Favorite Crock Pot Meals

If you are anything like me, you love your CrockPot. Who doesn't? That sucker is my best friend. I LOVE cooking, but some days I just don't have the time to dedicate to a complicated recipe, but I don't want to burst our eating out budget. When I pop a meal in the CrockPot early in the day, I KNOW I will not venture out for dinner somewhere else. This saves money in our pockets.

Pinterest is my best friend when nursing. I find all kinds of recipes and I try a bunch of them. Here are a few of our favorite CrockPot recipes for you to try!

Ranch Crock Pot Pork Chops

Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Honey Sesame Chicken

Slow Cooker Coke Chicken

These are just 4 of our favorites currently. The Cheesy spaghetti is PERFECT for leftover chicken :) I hate to waste leftovers!

Another favorite that I don't have a link for is a roast. We just toss a roast into the crock pot with some gravy or broth or water with a bouillion cube plus carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes with seasoning.. hours later there is a yummy dinner staring back at you. So simple!

*Roasts are NOT always thrifty dinners. I only buy roasts when I get them from Kroger - buy one get one. Then, I usually buy two large ones (like $15-20) worth. In my eyes, since I'm getting two for that price, it knocks the price in half for each one - so that $20 roast is really $10 in my eyes and I always get two meals plus lunches (2 usually) out of each roast.. so it works out to be thrifty. I don't think roasts are thrifty unless purchased at great prices!

Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties

(Image Credit)

I generally try to keep all of our dinners around $5 total, which is quite a challenge especially with grocery prices continuing to rise. The most recent copy of All You magazine features 38 recipes for no more than $1 per serving. Perfect! I suggest if you haven't picked up a copy that you do so ASAP!

Wednesday nights are pasta nights. We do themed nights to help me with meal planning. When I was meal planning, I flipped through the magazine and saw this dish. Perfect for pasta wednesdays! Andrew, my picky eater, was fairly skeptical, but it turned out delicious.

Did Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties turn out to be a recipe that cost me $5 on less? Lets figure it out...
1 box of pasta - FREE! (I hate to pay for pasta. If you pair a coupon and a sale on pasta, you usually can get it for free - at least at Kroger!)
1 can of diced tomatoes - $.56 (thanks Aldi's!)
1/2 bag of frozen broccoli florets - $.53
1 chicken breast (might need more, but this breast was huge and I butterflied it - we all had a nice amount of chicken) - $1
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese - $.50
salt and pepper - pennies!

Grand total for me - $2.59. If the pasta wasn't free for you, then $3.59 - a bargain!

Did I mention as Andrew was eating it, he goes... Ok, so this isn't bad at all! I didn't think so ;-) I paired with some Baked Cinnamon Apples for dessert and I promise, no one left the table hungry! When paired with my cost of dinner and the dessert, I still hit $4.59 - thrifty mama won that dinner!

Penne Frittata with Thyme

No picture! Sorry :( I sometimes suck at taking pictures when cooking, especially since this was an unplanned dinner.

Thursday evening, Andrew and I were watching Giada at Home and watched her make this meal. We both were like hmmmm.. this looks delicious! So, we changed our mind - no chicken fried steaks for us!
This is the original recipe from Giada

What did we do different?
Well.. we didn't add no lemon zest because I forgot lol. We both really enjoyed it. We used a whole box of penne but next time I think we are going to try to cut this in half. He asked me to put it on the next menu I make! Oh and we didn't have whipping cream - milk works fine!
We also decided next time, it needs some sharp cheddar cheese instead of just the pecorino that we used.

So.. the directions on the website.. But lets figure out if this is thrifty or not, shall we?

6 eggs - $.50 (Kroger eggs are often $1 per dozen)
1/4 cup milk - $.15 approx
Pasta - free (never pay for it with coupons!)
Parsley - Free for me because it came from grandparents garden
Thyme - $.20 (dried)
Pecorino - $2
Salt and pepper - $.04

Total - $2.89

When I add sharp cheddar, it will jump up the price a bit, but this was delicious!

Chicken and Yellow Rice

This is another very easy recipe that I love and want to share with you. The picture isn't the best - it was taken quickly on my iPhone, but it is what it is!

The first thing you want to do is take a whole chicken and boil that baby!
I boil them for like 1-2 hours usually, mostly because I have a bad memory and just tend to forget it is in there, but that's what I do.

Once it is boiled, I debone the chicken. Put as much chicken as you want into a separate bowl. The rest put into baggies to be frozen for another meal. At this point, take the carcass and boil it down for awhile longer and make some yummy broth - season it and such. Freeze!

Ok.. so once you do that, you need a bag of yellow rice with saffron. You can find this is in a yellow bag in your local grocery store. It ranges from $1-$1.50, depending on the size and brand.

Follow the directions on the back of the rice bag. It takes about 15-20 minutes usually to make it. After about 15 minutes, I put the chicken into the rice and let it cook until the rice is tender.

That is it! Seriously, it is delicious and we all get seconds. I usually pair with corn bread muffins (either homemade or a jiffy box) and some veggie.

The price for this very easy meal?

Whole chicken - $5 (but half of the meat is for this meal and half for another meal so... the actual price is..)... $2.50 (won't even take out the amount of money I save by saving the homemade broth!
Saffron rice - $1.50
Jiffy box mix - $.49
Half of a bag of frozen veggies - $.50

Total price of this very yummy meal? - $4.99

It could technically be lower since I get about two cans worth of broth from it - each can at the store ranges from $.60-$1. Now use that other half of the meat for another yellow meal!

Turkey Roll Ups

I came across the recipe on diaperswappers, so it is not mine to claim! This was actually very easy to make. The preparation time is about 10 minutes and I loved that.

You need a pound of ground turkey
1 package of stuffing
1 can of turkey gravy
seasoning

Preheat your oven at 350

I started off by spreading the ground turkey out on wax paper that was on a baking sheet.
I cooked the stuffing which takes about 5 minutes, so do it while you spread out the ground turkey. Once it was spread out, I seasoned it with garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, and pepper - but this is your meal so use whatever you want!

Once your stuffing is cooked, spread it across the top of the ground turkey as evenly as possible.

Now.... here comes the fun part! Use the wax paper to roll it together. If you just lift the wax paper, it is very easy to do this - slowly
It will look like this....
Pinch the sides closed.
You will want to bake it for an hour at 350. After 45 minutes, take half of a can of turkey gravy and drizzle over top. Save the rest of the gravy for spreading over top when eating.

This was delicious! We all, including Caelyn, had second helpings. This was definitely a good meal and there was even enough for lunch tomorrow for Andrew!

Serve with some kind of potato - mashed, garlic, whatever floats your potato boat!

Look at that swirl of stuffing yumminess!

So, time for a price breakdown to see if this meal was thrifty or not.

1 lb of ground turkey - $2.87
generic stuffing - $1.16
1 can of turkey gravy - $.97

If you serve with mashed potatoes.. that is about 6-8 potatoes for us, so about $1, plus some butter or margarine or whatever you use!!) - about $.25 and some milk about another $.25

The total of this meal, including mashed potatoes is $6.50
Now, this is not as cheap as I like, but if I had thought about it, I bet there are coupons for perdue ground turkey, stuffing and turkey gravy. But still, it is plenty cheap especially because it is a full lunch for Andrew tomorrow so no price tomorrow for lunch!

Make this for dinner and I bet it'll be a hit! Let me know if you do!

Sausage Gravy with Biscuits

I'm pretty sure that gravy and biscuits are in their own separate food category of awesomeness. Nothing screams down home cooking like waking up to some gravy and biscuits, whether it has sausage or not.

Making sausage gravy and biscuits is easy. You will find a million different recipes to try, but I think the best, by far, is the kind that has milk gravy. You can buy the gravy in a can or in those packets that you mix with something and it becomes gravy. While I'm sure its good, its not as good as homemade gravy. So, let me teach you!

If you are going to make sausage gravy, you clearly start off by browning your sausage. If you are just making the gravy, I suggest using some kind of animal grease - bacon grease, sausage grease, because it gives it that special gravy flavor, but using butter, lard, or shortening works as well.

Once you brown your sausage or melt whatever you're going to use, you need to make a roux. All you need to do is add a heaping tablespoon or two or three until no more flour can be mixed in thoroughly. This basically makes the grease thick. Its how your milk is going to thicken.
This is what it will start to look like but this clearly has no sausage in it. I just wanted to give you an idea of what to look for. You want to let it brown for a few moments.
Then comes the milk! When making sausage gravy, I just pour enough milk to cover all of the sausage, usually amounting to about 4 cups, but if you are just making the gravy, then 2-3 cups should be good depending on the amount you are cooking for!

So, you add in your milk. Add some seasoning. For just gravy, I use a heavy hand and super season it, but my normal seasons are garlic powder, onion powder, lots and lots of pepper, and maybe some seasoned salt. For just gravy, I add some Worcestershire sauce.

Bring it to a boil, stirring to make sure it doesn't stick, then turn it down and let it thicken up to your likening!

Make your biscuits however you make them, whether its from a can, a frozen bag, or homemade! Buttermilk biscuits are the best though.

So, is sausage gravy and biscuits thrifty? Lets find out...
I buy sausage from my local meat market and I usually buy the packets of loose sausage for $1.90 for a lb.
3 tablespoons of flour... maybe $.10 since I buy the 25lb of flour.
3-4 cups of milk... the price of milk is ridiculous but I will say that it is about $.80-$1 depending on the current price of milk.
Seasons.. well we will say the total for the seasonings are $.50 - if you buy the large containers of seasoning its even cheaper!
Then biscuits.. a can is $1.50 here for 10 biscuits. The price would clearly be cheaper to make the biscuits, but we will go with this price..

Total price ends up being $4.80 - thrifty? I think so! And it makes a large amount and feeds all of us plus usually some for leftovers or for Buddy!

Just milk gravy and sausage would be cheaper.
A tablespoon or two of butter would probably be about $.56 and you don't use sausage so... the total price would be $3.46.

Grilled Pizza Pockets

{image credit}

On the meal plan, I listed grilled pizza pockets as tonight's dinner and that is what we had!

Now, ours didn't turn out nearly as pretty as the one in the picture. In fact, one fell apart.. but despite that, it was still yummy. Andrew wants more things inside next time, so I think I will double the crust recipe so I can stuff it even more.

Now, my prices are a bit different than 5 Dollar Dinners - where I got the recipe. Oh, and if you have never checked out their website, please do! I love it and I will be linking back to it a lot because a lot of their recipes are awesome and thrifty.

So, lets break this down and figure out how much our dinner really cost us.

3 Corn on the cob ($.30 each) - $.90
1 box of Jiffy pizza crust - $.50
a handful of mozzarella cheese - $.50 approx.
Ragu pizza sauce ($1.14) but we only used half of the jar so - $.57
Pepperoni ($2.50) but once again we used half of the bag so - $1.25

Andrew also made himself 4 hot dogs so that is $.98 (1.97 for the whole package)

Our meal total cost us $4.70 - try and get a meal for that at a restaurant!