If you’re like me then you are nowhere near done with your holiday shopping. To help you last-minute shoppers, I decided to share some new books from the blog world. I haven’t read these books yet but because I follow these blogs I know what to expect:

Erin, a mom of three boys, created www.5dollardinners.com. I found this site in my search for easy and nutritious recipes. I like to save money too but that’s not why I follow this blog (although it should be). Erin often “healthifies” her recipes and includes plenty of fruits and vegetables from her garden. Some of my favorites include her fruit and veggie muffins and a recipe she found for lentil and brown rice casserole. Because of the popularity of her blog, she recently came out with her first book The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare. This is a great idea for parents looking to fix nutritious and economical meals.

Stephanie, a soon-to-be mom of three, created A Year of Slow Cooking in 2008 when she made a New Years’ Resolution to use the slow cooker every day. I’ve recently tried some of the recipes from her site including one for lemon and dill salmon with spinach and I loved it. (Yes, it is possible to cook fish in the slow cooker.) Her recipes prove that slow cooker recipes ain’t what they used to be. Her book, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking, is the perfect gift for any busy mom with a crock-pot. For an even better idea, buy a crock-pot with the book!

And last is Naveen (twintoddlersdad) a dad of toddler twins. He created www.littlestomaks.com to help parents through the maze of feeding their toddlers. He has a variety of experts on his blog and is revealing their tips in the ebook, Expert Nutrition Tips for Your Toddler. And the best part is 100% of the proceeds go to Share Your Strength to help end world hunger. So you get some good tips while helping kids in need at the same time!

Hopefully that will give you some ideas as the holiday stress gets more intense. Have a safe and happy holiday!

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A couple of years ago my mother-in-law bought me a crock-pot. The idea of putting a few ingredients in a pot and having a tasty dinner at the end of the day was intriguing to me. After all, I never really learned how to cook.

Since then, I have come to love the crock-pot and I rely on it at least once a week. I can even leave the recipe out for my husband, along with the ingredients, and he can put it all together. I always thought the slower cooker was only capable of making stew-like meals, but then I got a hold of a new cookbook…

The Fix It and Forget It book series focuses mainly on crock-pot cooking. The biggest of the bunch, Fix-It And Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes has 1400 slow cooker recipes. What I like about it is all the recipes are sent in by home cooks. That means it’s full of recipes from moms like you and me experimenting and coming up with something delicious and easy. I also like that there are quite a number of “light” recipes that include the nutritional analysis. And because the meat is usually tender, it makes for a great option for small children who don’t do well with tougher meats.

There is a huge variety of recipes including lasagna, chicken (in a multitude of ways), appetizers, snacks, Mexican food, seafood and much more. I haven’t tested all the recipes but I recently made Herbed Chicken (see below) and it came out great.

I can’t wait to try more of the easy slow cooker recipes in this book. I’ll be sure to post some I like. If you have any easy crock-pot recipes, let other moms know about it by sending it through.

Herbed Chicken

Makes: 8 serving
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 2 ¼ -2 ¾ hours
Ideal slow cooker size: 5-Quart

4 whole chicken breasts, halved
10 ¾ ounce can cream of mushroom or chicken soup
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup oil
¼ cup wine vinegar
¾ cup water
½ tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1. Place chicken in slow cooker.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.
3. Cover. Cook on low 2-2 ½ hours. Uncover and cook 15 minutes or more. Serve with rice.

I used Uncle Ben’s whole grain rice that you can pop in the microwave. To reduce the fat you can remove the skin from the chicken.

“Reprinted from Fix-It and Forget-It BIG Cookbook. Copyright by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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