Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

I have to be honest here - I don't like red sauce on my spaghetti. Give me a nice creamy alfredo, a light garlic and butter sauce, or a rich marsala gravy; anything but red sauce. But I do use it when I make lasagna, eggplant casserole, pizza, and the like. This sauce is so easy to make, and perfect if you hate relying on those jars from the grocery store.

Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup


For soup-and-bread Sunday last week, we went Italian. This time I decided to head west and go French. I love so many things about this soup. First, it's done in the slow cooker, leaving me free to do other things, like make breadsticks to go with it. Second, it makes the house smell amazing. Third, it uses lentils, a perfect source of protein that is often overlooked. Plus, it's totally customizable. Don't like red lentils? Use brown or green. Out of white rice? Choose your favorite (I used Jasmine). Don't have herbes de provence? Use thyme. Ok? Ok. Here we go...

Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice

In honor of Crock Pot Thursday, I really wanted to make Ranch Pork Chops, but my slow cooker is a 6-quart beast and I don't think it would handle 3 tiny pork chops well. I really need to get a small one for those days when I'm not trying to make enough food to feed an army AND hoard leftovers in the freezer for another day, since that's about all this one is good for.

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken - 3 Ingredients!

I have a slow cooker. I have a few of them, actually. But I really only use it for two things - chili and pot roast. I know I should use it more because it is so nice to have a home-cooked meal at the end of the day when all I had to do was spend five minutes throwing it together in the morning. So, to bring it out of hibernation, I added "Slow Cooker Thursdays" to the food schedule.

24 Hour Apple Butter

Andrew absolutely adores apple butter. (My 5th grade English teacher would be so proud of my use of alliteration there!) I buy him a jar for Christmas every year. We try out different brands, but they all pretty much taste the same. Since we recently went to a pick-your-own farm and came home with 40, yes 40, apples, the first thing I wanted to do was try to make this on my own. It turned out really well. I don't even like apple butter, but now I'm eating the stuff for breakfast every day on wheat bread. Which reminds me, I need to make some biscuits...

Super Simple Chili (A.K.A. Even-people-who-hate-chili-will-love-this Chili)

I hate used to hate chili. I have tried so many chilis, but they were too spicy or too bland, and the beans were always still hard or total mush. I finally realized the only way I was going to get a chili I liked was if I made it myself. I have been serving this up for years and have converted many other chili-haters. Enjoy!