety from normal BBQ dishes.

Orange BBQ Pulled Chicken (adapted from Sparkrecipes)

• 5 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of gristle and fat
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 c. Orange Marmalade
• 1 c. favorite BBQ sauce
• 1/4 c. + 1 Tbs low-sodium soy sauce

Put chicken breasts in a bag or tupperware with the powdered ginger and shake until coated.  Put the chicken into your slow cooker.  Mix the remaining ingredients, then pour over chicken. Cook on low 4-6 hours, or until chicken is cooked.  Remove chicken from pot, use a fine strainer to clean sauce if desired. Shred chicken and return to slow cooker, mix with sauce.  Keep on warm setting until ready to serve.

Serve over rice or on buns.

Hot Fudge Slow Cooker Cake

I love using my crock pot for unexpected things.  Not the best cake I've ever eaten, but when paired with vanilla ice cream it is the essence of comfort food.

Hot Fudge Slow Cooker Cake (adapted from Betty Crocker)

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 Tbs baking cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 Tbs canola oil
• 1 Tbs natural applesauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. baking cocoa
• 1 1/2 c. hot water
• possible add-ins: 1/2 c. chopped nuts, or 1/4 c. chocolate chips, or nothing at all

Mix together first 8 ingredients.  Once combined add your chosen mix-in, or move on to the next step.  Spread batter evenly in the slow cooker (will be kind of thin, don’t worry).  Next mix the brown sugar, 1/4 c. cocoa in a small bowl, add the hot water stirring until dissolved and smooth. Pour sauce evenly over batter in the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 2 hours, or until cake passes the toothpick test.  Turn off the slow cooker and allow cake to rest 30-40 minutes.*  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Kim’s note:  When I opened my slow cooker I thought I’d burnt my cake!  But it turns out that the sauce settles to the bottom and the cake rises up to the top during the baking process.  The top will look dry, but the gooey sauce is just down under the surface.

Chicken Peanut Molé

When I found this recipe I thought it had great potential.  I told Hubby that I’d make a special Peanut Molé for him this week and he said, “Peanut Butter Mexican food? Yuck, those flavors don’t go together.”


But that didn’t stop me.  With a couple of small tweaks here and there I took this recipe that was originally fried and turned it into a tender crock pot meal.  In the end I wouldn’t call it Mexican – it was much more like an Indian or Thai food.  Jay admitted that he was wrong about the flavors, and was even more shocked when I told him that the secret ingredient to this dish is chocolate!  We all agreed it was delicious, especially with  Cilantro-Citrus rice.

Chicken Peanut Molé

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 med onion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/3 c. low sodium broth
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• ¼ c. peanut butter
• 1 Tbs baking cocoa
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro

Trim chicken breasts of excess fat and gristle, place in bottom of crock pot.  Combine all other ingredients (except cilantro) in a large mixing bowl.  Stir until ingredients are evenly distributed then pour over chicken.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Shred chicken and stir into sauce.  Stir in cilantro and allow to warm with lid off for about 5 minutes before serving.  Serve over rice (is a-mazing with Cilantro-Citrus rice).