Crock pot craziness

Something that has been a sanity-saver for me in the baseball-journey has been my crockpot. This post is one that probably goes hand-in-hand with the "nutrition police" entry - there came a point in our season where I was realising that convinence had overtaken the need to keep feeding my children the "good stuff". Make no mistake here - Mickey D's or one of our great-and-greasy fast food establishments are NOT on some kind of "bad list" for me (although if you've ever watched the documentary super-size me, you might find yourself more in favor of taco stands, and less of burgers-joints....)I DO visit such places, it's just that once again, the sudden realisation that this was occuring many times a week, all due to a lack of mom-endurance on my part, thinking that I just couldn't possibly cook past 7pm! Pretty laughable really, when I 'm there trying to make sure my sons have the endurance to "hold it together" well into 6 innings, and I can't even feed them well if the game goes late!

Anyway......I'm not someone who was married for her culinary skills, so the list of crockpot favorites are super easy! I would love it if friends would add comments and ideas - that way this post can develop into a resource with many different skill levels encorporated!!! Most of the things I do require spending the extra 10 minutes early morning getting things together and throwing them in the crock pot.....I try to have simple enough sides that they can either be in the refrigerator waiting to be heated up (Pasta/rice), things that you can throw in the oven for not too long (garlic bread/refrigerated biscuits or crescent rolls) , or just cold stuff....pita bread, french bread, tortilla chips.....of course I wouldn't have earned my "nutrition police" gold-star if I didn't of course mention the insane bags of costco veggies that I like to have on hand - snap-peas, baby carrots, small sweet peppers, grape tomatoes - easy veggie servings that don't even require me to CHOP anything...

Salsa chicken (Thanks Kris!) - put the crockpot on low, throw in frozen chicken breast and cover it with salsa - you can leave it on low all day, then shred it when you need it - awesome burrito filling. I've also wondered about making a double portion, then creating a chicken tortilla soup the next day by using the salsa chicken as a base, then adding a couple of cans of chicken broth, corn, black beans, rice.......

BBQ chicken - basically the same thing, except you cover the chicken with BBQ sauce, and then serve it on burger buns! Works great with pork too.

You can actually cook chicken seriously PLAIN in the crock pot, which can be awesome for picky kids - just cook frozen chicken breast on low all day in chicken broth. You can flavor it up if you want, or not. and then when you need it just chop it up. Great in quesidillas.....cool it off a little for chicken salad....any other ideas?!

Kiebasa - My kids won't usually eat kiebasa, but they love it this way! Pour two cans of chicken or beef broth in the crock pot, set it to low. Add sliced up kiebasa. Cook it all day, you can turn it down to "warm" pretty much anytime you want since the sausage is fully cooked when you buy it. I've added veggies to the broth too, and then it becomes more of a soup or stew.

Meatballs - If you have a frozen bag of fully cooked meatballs, you can get creative with what sauce to put them in. Defrost or cook the meatballs in the microwave, and then put them on low with.....regular pasta sauce - you can make meatball subs or spaghetti with meatballs.....teriaki/chinise style marinade - goes well with rice or chinese noodles (or top ramen!!!).......plain broth, then serve with gravy and rice for swedish meatballs......for a little extra effort you can make a version of ministrone - have the meatballs hot and ready in broth, then add kidney beans, some pasta sauce, cold pasta and maybe some veggies, heat until it's all hot.

Italian sausage or Bratwurst - Brown in a pan. then cook on low over chopped up veggies or saurkraut.....you can add beer or broth to keep everything moist and yummy.

Would LOVE some other ideas - I kinda get bored of my repetoir here, and I'd love to hear some new ideas!