Christmas in a Crockpot

For Christmas Eve festivities a few years ago, we decided to do "Christmas in a Crockpot."  All the food we ate was cooked and served in crockpots...made it easy for us because no one had to slave over a big fancy meal and it was delicious!  I love these recipes because they are easy and flexible to your tastes...I don't measure a whole lot, I just add stuff until I think it tastes good. :)

So get your toothpicks and your napkins ready, here are some of our crockpot favorites...

Meatballs

1 bag of frozen meatballs (you could use a homemade recipe if you have one..I'm all about easy and homemade meatballs are messy)
1/2 a bottle to a bottle of ketchup depending on preference
1 bottle of BBQ sauce
1 jar of grape jelly

Put meatballs in crockpot add rest of ingredients cook for 4-6  hours.  I don't usually add much ketchup, I like the flavor of the bbq sauce better.  Also, I never understood why all these meatball recipes called for jelly...I thought it was weird, until I tried it.  It's good folks!


Lil' Smokies

enough packages of lil smokies for your group
1 bottle of BBQ sauce
a cup of grape jelly

All the ingredients in a crockpot cook for 6 hours on low


 Cheesy Salsa Dip

1 jar of your favorite salsa
16 oz of velveeta cheese cubed

mix it all together in your crockpot  and cook on low,  Serve with your favorite dipping chips.


Now this last recipe wasn't for Crockpot Christmas but we enjoy this in our house throughout the year.


Roast

Your favorite cut of roast
1 package of Italian Dressing
1 package of Ranch Dressing
1 package of Au Jus
1-2 cups of water (depending on how much gravy you like)

optional--add carrots and potatoes


put roast in crockpot (we've done it both frozen and thawed)
add the rest of ingredients and cook on low 8 hours

The delightful smells of this roast will make your mouth water and your house smell WONDERFUL.


I love my crockpot, even though I'm a freak and worry about it all day when I'm not home, I still love it! And I mean I'm a freak, I envision these horrible scenarios about how I'll be in the middle of teaching and my principal will come to my room and tell me I have a phone call and it will be the fire department because my crockpot will have exploded and caught my house on fire.  Is this irrational or do others have these same issues?  Please tell me I'm not alone!

Happy Crockpot-ing!
 

Cleaning out the Closet

Last night as I was finishing dinner, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer….I had to clean out my closet.  I was sick of looking at all the stuff in there, never being able to find anything, and shuffling past all kinds of stuff that I don’t wear anymore.  I should add that we live in an older house that was built before the days of large walk-in closets, so I don’t have a whole lot of room anyway.

I usually go on a closet purge two or three times a year and I come up with a bag of stuff to donate to goodwill.  I don’t usually get rid of everything I need to because I hold some sort of attachment to these things…and I think, “Oh, I might wear that again when it gets warmer out.” It usually just hangs there taking up space and never getting worn.  By last night, I had had enough…I pulled out anything that I haven’t worn or that didn’t fit right, which is another bad habit of mine…I sometimes will keep things that don’t fit right because I think, what if I’m that size again, I’ll need it.  Well you know what; I’m not that size anymore.  I hope I’m not ever again.  I’m not going to keep clothes that don’t fit “just in case.”  Ick.

I found something in my closet that STILL HAD TAGS!  How embarrassing is that?  I’m donating it because it doesn’t fit and I’m not even sure why I bought it in the first place.  No joke, it has probably been in my closet for 2 ½ years. *wipes brow* *can’t believe I just admitted that*

After I went through the closet, I did something unthinkable….I went for the shoes….I know…SHOES.  I’m not obsessive about shoes by any means, but the shoes I do have, I love.  Until I wear them so much that they’ve worn out and can’t walk down the school hallway without being in pain.  I got rid of 4 pair of shoes.  I parted with the most comfy pair of black flats I’ve ever owned, and it was time.  See ya, black flats!

Then there were purses…

I just donated purses back in the spring, so all I did was organize the shelf, look and see if there were any extra dollar bills hiding in the pockets, and put them back nice and neat.  No need to go crazy or anything. J

Ahhhh...i feel the weight of two large bags of clothes coming off my shoulders....

**Side note** I’m at school, dressed like an elf because our students surpassed a service goal they set.  Merry Christmas!