Crock Pot: Your best friend on the ROK

There is nothing more awesome than putting your dinner on to cook in the morning so you can goof off all afternoon with your friends and then come home to a good home-cooked meal. Here's another labor saving idea: pair up with a friend and take turns cooking double batches during exercise weeks, or anytime your active duty spouse is working triple time AGAIN.

Osan chefs are accomplished Crock-pot users and here are a few favorite recipes:

SIMPLE CHICKEN

Take a sliced onion and whole garlic cloves place them in the bottom of your crock pot. Put a whole chicken on topped. Stuff chicken with half an onion and celery. Salt and pepper the outside of chicken. Add potatoes and carrots. Cook all day on low setting. My kids love it!

ITALIAN CHICKEN AND BEANS

4 chicken breasts
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 (16 oz) can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz ) can petite diced tomatoes with basil and oregano or any style of canned tomatoes
1 dash salt
1 dash black pepper
2 t dried basil
1 t dried thyme

Cook 7 hours on low.

MOROCCAN CHICKEN

4 chicken breasts

1 jar salsa

1 cup water

2 tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds

1/4 cup dried apricots cut into small pieces

Cook all day on low.

For more recipes, look here or here. And if you're not a slow-cooker fan and you are lucky enough to have an oven with a timer, you can slack off all afternoon too; try making an oven-only meal and setting it to cook itself while you're gone. Try seasoned chicken breasts, baked potatoes and oven-roasted vegetables (shake veggie chunks in a bag with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then toss them into a baking dish) baked at 350 for an hour and fifteen minutes.