If you are planning a party and need ideas to expand your menu beyond the chips and dips, Swedish Meatballs will do the trick.

You can make these from scratch, or buy ready made Italian Style frozen meatballs, and cook them in your own sauce.

I actually tried the ready made meatballs, and they taste wonderful, with so much less work.

Ingredients:

• 2 Lbs. meatloaf mix ground meat (may use turkey, or beef)
• 1 envelope onion soup
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
• ½ cup Italian flavored bread crumbs
• 14 oz. ketchup (2 cups)
• 1Tbs. Italian Seasoning
• 10 oz. current or apple jelly (3/4 cup)

Directions:

1. Mix the ground meat, onion soup, egg, Italian seasoning and breadcrumbs together into a meatball mixture.
2. Form small meatballs.
3. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes per side, turning over once.
4. While the meatballs are baking, prepare the sauce.
5. Mix together ketchup, Italian seasoning and jelly.
6. Add to meatballs
7. Set the slow cooker on high and cook for 2 hours.

I serve my Swedish Meatballs right out of the slow cooker, keeping it on a warm setting, since they taste so much better when served warm.

photo credit: ibm4381

If you like chili, or baked beans, you will enjoy this Calico Beans recipe.
It is very tasty and inviting on a cold winter day, or at a barbecue.  You will not be slaving over the stove mixing it endlessly, since once you are done with all the prep work, it cooks slowly on its own, in the slow cooker. The smell of fried bacon, and barbecue sauce, plays games with everyone’s taste buds.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Bacon (pork or turkey)
• 1 lb. Ground beef
• 1 Onion – chopped
• 1can Kidney Beans
• 1can Baked Beans
• 1can Great Northern Beans
• 1cup Ketchup and smoky flavored Barbecue Sauce
• 2Tbs. Brown Sugar
• 1Tbs.White Vinegar

Directions:

1. Fry bacon in a frying pan.
2. Remove fried bacon from pan, cool, break it apart, set aside.
3. Remove most of the fat from the pan (or all of it, and use a little bit of oil).
4. Add chopped onion and sauté it until golden.
5. Add ground beef and simmer it until no longer pink.
6. Fill a slow cooker vessel with all the beans, bacon, beef and the rest of the ingredients.
7. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste (may add more salt if needed after it is cooked).
8. Cook covered on low for 3 hours, or on high for 1 1/2 hours.

This recipe resembles a mild chili dish, but with a more pronounced barbecue flavor.  Tastes great with a fresh piece of bread.