First of all, let me apologize for the crappy quality of these pictures. Out of respect for my coworkers, I made and ate these ham and beans AFTER work instead of before or during. Since I work afternoon shift, that left me cooking and eating these in the dark, hence the bad lighting. And I was too lazy and hungry to spend time prettying it up, hence the messy bowl.

Don’t let that chase you away though! This was a seriously simple and tasty crock pot full of comfort food. Not to mention, it was relatively cheap: a bag of beans, some ham, and seasoning you should already have in your pantry. I chose to use a pound of diced ham to make mine, both for the easiness factor and because it seemed to be the best option at my grocery store. I also ended up using an equivalent amount of minced onion instead of the onion powder, only because I discovered I don’t have any onion powder in my pantry.

I cooked this in the crockpot for about 7 hours, I think. It could have been done earlier (even the low setting on my crock pot is super hot), but I cooked it longer to let the beans break down and thicken up a little more. Don’t forget to serve it up with some sweet corn bread!

Crockpot Ham and Beans
Source: Plain Chicken

1 lb package dried northern beans
ham bone, hocks, shanks or diced ham (about 1 pound)
2 tsp onion powder
6 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

Rinse and sort the beans for any pebbles. Add the the rinsed beans, onion powder, salt, pepper, and ham to the crock pot. Add water. Cover and cook on low about 8 hours, until beans are tender. Remove ham bone, shanks or hocks and pull off the meat. Add meat to the crock pot and mix. Serve with cornbread.

We are rapidly approaching the end of comfort food season. In fact, in my area of Indiana, we are at the beginning of an unseasonably warm week! This makes me happy because my roller derby team is participating in the St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday, and I am very much looking forward to not nearly freezing to death like we did last year. All this to say, I’m glad I made this soup last week!

But maybe it’s still chilly where you are, and you’re wanting a nice, comforting bowl of soup. If so, you are in luck! I bookmarked this recipe ages ago, and finally decided to pull it out. I love baked potato soups, but most of the recipes I’ve found are rather difficult, or at least involved. Not the case with this one! The best thing about this recipe though is how adaptable it is! I included the original recipe at the bottom of the post here, as always, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: That’s not exactly how I made my soup! *gasp* I know those of you who have been around with me for a long time are probably shocked, me being the dirty little recipe follower that I am.

I’m not crazy about onions, so instead of including the chopped onion that is called for, I shook in a bit of dried minced onion. I also just shook in some pepper instead of measuring, and added a shake or two of garlic powder while I was at it. Garlic makes everything better. The biggest change I made? When it was time to add the cream cheese, I also added about half of a 3oz package of real bacon pieces. Ohhh yeah! I topped my serving off with some cheddar cheese and sour cream. It was super easy to make and crazy delicious! I’ll definitely be making this one again.

And just a tip I picked up from reading the comments on the original recipe: some people had issues with getting the cream cheese to melt. Based on their suggestions, I made sure my cream cheese was super soft, and then I whirled it around in my mini processor with a little bit of the hot soup before adding it to the crockpot. It worked perfectly. I think the only thing I’d do differently next time is stick my immersion blender in there for a bit.

Crockpot Potato Soup

Source: Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns
3 14oz. cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 pkg. cream cheese, NOT fat free

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese. Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted. Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a really long time now. Last week though, I was looking through my bookmarks again and decided that I was finally going to make it. So I added the ingredients to my grocery list (all four of them), and stuck them all in the crockpot on Sunday morning before I left for roller derby practice.

It couldn’t have been easier to make. Rinse four cans of white beans, toss in 2 cups of salsa and cube up some cheese… sink the chicken breasts in the mixture in the crock pot, turn it on low and walk away. 7-8 hours later, I came back and pulled the chicken out. It just fell apart. I didn’t have to work to shred it at all, I just looked at it, maybe poked it with the fork a little bit and it was done.

I have to be honest though. I just wasn’t crazy about this as a chili. It was alright, but I didn’t want to curl up with that whole bowl of it and eat it as is. It did, however, make an AWESOME taco filling! The next day, I swung by the grocery store again and picked up some soft tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream and put this chili in the bottom. It was delicious!

White Bean Chicken Chili
Source: Pink Parsley

4 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
8 ounces Pepper jack cheese, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 cups salsa

Combine the beans, cheese, and salsa in a crockpot. Nestle the chicken breasts into the mixture, and cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove chicken breasts, shred with a fork, and return to crockpot. Stir to combine, and serve with desired garnishes.