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Slow-cooker meal preparation fits nicely into spring activity schedules, allowing home cooked meals to be ready when a quick dinner is required. Fix-It and Forget-It, Feasting with your Slow Cooker, by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good is one of my favorite slow-cooker recipe resources. There is a recipe for just about everything in it.

Awfully Easy Chicken, by Martha Hershey of Ronks, PA is a wonderful base recipe for combining chicken and just about any bottled sauce. The original recipe calls for barbecue sauce, but I have made it with preserves, salad dressing, salsa, even cranberry sauce. Served with mashed potatoes, rice or pasta and a green salad, this recipe makes it easy to have dinner on the table in short order.

Awfully Easy Chicken

1/2 cup water

4 pounds chicken legs and thighs

1 bottle (14 ounces) barbecue sauce

Place water in bottom of slow-cooker. Add chicken. Pour barbecue sauce over top. Cover and cook on low 8 hours.

Remove chicken to serving platter. Serve sauce with potatoes, rice or pasta. Yield: 8 servings.

Note: if you like a robust onion flavor in chicken, thinly slice 1-3 onions and place them in the slow-cooker before adding the chicken.

Variations: Preserves or jam, especially apricot, is great with chicken. Use 1 1/2 cups and 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1-2 tablespoons prepared mustard

Salad Dressings: French, Catalina and Honey Mustard are savory parings with chicken. Reduce water to 1 tablespoon

Salsa: use a thick or chunky style salsa. Omit water and replace with 1/4 cup salsa. Then pour 1 1/4 cups salsa over the top.

Cranberry sauce: use whole berry or jellied and stir vigorously to smooth out the sauce before spooning over the top.

Chicken salads of all types are a taste treat as weather warms and cold foods are desired. Though you can buy precooked, frozen chicken for salads, it is more economical to prepare your own.

Your slow-cooker makes this task and overnight breeze. Simply place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in your slow-cooker and add water to just barely cover and let them simmer over night.

Slow-cooker

Chicken for Salads

8 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves

water to just barely cover

1 large bay leaf

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in slow-cooker, cover and cook on low at least 8 hours or overnight.

When chicken is done, remove to platter using a strainer spoon and let cool until easy to handle. Dice chicken and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Yield, about 10 cups diced chicken.

Note, you may add other seasonings according to your taste. Recipe may be halved or doubled.Turkey is an economical meat that can easily be prepared in a slow-cooker. No-Fuss Turkey Breast is quick to prepare and may be served as the main course, or cooled and diced for salads and casseroles. The basic recipe does not call for any seasonings, but when I am serving as a main course, I sprinkle it with sage and ground black pepper after rubbing with the oil.

No-Fuss Turkey Breast

1 large turkey breast

olive oil

1-2 Tbsp water

Rub turkey breast with oil. Place in slow-cooker. Add water, cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low 4-5 hours.

Remove from slow-cooker and let stand 10 minutes before slicing, or cool, de-bone and dice meat. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Yield: 10-12 servings or 3-4 pints diced meat.

Note: if turkey breast is frozen, there is no need to thaw, just increase cooking time to 6-7 hours, or overnight.

Pineapple Chicken or Turkey Salad is easy to prepare when you have the precooked meat on hand. Thaw in the morning for lunch or dinner.

Pineapple Chicken or Turkey Salad

1 can (20 ounces) pineapple tidbits, well drained, juice reserved

4 cups diced, cooked chicken or turkey

1/4 cup finely diced celery

1/4 cup finely diced, sweet green pepper

1/4 cup finely diced green onions

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream, plain yogurt or cream cheese

In a large mixing bowl combine drained pineapple, meat, celery, green pepper and green onions.

In a medium bowl combine 1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice, black pepper, mayonnaise and sour cream. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 1 minute or until smooth.

Just before serving, combine dressing with salad ingredients. Serve scooped over chopped salad greens or spoon filling into sandwiches or wraps. Yield: 5-6 servings.

Note: 2 cups grape halves, sliced strawberries, diced tart apple or kiwi slices may be substituted for the pineapple. Lime juice is good with all of the above, but use slightly less, about 3 tablespoons as it is thinner than pineapple juice.

Barbecued Green Beans is a fun side dish to prepare in your slow-cooker. Though it is best with fresh green beans, it may be made with frozen or well drained canned varieties.

Barbecued Green Beans

1 pound bacon

1/4 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3/4 tsp salt (optional)

4 cups cut green beans

Brown bacon until crisp, drain and break into bite size pieces. Reserve 2 tablespoons, drippings. Sauté onions in bacon drippings. Combine ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Stir into bacon and onions. Pour mixture over green beans and mix lightly.

Place mixture in slow-cooker and cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Note: this recipe may easily be doubled and omit the salt, unless you like a really salty flavor.

Make slow-cooker clean up easy by using disposable slow-cooker liners, especially for recipes containing tomato or sticky sauces.

Share your favorite recipes by sending them to: Welcome to My Kitchen, c/o The Odessa Record, P.O. Box 458, Odessa, WA 99159 or drop them in the Welcome to My Kitchen mail tin in The Odessa Record office. Time to transplant volunteer seedlings.