Crock Pots and Planned Leftovers

Do you LOVE your crock pot as much as I do? I own 3.....I love them that much. Above are the two I use the most. I have named them.....they are friends...LOL. Well why wouldn't they be my very dear friends....they do so much work for me....I am grateful! I can NOT afford maids or butlers....but with crock pots and planning....I can sometimes feel like I have kitchen staff...well until dish washing time! The white small guy came from Goodwill for $3.99....I call him Old blue...even though he has a green insert. The brown one is Old/OLD faithful- given to me by an 89 year old gal named Carrie whom I helped clean out her basement (THANKS Carrie!) Carrie has since moved back home with the Lord....but she gifted me with so many useful items...such a blessing. This guy is from the 70's I am sure by his colors and design....but works like a dream. If he ever dies....I'll use his beautiful brown crock insert to hold my utensils by my stove OR use it as my new sourdough starter crock. Then there is my not photoed one....Old faithful and she is from 1994 when I got married-a wedding gift. She is the largest of my crocks and is kept out in the garage for big batch company cooking....usually potatoes or chili. She is a she because her main color is PINK.

I cooked yesterday enough food for 3 meals. I planned for the leftovers. I LOVE to do this because it saves me TIME and energy later. Here's what I did and the three meals I got.
Day One Meal:
Crock Chicken and gravy
Crock cooked rice
Mixed Veggies
Place one large bag frozen chicken breasts (you can use whatever pieces you like...bone in or out and as much as you need to feed the size of your family plus leftovers.) in crock pot...add 2-3 cans cream of chicken soup (no extra water as the frozen chicken will produce enough.) Cook on low all day 7-9 hours. This will cook all your meat plus make boat loads of yummy gravy. 2 hours before you plan to eat, place 2 cups dry white or brown rice and 4 cups water in another crock pot...cook on High for the 2 hours. This step may vary for you....my small crock cooks in this time....if you have never cooked rice in yours start 3 hours and check after 2...if it gets done simply turn it off...it will stay warm enough for dinner. I then heated a small bag of frozen mixed veggies as the side. We served by placing a nice bed of rice on the plate then nestled the chicken breast on the bed and tucked it all in with a nice blanket of gravy. Serve with hot steamy veggies. SO GOOD! If your gravy isn't thick enough simply add some cornstarch dissolved in water into your crock and crank it to high for a bit.

Day Two Meal
Chicken Stir Fry Rice
Chop all leftover chicken. Save half for day 3 meal. Scramble 2-6 eggs in large skillet...break up small. Add all leftover rice, about 1/4 cup leftover mixed veggies and the first 1/2 leftover chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion power, garlic powder and ginger to taste. Add about 5 TBS soy sauce and stir fry the whole bunch till warmed through.

Day Three Meal
Chicken Pot Pie
Warm leftover gravy in pan. Add Leftover 2nd half of chicken, the remainder of the mixed veggies and one can drained diced potatoes ( Or dice your own). I placed mine in a 9x9 pan and topped with one top crust....you could also top off with canned or drop biscuits. Bake at 350 30-40 mins till hot and crust/biscuits are down.

I made this chicken pot pie on day one when I was packing up the dinner foods and went ahead and cut all the chicken that day. I put my pot pie in the freezer for a different day. Tonight we will eat the stir fry....but you could have just as easily made the stir fry on day one also and froze that in a large freezer bag to eat later too. I like to do this sort of thing with roast beef too. Buy a BIG one and get it all cooked at once. We eat a nice roast beef dinner first then I make hash (simple cubed beef and cubed potato in gravy or add one can cooked carrots for a stew) and then the third meal is BBQ beef on rolls- shred the beef and add BBQ. Either freezes well for later. I like the crock just as much in the summer as I do the winter as it does not heat the kitchen up as much as the big stove.