The crock pot your friend

I want to share with you all today something that will save you tons of time and allow you to play all day in the summer sun!  Can you believe summer is almost over?  Hard to believe in only a month I will be homeschooling 2 children, I am nervous with a capital N!  Back to the time saving, use your crock pot, the crock pot is your friend!  It saves me so much time and it allows me to have very tasty meals while enjoying my day with the kids and staying out of the kitchen.  I use the crock pot a few times a month in the summer and even more in the winter because I love hot stew and soups.  I am going to share two recipes that are all mine.  One is my crock pot chicken and the only reason I have decided to share is because on Monday when I got a nasty comment you all were so supportive and I love you all really I do, so I think you all need this recipe!  And the second recipe will be Lima Beans and bacon, a great summer recipe that just screams I Live In The South...

HM's Crock Pot Chicken

8 to 10 pieces of dark meat chicken like legs or thighs or 1 whole chicken  I use dark meat 

2 cups of apple cider vinegar

2 table spoons of minced garlic

1 table spoon hot sauce

salt and pepper

This is such an easy recipe it's hard to believe its one of my families favorites.  I put the raw chicken in the crock pot and all the seasonings and vinegar and cook on med/low all day.  It cooks for about 8 hours.  At the very end you will need to take all the chicken out of the crock pot and clean all the bones out, pour the juice into another bowl making sure all the bones are out of the juice as well.  Now put the chicken back into the crock pot and pull it all apart.  I use two forks or my kitchen scissors.  After the chicken is good and shredded up add some of the juice back in to make a nice consistency for sandwiches.

Now serve on buns with some BBQ sauce I use Sweet Baby Rays.  I also make a side of french fries in the oven and a toss salad.  Easy and really quick dinner.

Lima Beans and Bacon

2 bags of frozen lima beans

2 20oz cans of diced tomatoes (undrained)

2 table spoons of spicy mustard

salt and pepper 

2 tea sugar

1/2 cup water

Place all of the ingredients in the crock pot and you will cook on low for 8 hours.  You will need to fry 1 or 2 pounds of bacon.  You serve these beans with the bacon chopped up on top and with some corn bread.  

So please pull your crock pot out and use them its not a winter only appliance and it can same you time!