Sausage Potato Bake

Another one that's cheap, easy, hearty, and only has four ingredients. Even I can remember them!

8 cups potatoes, cubed (approx. 6 medium sized)
1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed vegetable beef soup

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. For oven: combine all and pour into a 4-quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Minestrone Soup

Serves: 6 or so in Time: 9 hrs.

1 lb. ground Italian sausage

1/2 lb. ground beef

4 carrots, sliced

3 stalks celery, sliced

2 onions, chopped

2-3 C. water

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes

Various spices as desired

1 C. elbow noodles, uncooked

1 can (15 oz.) garbanzo beans

-Brown Italian sausage and ground beef, seasoning as desired.

-Combine all ingredients except noodles and beans in crock pot. Cook approximately 8 hours on low.

-Add beans and noodles, allow to cook for 30 additional minutes before serving.

-Add sour cream and shredded cheese to individual servings to taste.

Notes: You can put basically anything in here; we have added both chicken bullion or beef bullion (2 cubes worth). We have used spices like basil, oregano, red pepper, garlic, or anything else we happen to grab. You can use spicy Italian sausage. I accidentally bought sweet onions this time. Everything we have tried is great, except for the time I forgot to season it all together--that was bland. Add water until the tomato broth is the desired consistency, but remember that some water will cook out of the vegetables before serving. We love this with a fresh loaf of french bread. Also, it makes enough that if your family is small, plan for leftovers or try freezing half.

Fire Station Chile Verde

Serves: Many in Time: 8 hrs. 30 mins.

8 anaheim peppers

8 serrano peppers

6 jalapeno peppers

1 habanero pepper

8-12 roma tomatoes

1 bunch cilantro

2 onions

2-3 lbs. pork, cubed

3-4 chicken bullion cubes

1 clove garlic, crushed

cornstarch and water

-Combine peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro in food processor, blending until completely chopped.

-Place in slow cooker. Add pork, bullion and garlic. Stir thoroughly and cover. Cook on medium heat for 8 hours.

-Combine about three spoonsful of cornstarch with enough water to make a liquid paste. Add to boiling verde and leave until heated through.

Notes: This is really spicy; either leave out a habanero or pick the seeds out of the peppers to cut the spiciness as desired. We serve this with cheese, sour cream, and refried beans in a burrito. The leftovers work well for huevos rancheros. With this batch, I also split it in half to freeze some for later. This is typically a fairly expensive dish depending on the cost of the peppers, so we try to get as much mileage out of it as we could. (This go around, it only cost us about $20 to make. We'll get three or four meals out of the half we refrigerated, and then a few more out of the frozen portion.)

Sweet Chili

Serves 6 in Time: 8 hours 15 mins.

2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 lb. ground beef

1 C. chopped onion

1 C. chopped celery

1/2 C. ketchup

32 oz. diced tomatoes in juice

1/4 C. - 1/2 C. white sugar

1-2 Tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

-Brown ground beef and onion. Drain and put into slow cooker, along with the rest of the items.

-Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Notes: You can be as liberal as you want with the ground beef portion. I think the last package I used was closer to 1 1/2 lbs. Also, my mother-in-law passed this recipe on to me and she uses closer to a cup of sugar, but that was a little too sweet for us! This is perfect with cornbread. This last time, I did Marie Callendar's cornbread mix. It also suggested equal portions honey and butter for a cornbread topping; I used 1/2 C. of each to make enough for our family.

Easy Beef Stew

Yes, that's right. I stole the recipe and the photo. I'm a big fat thief like that. But I got them from Kraft Foods (see the permalink on the right hand side). They do this awesome thing called "5 Dinners One Bag". If I ever actually made dinner five nights a week, I would totally do it. As it stands, I only go "all-out" for dinner when Alan is home. The rest of the time, Mason and I eat leftovers, or stick with soup, sandwiches, or salad.

Serves: 4 in Time: 9 hrs 30 mins.

1 C. beef broth
1/4 C. Italian dressing
1/4 C. barbeque sauce
1 tsp. oregano
1 lb. boneless beef chuck, cubed
1 lb. red potatoes, quartered
4 carrots, sliced in thick slices
1 onion, cut into chunks
2 slices of bacon, chopped
3 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. water

-Combine broth, dressing, barbecue sauce, and oregano in the slow cooker. Add meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, and bacon and toss to coat. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low 8-9 hours.

-Stir together flour and water to make a paste. Remove meat and vegetables from slow cooker and set aside. Add flour mixture to liquid in slow cooker, stirring until well combined. Add meat and vegetables back in, and cover. Let cook an additional 15 minutes or until gravy is desired thickness.

Notes: I like a lot of gravy or sauce in my stew, so next time I will probably double the liquid from the outset. I added more beef broth at the end but did not add more water/flour, so it wasn't as thick as I would have liked this time around. Overall, I was really surprised by the mild flavor and how well it all came together.

For more recipes like this or more of the 5 Meals 1 Bag ideas, check out Kraft's website.

Tortilla Soup

Serves 7 in 4 hrs. 15 mins

1 can (16 oz.) vegetarian refried beans
1 can (15 oz.) reduced sodium black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 C. frozen corn
3/4 C. chunky salsa
3/4 C. chicken, cooked and cubed
2 C. hot water
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 bag tortilla chips
2 C. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

-Combine beans, corn, salsa, chicken, water, and bullion cubes in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or until heated through.

-Add half of the cheese. Stir until melted.

-Serve topped with remaining cheese and crushed chips.

This recipe was originally from Fix It And Forget It Lightly, but I have gradually mutilated it enough that I feel it's mine. Everything in the cookbook is supposed to be healthy, but I take it one step further when I purchase the beans. Also the fat-free shredded cheese doesn't melt in this, so unless you're okay with that, you might want to pass on it. We've been known to add a little reduced-fat sour cream to change things up as well. Overall, though, this is a cheap and easy meal that turns out to be a fairly hearty soup. It's also easy for me because I usually have all this stuff on hand. Oh, and I never buy canned chicken broth, but if that's what you have, the recipe calls for 1 can (14 oz.) of broth and 1/4 C. water.

Chicken Stroganoff

No picture, but yummy dinner. It was even good on the reheat which makes it a reusable slow cooker meal for our family.

Serves: 4 in Time:6 1/2 hrs.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 Tbsp. butter/margarine
1 pkg. Italian dressing mix
1 (8 oz.) cube cream cheese
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

-Put chicken, margarine and Italian dressing mix into slow cooker and stir to mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for 5-6 hours.

-Combine cream cheese and soup. Mix with chicken. Turn up to high heat and cook until heated through, about 30 mins.

-Serve over rice or noodles if desired.

*My notes: I used Neufchatel in place of cream cheese, as well as the healthy selection of cream of chicken soup. All I had on hand was cream of chicken and herb soup, which may have been a bit of overkill. Next time, I may try adding some sorts of frozen vegetables for my own nutritional peace of mind, but this was very simple and tasty.

For more fantastic dinner ideas, try Allrecipes. I got this one from subscribing (for free) to their emailed recipes and suggestions.