It was one of those days the other day.  I really wanted to make a crockpot meal because I knew there would be no time after school and work to throw something together for dinner.  I knew I would be so happy if all I had to do was make some noodles or rice and spoon the meal on top.  But nothing that is in my normal dinner rotation sounded appealing.

I love holidays.  Just about any holiday.  Frankly, it's for no other reason than the food.

I often ask my husband, "what sounds good for dinner?"  He hates it, because usually I'm asking him around 7am and he hasn't even had breakfast yet.  Most times I give him choices, like 'chicken, beef, or tilapia' or 'mexican, italian, or greek'.  Then I take it from there.   The other day I asked him and he quickly replied "Cajun."  Not something I hear very often!  I had a roast thawed out that I needed to use so I threw it in the crockpot with some spices and then threw together some Maque Choux right before dinner time.  Tasty! [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:205]

My family loves when I make mashed potatoes, because that often means one thing:  Shepherd's Pie the next day with the leftover potatoes.  Of course, I always want the prep time to be as quick as possible so I came up with this!

My husband doesn't do a lot of the cooking around the house, although he would like to.  He will actually ask me at times if he can make dinner as he really likes to cook and I don't often give him the chance.  He makes some things EXTREMELY well.   Chili is one of them.

This soup is so good; my husband had three bowls! I was going to freeze some of it, but frankly there wasn't enough left for me to do so. A unique hearty broth flavor with tender cuts of beef and mushrooms.

The other day I had leftover shredded beef in my fridge along with some ground beef. I considered making beef barley soup, but wanted to do something else. Here's what I got!

For any of you who have frequented a chain Italian restaurant (that shall remain nameless) you've heard of this soup.  My mother in law shared her recipe for it in our most recent family cookbook.  Of course, I changed it a little and converted it to a crockpot recipe - after all, who wants to take 60 minutes to make dinner when you can take the whole day?

These sandwiches are easily one of our favorites and a usual meal in our household.  My husband will often use giardeneria in place of pepperoncinis.  So tasty and so easy!!

The long cooking time allows the creamy sauce to marinate the meatballs for a delicious result. [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:110]