Crockpot Smashed Potatoes

Love using the crockpot, and LOVE having it for side dishes!

{How fabulous to not be boiling potatoes right as the main dish is ready!}

This sweet thing ate them up.

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Recipe:

2-3 pounds red potatoes, either quartered or diced

1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup onion & chive cream cheese {from a tub}

1/2 - 1 cup milk

1/2 a stick of butter

Directions:

Place potatoes, garlic, olive oil and water in crock pot. Stir well. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 4-6 hours.

{I cooked on HIGH for 4 hours and they were perfectly tender}.

When they're tender, mash with the back of a large fork.  Stir in cream cheese, butter, and milk until they're the consistancy you want them to be.

Add kosher salt and pepper to taste!

SO easy. SO good!

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Crockpot Oatmeal

I am not a morning person. At all. Seriously, not.at.all. So, when I came across a recipe for crockpot oatmeal, I decided it was definitely for me.

So, at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night I haul out our crockpot, steel cut oats, water, an apple, and some half-and-half. SO EASY.

Results? It isfor sure going into our recipe rotation. and I am now on a mad hunt for more breakfast crockpot recipes! Our preschooler is starting, well, pre-school, in the fall for the first time and I so want to give him a nutritious, delicious breakfast (that he'll actually eat, ya know?)...he LOVED this oatmeal, and the Baby Girl ate her fair share, too.

Crockpot Oatmeal

3 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 cup steel cut oats
1 diced apple

Mix everything together. Place in crockpot on WARM for 8-10 hours. Serves about 4.

Recipe hints: You can replace the half and half for non-fat milk for a lighter option. It serves about 4, depending - for our family my preschooler at a good-sized bowl, the Baby Girl had a bowl, and the husband had a generous portion...AND we still had what was left for the picture.

Definitely put it on WARM on the crockpot, or it would have started to stick. I did turn it to low for about an hour when I got up this morning to help it thicken - and, it was definitely thick! Depending on how you like your oatmeal, you can add more milk to your bowl and just stir it up to thin it a tad.

Enjoy!