Crock-Pot Baked Beans

1 lb. dry great northern beans
5 1/2 c. boiling water
1/3 c. molasses
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 onion, chopped
10 strips of bacon
1 T. mustard
1 t. salt

Spray crock with nonstick spray or use a liner. Rinse beans in a strainer. Fry up bacon, reserve 1/2 grease and saute chopped onion until translucent. Chop up bacon strips and put all ingredients into crock-pot. Pour boiling water in last and stir. Cook for 13-14 hours, on low for 10 hours and on high for the last 3. That is what worked best in my Crock-Pot, stir occasionally throughout cooking time and once an hour at the end. Adjust cooking temperature and time to suit.

This recipe is great for making baked beans from scratch! You can get it ready a head of time, it doesn't take up oven space and you don't have to worry about the beans when you are preparing the rest of the meal!

Cranberry Apricot Turkey Roast

Butterball Turkey Breast Roast, 3 lb
1/2 c. apricot jam
2 c. hot water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 c. craisins
1/4 c. chopped dried apricots

Spray Crock-Pot with non-stick cooking spray

1/2 c. apricot jam, hot water and bouillon cubes, mix together

Dried apricots and craisins

place turkey breast roast in Crock-Pot and pour apricot jam/bouillon mixture over it

Cook in Crock-Pot on low for 4-5 hours, basting several times

then remove string mesh and slice into 4 large slices

put back in Crock-Pot and sprinkle with dried fruit, cook for another 3 hours

Slice turkey and garnish with apricots and craisins from the broth

I am sure you could cut down on the cooking time, this is just how long I cooked it

Cheesey Crock-Pot Mashed Potatoes

It has been a while since my last update, but here are the mashed potatoes I made for Aaron's surprise birthday party. I made these ahead of time so all I had to do the morning of was put the crock in the cooker and turn it on. You could just make these right before the meal and skip the whole Crock-Pot part if you want.

7 lbs. red or russet potatoes, washed and quartered
8 oz. light cream cheese
16 oz. sour cream
12 oz. shredded cheese (medium or sharp cheddar or Colby Jack)
salt
pepper

Boil potatoes until soft when speared with fork. Drain and mash by hand or with a hand mixer, add cream cheese, sour cream and 8 oz of cheese, stir. Spray stoneware crock with nonstick spray or use a liner, pour in mashed potatoes and put in the fridge overnight. Next day cook the potatoes on high for 3 hours, stirring every hour or so to keep from getting browned on the edges. 10 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the remaining 4 oz. of shredded cheese to the top of the potatoes to melt.

Nutrition Bonus: leave the peels on the potatoes, they are soft so you won't notice them when the potatoes are all mashed up and they have lots of good nutrients!

Spicy Pulled Pork

4-7 lbs. pork shoulder or pork butt
1 onion
1 t. chili powder
1/4 c. brown sugar
3-5 garlic cloves
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. ground cumin
1-2 T. salt
pepper
1-2 T. olive oil
2-3 T. white wine vinegar
Lime wedges (for garnish)
Blend all ingredients in a food processor and spread mixture over pork roast. Cook in oven at 300 for at least 3 hours or I did mine in the crock pot on low for 12 hours, it turned out delish! Once roast is done remove fat and shred pork, serve garnished with lime wedges. We ate ours as pulled pork burritos, yum.

Wedge onion

Add all the other ingredients and blend until no chunks remain

I couldn't find any pork shoulder roasts, so I used two 3 lb pork butt roasts

I took off the netting and covered them in the spice mixture

Here it is all cooked in the crock pot

Finished Pulled Pork, yummm, will definitely make this again

From the Archives: Crock-Pot Sweet Potatoes & Apples

s11-29-08
Crock-Pot Sweet Potatoes & Apples

This is great for the fall and especially for Thanksgiving, you can get it ready in the morning and not worry about it until lunch time.

8 sweet potatoes or 1 squash
2 apples
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
Peel and cube sweet potatoes/squash