Recently I’ve challenged myself to using my crock pot more often as I’ve been slacking a bit in the home cooked meal for dinner department. So, I’ve been reading up on and asking for advice on some really good crock pot meals and have found many seemingly delicious recipes that I’m planning to try out and will report back on here! I like to only use fresh or frozen ingredients and try to use as little processed food (so no canned soups) as possible. It will definitely be a challenge (especially for the reporting part as I keep forgetting to take the after pictures!)! I promise that both of these meals were simple and delicious, though.

Recipe 1:

Ingredients: Note: Really, you can use anything you’d like here but I’ll tell you what I used.
1 lb organic chicken cutlets (doesn’t have to be organic)
5-6 red bliss potatoes, washed and quartered
1 bag baby carrots
1 onion, quartered (you can also slice it and layer it on top of the chicken)
salt
pepper
1 cup water or chicken stock (I would have used chicken stock but didn’t realize I’d run out until I went to make this)

Directions:
Pour 1 cup water into the crockpot (you can use more or less depending on your preference or if you’re planning on making gravy out of the stock). Layer chicken and season with salt and pepper. Place the onion around the sides and fill the gaps with the potatoes. Add the carrots in last so they are not laying in the water (they will get mushier if they are in the water). Season with salt and pepper and set to cook (I set mine for 6 hours usually as I make it on my lunch so it’s just about ready when I get home from work).
Serve with a salad and you’re done (fresh baked rolls are optional!)!

Recipe 2:

Ingredients:
3-4 pork chops
5-6 red bliss potatoes
1/2 zucchini (mushrooms or broccoli would be good here, too- if possible, I would add them later in the cooking cycle, though)
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
butter
salt
pepper
garlic powder
1/2 cup water

Directions:
Pour 1/2 cup water into the crockpot. Place the pork chops in the water (you don’t want the water to be covering them, just lining the bottom) and place one clove of garlic on top of each pork chop. Layer a slice of butter on top and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Add potatoes around the sides and layer zucchini on top. Season with salt and pepper and set to cook!
Serve with a fresh salad (Caesar salad was really good with this!)!

Again, I’m sorry about forgetting to take the after photos for both recipe 🙂 By the time I got home and started getting everything together, I totally forgot. Both of these meals were really good but next time I would serve some sort of gravy with each. The meat was a little plain for me but Joe loved them both! The garlic pork chops were delicious even without the gravy, though! I’ll keep you posted on my challenge 🙂 Sunday, I’m hoping to do some meal prep for the week… we’ll see how that goes! You can check out my Pinterest board for more recipes I want to try!

Do any of you use your crock pots? If so, I’d love to hear some of your recipes!!

Happy Friday! Thanks so much for reading!

❤Britt