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Perfect pasta can be made using your crock pot. With a few tips, you will get delicious pasta every time. There are many different ways to make pasta with crock pot recipes. It all depends on what recipe you are making.

Cooking Pasta as a Separate Step

In some recipes, it is recommended to cook your pasta completely before adding it to your recipe. Alternatively, your crock pot contents might be served on a bed of noodles. You may find this works well with stroganoff, roasted meats with sauces, and other similar recipes.

Some recipes may ask you to partially cook your pasta in boiling water until it is just barely tender. They then suggest adding the semi-cooked pasta to the crock pot for the last half hour or so of cooking. You may use this technique with dishes like chicken Alfredo, casseroles and other meals. This method allows the noodles to finish cooking in the crock pot, soaking up some of the flavors in the sauce.

Cooking your pasta separately is more work. Instead of just sitting down to your meal, you need to heat the water and spend the time cooking your pasta just right. This is one way to make sure you have perfect noodles every time. This will not work for every recipe, however.  Read more...

We tend to take our crock-pots for granted these days. They sit in the cupboard, unloved and unused until we really need to throw in a pot roast or something before we head off for work. Slow cooking has been around for hundreds of years, though. We do not realize how good we have it now.

Ancient History

People have been slow cooking ever since they learned how to use iron to make cookware. A pot could be hung over a fire, keeping food simmering all day long. Smaller Dutch ovens could be placed under the coals themselves to cook all sorts of meals. It did not take people long to learn that slow cooking could make their food taste wonderful. In those days, however, slow cooking required careful tending of the fire all day long, as well as frequent stirring of the cooking food.

Slow cooking tenderizes even tough cuts of meat through the gradual softening of the fibers in the meat. The low heat gradually melts the natural collagen within; making a delicious, thick, and gelatin-rich meal that is full of nutrition. Long cooking times over low heat slowly breaks down the fibers in tough root crops like rutabagas, parsnips, and turnips. It also tenderizes stored crops like dried beans and lentils until they are not only tender, but also delicious.  Read more...

The chicken and the crockpot are made for each other. Chicken is arguably the most versatile meat on the planet. Using a crockpot makes it easy to make everything from soup to entrees with your chicken. You could probably make a different chicken dish every night of the year using your crockpot without worrying about duplication.

Using the crockpot keeps your meat tender and moist. To lower the fat content in your recipe, simply take off the skin and extra fat before putting the chicken into the pot. You will not need to worry about the meat drying out since the crockpot uses moist heat. If you like to keep the skin on, you may want to try browning them first. This will make the finished dish more attractive on your plate.

Using a crockpot will let you make easy one-dish recipes, stews, soups, or entrees with very little fuss. Put all your ingredients in first thing in the morning, and when you get home you can enjoy a delicious meal waiting just for you.

Easy Chicken Recipes  Read more...

Canned soup is cheap, easy, and tastes pretty good, so many of us turn to it when we have had a long day. Unfortunately, if you do not have much time to cook from scratch, you might find yourself falling into a rut. Fortunately, you do not have to deal with boring food. Improving a can of soup can be remarkably easy and still work well.

Try adding some vegetables, either fresh or leftover. Chop up whatever’s around that seems like it will work well in your soup, and heat it in the microwave. For more flavor, put a little oil in a frying pan and saute your veggies. Then, add the precooked vegetables to your soup and heat it up.

Frozen veggies can work well, too. Take a commercial can of chowder and add some corn, carrots, peas, or green beans out of the freezer bag, then heat as usual. You will notice a real difference in the taste, and you do not have to put in very much more effort.  Read more...