Simple Holiday Crock Pot Recipes

Since we’re talking about holiday cooking this week, I thought I’d share another secret weapon of mine – the crockpot or slowcooker. It’s the perfect appliance this time of the year. I don’t know about you, but when I’m cooking a big Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, I end up running out of oven and stove time – in other words I have more dishes I’m trying to finish that I have time to cook on the stove top or in the oven. My crockpot comes to the rescue.

I also use it quite a bit when we’re invited to a holiday party at  a friend’s house and I’m asked to bring a side dish. I just carry the entire crockpot over there, plug it in and everything will be piping hot and delicious when we’re ready to eat.

By the way, using the crockpot goes hand in hand with the planning ahead for big holiday meals that we talked about yesterday. Be sure to include your favorite slow cooker in those meals.

Here’s how I use my crockpots around the holidays:

Snacks and Appetizers

Dig through your stack of potluck recipes for the crockpot and I’m sure you’ll come up with some yummy snack and appetizer ideas. I like to serve warm / hot dips in a small crockpot. The “keep warm setting” keeps it at the perfect temperature.

Here’s a tasty Sausage Hamburger Cheese Dip for the crockpot. You can also add some meatballs or small sausages to your slow cooker and cover them with barbecue sauce.

Main Dishes

Believe it or not you can cook a turkey breast in the crockpot. Crumble up some aluminum foil and put it in the bottom of your slow cooker. Season the turkey breast and set it on top of the foil balls. Cook on low for about 10 to 12 hours depending on size.

If you prefer ham, here’s a great crockpot honey glazed ham recipe for you.

Side Dishes

You can simmer all sorts of yummy bean and vegetable side dishes in a crockpot. Last year I brought some corn on the cob to a holiday party. I boiled the corn on the stove most of the way, then buttered it and transferred it to the crockpot. Once we got to our friend’s house, I set the crockpot on keep warm and we had hot corn with dinner.

There are also plenty of macaroni and cheese or various casseroles that are always a big hit around the holidays and are simple to make in a crockpot. A family favorite of ours is crock pot scalloped potatoes.

Dessert

There are recipes for anything from apple crisp to sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows of course) that make perfect holiday desserts that can be cooked in the crockpot. Here’s another recipe for you.

Pumpkin Custard For The Crockpot

• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 Tbsp butter or margarine melted
• 2-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp vanilla

Spray your crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Mix all ingredients and pour them into your slowcooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife

Visit me at at HillbillyHousewife.com for plenty of crockpot recipes.

P.S. If you’re interested in crock pot cooking, grab a copy of my Crockpot Cooking Made Simple Ebook.

P.P.S What are your favorite ways to use the crockpot around the holidays?

Planning Ahead For The Big Holiday Meals

I’m Susanne Myers – better known as the Hillbilly Housewife. Kelly and the girls here at FamilyFoodies.com have invited me to share some thoughts on holiday cooking with you this week.

I’m excited that gladly became a part of my October Blog Tour – The Hillbilly Housewife On The Road. Each October I try to do a little something special to benefit Breast Cancer Research (my grandmother is  breast cancer survivor). This year I decided to blog on some wonderful blogs of my friends as well as donate 20% of all profits I make from Hillbilly Housewife Ebooks and the Hillbilly Housewife Club to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

How let’s talk about planning ahead for the big holiday meals. It seems hard to believe but we only have a few weeks until Thanksgiving (in the US) and from there it’s just a few more short weeks until Christmas with plenty of holiday entertaining in between.

I used to not do much planning ahead with holiday meals. We have some pretty standard traditional menus and I’d just buy what I needed a few days head of time and would then proceed to run around like a chicken with its head cut off the day before and the day off the holiday (or holiday party), stessing out and trying to do way to much in too little time. By the time guests arrived, I was exhausted and would preferred a nap over entertaining.

I was already pretty good at meal planning at this point for our regular dinners, but for some reason didn’t do much planning for holiday meals. The past few years I have and boy has it made a difference. Here’s a quick overview of what I do to plan ahead.

2 Weeks Before

Start by deciding what you will serve. If you are going to have friends or family members contribute, contact them and figure out what everyone will bring. This will give them plenty of time to plan their dishes.

Check and see if there’s anything else you will need as far as dishes, containers, serving plates or even chairs and table cloths go.

Make a list of everything you will need and then divide it into 3 different lists:

Non Perishables – this includes any non-food item as well as things that will not go bad in 2 weeks, like spices, or potatoes and dry rice for example.

In Between – this is stuff that will go bad eventually, but usually lasts for a few days. Most fruits and vegetables will fall into this category.

Very Perishables – This is stuff that you want to pick up the day before like ground beef for example.

Go ahead and start shopping for everything on your non-perishable list and don’t forget to look for sales on typical holiday fare. Certain spices and canned goods should go on sale around this time and this is the perfect time to buy them.

1 Week Before

Get the rest of your food done and start some prep work. Many dishes can be made ahead and frozen. We’ll talk about this in more detail later this week. Make and freeze as many dishes as possible. You’ll appreciate the extra free time on the holiday to enjoy your family and guests.

This is also  a good time to get your home in order. Divide up the various cleaning chores between all family members.

2 Days Before

Get serious about prep work and preparing anything that will still taste good (or better 2 days later). If you are going to use homemade cornbread for example in your dressing you can bake it that night and store it in an air tight container until you’re ready to make your stuffing or dressing.

The Day Before

Get all your chopping and dicing done today and prepare any dish that will make it in the fridge overnight. Most casseroles can be put together the day before. Cakes and desserts can also usually be made a day ahead. Don’t forget about things like potato and pasta salad as well. It usually tastes better the next day anyway.

Now is also a great time to go ahead and rearrange furniture as needed and set the table. This is particularly true if your guest are arriving for an early lunch.

At the end of the day, make yourself a checklist with everything you need to do the next day and in what order. I usually also come up with a time-line of what needs to be cooked when and for how long.

The Big Day

On the day of the celebration, just work through your list and don’t forget to plan for some time to freshen up and get dressed. After that sit back, relax and enjoy your holiday party and more importantly your loved ones.

Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife

Visit me at at HillbillyHousewife.com for plenty of frugal recipes and frugal tips.

P.S. If you’re interested in meal planning and would like to learn more, get a copy of Meal Planning Made Easy.