Great Northern Beans - Crock

This is a yummy way to cook white beans. Beans are such a wonderful staple to keep in your pantry and eat regularly! They are inexpensive, tasty and high in nutrition food value! I love to serve this with cornbread, sourdough or tortilla chips. We always double this recipe. To make a crock full.

1lb Great Northern Beans (white kidneys, or navy beans)
1 onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, sliced into small chunks
2 ribs of celery, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
2T bullion (I use Better than Bullion)*
1 dr bay leaf
2T oil
1 butter
salt and pepper to taste (at the end)

• Soak bean overnight, drain and rinse. (If you crock is not in use, do it right in your crock. No sense making another dish dirty!)
• Put beans back in the crock and add remaining ingredients. Pour enough water to cover and sit 1 inch over the beans.
• Cook on Low 8-10 hours (may need to add a little more water, peek at it)

*If the beans are too wet, take out a cup of means and puree or mash them and add them back into the pot to thicken (or stick an immersion blender in for a quick second).

Serves 6-7

* You used to have to get this boullion a the health food stores, but I was tickled to see it on my local Walmart shelf!

Enjoy!

Mexican Lasagna - Crock

I call it this, because I don't know what else to call it...besides good and easy. :-) It is layering idea like a lasagna, but you are using Mexican style ingredients. You can fill it to the brim to feed a crowd, or half way to feed a family. I am going to give you the basic idea - with suggestions. You get creative and try different things that you have on hand. It always turn out yummy!

Corn Tortillas (or Flour, Spinach, nacho chips or corn chips)

*Cooked or canned Beans (Black, Pinto, refried)

Diced Tomatoes (I use canned out of season)

Green Chilies (I use canned)(or jalapenos if you like it real spicy)

Corn (I use frozen)

Shredded Cheddar

*Cooked Meat (Hamburger, thin sliced beef, chicken, or turkey)

Seasoning (Taco Seasoning mix or Chili Powder and Cumin)

* You may choose to use either beans OR meat OR both. When I do both, I like to put them in rotate it in its own layer.

• Cook and/or season left over meat or beans with taco style seasoning.

Start Layering enough to cover:

1. Tortillas to cover the bottom
2. Beans/Meat
3. Tomatoes and chilies
4. Corn
5. Cheese

Repeat until you make as much much as you want. Finish with tortillas, sprinkled with cheese and maybe a little more seasoning (for looks).

Cook on Low for 6 hours

Garnish suggestions: Sour cream, avocado, shredded lettuce, and olives. May also consider serving with rice, corn bread or tortilla chips.

Home Shalom's White Lasagna (Crock)

I came up with this recipe when I was in the mood for a white lasagna in the crock. I really appreciate the crock pot. So often at the end of the day I have lost my creative juices to "come up with dinner". SO I have learned to compensate for this by preparing as much as I can for my evening meal earlier in the day, when I am more "with it". The crock pot to me, is what I imagine it feels like to be a papa, who comes home after a long and busy day's work to receive a warm delicious meal that has already been prepared! :-) Its a beautiful thing! This version takes more "doing" than the red version, but it really is worth it! (This sauce is also lovely by itself over spaghetti!) My family scarfs this down, with praises. There are variations you can do with it to accommodate what is in your pantry/ freezer. It uses cooked chicken, so it is great to use up left overs. I like to use my canned chicken or I think ahead and make and extra chicken when I roast one whole (which is enough for a double recipe).

Crockpot Lasagna

I deliberated whether I should save this recipe for the "Crockpot Recipes" Them we will have coming up - or share it with the Italian recipe one. Because it is BOTH. :-) It is on our Shabbat menu this week that we will take a friend house for fellowship. It is so very easy, I do not do oven lasagna any more. It uses uncooked lasagna noodles which eliminates that whole step in the traditional method.