H’s Swap: 11-16, A Crock-pot Swap!

I own a crock-pot. It was a college-graduation-gift from my uncle. I rarely use it. I think over the sixteen years since I graduated from college, I’ve maybe used the crock-pot sixteen times total. But I am a crock-pot cooker admirer; I believe in the cleverness of cooking with a crock-pot; I totally understand the allure of throwing stuff in there before heading off to work in the morning and then coming home to a yummy-homey-comforting-family-supper. I get it! I just have never quite jumped on the bandwagon. I think the reason, mostly, is this: although Braydon adores this kind of food, it is just not my kind of thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat it (I’ll eat just about anything, from the most mundane to the most exotic — I’m not a picky eater whatsoever), but if I’m the one choosing what to eat and I’m the one cooking it, then there are lots of things I’d choose first over the crock-potty-type dinners. Nevertheless…

A couple of weeks ago my mom sent me an email with the subject line: “Try This!” She sang the praises of this new crock-pot dinner that she’d discovered, and she suggested that I try it for Swap. I’ll admit, when I first looked at the recipe, I thought she was crazy. But she swore that she’d actually eaten it (twice no less!) and that it was delicious and that the Swap Kids (i.e., my kids and Shalinee’s kids) would all love it. Since this was my first Swap recommendation from anyone ever, and since my mother is always right about everything (I swear!), and since I was having a seriously over-extended/stressed/overwhelming week last week, I decided to take the risk and try this super easy crock-pot dinner for Swap. We’ve never used crock-pots for our Swap before, so this was a first. For the J-M’s this was a huge, huge hit! I liked it just fine. But the rest of my family loved it. Particularly Owen, who could not get enough of the chicken.

MorMor’s Crock-Pot Chicken

4, 8,  12 even 16 chicken thighs / or drumsticks. Bones and skin and all. (note: I, Heather, used 6 drumsticks and two large breasts cut in half for each family)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 package Lipton Onion soup

Cook 6-8 hours in the crock-pot.

I served this with buttered egg noodles and sweet baby peas. I’m sure that Owen will be requesting this dinner many times in the future. Maybe the crock-pot will start seeing more appearances around here!

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This week Shalinee’s dinner was a delight for Braydon and I. We really liked it a lot. K, O, and M, on the other hand, in a strange never-before-seen twist, all refused to eat it. They all tried it, and ate tons of rice, but would not eat the stew. My theory is that they had eaten way too much baba ganoush and pita before dinner and were simply no longer hungry. It all worked out, though, because it meant that there were more leftovers for lunches for Braydon and I later in the week! 😉