Crockpots are an awesome tool for the busy college student. Once you invest in one (and they aren’t that expensive), you can pop in a couple ingredients in the morning, let it sit all day and enjoy it that afternoon or night without having to worry about preparing a meal after a long day. Here are a few recipes that aren’t too taxing to make or buy the ingredients for.

Chili

This recipe is a classic that most people love. Take a pound of ground beef and a pound of sausage, brown it in a skillet, drain the grease and throw it in the crock.

After the meat is in, toss in:

– a 6 oz. can of tomato paste

– an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce

– seasonings (like chili powder, crushed red pepper, salt, oregano, whatever)

– about a half a cup of water

– a 15 oz. can of whatever type of beans (if you want them in your chili)

Now you’re ready to put that sucker on some heat. Cook it on high or low for however many hours you want. Really the chili is almost done when you throw the ingredients in the crock, but, generally speaking, the longer it’s in the crock, the better it tastes.

Roast

Roast is a very versatile thing to make, so you can moosh around the recipe as much as you’d like to produce something tasty. You mainly need veggies, meat and water, but following is a more detailed recipe.

Start off with a roast–probably pick out a chuck roast–that weighs about three pounds. If you want, you can sear the roast on all of its sides in a skillet with oil. It doesn’t take long to do this and the flavor ends up being so much better. Regardless, take the roast and put it in the crock pot with an eight oz. can of beef broth. Throw some seasonings on top of the meat and add the vegetables (carrots, celery, potatoes, onion) on top and in the side area of the roast and crock pot. Cook on low for about eight hours or on high for about four.

Enchiladas

This is a deviation from the traditional homemade-type of enchiladas in that it uses shredded meat rather than ground beef. The downsides of this recipe are that it takes a lot longer than the normal way and, as enchilada-making always is, it’s messy.

Start off with some meat. You can use chicken breast, pork loin, some kind of roast, anything really. Throw it in the crock and cook it in water or broth and seasonings for a couple hours (usually four – six). When you take the meat out, it should fall apart pretty easily, which is awesome. Put the meat on a cutting board or counter and shred it with a couple forks.

Now that the meat is prepared, the enchilada stuff can be made ready.

You’ll need:

– 13 x 9” baking dish

– 12 flour tortillas

– enchilada sauce

– shredded cheese

The little packet of enchilada seasoning tends to taste better than the canned sauce, so that might be something to try. Just remember that the packet sauce seasoning crap requires a can of tomato sauce to make it.

After the sauce is done, you can start putting the enchiladas together:

1. dip a tortilla in the sauce so it’s fully coated

2. take a handful of the meat and put it to one side of the tortilla

3. add shredded cheese on top of the meat

4. roll up the tortilla in a burrito-like way

After all your enchiladas are lined up in your baking dish, you can add more shredded cheese on top, along with white queso, salsa and even the broth/seasoned water that you cooked the meat in.

Bake the enchiladas in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Some of the recipes seem overwhelming, but cooking really doesn’t need to be a “by the books” kind of thing. Change around recipes and make them into something your own. It’s good to have a plan, but you don’t need to take these recipes too seriously.