If you want to come home to your house smelling heavenly, with enough food for dinner AND a freezer meal, you’ll love this!  With a little bit of prep time, which can even be done the night before, this is an easy recipe that can be used in a variety of ways.  Cook up a pot of spaghetti to enjoy with your meatballs.

Turn ’em into meatball subs.  Enjoy them alone.  Whichever way, you’ll love it.  And you can take advantage of whatever ground meat is on sale at the store, because any combination of ground beef, turkey, pork, chicken, sausage, venison, etc. will do.

Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Makes about 36 medium size meatballs

 

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of meat (ground beef, Italian sausage, turkey—any combination will work)
1 1/4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried crushed basil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 Jar of Spaghetti sauce or you can use your favorite homemade spaghetti sauce recipe

Directions:
1.  In a slow cooker, mix the spaghetti sauce, along with about 1 teaspoon crushed basil.

2.  In a bowl, mix the ground meat, bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, onion, and egg. Shape the mixture into 1-2 inch size meatballs.

3.  Once you have shaped your meatballs you can put these directly into your sauce in the slow cooker, or you can bake them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees to cook them some and that cuts down on the grease in the sauce.
4.  Cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.  Enjoy! ☺

This makes a pretty big batch, so you can easily take about half the batch and pop ’em in the freezer.  Later on when you’ve got a night where you need a quick and easy dinner, you can just pour some more sauce into the slow cooker and toss in the frozen meatballs and have another easy dinner. (cook for 4-5 hours on low)  Win!  

If you like this recipe – you’ll LOVE our Family Favorites Menu Plans!  Click here to learn more.

If you’re looking for a hearty, stick-to-your ribs chili that’s sure to please the carnivores in your life, this is the one! With just a little bit of prep work beforehand, you can have this hot and ready in your slow cooker when dinnertime rolls around.  You can even do the prep work the night before, save in the fridge, and pop it into the slow cooker in the morning if you want to.

This recipe is included in our October Family Favorites Menu Plan!  You can learn more about that here.

Slow Cooker Chili Colorado

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 cans green chilis
  
• 3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups organic beef broth
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, stems removed and finely chopped
• Optional (to add more heat): 2 – 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

Let’s Go!

1.  Add green chilies to blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.

2.  Trim off excess fat from chuck roast and cut into equal size chunks. The meat will become very tender and easy to pull apart while in the slow cooker – so larger chunks are fine.

3.  In a small bowl, combine flour, chili powder, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.  Sprinkle seasoned flour over beef chunks and toss to coat lightly.

4.  Heat olive oil in large 12” skillet over medium-high heat. With tongs, lift individual floured beef chunks and shake off excess flour. Place beef in hot skillet and brown on all sides. Work in batches to prevent overlapping or overcrowding pieces.

5.  Remove browned beef from pan and add to slow cooker. Repeat browning process with remaining floured beef slices.

6.  Add pureed green chilies, beef stock, chopped onion and jalapeno peppers (if desired) to slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8. When done cooking, transfer to serving bowl and stir in fresh cilantro, reserving some for garnish.

7.  Serve with soft flour tortillas, refried beans, and Mexican rice, if desired.

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Looking for some fresh inspiration for combining your love for your vegetarian or vegan lifestyle with the convenience and ease of a slow cooker?  Today I’ve got 10 terrific free or super cheap Kindle books for you to grab so you can get cookin’!