Back on the meal planning bandwagon (maybe)

It has been a year since I wrote my first meal planning post. To be truthfully honest, nothing has changed. I'm not sure when I fell off the meal planning bandwagon, but it was several months ago. A staple in our meals has been a lot of shake and bake chicken and a lot of ham sandwiches (or hammages as darling daughter calls them) for me.

Today, I decided to take action. I hate cooking. Absolutely hate it. Slow cookers make cooking a bit bearable as I don't actually have to cook. I just assembling. I'm okay with assembling. When dear husband broke our slow cooker earlier this year, he went out and bought the hugest slow cooker he could find. Bigger is not always better as the slow cooker seems to overcook our meals because it is too big. So I bought a smaller slow cooker. Now I have two, I absolutely no more excuses why I can't assemble slow cooker meals.

I have yet to come up with a comprehensive slow cooking/meal plan. It is a work in progress. I've got some ideas, but it remains to be seen if I'll stick with it. Since I have a poor meal planning track record, I'll likely be writing a similar post this time next year.

So are you wondering what is my slow cooker? This recipe, taken from The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook, is a slow cooker staple in my house. I usually tweak my recipes to suit my tastes. When I assemble this recipe, I usually opt using chopped onion rather than using onion flakes. Also, I don't put in the milk and cheese until 30 minutes before I'm ready to dish out the meal.

Wyoming Cowboy Casserole

1 pound lean ground beef

1 cup Colby cheese, cubed

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 can (16 ounce) whole kernel corn

1 can (16 ounce) red kidney beans (I usually drain and wash before throwing them into the pot).

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon dry onion flakes

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet on medium-high heat; drain off grease. Spread beef on paper towels to cool before placing meat into the slow cooker.

2. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for four hours. Serves four.

*Serve over biscuits and with a salad.