Crockpot Glazed Ham
Alex loves it when we make a ham in the crockpot so I occasionally make one for him. Typically I do some sort of sweet glaze since that is what traditionally goes with ham. However, I let Alex make this particular glaze and since he’s not huge on sweet ham he opted for a more savory flavor.The finished flavor is actually quite interesting. While it certainly wasn’t something I would have thought to put together it really actually works. Alex absolutely loved the flavor and I thought it wasn’t bad. I still prefer a sweet glazed ham, but this is a great option if you’re in the mood for something a little more savory.By cooking this in the crockpot it really is a set it and forget it type of meal. Just let it cook and marinade in its own glaze for several hours and voila, a fantastic dinner. I love to pair it with my Mac Cheese recipe. They really go perfectly together.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:240]
I love using my crockpot often to make dinner. It is a great way to have a hot dinner ready at night even when you may not have time to actually cook anything that day. This is one recipe we tend to make often since it is easy and very tasty. Basically just throw everything into a crockpot and let it cook away all day long. I love serving this with the 
Alex has been requesting different Chinese dishes for dinner the last few weeks. I’ve been trying to accommodate as many of them as I can since I haven’t been home for dinner too much. I’ve also been trying to make as many crockpot dishes as possible since I can just set it and forget it.This dish was gone very quickly. Alex absolutely loved it and he had it for lunch for the next three days! He said it had fantastic flavor, and was even great reheated. The red pepper flakes had just a slight bit of heat to the overall recipe, if you don’t want any sort of spicy you can just leave them out.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:192]
Alex and I love to have tacos for dinner. With this being such an easy recipe, I can set it in the crockpot and forget all about it and we have a fantastic dinner ready at the end of the day!I typically use my own 
I’d been interested in making a lemon and pepper chicken for a while but it was a tad bit scary looking at working with such a strong flavor as lemon. I wanted to do the flavor combination justice, but I was just really nervous to try. However, I finally just decided it was time and went out and found a recipe. I of course adapted it to fit with my personal tastes and time schedule, but I think it turned out fairly well.This recipe calls for a boatload of lemon juice. I actually used fresh squeezed lemon juice and I think that really amped up the overall flavor of the dish. However, if I were to make this dish again and were using fresh juice, I would decrease it by 1/3 to half since lemon juice is very tart. If you’re using bottled juice you’re going to need the entire ½ cup to get the flavor of the dish to come through.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:184]Source: Adapted from 
I make this for Alex at least once a month since it is one of his favorite dishes. However, he always does the seasoning since I “don’t make it spicy enough”. This is a very malleable recipe. You can make it sweeter, spicier or in between. The directions for this recipe are all spices to your own particular taste. We tend to go heavy on the chili powder, cumin and siracha. But if your taste buds don’t like super spicy things you could go heavier on other things.With the quantities I’ve listed below you can either feed a small army, or you can have leftovers for a week. Since this is an easy dish to reheat Alex loves taking it to work for lunch. It also freezes really nicely if you get tired of it before you finish the leftovers. ;)[amd-yrecipe-recipe:182]
I made a giant ham back over Christmas and Alex decided to use the leftover ham bone to make a soup. He told me that his parents would make this all the time when he was younger and he really enjoyed their recipe. So he decided to look up a recipe and make a few changes of his own, and this is the result.You do need to prep this soup ahead of time since it sits in the crock pot for a while. I would suggest prepping the ingredients the night before so you can easily assemble everything the next day. This soup is best when served with a nice loaf of crusty bread with butter.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:171]Source: Adapted from 
I love making new soups for Alex to try. He really enjoys a good hearty soup in the winter so I try and make one every week. I’ve been looking for new recipes and came across this one. I thought Alex would absolutely love it since it contains ground beef, beans and spices.This is a VERY easy recipe to make. You simply put everything in a crockpot and let it stew for several hours. I suggest cooking this soup on low so the flavors have more time to blend together. However, if you’re pressed for time you can cut the cook time in half by cooking it on high.Alex absolutely loved this soup. He said it was like a taco in a bowl. He chose to have it with crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheddar on top. You could also include a little sour cream on top if you’d like to add a little bit of creaminess. Overall, if you like tacos and soup you should totally try this recipe. You won’t regret it![amd-yrecipe-recipe:169]Source: Adapted from 
Sometimes you just need an easy dinner you can put in the crockpot and let sit and cook all day long. This is a great recipe you can do that with. Depending on how many people you need to feed you can change amounts you include. I personally make about 1lb of roast with two or three potatoes and lots of carrots. This can easily be changed depending on the amount you are feeding.The combination of herbs is what we prefer on a roast, however, you can change or substitute things depending on your personal preference. Alex loves it when I include some ground cayenne pepper and chili pepper. This makes for a spicier version rather than the savory version below.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:167]
Alex specially requested that I make a ham for his birthday dinner. I’ve never made a ham before so I decided to try an Old Fashioned style ham. He was very happy with the end result. This is a great recipe for a large gathering or any time you really want to impress guests.This recipe is for a very sweet ham. If you don’t prefer your meat on the sweeter side this probably isn’t the right recipe for you. I personally love sweet ham so I found this to be a great recipe. Alex prefers slightly saltier ham but he still liked this recipe when finished.
Personally, I’ve used a roaster and a cooking bag for this particular recipe. I find using these things get the ham cooked nicely and it doesn’t take up additional space in my oven. If you decide not to use a roaster or don’t happen to have one on hand simply follow the directions on your ham in order to cook and then follow the last few directions here to glaze.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:163]
I know I’ve said this before, but when I cook a large meal I tend to run out of oven and/or stove burner space. I also don’t seem to have time for futzy-putzy dishes. I decided this last time around to try making mashed potatoes in a crockpot. This not only saved me time, it kept me from using a burner on the stove and they turned out amazing!These were fantastic mashed potatoes. Since they cook for such a long time with a ton of moisture they are amazingly soft and smushy when you go to mash them. I highly suggest using a potato masher or a hand mixer to mash these. It will save you a lot of time and energy when you probably don’t have much to spare.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:157]
When you’re cooking a giant meal the last thing you need is to run out of space in the oven. I always run into this problem with a big meal so I decided to try and make as many things in the crockpot as I could the last time we had family over. We have two different sized crockpots and a large roaster so this is a viable option for us.Stuffing is a huge part of any family holiday celebration and since I was trying to make an entirely gluten free Christmas feast the stuffing had to be included. I had two loaves of Udi’s bread that had been sitting in my freezer for several months and I decided it was time to make use of them. I find Udi’s too dry to eat by itself so I was saving it for an occasion such as this.The other large alteration I made to this stuffing recipe was to cook it in a crockpot. Although this didn’t give the crispy crust some people love it did work well. If you’re really concerned about a crispy top you can always stick the finished product under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp up right before you serve it.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:155]Source: Adapted from: Food Network Magazine, November 2015
Last week I was a very bad blogger. We were in Tech for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, a Community Theatre show I am directing. I’ve barely been home in the last few weeks so last week I had to go awol as a blogger since I didn’t have time to post anything! Well, we’ve made it through the first weekend of shows, and I finally have time to do other things.Today’s recipe is actually something Alex found and adapted. Since I haven’t been home much in the last couple weeks he’s been having to make his own dinner most nights. This is one of the recipes he came up with! I asked if I could steal it and post since it was SO easy!While Alex paired this with a spice rice you can definitely serve it over plain white rice if you prefer. Alex really loves spicy food, so he created this amped up rice recipe. He said it was the absolute best part of the dinner![amd-yrecipe-recipe:144]
