My family of 5 are planning a trip to Tennessee this April. We always have the same thing for meals and basically i'm looking for any good meals that might require using a slow cooker. Does anyone out there that has any good suggestions or recipes???? Please share-I'm desperate!!!
my kids love sloppy joes, (Manwich), goes good in the crockpot.
If there is any left over, i use that to make chili the next day. Chili is perfect for the crock pot.
They also like "pulled pork" BBQ sandwiches, so I use country style spareribs in crock pot w/ good BBQ sauce (Montgomery Inn from Cincinnati is our favorite!!), and after they cook all day, defat if necessary, remove any bones, and mash meat w/ fork until is is all separated. Serve on bulky rols.
Also meatball grinders, make your own at home and freeze for your RV freezer, or buy premade if you want. Cook w/ sauce, peppers, onions, mushrooms, whatever, use any leftover sauce for spaghetti next day.
Our favorite pot roast in crockpot or elec frying pan is chuck roast, can of cream of mushroom soup, packet of onion soup mix, maybe one bay leaf (optional), potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms. Simmer all day, makes great gravy. But that's usually a winter recipe for us.
Dutch oven lasagna can be done in the crock too-- layer broken lasagna noodles, browned ground beef or italian sausage, your ricotta/parmesan/mozarella mixture, and sauce. i add water to the sauce to thin it because the noodles need to absorb liquid (you use UNCOOKED noodles). Do not stir!
Most of these things-- teh aroma will drive you crazy, smells so good cooking!
Our goal is quick, easy, few ingredients, tastes good. W0uld rather spend time sightseeing, whatever, than cooking. I can do that at home!
We don't use the crock pot while driving, mostly overnight, but on occasion I have cooked the dish overnight, and then placed it in the sink w/ a towel over it and served it for lunch at our lunch time stop, if we're on the road.
Lots of times I'll pre-prepare the ingredients, like chopping onions, browning meat, etc., and store in TT refrig or freezer in a large zip lock, so all i have to do is pop it int he crock pot, makes my life easier, I'd rather be around the campfire, or whatever.
Hope this helps. I was glad to see teh corckpot website, I'm going to visit there, always looking for new recipes too.
I've thought about slow-cooking while driving long days, but you need your inverter someplace close the where you can set the crockpot without things spilling everywhere, like in the sink or shower. Haven't quite figured it out yet, and my kids generally use our inverter for their video games.
I used my crockpot when we went to Disney last fall. We came back for our main meal around 1:00 (I had cooked ribs or chicken on high), ate, relaxed, and went back to the parks. It saved a lot of time. One thing I do is use one of those Reynolds turkey/chicken bags to line the crockpot for no cleanup.
I've found that for long days on the road, even 2 or 3 in a row, it helps to make things up ahead and freeze them. I have a vacuum sealer and now routinely vacuum cooked pasta and freeze my sauce separately (cuts down on water use, too!), or roast a chicken at home and vacuum seal it. There's nothing worse than having to cook at 6:30pm in a Walmart parking lot after driving for 10 or 12 hours!
While I have never done this in a moving RV you could use those medium sized turkey cooking bags in your crockpot and cook in them to keep your product from gracing the floor of your RV while in motion (secured of course in your sink). The bag and twist ties are heat resistant and make clean-up a breeze. I have used them at the campground to cook with in my crockpot and they are so nice because no matter how big the rig you still don't want to be washing big items in those sinks! So, if anyone decides to sit their crockpot in the sink and cook while driving down the road using the oven bag method let us know how it went. Well, one thing for sure - you won't need to worry about spills!
We have used the crock pot and baking bags. We do not seal the bag. Just use the bag as a liner for easy clean up. Never have a spill with the crock pot in the sink.
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