Mexican Chicken

Here's a fantastic crock pot meal for those days when you don't have much time to make anything. It takes about 10 minutes to prep and then cooks for 8 hours while you are gone or busy.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp adobo seasoning
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/3 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, trimmed
1 15.5 oz can black beans, drained
1 4 oz can chopped green chilies, drained
Shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
Sour cream (optional)

Directions:
1. Add the first 11 ingredients (from tomato paste to the green peppers) into the crock pot and mix well.
2. Add chicken thighs or breasts and stir well to coat the chicken pieces.
3. Add the black beans and chilies but do not stir.
4. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours
5. Stir thoroughly before serving.
6. Serve with cheese and sour cream if desired.

This recipe was from the Every Day LC Slow Cooker cookbook.

Shish-Kabobs

I know, this isn't difficult, but figured I'd post it just to give someone the idea. We had not made them in about a year because we just never thought about it.

Ingredients:
Stew Meat or whatever else you want
Red, Yellow, and Green Peppers
Grape Tomatoes
Mushrooms

Directions:
1. Dice everything up.
2. Put on skewers (don't forget to soak the wooden ones first if you use them)
3. Grill on medium heat about 5 minutes per side.

You can use whatever you want to for seasoning on the meat. A marinade would be good. We just use olive oil to coat the meat, then seasoned with black pepper, seasoned salt, blackened seasoning, garlic, coriander, and a bit of paprika. Turned out very good.

Hamburgers and Veggies

Well, this is probably the least technical and defined recipe I've posted yet. I just wing it and it turns out pretty good.

Ingredients:
Green Peppers
Red Peppers
Onions
Zucchini
Butter
Ground Beef
Worcestershire Sauce
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Garlic Powder
Seasoned Salt (The stuff I made here)
Blackened Seasoning
Black Pepper

Directions:
1. Saute Onions, Peppers, and Zucchini in Butter until yummy.
2. Mix the Ground beef, W. Sauce, a hand full of the shredded cheddar cheese, garlic powder, seasoned salt, blackened seasoning, and black pepper together and make burgers.
3. Grill the Burgers. (I usually sear them over high heat, then finish over medium or indirect.)
4. Put on plate, top with whatever you want and enjoy.

Beef Burgundy

A very simple meal to just throw in the oven and let it cook for a while on it's own.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 pounds boneless beef cut into 2" squares (I used 1 lb chuck and 1 lb eye of round)
1 cup dry red wine
3/4 tsp guar or xanthan
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 large onion, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, chunked if they are large
2 green peppers, sliced or chunked

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 250
2. Put oil in heavy skillet and brown the beef over medium-high heat.
3. Put beef in 2 1/2 quart casserole dish
4. Combine wine and guar/xanthan in a blender for about 10 seconds then pour over beef.
5. Add salt, paprika, oregano, onion, mushrooms, and peppers and stir together.
6. Cover and put in the oven for about 5 hours.

A few things I might change on it would be to cut back on the xanthan, add in some black pepper and garlic. Also, I cooked mine at 300 for 4 1/2 hours and it turned out fine.

This recipe was from Dana Carpenders 500 LC recipe book.