I have a love hate relationship with my crock pot sometimes. When it works well, it’s a life saver. But sometimes crock pot recipes make my life harder instead of easier and that seems like it’s defeating the purpose. I’m not looking for a new way to make my life difficult, you know?

But these five recipes have my Crock Pot Goals seal of approval. Easy, quick, more people than just me willingly ate it.

When I told my husband I was making drumsticks in the crock pot, he was pretty sure I was crazy but they came out so good! And I’ve made this recipe multiple times now without screwing anything up. Minimal effort, delicious results. You will need to make side dishes, but sometimes the grocery store can hook you up with that kind of stuff. I recommend a bagged salad and some good bread.

I just made these slow cooker stuffed peppers last week and I was really impressed with how they turned out. These are slightly more labor intensive than I would normally allow a slow cooker recipe to be. I had to cut the tops off some peppers and sautee some onion and garlic before stuffing everything and sticking them in the crock pot. That constitutes effort in my book. But the end result was delicious enough to be forgiven. Even my picky ten year old ate this one.

If you want to make your husband feel all kinds of special, make him these maple and brown sugar pork tenderloins. The prep work is super easy. The hardest part is coming to terms with the cost of pork tenderloins. But we tend to have leftovers for days with this one, so you can kind of justify it under the guise of it feeding your family more than once. And the delicious.

This chicken and dumpling recipe is delicious. Sometimes I just make the soup part of the recipe, add some noodles at the end and cook biscuits on the side. That’s called versatility. You can also add a bag of frozen mixed veggies if you want to flex your mom muscles a bit. Or not. No judgement.

Okay this last recipe is for all of you saying, “but seriously. I have no time at all. Help a sister out.” I’ve got you. It’s called: Dump frozen chicken breasts into your crock pot. Add a big bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. Coat to cover. Cook on high from breakfast to dinner. Bagged salad, good bread. Done. Seriously, bagged salad and good bread can turn any dish into a meal your mother would approve of.

What are your favorite slow cooker meals?

(I’m linking up with Mama Kat’s writing workshop again. Check out her page for more great posts.)