Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches

I found this recipe over at Crockpot365, and Stephanie really nailed it with this one. Oh.my.goodness.

If you are looking for a seriously flavorful and ridiculously easy entree to bring to a tailgate, pot luck, or just to eat with your family, look no further!

This recipe is one of my favorites for both of those reasons. It is bursting with flavor and requires all of 2 ingredients. YES! It really doesn't get much easier.

It is a great OAMC candidate because it's so simple. One of those that you toss into the bag and forget about until you decide to cook it. 

And when you DO choose to make it, be prepared for some tantalizing, aromatic smells coming from your crockpot. If you're like me, it will take a considerable amount of self-control to wait the full 8 hours to dig in to this one. :)

Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches

Ingredients:
2-2.5 lb chuck roast
1 (12-16 oz.) jar banana pepper or pepperoncini rings

For Today:
1. Trim fat off of roast. Place roast in crockpot. Pour contents of jar over the roast. Cook on low 8 hours. (You probably could cook it on high for about half the time, but for tender, juicy, fall-apart meat, slow and low is the winning combination)
2. Shred meat with two forks. Serve over crusty Italian bread, top with your choice of white cheese (mozzarella, provolone, swiss, pepper jack, whatever you like!... but only if you want to...)
*I like to pour a little of the flavorful juice over the meat too. Some people don't like soggy sandwiches and I totally get that, but if you want extra flavor, give it a try!
**Also, to melt the cheese and make the bread extra crispy, you can broil it in the oven  for a minute or two. 

For the Freezer:
1. Trim fat off of roast and place in gallon-size freezer bag. Pour contents of jar over roast, seal bag and place in freezer.
2. Place frozen contents of bag in crockpot. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Shred with 2 forks and serve as called for above.

So easy and SO good! I love it! It may be that I've been on a banana pepper kick lately, but still... Try it, it'll be worth it!

October Cook

I really enjoy cooking with friends, so we've got a pretty good little group going... BUT... we all go through our meals at different rates. 16 meals lasts my family about a month, but it tends to last my cooking buddies 2 months. So we cook as a group every other month and I do a little cook on my own in between.

With company coming to town right as my freezer meals ran out, I didn't have much time to put into planning for my individual cook, so I reverted to a lot of family favorites and just doubled up on several of them. They almost all ended up being crockpot meals, which stinks when it comes to washing your crockpot every other day, but really awesome in regards to the cooking day - you really just throw everything into their bags and then you're finished!

So here's my list of recipes:

Cheesy Potato Soup
Salsa, Chicken and Black Bean Soup
Red Beans and Rice (2)
Chicken Chili
Creamy Chicken and Broccoli (2)
Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches
Crockpot Ravioli Casserole (2)
Lazy BBQ Chicken (2)
BBQ Pulled Pork
Honey Garlic Chicken
World's Best Chicken (2)


If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about the change of seasons and the addition of soups and chili to my recipe list! Yay for Fall!

So, with not a lot of time to prepare myself for this cook, I literally threw together my recipe and ingredient lists within an hour and headed out to the grocery store with my 6-month-old in tow. I wouldn't normally recommend doing that, but it really wasn't so bad.

Also being rushed to do my monthly cooking, I hadn't put a day aside to do it all, so I broke it up a little bit. I planned and shopped on Tuesday afternoon/evening. Wednesday morning, with the 2 year old eating his cereal in the high chair, and the baby taking a little morning nap, I labeled all of my bags then cut up all the chicken and sorted it into the appropriate places. At that time I also poured the BBQ sauce in with the lazy chicken recipes and threw those in the freezer. That was all I had time for.

I picked up from there at nap time. I cooked the ground beef for ravioli casserole and chopped the sausage for red beans and rice. I assembled those and threw them in the freezer. Then worked on the Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches and BBQ Pulled Pork. Sliced off fat, added one or two ingredients to each of those, then put them in the freezer. (This part really moved quickly! I LOVE crockpot freezer meals!!)

From there I worked on some of the chicken meals, doing what I could before the baby woke up. I managed to get Honey Garlic Chicken and World's Best Chicken put together and in the freezer, leaving just 4 more recipes to throw together the next morning.

That is a busy mom's poorly planned variation of OAMC.

AND just to sweeten this post a little bit AND to celebrate Fall, I'd like to throw in a souper (haha - lame, I know, but I couldn't resist...) recipe!

Salsa, Chicken and Black Bean Soup

Now I hope you didn't just get disappointed. I tried this recipe on a whim. Normally I don't think it's something I'd be interested in... at all, but I knew my husband loved black bean soup from his teenage years working in a Mexican/Cuban restaurant, and the rest of the ingredients sounded pretty good, AND it looked way easy... so naturally, I decided to try it out. And it was delicious!

Salsa, Chicken and Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless/skinless chicken breast

1 cup dry black beans (or 2 15 oz cans, rinsed and drained)

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn

1 16 oz jar prepared salsa

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 cup sour cream

shredded cheese, avocado slices, etc...

To Prepare Today:
*If you are using dry black beans, you'll need to soak them overnight in enough water to cover them plus 2 more inches.
1. Drain and rinse the black beans and place them in the crockpot. Add chicken, chicken broth, salsa, corn and cumin. Stir ingredients without moving the beans - they need to stay where it's hottest. Cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 4-5 hours. If you want it to be thicker, use an immersible blender to mash up some of those beans (or be like me and just mash them with a spoon!).
2. Mix in sour cream before serving. Garnish with desired ingredients.

To Freeze:
*Use canned black beans, rinsed and drained.
1. Place first 7 ingredients in a gallon-sized freezer bag. Freeze.

2. Empty bag into crockpot. Cook on low 8 hours or on high 5 hours. Mash beans for a thicker broth. Stir in sour cream before serving. Garnish as desired!

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli

Ok, so in our cooking group all of us have our favorite OAMC meals, and while mine switches up every now and then, it is usually Creamy Chicken and Broccoli.

Cheesy and delicious... This dish seriously has "comfort food" written alllllll over it! 

This recipe was a fabulous Pinterest find that I just HAD to try! And when it turned out to be delicious... I decided to give it a go as a freezer meal. And it worked! You seriously wouldn't even know it was frozen.

In fact, I made it for a friend and her family this past week and they LOVED it! So much so that she even asked for the recipe (that's the real test - whether or not they ask for the recipe...). YES! Little did they know that that particular meal had been in my freezer for just about a month. Hooray for freezer meals!

With no more ado, here's this wonderful little recipe -

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli

3-4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts

10 3/4 oz. can cream of chicken soup

10 3/4 oz. can cheddar cheese soup

14 oz. can chicken broth

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. Cajun seasoning (such as Tony Chachere's)

1/4 tsp. garlic salt

6 cups frozen broccoli (florets or cuts, it's up to you!)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

For Today: 

1. place chicken breasts in the crockpot. Combine soups and broth and pour over chicken. Sprinkle with seasonings and cook on low 6 hours, or on high 3 hours.

2. With 30 minutes left in cooking time, use 2 forks to shred the chicken breasts. Stir in the broccoli and sour cream. Serve over steamed rice and sprinkle with cheese.

For the Freezer:

1. Place chicken breasts in gallon-size freezer bag. Pour in soups and broth. Sprinkle on seasonings. Measure 1 cup of shredded cheese into a quart-size freezer bag. Use duct tape, or some other means to hold the cheese and broccoli to the main bag. (see picture!)

2. Place frozen contents or main bag into crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours, high for 3-5 hours. With 30 minutes left, shred the chicken and add sour cream and broccoli. Serve over steamed rice and sprinkle with cheese.

Lazy Chicken

So I'm kind of curious as to how you will react to this recipe... It could go two very different ways. Either you'll be disappointed because it's so ridiculously simple OR you'll feel like you've hit the jackpot. Either way, I'm just glad you're reading. :)

Lazy Chicken is a recipe I picked up here, at my favorite crockpot recipe destination! This recipe is so amazingly easy and the possibilities really are endless! All you do is throw some chicken in the crockpot (I usually use 2 or 3 big chicken breasts), add a jar/bottle of your favorite sauce and cook on low all day. Then you use two forks to shred it and serve it however your heart desires. In the original recipe she uses chicken and red pasta sauce... as delicious as that probably is, I have never actually done it that way. Our favorite is bbq sauce, but we'll mix it up from time to time using various other bottles of Lawry's sauces or marinades. We probably should give that pasta sauce a try though...

Maybe that doesn't sound that exciting to you, but wait, there's more! :) You could follow those directions and cook it in the crockpot all day... OR you could thaw it and cook it on the grill... OR you could thaw it and bake it. How's THAT for versatile? Not only can you use whatever sauce tickles your fancy, you can cook it pretty much however you want as well! Oh, and then you can serve it in a variety of ways too - over pasta or rice, on a sandwich, by itself, etc....

Like I said before, our favorite is bbq sauce. I'll take it out and let it thaw in the fridge during the day, then Chris will grill it and we'll add some lettuce and tomato and eat it as bbq chicken sandwiches on those delicious 40-minute rolls. Oh yeah! I seriously need to make a couple of these each month...

Lazy Chicken

Ingredients:
2-3 large chicken breasts
1 bottle/jar of your favorite sauce/marinade

To make immediately: place chicken in crockpot, add sauce. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred with two forks, serve as desired.

To Freeze: place chicken in gallon-size freezer safe bag, add sauce. Freeze. :)
When ready to prepare, either follow directions above.
OR thaw and grill.
OR thaw and place in 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 30-ish minutes. I'm not so good with times, just check to make sure it's not pink in the center.

and Voila! Tell me that's not the easiest recipe ever...

Honey Garlic Chicken

I'm sure we all have our go-to resource for recipes, right? I know I do... When I'm looking for a crockpot recipe (which happens QUITE often), the first place I peruse is this little blog.

I've used TONS of her recipes! I love the way she writes, I love her honesty (she'll tell you if it just did NOT work out), and I simply love her recipes (because I, too, love my crockpot... even if it does run too hot). Another plus is that all of her recipes are gluten free! Not that I need that... but you know, if I had to cook something for someone with a gluten allergy I totally could!

A few of the recipes from her site have made their way into my OAMC rotation,  including 3 packet pot roast, Salsa, chicken and black bean soup, Pepperoncini beef sandwiches, and plenty of others... my personal favorite being the Honey Garlic Chicken.



This was the first recipe (and still the only recipe, I believe) with which I use chicken thighs, and Oh.My.Goodness are they good! I don't have an aversion to dark meat, I've just always used chicken breasts. They're cheap, they're easy to use and they come in big quantities. All of which are big pluses in my book. So obviously, I was a little bit hesitant to follow the directions... but, being the obedient girl that I am and trusting Stephanie's judgment, I gave it a shot. And I'm totally glad that I did!

This chicken always turns out so moist and flavorful, and the sauce is AWESOME! I always spoon a bunch over my chicken and rice.... yeah, these leftovers don't last long. :)

This is the recipe almost exactly as it's found on her blog - one of the few recipes I haven't tweaked, it's just that good!


Honey Garlic Chicken Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless/skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup honey

To make immediately, place the chicken in the crockpot. Combine the other ingredients in a bowl. Mix well, then pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 5-7 hours. Serve over rice.

To Freeze: Throw all ingredients into a gallon-sized freezer bag and pop that bag right into the freezer. When you decide to cook it, just put the contents into the crockpot and cook as directed above. :) It's that simple!

Surprise!

Have you ever gone out on a limb and tried a brand new recipe just out of curiosity? I most definitely have. And while a lot of the times my high hopes end up being deflated by my crock pot's tendency to cook things WAY too fast, or my lack of culinary expertise, there is occasionally a recipe that makes being adventurous TOTALLY worth it!

I had an experience like this not too long ago... I found a recipe for red beans and rice and decided to check it out. I was REALLY hesitant - as I said before, my hubby's a little on the picky side, so I didn't think it would be something he'd be into... but I was willing to take that chance (it sounded WAY good to me! haha).

Now this is not a recipe that I'd ever even considered before because we're not really into soups and stews in our house (there are a few exceptions, of course). But this particular recipe is for the crockpot and I'm ALWAYS on the lookout for new/delicious/easy crockpot recipes, so I figured - why not?

The list of ingredients is pretty basic, and really inexpensive too (that's always a plus, right?). So even if my husband hated it, we could go pick up some Wendy's afterwards and still not have spent much on dinner. :)

Well, as the heading obviously suggests, we absolutely LOVED it! Like really loved it... like my DH has bragged about it to friends and family, and asked to have it every WEEK kind of loved it! YES! It's moments like those that make me feel like a hero of my little home - like I've accomplished an amazing feat, or created a priceless work of art. Oh, the simple joys of being a stay-at-home-mom... :) and then I do the dishes... haha

Anyway, here is the recipe. Go ahead and try it - take a risk and enjoy the wonderful rewards!



The ONLY adjustment I made, per my DH's request, was to leave out the cinnamon. The first few times I made it I left he cinnamon in. The change in flavor is very slight, so it may not make a difference for you either way, but that's the way we usually do it now.

Also, this is a staple on our OAMC list and it's super easy to convert to a freezer meal. You just throw everything except the water into a gallon-sized freezer bag. The day that you decide to cook it, pour the ingredients into the crockpot, measure 6 cups of water into the bag and then pour that in over the other ingredients (I do this because seasonings ALWAYS end up getting stuck to the insides of the bag and this way they all make it into the pot. AND who wants to make 6 trips back and forth between the sink and the crockpot? Not this girl...) Then simply cook as directed, serve over rice and enjoy! I hope this recipe is as successful in your home as it was in mine!