Easy Crockpot Menu – Catalina Ribs Recipe

Tips:

• Remove the skin and fat from chicken and meat when you can because cooking the meat in skin and fat can cause the dish to have a greasy taste.
• If you like thicker sauces, just dredge your meat in flour before placing it in the crockpot.
• When a recipe says to cook for 8 hours and you don’t expect to get home until 1-2 hours after that, don’t worry. Place everything in the crockpot the night before and refrigerate it. Then, start the crockpot in the morning. Starting it cold can extend your cooking time for a couple of hours. You don’t really have to worry about some things like soups, stews and large pieces of meat. An hour or so won’t make much of a difference in the flavor or how well it is done.
• In order to save money in most recipes, you can cut back on things like nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, marshmallows etc. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of any of these you can just add 1/2 – 3/4 of a cup instead.
• In the Grape/Apple coleslaw recipe below, use green apples for St. Patrick’s Day and red apples for a different and refreshing salad at Christmas.

 

Menu:

Catalina Ribs
Baked Potatoes
Corn
Grape/Apple Coleslaw
Caramel Apple Cake

Recipes:

Catalina Ribs

1 1/2-2 lbs. boneless pork ribs
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (8 oz.) bottle of Catalina Dressing

Place the ribs in a crockpot. Put in the remaining ingredients and cook on low for 5-7 hours.

 

Grape and Apple Coleslaw

4 cups coleslaw mix
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup raisins
1 (6 oz.) carton vanilla yogurt
1 large apple, chopped
1/2 cup halved green grapes
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Combine all ingredients in the order listed. Cover and chill until serving. Makes 6-8 servings.

 

Caramel Apple Cake

1 (15 oz.) spice cake mix
3 eggs
1 can apple pie filling
1 cup nuts
caramel topping (optional)*

Topping:
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. butter, softened

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Mix cake ingredients together and pour into a well greased and floured 9×13 pan. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of cake batter. Bake for 35 minutes.

*Just before serving, you can drizzle with caramel topping if you would like.

 

For lots of easy pre-made menus and recipes you can prepare in just minutes, check out our Easy Crockpot Recipes and Menus e-book.