Simple Cooking Part 4: Crock Pots

Slow Cooker Goulash

I love my crock pot.  I also switch back and forth between the terms "slow cooker" and "crock pot" quite a bit, so I apologize for any inconsistencies in this post.  Thanks to my mom, who gave me one of her old crock pots, I am the owner of 2 large crock pots.  Her crock pot is at least 10 years older than mine, which is a good thing. The newer crock pots tend to cook things a little too fast, which sometimes leads to a mess and an overcooked dinner (which is supposed to be impossible with a slow cooker).  I haven't posted many of my crock pot recipes because most of them don't photograph well.  Slow Cooker Goulash is probably the pretties thing I make in the crock pot, so I decided to make that my picture for this post. I do have a few recipes posted under the slow cooker tag. Today I am going to post two of my family's favorite recipes that definitely do not photograph well!  I am not even going to pretend that they are healthy. Both recipes are simple comfort foods. Yes, I know that one of them has a can of cream of mushroom soup in it...and yes, I know you can make your own.  But I only cook with this stuff once a month at the most, so it's not a big deal to me to open up a can and dump it in the crock pot.   I hope you enjoy the recipes below as much as my family does!

Many thanks to my friend Krista, who tried a lot of recipes in "Fix-It and Forget-It," and gave me a list of the recipes that were good (and more importantly, the ones to avoid).

Ethel's Calico Beans
Adapted from "Fix-It and Forget-It"

1/2 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
16-ounce can small red beans, drained
14.5-ounce can baked beans, undrained
15-ounce can butter beans, drained

1) Brown ground beef, onion, and bacon in skillet. Drain.
2) Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
3) Cover. Cook on low 8 hours.

 I like to serve this with corn bread, french fries, or baked sweet potatoes.


Bean Tator Tot Casserole
From "Fix-It and Forget-It"

1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 pound bag frozen green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup shredded cheese
21-ounce bag frozen tator tots

1) Crumble raw ground beef in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2) Layer remaining ingredients on beef in order listed.
3) Cover. Cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 3 hours.