Using your crock pot.

I've decided to run a segment on my blog about using your slow cooker, for a couple of reasons.
1)A blogger I read, A Blossoming Homestead, recently asked for suggestions so she could use her crock pot more.
2)I would like to have a place to put instructions for crock pot cooking so my girls can easily access it, and a lot of the things I cook in a crock pot I either never had a recipe for, or I modified a recipe to such a point that it doesn't much resemble the original.

I will try to post a new recipe once a week, most likely on Saturday. That should fit pretty well into my schedual because Friday is  a perfect day to use the slow cooker. Beenie has guitar lessons in the fairly large city to our north every Friday morning, and since that is where the Costco, Whole Foods, restaurant supply store, and two fabric stores are located (as well as the place I get the girls eye glasses, and we have regular trips there for adjustments/repairs), and anything else we could possibly need, I try to get as many of my errands run as I can on those trips. Sometimes, if I have a lot to do, I'll send one girl with Beenie and then go run at least one errand while she has her lesson. Then, when all my errands are done there, or if I'm running out of time, I beat a path home, grab a bite to eat (if I didn't eat luch on the fly in the van), put away purchases and get Grandma to head out for her standing, Friday afternoon appointment to have her hair washed and set in the small city to our south. I also corral whichever kids are going with me, and many times drop Kay at the library (along with whatever girls want to stay there), before I jet on over to the hair salon. Sometimes I leave someone with Grandma so I can finish up an errand or two while they work on her hair and other times I stop on the way home to finish up my errands. Oh, and I don't usually forget to pick Kay back up from the library on the way home. :D
All in all, it's a great day to throw something in the slow cooker so that supper is done that night without too much more effort. I just have to remember to take pictures.

I will add a couple things here just to help you out.
1)I do not use canned soup in any of my recipes - that's why many of them don't look much like the original recipe I had for whatever food it was. I converted all the recipes to using a homemade cream-of (mushroom, potato, etc.) soup many years ago. You can use the canned soup if you really want to, and I'll try to remember to make a note in the instructions for where you can subsitute it. My version takes a little more time than opening a can of soup, but you can use all natural/organic ingredients and way less sodium.
2)I will not be using exact quantities very often, because unless you feed 9 people on a regular basis, you will not need to make as much as I do. It's all pretty simple. If you're making stew for 2, just put in a potato or two, one fourth to half an onion, and a carrot, along with your beef. If you're making enough for my family you put in 10-12 potatoes (depending on size), 1-2 onions (size again), at least 4 carrots, and way more beef. The crock pot I use most is 7qt. Yours may be smaller. Of course, you can always make a larger quantity and eat leftovers for a few days.
3)Occasionally I will use a large roaster oven in place of a crock pot. This is purely because of the quantity I am making. I just turn it on very low and use it just like a crock pot.
4)I might make more than one post a week if I used the crock pot more that week.
5)I will be making a new label so that all the slow cooker meals can be easily accessed.

I'll be starting tomorrow with my slow cooker beef stew - it is currently bubbling away and smells soooo good! We're just waiting on Bree and Beenie to finish up the garlic cheddar biscuts they are making to go with it.