New Year, new recipes (my favourites and a recipe for Slow Cooker Chilli)

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you what you had asked for.

A couple of years ago I made a New Years resolution to cook more for my family, rather than relying on store bought sauces and frozen food. 2 years on and I cook pretty much everything from scratch, utilising my crock pot when time is short or when family members need to eat at different times! Today I am sharing my family's favourite recipes all for the crock pot. If you don't have one I urge you to invest in one. Such a great time saver!

By each of the recipes I have noted any variations that I use in my versions of the recipes (perfect for my UK followers as most of these recipes are American) and how long each recipe takes in my slow cooker. I have a large fairly modern crock pot which can cook quickly. I have found that chicken recipes need no more than 4 hours on low and other meats need no more than 8 hours on low. I halve it if putting on high. With soups I tend to add a little extra water than the recipe suggests when cooking all day so that the contents do not dry out. The same goes for small broth type recipes where only a little liquid is used. I will add extra which can remain in the pot once done by taking out the meat with a slotted spoon. As the majority of the recipes I follow are American, I have a set of American measuring cups. They make following a recipe a breeze as there is no weighing, just cup sizes. You can get sets of cups on sites such as EBay and Amazon, however, here are some conversions and again here including oven temperatures. Also, when a recipe calls for browning the meat first I do skip it on occasion.  I haven't found this hurts the taste of the end dish, but each to their own!

Some American ingredients either don't have an English equivalent or are slightly different. The main ones are
Diced or whole tomatoes - Chopped tomatoes (though you can use whole)
Tomato paste (in a can) - Either use tomato puree for small amounts or passata for large amounts
Tomato sauce - Passata
Cilantro - Coriander
Scallions - Spring onions

So here goes!

Crock pot chicken fajitas by Stacy makes cents.

This is a very simple and tasty recipe which only takes 4 hours to cook. This one goes against my rules of more liquid. This only needs a 1/4 cup of broth. Plenty of liquid is left in the crock pot after cooking. You can just purchase a packet of fajita seasoning if you don't have the spices to hand. I make a little bit of guacamole to go with this (avocado, lemon juice, garlic and chilli flakes) and serve it with salsa, sour cream, tortilla wraps and salad leaves.

Slow cooker Coriander Lime Chicken by Pip and Ebby

Super easy! Serve this with salad and wraps in the summer and rice and vegetables in the winter. Again this only takes 4 hours on low in my slow cooker.

Slow cooker coconut chicken curry by Tasty Kitchen

This recipe calls for a sauce to be made from the ingredients which is poured over the chicken and cooked. I have done it that way and also left all the ingredients whole and cooked. We like both!

Tomato Basil Chicken stew by Gimme Some Oven

This recipe can be done in the slow cooker or stove top. My family does not like celery so I always substitute leak. We tend to use kidney beans in place of cannelinni beans. This is one of our absolute favourites!

Slow cooker spicy shredded beef with soy, ginger and garlic by The Perfect Pantry

I haven't been able to get hold of chilli paste with garlic but have used a nice Harissa paste made by Sainsburys.

Slow cooker Mexican beef stew by Betty Crocker

I use an onion in place of the bag of small onions. I use kidney beans in place of black beans. I haven't been able to find the Green giant corn mix mentioned in the recipe but have found this Green giant Mexican style corn which works well. This has kidney beans in it so you may want to omit them separately.

Beef stew by Kitchme

Again I replace the celery with a leak! Mine only takes 8 hours to cook.

Southwestern hamburger stew by Get Cooking with Chef Ron Lock

I use canned corn rather than frozen, but it's personal taste. I do not add the rice into my cooker as it tends to soak up too much of the liquid. Instead I serve this over boiled rice. You can use taco seasoning in this dish.

Balsamic roast beef by Add a Pinch

This is wonderful to have with mashed potatoes, broccoli and carrots!

Slow cooked spicy Asian beef by Slimming Eats

I tend to omit the sesame oil in this recipe.

Curried carrot soup with pan toasted cornbread croutons by Gluten free goddess

You can just make regular croutons or omit them altogether. This makes a very thick soup so add more water if you are not keen on super thick soups. I add more curry powder than the recipe states as I think it is too bland otherwise.

Skinny Tomato Basil Parmesan soup by 365 days of Slow Cooking

Again I substitute leak for celery. I use carrots rather than courgettes.

Apple cinnamon Butternut squash soup by Betty Crocker

I use stock cubes mixed with water in place of broth. Again this is another thick soup.

Creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons by Damn Delicious

I use low fat Greek yogurt in place of cream and find it works quite well. As with any mention of broth I tend to use stock cubes.

Chilli con Carne by Southern Girl Cooking

This recipe I pinned a long time ago, and today I discovered it no longer exists! Thankfully I printed out the recipe ages ago and reproduce it below along with my changes. It makes a perfect tasting chili and we have this a lot! This conversion will serve 3-4.

500g mince (ground) beef (minced turkey works very well and cuts down on eating too much beef mince).

1 can of kidney beans (I use a small can which can do up to 4 people)

1 box of chopped tomatoes 

1 500g box or bottle of Passata

1 onion chopped

1 green pepper chopped

Half red pepper chopped

2 garlic cloves minced or chopped

2 tbs of Chilli powder (mild or hot)

1 tbs Cumin powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Good squirt of tomato puree

Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with rice and shredded cheese if liked.

I hope you find something tasty amongst these favourites of ours!

Happy slow cooking!