This past week was a dream: dinners prepped on Sunday, 5-10 minute heat up time and best of all….AMAZINGLY GOOD!

My husband sent me this link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharrison/slow-cooker-spring-dinners this past week-ish. I dutifully marked it and promptly forgot about it until he asked what I thought of the Spring-time recipes he’d sent. Quickly re-opening the link, I made last minute changes to our grocery order (thank you http://www.peapod.com). Am I glad I did or what! I tried 3 of the recipes and found a fourth (we’re trying another 5 this upcoming week!). Could not give a higher recommendations.

In order of preparation time:

1. Easiest Crock Pot Salsa Verde Chicken

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/04/easiest-crock-pot-salsa-verde-chicken.html

My notes: I used generic salsa verde, chicken thighs (what I had on hand), and served with sour cream/ corn tortillas/shredded (purple) cabbage. I threw this in the slow cooker while I was prepping for the week.

Recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/04/easiest-crock-pot-salsa-verde-chicken.html

2. Carrot Ginger Soup

My notes: 1) shallots, 2) pre-copped carrots, 3) orange zest, 4) orange juice, 5) sweet potato, 6) fresh ginger (didn’t finely minced it), chicken broth (nope not homemade). Forgot the rest of the recipe…served with salt, pepper, sour cream & siracha (siracha is NOT required)

Recipe: http://homemakershabitat.com/2010/03/slow-cooker-carrot-ginger-soup.html

3. Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef (whoops I ordered corned beef brisket…STILL DELICIOUS)
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-for-a-crowd-big-game-day-barbacoa-165301

My notes: Sorry no picture (they had an intense legal page). This did take a minute to make (probably because I wanted to use my stick blender). I halved the recipe and we enjoyed corned beef/mustard/swiss cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-for-a-crowd-big-game-day-barbacoa-165301

4. Crockpot Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables

My notes: Just think of this as: 1) Veggie prep, 2) Chicken prep 3) Spice rub prep. I cooked this for 8-8.5 hours and it tended to be a smidgen dry because of this. Cook for 7.5 hours. This was DELICIOUSLY DELICIOUS. We made quesadillas for lunch out of these for two people in addition to dinner. Cannot recommend this one enough. The instructions look overwhelming but it turned out to be pretty simple.

Recipe: http://comfortablydomestic.com/2013/10/10/roasted-chicken-root-vegetables/