Even More Crock Pot Recipes

I told y'all I was obsessed with my crock pot and I wasn't kidding, I have three more recipes to share. The first one is Baked Potato Soup. I didn't know what to expect, I love baked potato soup, but have only found one recipe to make at home that I really, really like. The problem is that it's pretty time consuming, not hard, just a lot of steps and stuff. This stuff was good, but it wasn't nearly as good as the other recipe I use. But, my standards are a little lower for crock pot recipes than they are for regular recipes. I'll post both for you, if you have the time, make the regular Baked Potato Soup--if you like baked potato soup, then I promise you'll LOVE it!! It's thick and delicious. If you are pressed for time and want to make something simple, quick, easy, and inexpensive, definitely make the Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

Tony Roma's Baked Potato Soup
1½ hours 1 hour prep

2 medium baked potatoes
3 teaspoons butter
1 cup diced white onions
2 teaspoons flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups instant mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1 cup half-and-half

Garnish
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon
2 green onions, chopped

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan and saute onion until light brown.
2. Add the flour to the onions and stir to make a roux.
3. Add stock, water, cornstarch, mashed potatoes and spices to the pot and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out.
6. Discard skins.
7. Chop potato flesh into 1/2 inch chunks.
8. Add chopped potato and half and half to the saucepan, bring soup back to a boil, reduce and simmer for 15 minutes.
9. Ladle into bowls, and serve with 1 T. cheese, 1/2 T. bacon bits and 1 t.onion sprinkled on top.

EASY CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns {I used Ore Ida}
3 14oz. cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 pkg. cream cheese {don’t use fat free. It WON’T melt!!!}

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese. Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted. Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!

I also have a crock pot spaghetti sauce recipe to share. I love spaghetti and I'm not picky about my sauce. We always buy the cheap Hunt's cans of spaghetti sauce and we love it. I add a little seasoning when I'm cooking it, but other than that, the can stuff is fine with us. I was excited to make my own spaghetti sauce for the first time. It was easy and turned out really good. It was nice to have the sauce ready to go when we got ready for dinner instead of having to make it right before we ate. Here's the recipe:

Spicy Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

8 servings

1 pound spicy sausage (or ground beef)
1 pound regular sausage (or ground beef)
3 onions, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 14.5 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 12 ounce can tomato paste
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Cook sausage, onions, mushrooms and garlic over medium heat for 10 minutes. Drain and transfer to slow cooker. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover; cook on low 8 to 9 hours. Serve over your favorite pasta and enjoy!

I'm trying crock pot orange chicken today, I can't wait to see how it turns out.