Too-Tasty-to-Be-Good-for-You Cauliflower Mac-n-Cheese ***

This was really pretty good.  I couldn't find whole wheat macaroni, so I went with penne.  I had some errands to run this afternoon, so the 10-year-old actually made it for us (with Hubby's help, of course).  It's written as a recipe for kids to make anyway, so it really worked out pretty well for us.  He got a kick out of getting to cook, and I didn't have to do it.  Ha!  

The cauliflower is the best part of the dish.  The noodles and cheese are good too, but I could have happily eaten just the cauliflower and cheese by themselves.  The recipe says it makes 4 servings, but we still had about 2 servings left over after the four of us had gotten ours.  I'd definitely make this again, though.  A nice way to add some extra veggies to an old favorite.  I served it with the Slow Cooker Ham with Pineapple.  Yum-O!  :-)

TOO-TASTY-TO-BE-GOOD-FOR-YOU CAULIFLOWER MAC N CHEESE

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ RachelRay)

Salt

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1 pound whole wheat pasta

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Pepper

Ask a GH (Grown-Up Helper) to bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the cauliflower and cook until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Ask your GH to transfer the florets with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. In the same boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente, then drain in a colander. Add the pasta to the cauliflower.

While the pasta is working, ask your GH to melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Have your GH help you whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the milk and chicken broth and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cheese. Whisk in the mustard and season with pepper. Stir the cheese sauce into the pasta and cauliflower. Yum-o!

Crockpot Italian Chicken *

This was good, but it was way too salty.  I'm wondering why you really need two packets of the dressing mix.  I think you'd still get the flavor with one.  Even with that, though, the peppers give it quite a bit of salt on their own.  I don't know.  I think it has possibilities, with a lot of changes, but it's just not worth trying again.  For my group, at least.

For a crockpot chicken sandwich recipe, the Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Sandwiches are so much better.

CROCKPOT ITALIAN CHICKEN

(BeyerBeware via Pinterest)

2 lbs of chicken breast, thighs, or combination

1 (12 oz) jar of pepper rings

2 (.7 ounce) envelopes of Italian Salad Dressing and Spice Mix

Put chicken in the bottom of a crock pot. Pour pepper rings with juice over chicken. Sprinkle Italian mix over chicken. Cook on low for 8+ hours or on high for 4+ hours.

After chicken has cooked, remove any bones or skin and shred. Keep on low till ready to eat. Add chicken broth or water if chicken seems to be drying out.

Serve on buns.

Slow Cooker Lentil Rice Casserole (Clean) ***

I have this listed as clean, but you obviously need to leave out the cheese for a cleaner dish.  Honestly, while the cheese is always a welcome addition to any dish (in my world, anyway), it's really not all that necessary in here.  I'll keep using it, just because I love me some cheese, but I think it would be just as good without it.

The flavors in this are amaze-balls.  I used a pack of three pepper and onion blend (I'm all about those things right now!), added spinach, and went with the taco seasoning.  I would definitely recommend that route.  It gives it a flavor that's really different from other lentil recipes.  Because I wanted to make sure we had leftovers, I did 1.5 times the original recipe.  In retrospect, I really think that the recipe as written is definitely closer to 6 servings than 4, so I wouldn't bother doing that again.

The only problem I ran into was that even after cooking 10 hours, my lentils were still pretty hard.  After doing a little research online, it looks like our hard water and old beans were probably the culprit.  Next time, I'll use bottled water to soak them and make sure I get fresher beans.  I definitely want to give this another go, though.  If nothing else, I can always just convert it to a rice-only dish, and it would still be yummy.

SLOW COOKER LENTIL RICE CASSEROLE (CLEAN)

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ TheHumbledHomemaker)

3/4 c. dry green lentils

1/2 c. brown rice

1 c. water

2 1/2 c. chicken stock

1 c. tomato sauce (8 oz. can) or 1 6-oz. can tomato paste + an extra 1/2 c. stock

3/4 c. chopped onion

1 c. chopped green or red pepper

1 grated or finely chopped carrot

2 c. cooked, shredded chicken

optional: other vegetables like spinach, broccoli

3 tsp. Italian seasoning or taco seasoning

2 cloves crushed garlic or 1/4-1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Dash pepper

1 c. grated cheese (I prefer sharp cheddar, but try a Mexican blend with the taco seasoning or mozzarella with the Italian)

optional: salsa or spaghetti sauce to serve

Combine rice, lentils and water in crock pot. Soak overnight. (Do NOT turn crock pot on!)

In the morning, drain the water and mix in all remaining ingredients except cheese.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Add cheese in 30 minutes before done.

Serves 4-6.

*luckymommy/Amy's notes: I used a 3-pepper and onion blend, added spinach, and chose the taco seasoning.  I want to make sure to use bottled water and fresh lentils next time.

One Pot Wonder Chicken Lo Mein ***

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of lo mein.  It just always tastes to oily to me, for some reason.  I saw the picture of this one on Pinterest, though, and I knew I had to try it.  So glad I did!  It was delicious.  I used two large boneless/skinless chicken breasts, just to make it stretch a bit further.  I also used linguine, since that's what the OP used with hers.  Definitely my favorite for this dish as well.  I think the fettuccine would have been a bit too big for this.  It would have taken away from the other flavors, in my opinion.  The red pepper flakes add just a bit of heat, but it was just right for my kids.  Over all, this was an absolute winner for us.  I served it with the Slow Cooker Baked Sliced Apples, so that we'd have a little of sweet to offset the heat. ;-)

ONE POT WONDER CHICKEN LO MEIN

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ TheWholesomeDish)

1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small chunks

12 oz. whole wheat linguine or fettuccine, broken in half

4 medium carrots, peeled and cut in thin 3 inch long strips

1 medium red bell pepper, cut in thin 3 inch long strips

1 bunch green onions, white part sliced and green part cut in 3 inch long strips

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon corn starch

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Add the chicken, then the pasta, then the remaining ingredients to a large stockpot and cover. Bring to a boil. Stir and reduce to a simmer. Cook covered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until most of the liquid is gone and the chicken is cooked through.

Slow Cooker Baked Sliced Apples (Semi-Clean) ****

I am nearly speechless at how wonderful this was.  My monkeys were licking their plates.  They loved it.  It's not truly a "clean" recipe, since it has the margarine, but you could make it one by subbing olive oil.  It wouldn't be as good, lol, but it would still have great flavor.  I chose to go with organic butter, and it worked fine for me.  Since my crock is a 6-qt, I was afraid that it would burn easily.  I went ahead and used 6 medium Fuji apples (absolute perfection in this recipe) and doubled everything else.  I'm trying to get away from Splenda, so I went with Stevia instead.  I couldn't find unsweetened apple juice, so I used some that had the least amount of sugar I could find and was all-natural.  I don't have butter-flavored cooking spray, so I just used my olive oil spray.  Oh, and I used Craisins in place of the raisins, just because I really can't stand raisins in stuff.  I think that's about all of my changes, lol.  Seriously, though, this was some dynamite stuff.  It would be spectacular with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!  

SLOW COOKER BAKED SLICED APPLES (SEMI-CLEAN)

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ GetCrocked)

3-1/2 cups apples, (cored, peeled, and thickly sliced)

1/4 cups raisins (seedless)

1/4 cups Splenda granular

1-1/2 teaspoons apple pie spice

2 tablespoons apple juice, unsweetened

1 tablespoon margarine

Spray a slow cooker container with butter-flavored cooking spray.

Combine apples and raisins in crock.

Add Splenda, apple pie spice, and apple juice.

Mix well.

Dot top with margarine.

Cover. Cook on Low for 4-6 hours.

*luckymommy/Amy's notes: I used 6 medium Fuji apples and doubled everything else.  I also subbed Stevia for the Splenda and Craisins for the raisins.  

Slow Cooker Clean-Eating Jambalaya ****

I could have kept eating this all night.  Seriously.  I made a few minor alterations, but nothing that would greatly change the outcome.  My shrimp and chicken were frozen, so I just chucked them both in at the beginning of the cook time.  I cooked it for 6 hours on low and 1 hour on high.  I used a package of frozen peppers and onions (the fajita blend packs), just because I already had some in the freezer.  Similarly, I used Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning in place of the Cajun seasoning, because that's what I had on hand.  I accidentally picked up a tomato paste that had salt and basil and oregano, so I cut the salt from the recipe.  So basically, I used the recipe, but I just improvised a bit, lol.  Oh, I did cut the Creole seasoning to 2 tablespoons instead of 3, so that it wouldn't be too spicy for the kids.  It was absolutely perfect.  Just enough heat without being too hot for them.  Now I can't wait to have it again!  :-)

SLOW COOKER CLEAN-EATING JAMBALAYA

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ GetCrocked)

2 lbs. chicken breast, boneless, skinless

1/2 c. green bell pepper, diced

2 c. celery, finely diced

1 c. yellow onions

2 c. tomatoes, fresh, diced

2 c. chicken broth, Organic, Free Range

6 oz. tomato paste

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 T. cajun seasoning

1 tsp. sea salt

1 lb shrimp, uncooked wild-caught; peeled, and de-veined

2 c. cooked brown rice

Combine chicken breasts, bell pepper, celery, onion, tomatoes, chicken broth, tomato paste, garlic, seasoning and salt into large, 6-quart slow cooker.

Cover. Cook on Low for 6 hours, or High for 3 hours.

Stir occasionally, if needed.

Add shrimp to slow cooker, stirring to combine.

Cover. Cook on Low for an additional 2 hours or on High for 1 hour.

Cook brown rice according to the directions on the package, stirring in the last 15-20 minutes before your meal is done.
*luckymommy/Amy's notes: I subbed 2 tablespoons Creole seasoning for the Cajun seasoning.  I also put frozen shrimp and chicken in at the beginning of the cook time and cooked for 6 hours on low and 1 hour on high.

Crockpot Cajun Roast (Clean) ****

This was really good.  Absolutely phenomenal.  I tried to pull the pork out of the crock to slice it for the kids, but it was so tender that it just fell apart.  I ended up just shredding it in the pot and adding 6 cups of cooked brown rice in with it.  I also just used a package of frozen sliced onion/peppers blend.  We all loved it.  It made a LOT, though.  I was able to put some up for hubby's lunch and still have enough for a weekend lunch for all of us.  Yay!  Definitely making this again.  The only change I might make is to add in more corn.  The kids and hubby all said they would have liked to have more corn in each bite.

CROCKPOT CAJUN ROAST (CLEAN)

(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ StacyMakesCents)

1 roast of your choice (2 to 2-1/2 pounds)

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups corn

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 tomato diced

Rice to serve

Combine spices.

Put roast in greased crock pot. Pour half of your spices over the roast. Rub in. Flip roast and coat with remaining spices, rubbing in well.

Pour veggies (excluding corn) over the roast.

Layer the corn over the top.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until temp reads 160+ degrees.

Serve over a bed of rice.

*luckymommy/Amy's notes: I shredded the pork and stirred in 6 cups of cooked brown rice before serving.   I also just used a package of frozen sliced onion/peppers blend.  Next time, I will add more corn.